Scream Factory goes all out for their Blu-ray special edition of THIS ISLAND EARTH!

Physicist Cal Meacham (Rex Reason, THE CREATURE WALKS AMONG US) is on the verge of discovering how to extract energy from Uranium when he nearly crashes his jet on the way back to Los Angeles from a meeting in Washington D.C. The green ray that takes over his jet when the engine fails and lands it safely turns out to be the least odd thing he will encounter upon returning to work. When a valuable electric conductor is damaged during an experiment, he finds that the replacement versions that have been sent to him are not only the size of beads but a thousand times more powerful than what he had been working with before. Next arrives the instructions and materials for a device called an interocitor from the same mysterious new supplier. Without knowing its purpose, Meacham and his assistant Joe (Robert Nichols, THE THING FROM ANOTHER WORLD) build the device which turns out to be a sort of television communication device on which appears Exeter (Jeff Morrow, THE GIANT CLAW) who claims to be a scientist and that the building of the device was a test to see if he was qualified enough to recruit into an international initiative ostensibly to end war by developing and sharing new technologies including Meacham's energy source. Despite the warnings of Joe, Meacham goes out to meet the pilotless plane that takes him to a remote old mansion in Georgia that is the base of operations for the project. Right way he begins to suspect that things are not as Exeter says, with old colleague/love interest Dr. Ruth Adams (Faith Domergue, CULT OF THE COBRA) and equally fearful Dr. Steve Carlson (GILLIGAN'S ISLAND's Russell Johnson) revealing that the other scientists have undergone a sort of "suntan lamp lobotomy" that has removed their free will. Meacham, Adams, and Carlson plotting their escape, unfortunately, coincides with orders by The Monitor (Douglas Spencer, SHANE) that the scientists are to be taken back to their home planet of Metaluna by force if necessary.

The highest-budgeted of Universal-International's 1950s science fiction efforts spearheaded by the studio's in-house genre producer William Alland, THIS ISLAND EARTH sports gorgeous Technicolor lensing, some of the studio's best visual effects of the period – even some artificial-looking glass matte paintings are not disappointing because they are stunning to behold – and a stirring score; however, it has just as many deficits that are conceptual from Reason's flat hero, the uninteresting romantic subplot relationship between him and Domergue, and a structure that is skewed towards Earthbound scenes of much meandering around a large house in between visual effects and pyrotechnical demonstrations, an okay outer space journey, and then a visit to another planet that plays partially like a Disneyland attraction. It is refreshing that the aliens' intent is not malevolent but their ruse and the ruthlessness of their leaders breeds distrust to the point where it is too late when the humans want to help them. Ridiculous hair and prosthetic headpiece withstanding, Morrow is excellent as Exeter who is caught in between his masters and the humans and the recognition that taking away their willpower will destroy their initiative.

Released theatrically by Universal-International, THIS ISLAND EARTH had a 1986 Encore Edition laserdisc release followed by VHS editions from MCA and later Universal as well as an Image Entertainment snapper case DVD release before Universal started producing their own discs (followed by a Universal DVD in 2006). The film also was the showcase of MYSTERY SCIENCE THEATRE 3000: THE MOVIE. All of those editions were open-matte transfers of a film that has apparently been projected in 1.33:1, 1.85:1, and even the SuperScope ratio of 2.00:1. When THIS ISLAND EARTH debuted on Blu-ray in Germany in 2015 from AL!VE, it presented the film framed at 1.85:1 with an open-matte transfer in standard definition while the French release that appeared the following year from Elephant Films was also 1.85:1. Scream Factory's Blu-ray features a new 4K scan in both 1.85:1 and 1.33:1 open-matte encodes, and the results are striking, making the film look like the expensive space opera it was meant to be. Some fading is evident at times and skin tones can be a tad pink in some scenes where other colors look naturalistic but the more saturated colors in the explosions and otherworldly matte paintings along with the transformation opticals really pop off the screen. The mono mix is included in DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 and does a good job, but the 3D Film Archive has also restored the original Perspecta Stereophic Sound which is included here in DTS-HD Master Audio 3.0. The setup menu advises listeners that the 3.0 track can only be effectively played back from a 5.1 system with left, center, and right speakers, and that is indeed true. Mixed down to stereo, the effects and music are aggressive but the dialogue sound recessed (this is rectified on a surround system). The 3.0 track is spectacular with directional dialogue and some really aggressive sound effects that make the film sound almost modern. Optional English SDH subtitles are included. The open-matte version includes only 2.0 mono audio and no subtitles.

The widescreen version is accompanied by an audio commentary by author/visual effects artist Robert Skotak. He provides some background on the source story by Raymond F. Jones that started as a novelette titled "The Alien Machine" that proved popular enough to write two follow-ups that was compiled into the novel "This Island Earth" which independent producer/director Joseph Newman (711 OCEAN DRIVE) developed with Sabre Productions and pitched to major studios. It was almost made by Republic Pictures but Newman had a connection at Universal-International (Skotak notes that it was the one U-I sci-fi production with a director attached rather than a contract director assigned by Alland). He discusses the differences between the source and the script, disagreements between Newman and Alland, and the way characters and themes were strengthened by Alland bringing in writer Franklin Coen (THE TRAIN). He also discusses the film's effects work at length (this was the first science fiction film to include a moving star field background), including mention of some of the studio's lesser-known effects artists toiling away uncredited, but also notes such effects of the dwindling budget like the opening credits which are hard to read because they were double-exposed on the image rather than matted on. Also included is an audio commentary by film historian David Schnecter who focuses on the music score which was composed by Herman Stein (LOST IN SPACE), Hans Salter (THE WOLF MAN), and Henry Mancini (THE PINK PANTHER), all Universal contract composers. He notes that there was no composer credit because of a studio policy that only musicians who composed more than eighty-percent of a score were credited and that Stein's cues amounted to roughly seventy-five percent, with about eight minutes of music attributed to Salter and Mancini. He describes the score as one of the genre's finest, and that it might be better known if Stein had received credit.

"Alien Ideas" (21:11) is an interview with Italian filmmaker Luigi Cozzi (CONTAMINATION) who saw the film when he was a child and was most taken with the film's use of color which inspired his own space opera STAR CRASH. Although he obviously admires the film very much, he does repeat in his discussion some incorrect information about the production like the rumor that Jack Arnold (TARANTULA) was brought in to reshoot the outer space scenes when the studio did not like Newman's version. "Two and a Half Years in the Making" (47:55) is an extended version of the documentary that appeared on the MYSTERY SCIENCE THEATRE 3000: THE MOVIE Blu-ray/DVD combo release from Shout! Factory. Skotak, Tom Weaver, David Schecter, Joe Dante, C. Courtney Joyner, and Ted Newsom are all on hand to discuss the film from origin to reception, illustrating a lot of Skotak's commentary material. They refute the rumor about Arnold's reshoots and note that the "two and a half years in the making" was hype to emphasize the film not as a genre work but as an expensive A-picture. It is informative but some of the annoyances associated with Weaver's otherwise admirable scholarship come through including "celebrity recreations" of quotes from Morrow and Domergue for material that could more effectively be quoted by some of the contributors.