It Came From Outer Space screenplay by Ray Bradbury edited by Donn Albright.

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It Came From Outer Space screenplay by Ray Bradbury edited by Donn Albright.
pub: Gauntlet Press. 448 page softcover. Price: $125 (US). ISBN: 1-887368-66-3).

check out website: www.gauntletpress.com

In many respects, this is a book of historical document because it contains copies of the four original treatments as written by Ray Bradbury before the filming of ‘It Came From Outer Space’ in 1953.

Although it was ultimately turned into and credited for the screenplay to Harry Essex, he also said that other than tweaking a few scenes, Bradbury had practically given him everything including dialogue. This book gives testament to that fact. Bradbury’s interpretation of ‘treatment’ was full blown scripts.

It Came From Outer Space screenplay by Ray Bradbury edited by Donn Albright.

Now although I’m not a fan of Bradbury’s fiction as a whole, I’m a sucker for books behind the scenes of films, especially those that I enjoyed watching. The film ‘It Came From Outer Space’ came out in 1952 and is a classic of its type in aliens didn’t come to Earth intentionally but crashed landed and needed to repair their spaceship before they could leave. Rather than alarm the populace as a whole, they abducted and posed as a variety of people in a nearby town.

Their problems were exasperated when the local astronomer John Putnam and his school teacher girl-friend, Ellen Fields, are looked upon as crazy for what they have seen and it takes some persuading to get the local Sheriff to take them seriously.

Although this is very much the nascent Bradbury trademark of dealing with small town communities and how they are affected by larger events, it works superbly as a film and no one has dared to want to do a re-make yet.

Apart from the 4 treatments-cum-screenplays, there’s also the various promotional posters, reviews and other material that builds up a remarkable picture of Hollywood at that time. In the days before computer, copious corrections and whathaveyou adorned this material allowing the reader historian to see how things were done at that time. If you’re a fan of the film, Bradbury or aspiring screenwriter, then there is plenty to keep you occupied with this book.

A slightly negative area is the high price but talking to publisher Gauntlet (thanks, Barry), the explanation of paying for a lot of contributors and the fact this is likely to be seen as a very specialised book with small readership contributed to the cost. With further books by Richard Matheson and Charles Beaumont coming out of a similar nature, logistically if you buy lots of this book they may have to re-think price issues.

In the meantime, if you’re not inhibited by price and you want to see how this film was put together then you should really get it before it sells out.

GF Willmetts

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