Today is the birth centenary of one of science fiction’s greatest writers, Ray Bradbury. Bradbury, born August 22, 1920 in Waukegan, Illinois (USA) was a hugely prolific writer, specializing in science fiction though he also wrote in other genres, especially horror and mystery. Dubbed by The New York Times as “the writer most responsible for bringing modern science fiction into the literary mainstream”, Bradbury wrote 27 novels and over 600 short stories, and inspired countless writers (including some blatant plagiarists!)

I knew that there have been many, many screen adaptations of Bradbury’s stories (I have seen several), and I wanted to review one of these to commemorate his hundredth birthday. Possibly the most famous film based on a Bradbury book is the screen adaptation of his landmark dystopian novel, Fahrenheit 451; but that film I had already reviewed. And, going through Bradbury’s filmography on IMDB, I found that most screen adaptations of his works have been either TV series (which I don’t review) or have been made in the years since 1970—which falls outside the ambit of this blog.

But this film, released in 1953, fits my blog. And, instead of being based on a Bradbury novel, it was as close as it gets: the screenplay for It Came From Outer Space was written by Bradbury.

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