When MGM handed almost $2 million to a science-fiction picture in the mid-1950s, it was betting on a genre the studio had spent a decade leaving to B-units, Saturday matinees, and rubber-suited cheapies. The gamble barely paid off at the time, returning roughly $2.7 million against a $1.9 million budget, and the relative disappointment is often cited as one of the nails in production chief Dore Schary’s coffin.
