Frank Puglia as Dr. Leonardo John Zaremba as Dr. Judson Uhl Thomas B. Henry as Maj. Gen. A. D. McIntosh Tito Vuolo as Police Commissioner Unte Jan Arvan as Contino Arthur Space as Dr. Sharman Bart Bradley as Pepe Ray Harryhausen cameo (uncredited) Production The film was based on a concept by Ray Harryhausen called The Giant Ymir. 20 Million Miles to Earth began production in Rome, Italy in September 1956, using only William Hopper of the main cast, and moved to the U.S. from October 30 to November 9 of that year. Rome was chosen as the location for filming because Harryhausen wanted to vacation there. The working title of the film was The Giant Ymir, and it has also been released as The Beast from Space. All references to the name Ymir were removed from the released version of the film, as Harryhausen was concerned that audiences might confuse it with the Arabic title "Emir". Most of the noises made by Ymir are recordings of elephant noises played at a higher speed. Ray Harryhausen wanted the film to be shot in color, but the filmmakers were not given a budget large enough to accommodate color filming. In 2007, five years after the death of the film's director, Harryhausen worked with restoration and colorization company Legend Films to create a colorized version of the film. That version, along with the original theatrical black-and-white version, was released on July 31, 2007 on DVD as part of a 50th Anniversary Edition of the film. There are minor differences between the two versions. One example: the black-and-white version begins in "A Fishing Village in Sicily" (the fictional Gerra), not Sperlonga, Italy. It was the first of three collaborations between Harryhausen, Schneer, and Nathan Juran. Juran only directed the American sequences, while Schneer and Harryhausen directed the Italian sequences. Reception 20 Million Miles to Earth has an 80% positive rating at the film review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes, based on ten reviews. Marco Lanzagorta of PopMatters gave the film 9 out of 10 stars, calling it "required viewing for those interested in modern cinema". Time Out wrote, "Don't worry about the dotty script or cardboard performances - just sit back and watch this gelatinous blob in action"; while the Radio Times called it "one of animation master Ray Harryhausen's best fantasy films, and his own personal favourite. The snake-tailed giant ymir creature is