Earth vs. the Flying Saucers

Certainly, the renowned/redoubtable Ray Harryhausen's special effects are absolutely superb in this 1956 sci-fi film. As several of the previous posters have already pointed out, the late Maj. Donald E. Keyhoe (one-time director of the National Investigations Committee on Aerial Phenonema, based in Washington, D.C.) served as technical adviser to this film. In fact, Maj. Keyhoe always maintained that alien (?) spacecraft HAD buzzed our nation's capital, during the summer of 1952. Veteran actors Hugh Marlowe, Morris Ankrum and Donald Curtis (who, I believe, portrayed "Prince Barron" in one of the final Flash Gordon serials) appear in the film. However, the wonderful and voluptuous Joan Taylor also appears as Carol Marvin (Hugh Marlowe's new bride in the film). Now, Ms. Taylor also appeared as the medical student granddaughter (?) of a scientist in another 1950s sci-fi flick, "20 Million Miles to Earth." And, I MUST say that Ms. Taylor looked terrific in those shorts of hers, as she and her granddad were conducting scientific research in sunny Sicily, when that U.S. space ship returned, rather abruptly, to Earth. (Seeing her perambulate through the verdant Sicilian countryside, I felt like singing Dean Martin's "That's Amore!") Yet, my favorite scene in "Earth Versus the Flying Saucers," was at the film's conclusion, when, Ms. Taylor and Mr. Marlowe are sitting on a beautiful beach as the sun is starting to set, and she says to Mr. Marlowe: "Do you think that the aliens will ever return to Earth?" To which, Mr. Marlowe (looking at his beautiful bride, attired in her extremely-flattering one-piece bathing suit) dreamily replies: "Not on such a beautiful day as this." And, hands held-together, they both happily and somewhat, "saucily" scamper into the water!

I always wondered how they managed to pick the name of the main character in this movie (Dr. Russell A. Marvin). That is my name, and it is very uncommon. When I saw the credits in the IMDB, I realized the answer. The inspiration for this movie was a book by Donald E. Keyhoe, who was consulted on this film. In 1956, Keyhoe started an organization called NICAP (National Investigations Committee on Aerial Phenomena). In 1956, I was a real flying saucer enthusiast, and was one of the very first people to join NICAP. I believe that they picked my name off of Keyhoe's membership list. I was 14 years old at the time. Anyway, it's a good flick with some great special effects (done the old fashioned way) by the legendary Ray Harryhausen.

While "War of the Worlds" is probably the most heralded of the 1950s alien invasion films, this one is a lot more fun. There are none of the heavy-anded quasi-religious sub-texts that weighed down WOTW. There are no pretensions of any kind. "Earth" gets right down to the business at hand...aliens coming to Earth with the sole purpose of kicking our asses. Throw in the always fun Harryhausen effects, in which real life monuments are destroyed (later incorporated in the equally dumb and equally fun "ID4"), and what's not to like?

Dr Russell Marvin is working on experimental rockets launched into orbit around the earth to help with the advancement of space exploration. He has so far lost 11 rockets for unknown reasons. However on a drive with his wife they witness a flying saucer. No-one believes them but later the same saucers attack and massacre their military base leaving only them as survivors. They are told that the earth has 56 days to come quietly rather than spark a pointless war against superior forces. However Dr Marvin and his team begin work on a weapon to repel the forces.

With a title like that I didn't need to be told I was in 1950's B-movie `allegory for commies' territory and all that that entails. The plot is pretty straight forward and the film wastes no time in wading into it. The meaning of the plot is a little tasteless and blatantly spells out these invaders are – `humanoids'. The thing that annoyed me was that the film ignored the fact that soldiers opened fire on the aliens first – without knowing why they were there. True they were coming to invade but the `shoot first ask questions later' message wasn't very palatable.

The effects are OK for the time but of course look very shaky nowadays. However it is still enjoyable and the aliens do look a little creepy despite being very stiff looking. The action is OK but I never felt tense as the 56 days counted down, and the race for the weapon seemed to happen a little too easily. The final battle in Washington is pretty cool though.

The cast are as wooden and stiff as you'd expect in a B-movie but I suppose it all adds to the feeling of the film! There are some funny lines and much of the dialogue (and effects) has been spoofed in recent films but it is still worth a watch. Overall as a film it is pretty poor, but if you're in a mood for a bit of 50's sci-fi hokum then this will probably deliver what you're after.

This is a great example of 1950's sci-fi movies and the flying saucer scare craze that was sweeping the nation and of course parallels the cold war threat and the resilience and ingenuity of American science and military might. Retired Major Donald E. Keyhoe was the author of a series of non-fiction books of the era outlining his belief in the reality of flying saucers and this film draws from his book Flying Saucers From Outer Space. Veteran monster movie writer Curt Siodmak adapted a story based on the book for this film and veteran monster movie screenwriter George Worthing Yates wrote the screenplay. Special effects legend Ray Harryhausen supervised the effects and Josh Westmoreland, a sound veteran of westerns and monster movies, provided the sound. B-movie director Fred F. Sears and B-movie cinematographer Fred Jackman Jr. put it all together on the screen. In what would be a foreboding of things to come on 9/11 American monuments are under attack and destroyed. Aliens from a dying planet come to earth to claim it as their own but earth fights back. Hugh Marlow and Joan Taylor star. It's campy but it's still a good flick and a good representative of it's era and genre and I would give it an 8.0 out of 10.