Earth vs. the Flying Saucers
July. 04,1956 NRTest space rockets exploding at liftoff and increased reporting of UFO sightings culminate in a direct attempt by alien survivors of a dead, extra-galactic civilization to invade Earth from impervious flying saucers, using ray-weapons of mass destruction.
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Reviews
Good films always raise compelling questions, whether the format is fiction or documentary fact.
All that we are seeing on the screen is happening with real people, real action sequences in the background, forcing the eye to watch as if we were there.
I enjoyed watching this film and would recommend other to give it a try , (as I am) but this movie, although enjoyable to watch due to the better than average acting fails to add anything new to its storyline that is all too familiar to these types of movies.
The thing I enjoyed most about the film is the fact that it doesn't shy away from being a super-sized-cliche;
This is a sci fi movie for the following reasons: 1. At 34.35 when Maj.Huglin runs after Dr.Marvin, Mrs.Marvin was ready to jump into the car, dressed with her overcoat on, while a few seconds before she was in bed in her pijama. I wish my wife could do that! In 33 years of marriage I have to wait at least half an hour to get her ready.2. Dr. Marvin is always perfectly shaved even when he and his wife are stuck in the soundproofed room in the bunker. The other character are perfectly shaved, and even General Hanley zombified by aliens, too. Female character's make up is always perfect, when she just woke up and even when she is sleeping!3. Eyewitnesses are never not believed by military. Not just any Mr.Smith, but the director of the Sky Hook project!4. Military shoot their pathetic bullets against energy shields flying saucers also after they have seen with their eyes that UFOs have disintegrator rays.5. Revolutionary deadly weapon against invaders from outer space is ready in a couple of weeks and it works perfectly from tracks in Washington. Even if alien invaders have threated all the superpowers in the world (and we suppose that hundreds of UFOs are attacking the main cities of the world), half a dozen flying saucers down in US capital are enough to save the world.Please notice the amazing Independence Day quotes 40 years in advance! Actually I gave Independence Day even less score because you CAN'T program a virus for an alien operating system and need to shoot it physically into the alien starship causing their defeat. Just you CAN'T. Sci fi has some rules you know...Special effects are the best thing in the movie. The script looks like they wrote it in a lazy afternoon. Still it has some improvement with respect to the War Of The Worlds (1953): you can actually see and hear the aliens. Aliens are vulnerable. A rifle does kill them. We know why they are here.Anyway nothing to do with the great The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951), (Italian "Ultimatum To The Earth" is a better title, I think)Is deserves a watch, but remember that The Forbidden Planet (same year, 1956) is far beyond this average, forgettable movie.Hope this can be useful.
*Spoiler/plot- Earth vs Flying Saucers, 1956. A rocket scientist and his new wife get contacted by extra Terrestrial beings but don't realize it until too late. This starts a war of conquest between the U.S. and saucer people.*Special Stars- Hugh Marlowe, Joan Taylor, Donald Curtis, Morris Ankrum.*Theme- The Govt is your friend dealing with alien invasions.*Trivia/location/goofs- B & W. Ray Harryhausen's EFX are excellent here. LA's Hyperion Water treatment plant, Ray Harryhausen developed the flying saucers. A saucer attacking jets is actually based on news footage of an air race crash with P-51 Mustangs.*Emotion- Outstanding and well written script that keeps moving in pacing. One of the iconic 50's sci-fi films of the era. Well worth your time to experience it.*Based On- The Cold War invasion and rocket exploration fears.
Everything about this movie reeks.Its star, Hugh Marlowe, is typically a second-stringer in films and seriously lacks the acting chops to carry off the lead. Joan Taylor, who portrays his wife in what may have been an unconsummated marriage -- the action here takes place immediately following their wedding -- seems abjectly bored and tagging along strictly for the paycheck.Even the special effects here are anything but. I'm no artist but I could have designed better flying saucers and aliens in my sleep.Most grating of all is the movie's stultifying dialog. It is so wordy and wooden it would be funny if it weren't so tedious.I tried to watch this stinker till the end but gave up some 30 minutes before the credits. TCM, please can this!
With a title like "Earth vs the Flying Saucers", my expectations were low. I expected poor acting, terrible special effects, bad lighting, etc... fortunately I was wrong. This is a surprisingly good movie! It does not drag anywhere - no boring side stories, no attempts at lame moral lessons for the audience; it moves right along from beginning to end. The "scientific explanation" for how their anti-UFO weapon works is a bunch of ridiculous mumbo-jumbo: "We try to interrupt their magnetic field by projecting a highly intermittent induced electrical field." Huh??? But if you can forgive this and the anti-UFO weapon itself, which resembles a satellite dish with a sheet metal cylinder welded in the center, then the rest is pretty good for 1950s special effects.The aliens in this movie are not coming to enlighten us. Nah they want to take us over and colonize the place for themselves! The mean-spirited aliens intend to invade Earth and conquer it, and the final showdown is in Washington DC. Out-of-control flying saucers wind up crashing into the Washington Monument and the dome of the Capital Building even! Plus the aliens blast everything that moves with their ray gun. Who wins? The robot-like aliens or us? Watch it and find out!