Earth vs. the Flying Saucers (1956)

Really Surprised!

This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

It's easily one of the freshest, sharpest and most enjoyable films of this year.

.Like the great film, it's made with a great deal of visible affection both in front of and behind the camera.

Studly Hugh Marlowe ("The Day the Earth Stood Still") is the egghead hero of this classic example of alien invasion sci-fi. He plays scientist Russell Marvin, one of the first few humans to witness extraterrestrial craft in our own atmosphere. It turns out, the creatures are here to colonize our planet - hopefully with our consent, but it's no skin off their "noses" if we don't go with the program. They have advanced weaponry to use against mankind, but they didn't count on Russells' ingenuity."Earth vs. the Flying Saucers" is pretty good for a movie of this nature. As was often the case with movies of its ilk, it features a narrator who gives the proceedings a documentary type of approach. It's a reasonably intelligent story (scripted by Bernard Gordon and George Worthing Yates), with an array of engaging characters. Less patient viewers could make the point that it's often more plot and dialogue-based than action-oriented, but it does work its steady way towards some effective scenes of destruction and annihilation. The special effects are fine, but it's the "technical effects" devised by stop-motion legend Ray Harryhausen that do ultimately take centre stage. Fred F. Sears, whose other B credits during this era include "The Giant Claw" and "The Werewolf", capably occupies the directors' chair.Marlowe, and the very pretty Joan Taylor (also the leading lady in "20 Million Miles to Earth"), are a hero and heroine for whom we can easily root; he possesses a Richard Carlson-like air of sincerity. Donald Curtis ("It Came from Beneath the Sea") is the efficient Major Huglin. Of course, you can't go wrong with character actor Morris Ankrum ("Rocketship X-M") in a key supporting role; he was on hand for a number of these 50s sci-fi flicks, and was always excellent value. John Zaremba ('The Time Tunnel'), Thomas Browne Henry ("Beginning of the End"), Grandon Rhodes ("Detective Story"), Larry J. Blake ("Creature with the Atom Brain"), Clark Howat ("Billy Jack"), and Harry Lauter ("Escape from the Planet of the Apes") co-star, and the great Paul Frees - actor, author, composer, songwriter, and prolific voice-over artist - performs the voice of the alien intelligence.Good fun, and essential for anybody who enjoys this sort of entertainment; subsequent blockbusters like "Independence Day" may outdo it for sheer spectacle, but this movie isn't nearly as stupid as that one.Seven out of 10.

Pretty hokey to be sure. Some of my favorite parts are when they are driving in their cars...no seat belts, fake backgrounds as they drive through streets, not watching the road while driving at high speeds. Also, after seeing that the big guns didn't shoot through the saucers force field, the foot soldiers decide to shoot the rifles at the saucer. Pretty hokey, but entertaining for sure.

Earth is invaded by aliens.Mars Attacks! without the comedy....they played it straight in the 1950s and that is the only way to do science fiction.Since my 1970s childhood, sci-fi has always been one of my top interests and movies like Earth Vs The Flying Saucers (and Irwin Allen TV) turned me into a sci- fi nut.In those days there was not much sci-fi around to watch so a re-run of a movie like this was an event. The film is missing a great music score of the type heard in War Of The Worlds (1953) and The Day The Earth Stood Still (1951) but all things considered...it is not too bad at all.

My sister took me to this movie in 1956 when I was 8. It shocked me. For two weeks I was afraid to go to sleep at night for fear of nightmares. Some years ago I bought a 16mm print and studied it. It has all the right elements for a nerdy kid with glasses: Beautiful Joan Taylor and serious Hugh Marlowe work well together. The lonely laboratory at night is a wonderful location, frightening when attacked. Dr. Russell A. Marvin removing the helmet from the alien is particularly creepy. We know so much more now about outer space, so to appreciate this you have to suspend disbelief and travel back in time when comic books were 10¢. Soon after seeing this movie I was bitten by the movie bug which resulted in a lifelong passion for films and animation, which I have to credit to the intense effect that Earth Vs the Flying Saucers had on my young mind. I still watch this film several times a year and never get tired of seeing it.