Invasion of the Saucer-Men (1957)

Horrible, fascist and poorly acted

Tells a fascinating and unsettling true story, and does so well, without pretending to have all the answers.

This is a must-see and one of the best documentaries - and films - of this year.

This movie feels like it was made purely to piss off people who want good shows

In INVASION OF THE SAUCER MEN, a UFO lands near the small, rural town of Hicksburg, USA. The story is told through the experiences of a drunken drifter (Frank "The Riddler" Gorshin), a pair of eloping young people, and the -Air Force- soldiers who are out to cover it all up! The aliens themselves are quite impressive, w/ their big heads, catlike eyes, and detachable hands, complete w/ needles in the fingertips that inject alcohol into the unsuspecting! These hands even have eyeballs on them to see where they're going! Though the cheeeze-factor is high, SAUCER MEN is also very enjoyable to watch! During the finale, the "secret weapon" that is used against the invaders is both silly and totally original! EXTRA POINTS: For the grumpy old farmer and his alcoholic bull! add this to your space invaders watch list!...

Invasion of the Saucer Men is set in the small American town of Hicksburg & starts late one night as a flying saucer lands in some woods nearby, several dwarf like green skinned aliens emerge & start scurrying about the woods. Teenage lovers Joe Gruen (Frank Gorshin) & Joan Hayden (Gloria Castillo) are driving through the woods when the accidentally run down one of the aliens, they head back to town to inform the authorities but the local police disbelieve their story & after the other aliens kill & substitute the body of a local man for their dead comrade the police blame Joe & Joan for his death. Now on a murder charge Joe & Joan decide to go on the run, round up their teenage mates & set out to save the Earth by fighting the alien menace themselves...This 50's sci-fi cheapie from AIP had the working title of Hell Creatures, it had the (almost) legendary Samuel Z. Arkoff as executive producer & was directed by Edward L. Cahn, based on a story called 'The Cosmic Flame' by Paul W. Fairman this is a watchable enough sci-fi film that unlike a lot of it's contemporary counterparts Invasion of the Saucer Men has a hefty dose of comedy & fairly effective (for the time) looking alien creatures. At less than 70 minutes like most other 50's sci-fi films of the period it's short & moves along at a decent enough pace but there's not too much to it when all said & done, the basic sci-fi formula is here with aliens landing in some small town, some character or other discovers them & no-one else believes them & the inevitable military intervention. The comedic elements are played up with some humorous stuff about a bull & two comedy drifters & bumbling officials. The character's are annoying teens which doesn't help but there are one or two fairly effective scenes including one where Joan is menaced by one of the aliens living severed hands in a car.The aliens themselves are only seen briefly but they look quite good, they are small with large bulbous heads with large eyeballs & thick veins, their hands also seem to detach & they have their own eyeballs as they scuttle along & wield needle like nails that seem to inject lethal amounts of alcohol into people. There doesn't seem to be any reason or purpose behind the aliens landing on Earth, they just land, walk around a bit & then get killed by the teens. The tone is uneven & it's sometimes unclear whether the makers were going for scares or laughs in any one particular scene. AIP released Invasion of the Saucer Men on a double-bill with I Was A Teenage Werewolf (1957) while it was released here in the UK under the title Invasion of the Hell Creatures.Filmed in California on an obviously low budget the production values are alright with reasonable effects for the time. The acting is nothing special & features the usual wooden & stiff performances that plague films of this type & period. Some may say it adds to the charm & fun. I don't.Invasion of the Saucer Men is another one of those black and white sci-fi cheapies from the 50's that some look back on with a certain fun nostalgia but it's not that great & it's as simple & straight forward as that as far as I am concerned. Invasion of the Saucer Men was remade for American telly by Larry Buchanan as The Eye Creatures (1965) which I haven't seen but is apparently dire.

This is such a great schlock-y 50's movie...It's got a little of everything. Teenagers that nobody believes. Drunks. Cows that whinny like horses (Listen for it! Love the audio effects team...), a farmer who's ready to shoot all the teenagers at lover's lane with his 2-barrel shotgun (Which he already fired into the air before proclaiming "Now you all clear out before I start shooting!" Should we tell him he's empty?), and paper mache aliens...But seriously, if you love 50's B&W sci-fi, you'll love this movie! (Okay, no real spoilers herein, just some of the wonderful things about the movie.)

I saw this film a couple of years ago and still think it is one of the best low-budget Sci-Fi movies ever. The best part was actually when there was a mistake in the swedish subtitles. As we all know (who have seen this film) the guy and the girl had a flat tyre on their car and searched fro some help at a house. When they leave the house without finding the help they wanted the girl asked her boyfriend what they should do. The boyfriend replies something about fixing the flat. Now, the swedish translater misunderstood the whole and instead of talking about the flat tyre the translation went "... and fix the apartment". There were a lot of confused people in the theater after this.