The Bamboo Saucer (1968)

Good start, but then it gets ruined

Admirable film.

Absolutely brilliant

Fun premise, good actors, bad writing. This film seemed to have potential at the beginning but it quickly devolves into a trite action film. Ultimately it's very boring.

I love older sci-fi movies but in my 67 years I had never heard of this one. I have never seen it on TV and have never seen it in any lists of sci-fi movies. As this movie is fairly well done-the color for example is very good and the acting is good and the story is interesting-I wonder why it is so little known? P.S. I now know why-having now finished watching the entire movie, I know why it is mostly ignored-it is way too talky and utterly unexciting. As well, the outdoor scenes were so obviously not taken in China.

It's always a treat to watch Dan Duryea. He just made everything look like fun. The former Western bad guy plays an authority figure here, but does so with the same lust and zip that gives a charge to an otherwise dull script.The situation is "cold war" intrigue, with Russians and Americans teaming together to find a downed flying saucer guarded by the Red Chinese.The characters are actually fairly credible for the times. If the film was made today, I doubt a writer would be able to sell "time credible" characters to the ignorant masses, particularly the masses too ignorant to realize they are ignorant.However, it is sort of routine. It looks like a sort of "make believe story" you and your friends would play with as adolescents.Still, the actors, particularly Duryea, help make this enjoyable enough to sit through. I could sit through it, and with my attention deficit disorder, that says a lot. Fairly well paced. Nothing to brag about, nothing to be ashamed about.

"The Bamboo Saucer" is quite an atypical science fiction film. Instead of the usual military vs. aliens theme, we have an uneasy cold war alliance between Russian and American scientific teams. Their common goal is to secure a downed flying saucer in a remote Red Chinese village. When attacked by the Red Chinese Army, there are casualties on both sides, and the saucer lifts off into space piloted by the remaining scientists from both countries. Though quite dated, the unique theme of this film, makes it somewhat interesting. If you can look beyond the marginal special effects and mediocre acting, give this one a try. - MERK

The fun in this movie is that they made an attempt to be somewhat realistic given the plot. The cold war tensions are not at all exaggerated, the ridicule the test pilot endures when he first reports the thing and the later loss of the P-51 is based on a real incident.In, I believe it was 1947, a flight of military P-51s were inbound for landing {and low on fuel} when one was sent to investigate a UFO. the pilot climbed high and crashed. The military deemed hypoxia due to a malfunctioning O2 system and fuel starvation. In that case, the UFO was believed to one of the early "satellite balloons" the USAF was playing with. They were made to be shiny and glowed very bright in the evening sky.It adds a little "credo" to the he movie when they use a real event to kick off the story even if a few characters and the Russian-American love story are a cliché