Subject: Retrospective: Earth vs. the Flying Saucers (1956)

From: Dennis Schwartz <[email-masked]>
Date: 19 Mar 2000 18:56:54 GMT

EARTH VS. THE FLYING SAUCERS (director: Fred F. Sears; screenwriter:
story by Curt Siodmak/book by Donald E. Keyhoe/George Worthing Yates/Ray
Marcus; cinematographer: Fred Jackman Jr.; editor: Danny Landres; cast:
Hugh Marlowe (Dr. Russell A. Marvin ), Joan Taylor (Carol Marvin),
Donald Curtis (Major Huglin ), Morris Ankrum (General Hanley ), Larry J.
Blake (Motorcycle cop), 1956)

Reviewed by Dennis Schwartz

A superficial B- movie about flying saucers, offering no relevant views
on matters of space exploration, except some might be amused to see
Washington D.C. come under attack by flying saucers. Using Ray
Harryhausen's flying saucers, this film becomes mostly a special effect
experience. It is a good example of the kind of mediocre, paranoiac
sci-fi films that were being made at the time. Though, the exception to
this uninteresting sci-fi film at the time, might be the one adapted
from Robert Heinlein's novel "Rocketship Galileo," which was made as
"Destination Moon (50)." But it wasn't until Kubrick came along in the
1960s with his "2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY" that sci-fi films matured into
solid ventures and started to be taken seriously.

Somewhere in the desert, on there way to Project Skyhook, a military
space exploration project, the civilian project director Dr. Russell
Marvin (Hugh Marlowe) and his new wife, Carol (Joan Taylor), observe a
flying saucer. The couple are reluctant to report it, seemingly worried
about their careers, afraid that their superiors would take them for
loonies, if they report that they saw a flying saucer. But back in the
lab, Russ discovers the tape recorder recorded the strange sounds made
by the saucer, giving them some concrete proof. General Hanley (Morris
Ankrum), Carol’s father, warns Russ that all the 11 rockets he
previously fired into space, supposedly used as observation posts, have
crashed mysteriously back to earth. He urges Russ to put a halt to
tomorrow's rocket firing, until the mystery is cleared up. But Russ is
determined to carry out the mission.

The scientist couple decide to observe the 12th rocket launch from a
soundproof bunker. But before the launch begins, a flying saucer is
spotted landing on the project site. When the soldiers fire on the three
aliens (dressed in lightweight tin armor carrying solidified electricty)
departing from the shelter, they shoot one but the others quickly put an
electric shield around themselves and the saucer precedes in destroying
the entire project site including the rocket. They take General Hanley
as a prisoner on their saucer. Once on board, they will steal his mind
for their own research purposes but leave his mindless body intact.

The only survivors at the test site are Russ and Carol. While in the
bunker, Russ and Carol discover that the sounds they recorded were a
message from the flying saucer arranging a meeting. The message was
recorded at supersonic speed, but when the batteries failed and the
recorder went into slow motion, they were able to hear the message
clearly.

It's off to Washington for the rescued couple, to explain their
experience to skeptical political and military leaders. Russ grows
impatient with the bureaucratic delays and the failure with Washington
to try and make contact with the aliens. So he makes radio contact with
the aliens on his own and gets another meeting. Carol and a military
liason officer, Major Huglin (Donald Curtis), try to stop him but when
it is too late for that, they follow him to the meeting place on the
beach. A motorcycle policeman also tags along, and all four are forced
into the saucer. They hear the bad news that the aliens want to take
over the world, but would prefer to do it without destroying the world.
They want to arrange a meeting in 56 days of world leaders. They prove
they have the means to carry out their mission by blowing up a
destroyer. We also learn that they are humanoids, survivors of a
disintegrated solar system. When the policman tries to shoot them, they
zap his brain and leave him aboard the saucer, while releasing the other
three.

Russ explains to the military leaders what the aliens wanted, and claims
that he can build a new weapon, an ultra-sonic gun. He does so with the
help of scientists from other parts of the world. While he is working on
that project, the aliens change the world's weather patterns by causing
meteor showers around the sun. This results in storms and the world's
communication systems being destroyed.

The silliness of the film is delightfully highlighted by the finale of
the flying saucer attack on Washington DC. In some ways it rescues the
film from its banal story, its reactionary politics (having the military
in the same bed with science), the uninspired acting, and the film's aim
of making the aliens the bad guys, by showing the Ray Harryhausen
created flying saucers landing in front of the White House, slicing the
Washington Monument in half, and waging a full-scale attack on America's
capital. There was also the suggestion by one of the generals of the use
of a nuclear bomb. Its use was argued against, by Major Huglin, that it
would only destroy our country and might not even work against the
aliens. The film becomes a classic in sci-fi for its special effects,
despite how mundane everything else about this project is.

REVIEWED ON 3/17/2000       GRADE: C-

Dennis Schwartz: "Ozus' World Movie Reviews"

http://www.sover.net/~ozus

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