Earth vs. the Flying Saucers (1956)

I absolutely love 1950’s Science Fiction B-movies. I love the corny, cheesy and usually swearword and blasphemy free dialogue, the simplistic plot that’s either about the dangers of nuclear radiation (Them, Tarantula) or how Communist/aliens are invading our wholesome American way of life (Invasion of the Body Snatchers). Some can be intelligent or thought provoking like The Day the Earth Stood Still, but the majority are fun and entertaining popcorn films. Just like Earth vs. the Flying Saucers, a Sci-Fi B-movie I absolutely fucking love.

The story mostly follows newlyweds Dr. Russell Marvin (Hugh Marlowe) and Mrs. Carol Marvin (Joan Taylor) who are both involved in the military’s Project Skyhook; a proposed space exploration project where satellites are launch into space. However, it so comes to light, thanks to Dr. Marvin’s father-in-law Brigadier-General John Hanley (Morris Ankrum), that all satellites have been destroyed in space and, coincidentally, flying saucers have been spotted. Soon, a flying saucer lands in Project Skyhook base and, after the usually American welcome to anyone foreign, understands worker’s rights and free healthcare, destroys the base, thus trapping Dr. and Mrs. Marvin in the underground bunking. After a while, Dr. Marvin finds a secret message sent to him on a recording of a flying saucer sound that has the aliens wishing to meet Dr. Marvin. After being rescued and going through the bureaucratic mess of telling the military that he should meet the misunderstood aliens, but they feel an intelligent and level headed scientist won’t do much good. However, Dr. Marvin sneeks out from under military guard to meet with aliens. We learn that the aliens are from a disintegrated solar system and wish to live and rule the Earth, apparently not finding any habitable planet in their thousand miles travel, but wish to do it peacefully and wish to have a conference with Earth’s leader. If the aliens did have dominion over us, we could have access to greatly advanced technology, learn how to live together in peace, abandon war, solve many problems and create our position in the universe with our alien brethren. But, fuck that Communist garbage, Dr. Marvin creates a super weapon to stop the aliens and, eventually, the flying saucers invade Earth (or it’s implied since most of the invasion takes place in Washington D.C.). Will we survive? Will we destroy the alien menace? Will Guns N’ Roses regain the respect and admiration they lost with Chinese Democracy? If you couldn’t guess the ending, watch more 1950’s B-movies. But a predictable ending does not make this a bad film.

The saucer effects are very good for the ‘50’s, but I wouldn’t expect less from the stop motion master Ray Harryhausen. Their jerkiness gives them a necessary unnatural and alien appearance and they are classically designed saucers that have remained iconic through the years and you can definitely see Harryhausen‘s labour in that the strings are practically invisible and Harryhausen painted them constantly so they match the background. The death ray effects are a little disappointing since the effect is just a simple superimposed white bar and are little inconsistence when one time they cause a vehicle to explode and then another time just caused it to simply disintegrate. But, it is still more terrifying that the Martian Heat Ray in Steven Spielberg’s War of the Worlds which can reduce humans to vapour in mere seconds but can’t destroy clothing.
And while the design of the aliens is not that good and quite unrealistic, they’re at least original looking and not the worst designed aliens I’ve seen (ever seen the human aliens in Plan 9 from Outer Space?) and the voice used for them is just damn creepy and corny at the same time.

The acting, while not award winning, is okay and has the appealing cheesiness of Sci-Fi B-movies as does the dialogue; my favourite piece of dialogue has to be when a sergeant reports a UFO and believes it to be a buzzard. I had no idea buzzards were known for being saucer shaped and metallic.
The soundtrack is a simplistic orchestral score that I really didn’t notice, so you can guess it wasn't Earth shattering

While it may appear I haven’t said much of Earth vs. the Flying Saucers (There are about only 650 words in this review), but I don’t feel I could say much more than it’s an enjoyable classic that defines the Science Fiction B-movies, while it may not be culturally significant, it’s damn fun and entertaining. If you are not charmed by it, you have no soul.

I’m Random Internet Critic and I criticise it because I wanna see a flying saucer, I wanna see it land in front of my car. Fly in formation over my backyard or carry me off to the nearest star