Cosmic Debris

 

THE COSMIC HOAX: AN EXPOSE-2021-Some lunatic named Stephen M. Greer, a retired physician, now a ufologist goes on and on about the government conspiracies concerning our space brothers and their flying saucers. It also features his founding of the Disclosure Project which works revealing the cover-ups with input from former Air Force, FAA and intelligence employees without providing much evidence aside from the usual dogma while throwing in his own anti-government opinions. Even quoting doomed Nazi Hermann Goering! 

Some nut talks about the detonation of the A-bomb probably harming people in another dimension. And as always, they go to the past to tie everything together: past presidents, Hitler, Einstein, unverified documents. Let's face it. In this day and age, it seems easy to get scientists, journalists, pilots, even astronauts to say they believe in extraterrestrials and why not? They are entitled to their opinion but talk is cheap. Where is the proof? There's too much loony talk in this thing. Directed and written by Michael Mazzola.

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Waiting For The UFOs

 

 (imdb)

UFO: TARGET EARTH-1974-Researcher Alan Grimes (Nick Plakias) hears a weird phone call from the government about UFOs. He decides to investigate. He interviews lots of people about UFOs. A woman who seems to be able to channel UFO energy helps him. Out in a forest, it turns out Alan possess the energy the formless aliens need to leave Earth. 

The acting and script are below par. Director/writer Michael DeGaetano later made PROJECT: METALBEAST (1995).

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Why Revenge?

 

 (imdb)

REVENGE OF THE PSYCHOTRONIC MAN-1979-A barber named Rocky (Peter Spelson; also one of the writers) had a close encounter with a UFO. Now he can destroy people with his mind. First he kills an old guy, then his doctor. A cop (Chris Carbis) with an English accent investigates. Despite a wife and kids, he has a girlfriend. After he scares his wife, he leads the police on a too long car chase. After he crashes his car, he leads them on a too long foot chase. They seem to trap him in a building and a police sniper shoots him but he gets away. The End. 

Time wasting nonsense with bad acting and drawn scenes. Why revenge? He was a philandering alcoholic jerk. Director Jack M. Sell made two comedies after this and wisely went into another field.

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Who Are The Overlords of the UFOs?

 

 (youtube)

OVERLORDS OF THE U.F.O.-1976-Ultra cheap pseudo-documentary investigation trying to answer the question: Who are the overlords of the UFOs? 

Writer/Producer/on screen narrator W. Gordon Allen talks about outer space UFOs, inter-dimensional UFOs, NASA's reluctance to admit the UFO existence, astronauts seeing UFOs and how the Morman faith may have been created by an alien encounter. There are a few short interviews with investigators (like Stanton Friedman) and abductees but mostly it's a lot of stock footage, photos and drawings depicting what's being said. The budget was obviously too minuscule to afford recreations. Allen says "It's obvious humans are helpless", but as long as there's an off button we don't have to be. Then suddenly in the middle of this boring narrative there's a mini feature thrown out called "Space Voyage from Ummo", some phony nonsense about aliens who use telepathy and dimensional travel to scout the solar system. Even charlatan psychic Uri Geller is thrown in at the end.

 In 1950's, presenter Allen owned several radio stations in Oregon before he threw his hat into the political ring running for state senator in 1958 before dropping out. Getting into Ufology soon after this, he claimed the moon was occupied by intelligent life. He was accused of bankruptcy fraud in 1972 but seems to have recovered enough to produce this epic a few years later. He died in 1988. 

(My info came from:  https://hatch.kookscience.com/wiki/Main_Page  

Presenter Mr. Allen 

I couldn't find any info on director G. Brook Stanford. 

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Harryhausen

  (imdb)

EARTH VS THE FLYING SAUCERS-1956-Dr. Russell Marvin (Hugh Marlowe) and his wife Carol (Joan Taylor) have a UFO encounter. Later while overseeing Project Sky Hook, Marvin's father-in-law General Hanley (Morris Ankrum) advises him to cancel a scheduled rocket take off. Aliens land and metal robots cause some destruction. It seems their original message was misunderstood so they attacked. Later Martin and Carol, Major Huglin (Donald Curtis) and a police officer (Larry Blake) are taken aboard a saucer. There they see Hanley has been abducted and become the aliens' unwilling spokesman. They want to make Earth their new home as their world is dying. Martin and Prof. Kanter (John Zaremba) invent a sonic gun to kill the aliens. While it's being built, the aliens create some explosions on the moon and saucers attack DC. One is shot down and crashes into The Potomac. The Washington Monument and The Capital are among the buildings destroyed. Mostly caused by the shot down UFOs. 

The SFX (by the master Ray Harryhausen, who goes uncredited!) are the real highlight of this black and white science fiction film directed by the unheralded super-fast Fred Sears who made 8 other movies in 1956 including ROCK AROUND THE CLOCK and THE WEREWOLF. Thomas B. Henry is an admiral and Paul Frees is the voice of an alien. One of the screenwriters was Curt Siodmak.

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??

 

 (wikipedia)

CHARIOTS OF THE GODS-1970-Erich Von Daniken's highly speculative bestselling book is the basis for this German made speculation film that proposes aliens visited Earth in ancient times, were the gods of mythology and build the pyramids,Nezca lines and other structures. Director Harold Reinl later made two more movies along the same lines IN SEARCH OF ANCIENT ASTRONAUTS and MYSTERIES OF THE GODS but prior to CHARIOTS, he made THE TORTURE CHAMBER OF DR. SADISM and some other horror films and two movies featuring the Dr. Mabuse character

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The Claw

 

THE GIANT CLAW-1957-Test pilot Mitch Macafee (Jeff Morrow; THE ISLAND EARTH) sees a UFO but no radar picks it up. Major Bergen(Clark Howatt) accuses him of a practical joke but when a commercial airliner goes missing the major has to eat his words. When Mitch and mathematician Sally Caldwell (Mara Corday; TARANTULA) are on their way back to NY when the sighting of another UFO causes Pete the pilot (Frank Griffin) to crash his plane. Mitch and Sally are ok and are rescued by Pierre (Louis Merrill), a woodsman who later says the “UFO” is Carcagne, a mythological Canadian monster. They all manage not to see a giant claw print. 

It's later revealed the “UFO” is a giant prehistoric bird (a bad marionette) which shows up on some weather balloon film. General Buskirk (Robert Shayne) takes Mitch and Sally to Washington DC to meet General Considine (Morris Ankrum). After a missile attack fails, a Dr. Noymann (Edgar Barrier) figures out that the bird is made up of anti-matter from outer space. Sally proposes that the bird is here to nest and lay eggs. And she's right! 

This Sam Katzman production features one of the most comical giant monsters of all time and it was one of the last movies directed by the indefatigable Fred Sears who unfortunately died in 1957 of a heart attack at age 45.

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It May Come In Handy

X From Japan (not porno)

THE X FROM OUTER SPACE-In Japan, a four person crew: Capt. Sano (Shinya Wazaki), Dr. Shioda (Kensuki Sonoi), Signal officier Miyamoto (Shinichi Yanagawa) and biologist Lisa (Peggy Neal), takeoff for Mars after several other expeditions have disappeared. The ground crew led by Dr. Kato (Eiji Okada) blame UFOs. After the group does encounter a alien craft, the doc falls ill and they have to stop at a moon base where they meet Michiko (Itoko Harada) and Shioda's replacement Dr. Stein (Mike Daneen). They almost crash but return to Earth safely with some spoors that turn into a giant monster (Guilala).The rubbery creature is one of the worst “Kaiju” ever! Sano, Miyamoto, Lisa and Michiko go to the moon in an effort to create a substance that will destroy the out of control, outer space being. This dumb sci-fi space opera , directed and written by Kazui Hihonmatsu, is full of talk, running around and has sugary happy ending.

In his only giant monster movie star Eiji Okada was better known for as the star of Alain Resnais' HIROSHIMA MON AMOUR and Hiroshi Teshigahara's WOMAN IN THE DUNES. He's also in THE UGLY AMERICAN (with Marlon Brando) and the excellent but often overlooked THE FACE OF ANOTHER.

In 2008 a comedy “sequel” THE MONSTER X STRIKES BACK was produced.

Thanks for reading and Happy 4th of July!

Japan Sci-Fi

BATTLE IN OUTER SPACE-1959-In 1965 Earth is invaded by aliens from the planet Natal with a base on the moon. They use an anti-gravity machine and some kind of mind control as their main weapons. Earth holds a world conference in Japan. The invaders make a guy in a turban do sabotage but when he's thwarted he's disintegrated by a UFO. It's decided Earth will send two manned rockets to the moon. One headed by Japanese Dr. Adachi (Koreya Senda; also in THE H-MAN) and the other by Dr. Richardson (Len Stanford in his only film role apparently), a white guy. After some hi-jinx in space like one guy who doesn't even know about weightlessness and crew member Iwamura (Yoshio Tsuchyia from many other Toho productions and Kurosawa films) almost sabotaging the mission after his mind is taken over, both ships land on the moon. The crews investigate and discover some short aliens who capture Etsuko (Kyoko Anzai), the female crew member. They also make Iwamura destroy one of the ships but he comes to his senses in time and sacrifices his own life so the second ship can go back to Earth and come up with a solution to the invasion. There are lots of toy effects. 

The Adachi character had also appeared earlier in THE MYSTERIANS. Many Godzilla "hands" were  in this, not the least being the great Ishiro Honda who directed this fun Toho production which was distributed on a double bill in the US by Columbia pictures. mind 

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Alien Nonsense

ALIEN OPPONENT-2010-This science fiction idiocy starts out with a bunch of rednecks drinking beer. Then one of them catches his wife Meghan with another man. Then Meghan's mother kills the husband with a hammer.  Then a UFO lands near by. The aliens kill the remaining hicks. Later after not much happens the MIL and daughter advertise on TV to have someone come and hunt down the alien. Lots of dorks come by including a priest (pro wrestler Roddy Piper) with a cross dagger and M-16, a waitress, an exotic dancer, a biker and a soldier of fortune. Even football and baseball teams try to fight it. Some cheerleaders fight over a jock's severed head. The metal clad alien (it looks like a cross between a Star Wars trooper and The Guyver) lets loose slug like creatures and most of  the would be "hunters" kill each other (or themselves) accidentally. It uses a reanimated severed head to communicate. Later on everybody starts killing everyone else to "eliminate the competition". This is a gore comedy satire that's not very funny. In fact it's terrible. Most movies like this make me believe the director (in this case Colin Theys) really wanted to make the story serious but couldn't hold it together and had to settle on a parody. Piper who starred in the cult film THEY LIVE! in better days shows how far he has fallen by becoming an animated corpse and getting a baseball & bat stuck in his head.

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Star Wars, Where Is Thy Sting?

STARSHIP INVASIONS-1977-After some strange looking aliens abduct a farmer (he looks like he could be one of the 3 Stooges) and he has sex with a woman on the ship (not shown!), we are introduced to Prof. Duncan (Robert Vaughn) a serious, easy going UFO investigator. His wife (Helen Shaver) thinks he's becoming obsessed with his research and says that UFOs “are such bizarre things”. Christopher Lee is Captain Ramses, an alien leader from the planet Alpha paving the way for a “massive migration” of this race to invade Earth before his planet's sun explodes. He talks by telepathy, which is a good thing since he looks like if he had to speak the lines he'd break out laughing! 

The group abduct a woman and stick a big needle in her. Later they all wind up dead. Ramses visits “The League of Races”, a group of different space aliens whose headquarters is in The Bermuda Triangle. They even have an intergalactic whore house! Most of the league aliens look like normal humans in funny clothes but some have round bald heads. Ramses and his small crew take over the base and plan on wiping out Earth inhabitants through a beam that makes everyone kill and/or commit suicide. The alien league fights back however and enlists Duncan to help stop Ramses' deadly plan. 

 There's a lot of low budget effects, some unintentionally funny interview segments and a couple of wobbly saucers but the acting is played straight. Some very funny looking robots make an appearance too. It was filmed in Canada by director-writer Edward Hunt who later made THE BRAIN. 

The soundtrack by Gil Melle' (NIGHT GALLERY, KOLCHAK: THE NIGHT STALKER, 6 MILLION DOLLAR MAN) is an interesting mix of orchestra pieces and electric piano driven Jazz. 

The same year Lee played an alien in the similar END OF THE WORLD, was in the big budgeted AIRPORT '77 and was on-screen narrator of MEAT CLEAVER MASSACRE. Among other things in 1977, Vaughn was the un-credited voice of the computer in DEMON SEED.

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Who Could Forget?

BATTLE OF LOS ANGELES-2011-I'm sure everyone remembers learning in school about the time in 1942 when the US Air Force engaged in a fight with UFOs over L.A.? 

No? Well according to this crappy Asylum production, it did happen and 70 years later the merciless aliens have returned. A pilot (Dylan Vox) who took off on the original mission shows up after being held captive for many years. A small group of soldiers must bring him safely to a certain sector. After their commander is killed a young lieutenant (Kel Martin) takes over and besides protecting the pilot must battle the metal aliens who can turn their enemy's attack back on them. He also takes time to argue a lot with his second in command (Gerald Webb). Theresa June Tao (who's terrible) is a modern-day pilot and Nia Peeples is a captain who uses a sword to kill the aliens even though machine guns and missiles can't dent them. After it's revealed the pilot is an alien too it becomes a mash up of ALIEN, BATTLE LOS ANGELES, INDEPENDENCE DAY and a hundred other video only Sci-Fi themed time wasters. This ridiculous nonsense also features horrible CGI SFX. 

Writer/director Mark Adkins made lots of junk like this. Much of it appearing on the SyFy channel (as BATTLE OF LOS ANGELES did). 

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Wisconsin Weirdness

Whew! I had to blow the dust off this blog!

THEY-1974-This crazy hodgepodge of a movie starts in the Wisconsin mountains where 4 scientists (?) hold up in a cabin with a woman named Sarah. They hear strange news reports of a mysterious disease killing off humans. A robotic sinister voice talks to them over their short wave and a ominous red light appears. The (non) action is suddenly interrupted by a late night talk show where 2 comical guests relate their UFO encounters but the station's transmission goes haywire. 

The main characters talk, walk in the snow and try to figure out what's going on. One of the group steals their plane but the red light blows it up. Then some red smoke sort of terrorizes some patrons at a bar. Another guy (who I think is the woman's brother) takes a snow mobile for help but the red light makes him disappear. Then people run in panic while the aforementioned red smoke (and some white and green too) attacks them. A shaky “Plan 9” saucer appears briefly. The three remaining people decide to hike back to civilization and while camping one guy gives his theory that the invaders are Martians dwelling inside the Earth. The trio gets lost in the snow and there's a cut to a DJ who says he's the last person alive. Sarah runs in slow-mo meets the last surviving guy, they turn into children and become... well...um...the new Adam & Eve? I'm confused! 

This used to play on very late night TV as INVASION FROM INNER EARTH. 

It's also the only movie I've ever seen that used the phrase: "Motherin' up a family"...

THEY was the first full feature movie directed by Bill Rebane, who based in Wisconsin went on to make many no budget projects (he was actually born in Latvia). Previously, Rebane had previously started something called TERROR AT HALFWAY but he never finished it. He wound up selling the footage to Herschel Gordon Lewis who turned it into MONSTER A GO-GO!

The last man on Earth and I say: Thanks for reading!

Cosmic Monster (s)

COSMIC MONSTERS-1958-In a rural section of England a group of scientists are working with magnetic fields to alternate the molecular structure of metal. They are lead by the rather brilliant but  pompous Dr. Laird (Alec Mango). His more level headed American assistant is Gil Graham (Forrest Tucker). They both get upset when a French woman Michele (Gaby Andre')  takes the place of an injured co-worker. "But a woman? This is
preposterous. This is highly skilled work!". 

She turns out to be pretty much a genius and the only one who seems to feel something could go wrong. The nearby town  doesn't like them because the experiments mess up their TV broadcasts. After a "freak storm" where they seem to lose control of the magnetic machine, the mysterious Mr. Smith (Martin Benson) appears.Then a tramp with a scarred face kills a woman. It seems the doctors' magnetic experiments have caused harmful cosmic rays to bombard the Earth making insects like grasshoppers and centipedes into monsters. "It's those insects. They've mutated and they're hungry!". 

A bug loving little girl finds a big egg and Michele gets stuck in a spider's web. There's one fairly gory scene (for the time) where the killer insects munch on a dead soldier. Laird goes crazy in the finale threatening the whole Earth and Mr. Smith's real identity is revealed. A PLAN 9 type UFO shows up to help out. This British production's original title was THE WORLD OF PLANET X but in the US it was referred to as THE COSMIC MONSTERS, yet the title card reads COSMIC MONSTER... 

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Not Featuring Matt Helm...

THE SILENCERS-1995-The US government and aliens (who talk in sub-titles) are involved in inter-dimensional travel. The non-human Men In Black hynotize and intimidate poeple. Jack Scalia (also co-producer) is an FBI agent on loan to The Pentagon where General Greenboro (Clarence Williams lll) is in charge. Lots of time is spend on a subway shootout/chase, a shootout in a lab and a highway chase. All typical tradmarks of PM Entertainment, who for a time dominated direct to video releases (many with Don "The Dragon" Wilson).

Dennis Christopher shows up as an alien good guy agent (who's kind of a doofus) from "The Association Of Worlds" and uses holograms to explain where he came from and why he's here. The bad aliens are trying to take over Earth with clones. He and Scalia wind up at a UFO con.

Director Richard Pepin produced way too many direct to video action films (mostly with his partner Richard Merhi) but only directed a handful himself including CYBERTRACKER 1 & 2. He was also a cinematographer are many of them.

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