The Original Invaders

 

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INVADERS FROM MARS-1953-Little David (Jimmy Hunt) who's interested in astronomy sees a UFO land near his house at night. When his scientist dad (Leif Erickson) goes to investigate, he disappears. David's mom (Hillary Brooke) calls the police. Two cops investigate (one is Douglas Kennedy) and seem to fall into a hole made in the sand. Later dad shows up, now a cold, mean zombie with a strange wound on the back of his head. After dad hits David, the cops show up also zombified. Later David sees his young neighbor fall in one of the sand holes. She comes back mesmerized and sets her house on fire. David goes to the chief of police (Bert Freed) but he's already been taken over and has Sgt. Finley (Walter Sande) put him in detention. Finley calls in Dr. Pat Blake (Helena Carter, who retired from acting after this) to examine David. She seems concerned. Mom comes to get David but it's obvious she's now “one of them”. Fortunately, Dr. Blake rescues him and takes him to see Dr. Kelston (Arthur Franz), an astronomer who believes David saw Martian invaders. Kelston contacts Col. Fielding (Morris Ankrum) and Capt. Roth (Milburn Stone). The taken over people start sabotaging things. When Pat & David are captured, we finally see the aliens, tall green guys with bulging eyes who obey a weird golden head (Luce Potter) who speaks telepathically. 

I won't reveal the “shock ending” although everyone probably knows it already! Also with (mostly all uncredited) William Phipps, Fay Baker, Peter Brocco, Richard Deacon, John Eldredge, Tod Karns, Robert Shayne, Frank Wilcox and Lock Martin. 

This science fiction film released by 20^th Century-Fox was filmed in SuperCineColor, a three-color process invented in 1948 but only used till around 1954. Despite a fairly low budget, director John Cameron Menzies uses unusual camera angles and almost surreal set pieces.

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“Your Weapons Have No Affect On Me”

 

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THE PRINCE OF SPACE-1959-In Japan, the evil alien Phantom Dictator (Joji Oka) wants the secret formula Dr. Maki (Ushio Akashi) has. The aliens have big fake noses that kind of look like birds. However, a mysterious superhero Prince of Space (Tatsuo Umemiya) shows up to thwart the bad guys. Some little kids get in the way. 

Known as “Planet Prince” in Japan, it's based on TV show and was shown in several installments in Japanese theaters. It's a typical fun outing but those “beaked” aliens are hilarious! It was shown in US theaters in 1965. Eijiro Wakabayshi was the director. 

The character was rebooted in 2021 as PLANET PRINCE 2021.

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From Japan

 

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FUGITIVE ALIEN-1978- Alien Ken (Tatsuya Azuma) is on the run from his home planet because he wouldn't kill a human child. On Earth he has super abilities and is kind of forced to join a special space force unit headed by Captain Joe (Jo Shishido; BRANDED TO KILL (1967)), whose wife and child were killed by Ken's race. A pasty-faced alien leader sends Ken's lover to kill him because Ken killed her brother (he was going to kill the kid Ken wouldn't). It's several episodes of the Japanese TV show "Space Wolf" which in turn was an adaptation of a novel by American author Edmund Hamilton. There was also a FUGITIVE ALIEN 2.

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Harryhausen

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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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Silence Please!

 

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A QUIET PLACE-2018-A family must make little or no sound otherwise they will be detected by the blind alien invaders who attack whenever they hear sound. The family talk mostly in sign language except in certain areas. They all have a bit of angst over the death of their family member and a newborn baby causes some problems late in the story. There are some good suspense scenes but I don't think this was so great as to garner the tremendous reviews it received.

A QUIET PLACE was directed by a guy named John Krasinski who played Reed Richards in DOCTOR STRANGE IN THE MULTIVERSE OF MADDNESS (2022). He made a part 2 in 2020.

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A Bunch of Clowns Walk into a Blog...

 

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KILLER KLOWNS FROM OUTER SPACE-1988-In wacky sf comedy, alien clowns arrive on Earth (in a circus tent spaceship). Their first victim is an old hillbilly (Royal Dano). The grotesque sinister looking clowns have ray guns that shoot popcorn, balloon hunting dogs and store victims in cotton candy. Two air head college students Debbie (Suzanne Snyder; RETRIBUTION) & Mike (Grant Cramer; NEW YEAR'S EVIL) try to convince police officer Dave (John Allen Nelson) what's going on while his grouchy partner Mooney (John Vernon) wants to arrest all the students. The clowns go around terrorizing the town. One makes a hand shadow eat some people and have other inventive ways of killing. Fortunately, Dave discovers a way to kill them. Two brothers with an ice cream truck help out when Debbie is encased in a beach ball. Eventually a gigantic clown appears in the fun house like spaceship. Great title song by The Dickies.

 It was directed by Stephen Chiodo and written and produced with his brothers Charles and Edward. They all did SFX on other movies and have been working on a sequel for years.

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Lost Battle

 

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BATTLE FOR THE LOST PLANET-1986-A thief named Trent (Matt Mitler) relates the story of the invasion of Earth by some pig faced aliens. He steals a space shuttle and roams around space for 5 years and when he returns to Earth he meets Dana (Denise Coward), an English woman and they travel around and run afoul of Mad Dog (Joe Gentisis), an idiot Stallone clone who leads a motorcycle gang. Low budget nonsense from director/writer Brett Piper who later made A NYMPHOID BARBARIAN IN DINOSAUR HELL and THEY BITE.

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Big Debut!

 

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INVASION OF THE NEPTUNE MEN-1961-Invaders from space attack Earth. While scientists investigate, a group of little boys are saved from the pointy headed metal invaders by the superhero Iron Sharp (Shin'ichi “Sonny” Chiba in his film debut) who is also the friend of one of the scientists. 

It's very dumb and kiddie oriented. 

When the aliens attack there's a quick shot of Hitler on billboard being destroyed. This led to rumors that actually footage from WW 2 was used but all the destruction footage is taken from a movie called "WW 2 Breaks Out". This Toei production was directed by Koji Ota.

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Derek-The Kid From Outer Space

TEENAGERS FROM OUTER SPACE-1959-After two weird astronomers discuss an object in space one of them saw, a dog howls and a flying saucer lands on Earth. After the credits aliens in pajamas like jumpsuits emerge. Their first order of business is to use a ray gun to reduce the dog to a skeleton. The group of young humanoid space beings is led by an arrogant authoritative captain (King Moody). His two standout crew members are the ruthless and pompous Thor (Bryan Grant) and the sensitive caring Derek (David Love). This group has come from their home planet to use Earth as a breeding ground for some monsters called "gargons", a source of food for their race. Derek protests when he reads the dead dog's id tag, deducing that the intelligent inhabitants of Earth don't deserve the fate his unnamed race has in store. He also gets on his soap box saying that their race wasn't always "mechanized slaves". Once there was families and love until "the annihilators" burned everything. The captain overpowers Derek and says he could be tortured and killed when they get home. Just when it looks like they've found grazing land for their gargons it's de-termined Earth's atmosphere is no good. They'll need a new planet. This makes Derek quite happy and he escapes. Thor could have shot him but the captain stops him because Derek is the son of their leader! It also turns out the atmosphere is ok for gargon raising. It was just an initial shock that hit the monster. Though tiny it will grow to gigantic size in time. 

Meanwhile, Derek wanders into town and winds up at the home of Betty Morgan (Dawn Bender) and her Grandpa (Harvey B. Dunn from Ed Wood movies), the owners of the dead dog. They assume he's come to rent the extra room they have and that his spacesuit apparel is some kind of private school uniform! The scowling asshole Thor is dispatched to find Derek. Thus begins the exciting story of an alien invasion! Jolly old Gramps and naive but infatuated Betty practically adopt Derek who says just enough not to let them know he's from out of this world, giving him clothes left behind by brother Bud (who got married and moved away) and letting him stay in their extra room for free until he finds a job! We are also introduced to Betty's boyfriend Joe Rogers (Tom Lock-⁹year aka do it all director Tom Graeff), a newspaper reporter who has to cancel his pool party date with Bets because he has to interview some locals who saw UFOs! Meantime the asshole Thor leaves some skeleton victims around town while looking for Derek. Betty invites him to her friend Alice's pool party but when they get there he tells Betty about her doggie's demise. She insists on seeing where it happened so she and Derek bid Alice adieu. Then Gramps meets Thor and gives away just about everything that's going on. 

Back at the death site Derek explains to Betty what a focusing disintegrator ray does. They decide to visit Prof. Sim-pson so Derek can explain his predicament. After Thor vaporizes Alice he again visits Gramps  who spills the beans a second time. Thor kills the Professor. Betty and Derek go to City Hall where agents with guns are waiting. Derek gets a hold of Gramps again and forces him to drive to the hall. A furious shootout ensues and Gramps has trouble crossing the street. Thor kills two of the agents but is wounded. While Gramps gives Joe (who dis-covered Alice's skeleton in her pool) the lowdown, Thor forces Derek and Betty to drive him to a doctor (Frederic Welsh). Then he forces the doctor to operate on him without anesthesia. Be-fore he passes out Thor tells Derek about the gargons and him being the leader's dad. Derek, Betty and the doc escape but unfortunately the doc's nurse arrives and patches Thor up just before the doc calls to warn her. Thor forces the nurse to drive him to the desert lan-ding area right about the same time Joe and his friend Mac go for a look. Mac goes into the cave where the gorgan is chillin' and becomes dinner. After Thor cracks up the car and is arrested Derek and Betty go looking for Thor's lost ray gun. The two share a kiss then find the ray gun just as a ginormous gargon appears. With the power of the electric company Derek kills the gargon.

Later after a lot of convoluted talk Derek tricks his dad, Thor and Mr. Torture and makes all the invading spaceships crash. 

This is one nutty movie the brainchild of writer/director/co-star Tom Graeff ( he also shot and edited it).

The plot and dialogue are ridiculous but it does hold a certain sense of charm. The giant gargon effect though is one of the worst ever. A lobster superimposed onto the film. For years it was mis-reported that star David Love and director Tom Graeff were the same person but this was an error.To read more about Mr. Graeff check out these sites:

http://gf-productions.com/tomgraeff/

https://www.tomgraeff.org/

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Corman Produced

NIGHT OF THE BLOOD BEAST-1958-John Corcoran (Michael Emmet; later in ATTACK OF THE GIANT LEECHES), the first man to orbit the Earth in a satellite crash lands coming back and is killed. This upsets his fiancee Dr. Julie Benson (Angela Greene). Dave Randal (Ed Nelson; in CRY BABY KILLER the same year), female photog Donna (Georgianna Carter), the analytic Dr. Wyman (Tyler McVey) and Steve (John Baer) take John's body (which has not decomposed at all) back to their lab where they discover a strange contusion on his arm. Also their radio doesn't work. After Dave has an encounter with an unknown creature and they lose electric power and their car and truck won't work, it's obvious something is keeping them there. They also discover a magnetic barrier surrounds their compound. 

At night Dr. Wyman’s bloody headless body is found hanging in their lab and John has come back to life. He’s very confused and says “It didn't come here to destroy!”. It turns out to be a weird looking alien that's using John's body as a breeding ground for new aliens (they look like sea horses). The monster kind of looks like it's covered in dried mud. It attacks but they drive it off. The next day, Dave, Steve and Donna are searching for the monster which briefly captures Donna. Eventually John realizes the alien doesn't want to help Earth, It just wants to replace humans with its race. John kills himself and Dave and Steve burn up the monster. 

Director Bernard Kowalski made his directing debut earlier in the year with HOT ROD GIRL (which Nelson and McVey appear in) and later made ATTACK OF THE CRAB MONSTERS. He does a good job keeping everything eerie and claustrophobic and though obviously inspired by THE THING the US-Russian space race figured into it too. The monster is strange looking but doesn't look like it would come from outer space. 

This AIP production was produced by Roger and Gene Corman. 

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John Saxon In The UK

NIGHT CALLER FROM OUTER SPACE-1965-An object from space crashes in the English countryside. The army investigate along with scientists Dr. Morley (Maurice Denham) and Dr. Costain (American John Saxon playing a Brit for some reason). Although the object was supposed to be very big. All they find is cold orb.

Back in their lab the duo are assisted by cold, stuck up Anne Morrow (Patricia Haines) who Saxon unsuccessfully tries to seduce. While Morley and an army major (John Carson) in charge try to answer the PM’s pompous inquiries over the phone, Ann while typing her notes starts to get hot flashes. They seem to emanate from the room where the orb is kept. When she opens the door a weird hand grabs her arm. She breaks away and sounds an alarm but of course when the soldiers look around they find nothing. After they leave the orb starts glowing. The next day the Major has decided it’s all a prank. Costain finds a weird footprint in the dirt and believes Ann’s story. Morley dies while experimenting with orb after being menaced by an unseen creature. The army takes some shots at it. The Major is killed by a Jeep driven by the creature! Costain makes a connection that the creature may be responsible for the disappearance of several women. It seems all the missing women answered an ad placed in a magazine by a mysterious person named Mr. Madra. Costain figures out the creature has come from Ganymede, a moon of Jupiter. Scotland Yard superintendent Hartley (Alfred Burke) sets a trap with Ann answering one of the ads. She’s killed. Then Saxon, Hartley and the Police Commissioner set another trap where they learn Madra is a half scarred alien (Robert Crewdson) that needs “new blood” to help resurrect his race. He takes the women and goes back home. 

Director John Gilling made the much better THE PLAGUE OF THE ZOMBIES the next year. Despite its film noirish like setting it's bloody boring with a lot of scientific jive about nonsense. It's based on a novel by Frank Crisp. Also known as BLOOD BEAST FROM OUTER SPACE.

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Starman To The Rescue

ATTACK FROM SPACE-1957/1964-Once again the unique inhabitants of The Emerald Planet detect an alien threat to planet Earth which in turn could threaten them and the whole solar system, so they send Starman (once again Ken Utsui) to investigate. The Superians are out to conquer Earth and want a special motor Dr. Yama (Hiroshi Hayashi who had small roles in GODZILLA and SEVEN SAMURAI) and his colleagues are working on. The bad guys kidnap his kids so he'll cooperate. He refuses so they turn him and his kids into mindless slaves. Starman invades their supreme headquarters. Later after the aliens attack Earth several times, the professor's kids and his assistant (their mind control wears off) do some sabotage and Star shows up to shoot and thrown around the dumb aliens in a long fight scene. After beating up the leader he reunites the daughter with the others and they blow up the sinister satellite.

Third in the US edited series this is a mash up of the 5^th and 6^th Super Giant movies.

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Metaluna

THIS ISLAND EARTH-1955-In this Technicolor science fiction classic Dr. Cal Beacham (Rex Reason; in THE CREATURE WALKS AMONG US the next year) is saved from a jet crash by a mysterious beam. Later after receiving some weird directions he and his assistant Joe (Robert Nicols) build a communications device which puts them in touch with the high forehead alien Exeter (Jeff Morrow; also in THE CREATURE WALKS AMONG US the next year) who wants Beacham for his “special group”. The doc takes a pilot-less plane to a meeting Exeter has set up. He meets the alien who explains that his home planet of Metaluna needs uranium in their war against their enemies called The Zagons. 

Exeter has gathered scientists from over the world to help solve the problem but it's obvious he has an ulterior motive. Beacham meets Ruth Adams (Faith Domergue; in CULT OF THE COBRA the same year) who he has met before but she doesn't seem to remember him. He also meets Dr. Carlson (Russell Johnson) and Exeter's sinister assistant Brak (Lance Fuller) who wants to put the trio under a “transformer” to control them. They try to escape but are attacked by a death ray and Carlson is killed. Beacham and Ruth almost get away by plane but a beam brings them back. They go to Metaluna which is under attack by The Zagons. There they meet Exeter's boss The Monitor (Douglas Spencer; Scotty in THE THING) and encounter the famed Metaluna mutants. Metaluna's real mission is also revealed. They want to relocate to Earth and subjugate the human race but when The Monitor tries to put Beacham and Ruth in the Thought Transference Chamber to make them mindless slaves Exeter rebels and helps them escape being wounded in the process by a mutant. Metaluna is destroyed and after a quick appearance by another mutant who stowed away on their ship, Beacham and Ruth are returned to Earth. Exeter stays on board as the damaged ship crashes into the ocean. 

The same year as THIS ISLAND EARTH was made producer William Alland (the reporter trying to figure what “Rosebud” meant in CITIZEN KANE) also served the same capacity on THE REVENGE OF THE CREATURE and TARANTULA. ISLAND seems a bigger type of production with a lot of scientific mumbo jumbo, nice SFX and of course the famed Metaluna Mutant (made somewhat more well known than it should have been in the pages of FAMOUS MONSTERS OF FILMLAND). For me it was always a little disappointing. 

The acting is ok but the story isn't that engaging. It's based on three short novels by Raymond F. Jones, a prolific science fiction short story writer at the time. Director Joseph Newman started out doing short subjects and eventually feature films like 711 OCEAN DRIVE and THE OUTCASTS OF POKER FLATS. Science fiction was not a subject he was familiar with and Universal was unhappy with some of his scenes. They brought in Jack Arnold (who worked with producer Alland frequently) to re-shoot the Metaluna scenes. A sequel was planned but never made. ISLAND also features Richard Deacon, Olan Soule and Coleman Francis in uncredited roles. 

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'50's Science Fiction

WAR OF THE WORLDS-1953-In this classic science fiction film based on the HG Wells novel Earth is invaded by the inhabitants of the planet Mars. An off screen narrator (Sir Cedric Hardwicke) tells us why the Martians chose our planet. When one of their ships lands on Earth residents (who think it's a meteor) of a small town investigate. Vacationing scientist Dr. Clayton Forrester (Gene Barry) investigates. He meets up with Sylvia Van Buren (Ann Robinson) and her uncle Dr. Collins (Lewis Martin), the pastor of the local church. After Forrester decides to stay for a while they all go to a square dance. Meanwhile three locals (Paul Burich, Jack Kruschen (as a Mexican) and William Phipps) check out the object when it opens it's hatch. Armed with a white flag they decide to approach the ship and be friends. They are promptly obliterated and the whole town is thrown into a blackout.

 The army is called in along with General Mann (Les Tremayne). Martian ships eventually show themselves and for some reason Collins sacrifices himself in a last ditch attempt to reason with them. He's killed and the army throws everything they have at the invaders to no avail. Forrester and Sylvia escape in a plane and spend some time evading the invaders but the doc manages to get one of the tri-color laser “eyes”. The Martians themselves are revealed to be little guys with long arms the same tri-color “eyes”. (The martians in the original novel are much more frightening) Meanwhile the Martians devastate the world and despite the US's best efforts including dropping an A-bomb they learn: “guns,tanks, bombs! They're like toys against them!”. After looters steal his truckload of scientific equipment Forrester searches the the devastated city for Sylvia who he finds in a church. Just when it looks like all hope is lost the Martian ships crash and burn and the aliens die (“We were all praying for a miracle”) due to germs in our atmosphere. 

This Sc-Fi/cold war classic was produced by George Pal, who originally planned it to be in 3-D and directed by Byron Haskin, who also worked as a special effects technician on many films which may have helped since WAR OF THE WORLDS 's SFX won an Academy Awa

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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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