Earth versus the Flying SaucersYear: 1956 Director: Fred F. Sears Written by: George Worthing Yates, Bernard Gordon Threat: Aliens Weapon of Choice: Ultra-sonic frequency Based upon: novel - Flying Saucers from Outer Space by Donald E. Keyhoe IMDb page: |
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Other movies in this series:
None
Rish's Reviews
Not too long ago, I saw this on the big screen, in a cool double-bill with
War of the Worlds. I actually
found it to be the superior of the two films, though it is not as well-remembered.
When a series of American rockets start to disappear, our heroic scientist (Hugh Marlowe)
and his new bride (Joan Taylor) discover that they are being shot down by UFOs.
When the military attacks one of the flying saucers, the aliens invade, striking at
Washington DC with seemingly-unstoppable force.
Based on a Curt Siodmak story, this was more intellectual and realistic than the other
film. This was much less of a horror film than War of the Worlds, with
silly-looking aliens and a lot of talk and science.
The woman had a little more to do in this one than just shriek and look pretty.
I noticed a couple of remarkable similarities between the films. In fact, I'm really glad
one was in colour and one was in black & white (this one being the black & white
film). Both have a disentigrating ray, both have the aliens using electromagnetic fields
and characters noticing their watches have stopped. In fact, one of the special effects
was stolen from the previous film.
It featured great stop-motion special effects by the greatest of them all, Ray
Harryhausen. Some of the effects still hold up pretty well. Because it was in black &
white, I assumed it was made first, but it actually came a few years after the other film.
It must have been a lot cheaper. The silly-looking aliens wore campy space suits that
make them look like anorexic rubber versions of Juggernaut from "The Uncanny
X-Men."
I'd Recommend It To: Fans of alien invasion movies and Harryhausen fans.
Posted: July 12, 2004
Total Skulls: 7
| Sequel | ||
| Sequel setup | ||
| Rips off earlier film | ||
| Horror film showing on TV/in theater in movie | ||
| Future celebrity appears | ||
| Former celebrity appears | ||
| Bad title | ||
| Bad premise | ||
| Bad acting | ||
| Bad dialogue | ||
| Bad execution | ||
| MTV Editing | ||
| OTS | ||
| Girl unnecessarily gets naked | ||
| Wanton sex | ||
| Death associated with sex | ||
| Unfulfilled promise of nudity | ||
| Characters forget about threat | ||
| Secluded location | ||
| Power is cut | ||
| Phone lines are cut |  |
|
| Someone investigates a strange noise | |
|
| Someone runs up stairs instead of going out front door | ||
| Camera is the killer | ||
| Victims cower in front of a window/door | ||
| Victim locks self in with killer | ||
| Victim running from killer inexplicably falls | ||
| Toilet stall scene | ||
| Shower/bath scene | ||
| Car stalls or won't start | ||
| Cat jumps out | ||
| Fake scare | ||
| Laughable scare | ||
| Stupid discovery of corpse | ||
| Dream sequence | ||
| Hallucination/Vision | ||
| No one believes only witness | |
|
| Crazy, drunk, old man knows the truth | ||
| Warning goes unheeded | ||
| Music detracts from scene | ||
| Death in first five minutes | ||
| x years before/later | ||
| Flashback sequence | ||
| Dark and stormy night | ||
| Killer doesn't stay dead | ||
| Killer wears a mask | |
|
| Killer is in closet | ||
| Killer is in car with victim | ||
| Villain is more sympathetic than heroes | ||
| Unscary villain/monster | |
|
| Beheading | ||
| Blood fountain | ||
| Blood spatters - camera, wall, etc. | ||
| Poor death effect | |
|
| Excessive gore | ||
| No one dies at all | ||
| Virgin survives | ||
| Geek/Nerd survives | ||
| Little kid lamely survives | ||
| Dog/Pet miraculously survives | ||
| Unresolved subplots | ||
| "It was all a dream" ending | ||
| Unbelievably happy ending | |
|
| Unbelievably crappy ending | ||
| What the hell? |
