Earth vs. the Flying Saucers

Earth vs. the Flying Saucers
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Fred F. Sears
Produced by	Charles H. Schneer Sam Katzman
Written by	Donald E. Keyhoe (book) Curt Siodmak George Worthing Yates Bernard Gordon
Starring	Hugh Marlowe Joan Taylor
Music by	Mischa Bakaleinikoff
Cinematography	Fred Jackman Jr.
Editing by	Danny B. Landres
Distributed by	Columbia Pictures
Release date(s)	July 1, 1956
Running time	83 min.
Country	United States
Language	English

Earth vs. the Flying Saucers (1956) is an American science fiction film, directed by Fred F. Sears and released by Columbia Pictures. The film is also known as Invasion of the Flying Saucers.^{[citation needed]} It was suggested by the non-fiction work Flying Saucers from Outer Space by Donald Keyhoe. The flying saucer effects were created by Ray Harryhausen.

Plot

Scientist Dr. Russell Marvin and his new bride Carol are driving to their common workplace when a flying saucer appears over them, then zooms away. Without proof of their encounter other than a tape recording of the sound of the UFO, Marvin is hesitant to notify his bosses in the military. He is in charge of Project Skyhook, an American space program that has already launched ten of twelve research satellites into orbit. General Hanley, Carol's father, returns from an investigation and informs his new son-in-law that many of the satellites are known to have crashed. Marvin admits that he has lost contact with all of them and privately suspects alien involvement. The Marvins themselves witness the eleventh tumbling to the ground.

When a saucer lands at his project site the next day, the guards begin firing, to no effect as they are shielded by their saucer's force field. The aliens retaliate by killing everyone except the Marvins, who are trapped in an underground room, and the general, who is taken away in the saucer. Russell records a message, then replays it on the tape recorder. The battery is running low and the recorder slows down enough that a message from the aliens is rendered understandable: they wanted to meet him that day. Once rescued, Marvin plays the message for his superiors, but they have to wait, as they do not have the authority to act.

Impatient, Marvin contacts the aliens on his own and sneaks away to meet them. Carol and Major Huglin follow him. They and a motorcycle cop are taken aboard a spaceship which has landed on Malibu Beach. They discover that the aliens have extracted the knowledge from Gen. Hanley's brain, and have the general under their control, although they reassure Carol that they can restore her father. They also claim to be the last survivors of their species and that they shot down the satellites because they feared they were weapons. As proof of their power, the aliens give Marvin the coordinates of where they sank a destroyer that had fired on them, then release the humans with the message that they want to meet the world's leaders in 56 days in Washington, D.C. to negotiate an occupation.

The flying saucers have proven invulnerable to conventional weapons, but from his own observations Marvin comes up with an idea for an ultra-sonic weapon, with which the help from another scientist becomes a more effective anti-magnetic weapon. With government backing, he feverishly sets out to build a prototype. He is, however, under surveillance by an alien device. Just as he finishes, a saucer arrives. Marvin tests his weapon and finds it disables the saucer sufficiently to send it wobbling away. The aliens jettison Gen. Hanley and another captive, who fall to their deaths.

When alien ships show up in triads in the skies over Washington, Paris, London, and Moscow, and begin firing, there are enough truck-mounted ultra-sonic-cum-anti-magnetic weapons deployed in Washington, D.C. to slowly shoot them down. One saucer clips and topples the Washington Monument, while another crashes into the Capitol Building and a third into Union Station. Furthermore, despite the knowledge gleaned from Gen. Henley and the unnamed motorcycle police officer (who had fired upon them), the aliens are vulnerable to small arms fire once they leave the immediate force fields of their saucers. The Earth is saved.

Cast

• Hugh Marlowe as Dr. Russell A. Marvin
• Joan Taylor as Carol Marvin
• Donald Curtis as Major Huglin, the liaison officer
• Morris Ankrum as Brig. Gen. John Hanley
• John Zaremba as Prof. Kanter
• Thomas Browne Henry as Vice-Admiral Enright
• Grandon Rhodes as General Edmunds
• Larry J. Blake as a motorcycle policeman

Visual effects

Special effects expert Ray Harryhausen animated the flying saucers in this movie. Harryhausen also animated the falling stones when saucers crashed into buildings,^{[citation needed]} in order to make the action appear more realistic. Some figure animation was used to show the aliens emerging from the saucers. A considerable amount of stock footage was also used,^{[citation needed]} notably scenes during the invasion that showed batteries of U.S. 90 mm M3 guns and an early rocket launch, presumably standing in for the recently introduced Nike Ajax missile. Stock footage of the explosion of the warship HMS Barham during World War II was used to fill in for a U.S. Navy destroyer that is destroyed by a flying saucer.

The voice of the aliens was produced from a recording of Paul Frees reading the lines by jiggling the speed control of an analog reel-to-reel tape recorder, so that it continually wavered from a slow bass voice to one high and fast.^{[citation needed]}

During a question-and-answer period at a tribute to Harryhausen and a screening of Jason and the Argonauts held in Sydney, Australia,^{[citation needed]} Harryhausen said he sought advice from noted 1950s UFO "contactee" George Adamski on the depiction of the flying saucers in the film, but he thought that Adamski grew increasingly paranoid as time went by. The iconic saucer design, a static central cabin with an outer rotating ring with slotted vanes, matches descriptions given to Donald Keyhoe of flying disc sightings.^{[citation needed]} The flying saucers in the film are identical to each other, and carry no distinguishing insignia whatsoever.

Depiction of science and technology

The film has shots of several 1950s technologies in action, including paper tape communications, a telautograph and a differential analyzer.^{[citation needed]} The Project Skyhook in the film (released 1 July 1956) reflects the public interest in announcements about the earth satellite projects of the International Geophysical Year (1 July 1957 to 31 December 1958; first satellites in orbit included Sputnik 1 on 4 October 1957 and Explorer 1 on 31 January 1958.)

The invaders' flying saucers use magnetic drives capable of near light speed velocities, resulting in a distortion of time: while time seems like minutes to the passengers, events on board occur in split seconds of real time. They use spy drones that look like ball lightning or Foo fighters. Their language translator device resembles a glowing crystal rose which also serves as the input device for their "Infinitely Indexed Memory Bank". Humans captured by the invaders are subjected to scanning for the "Infinitely Indexed Memory Bank" which strips the victims' mind of all knowledge, leaving them mindless zombies. At one point, the invaders seize control of all communications to broadcast their ultimatum: "People of Earth, Attention!"

The invaders induce solar flares that disrupt earth's weather and mankind's communications. The invaders' main weapons are disintegrator rays housed in the arms of their space suits (which are unarmored and vulnerable to gunfire) and in a parabolic device that extends and retracts from the base of their saucers. The ray reduces humans and trucks to ashes and causes aircraft, ships and buildings to explode or fall apart.

External links

• Earth vs. the Flying Saucers at the Internet Movie Database
• Earth vs. the Flying Saucers at AllRovi
• Earth vs. the Flying Saucers at the TCM Movie Database