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Earth vs. the Flying Saucers (1956) More at IMDbPro »

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85 comments in total

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33 out of 36 people found the following comment useful :-
Better-than-average '50's saucer flick, 24 February 2005

Author: WilliamTelevision from United States

Ray Harryhausen should have received top billing in this film, since his superb stop-action animation is the real star here. None of this nonsense about wise and benevolent aliens a la "The Day the Earth Stood Still"! Here, the aliens are nasty and mean business. The mass saucer attack on Washington is a classic scene; swiped by everything from "Independence Day" to a TV commercial for a nationwide chain of fast-food restaurants. Although the saucer's "magnetic propulsion" is scientific balderdash (Earth's magnetic field is just about strong enough to swing a compass needle.); still it's thrilling to see the military and the scientists racing around D.C. in 1-and-a-half ton trucks with diesel generators and "magnetic disruptor's" mounted on the truck beds. (They look a bit like an out-sized Maxim machine gun.) When these are fired at an alien ship, it starts to wobble wildly until it falls and crashes. At one point, a saucer lands on the White House lawn in an attempt to kill or capture the President (Eisenhower) (gasp!) The aliens step out clad in silver spacesuits that act as powered exoskeletons that enable them to walk while under Earth's gravity. Fortunately, these are magnetically powered like their ships and Hugh Marlowe (who played Patricia Neal's lunkhead boyfriend in "The Day the Earth Stood Still") arrives on the scene with one of those disruptor's and drives them off.

There is an interesting scene earlier in the film where an alien is subdued and the helmet wrenched off of his suit. Before crumbling to dust in our atmosphere, you can see out-sized black eyes, no nose, and a slit-like mouth set in a light-bulb shaped head. I didn't think this idea of an alien occurred to anybody until the 1970's.

Despite perfunctory acting and scientific howlers, this movie is still endearing, not only for the fine special effects (CGI is a bit too slick for me.), but also for an innocence that would soon be lost. For the following year after this film was made, the Soviet Union would shock America by launching the first artificial satellite (Sputnik I) into Earth orbit using the first ICBM. This meant that the Soviets could launch a nuclear warhead at the United States. From then until the Cuban Missile Crisis persuaded both sides to back down from hair-trigger postures, fears of nuclear war would put possible interplanetary war very much in the shade.

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28 out of 33 people found the following comment useful :-
Quintessential Fifties Sci-Fi, 28 October 2002

Author: popgun9 from San Diego, California

There are no dull frames in this remarkable saucer invasion film set directly in the center of the fifties. Harryhausen met the challenge of animating flying machines. Sure enough, they whiz, spin, even wobble when need be. Saucers even have a protruding ray-gun device. The action begins during the credits and never lets up. Admittedly, it's fifties. But it was impressive enough to heavily influence Tim Burton's Mars Attacks. You can't miss the references. Film is packed with clever and creative touches such as the tape recording including aliens speaking at a speed natural for them, but not for us on Earth. If you are not terribly put off by 50's, black and white, and (god forbid) stop motion, you can't go wrong with this quintessential sci-fi extravaganza.

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24 out of 27 people found the following comment useful :-
an underrated gem, 24 August 2002

Author: dave (dfnanderson@msn.com) from portland, oregon

While "War of the Worlds" is probably the most heralded of the 1950s alien invasion films, this one is a lot more fun. There are none of the heavy-anded quasi-religious sub-texts that weighed down WOTW. There are no pretensions of any kind. "Earth" gets right down to the business at hand...aliens coming to Earth with the sole purpose of kicking our asses. Throw in the always fun Harryhausen effects, in which real life monuments are destroyed (later incorporated in the equally dumb and equally fun "ID4"), and what's not to like?

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18 out of 19 people found the following comment useful :-
Great 50's Sci-Fi, 27 January 2000
Author: BaronBl00d (baronbl00d@aol.com) from NC

Ray Harryhausen developed the flying saucers for this film, and they are worth seeing to be sure. The story is about how a space creature has contacted a professor on Earth, played nicely by Hugh Marlowe, and wants him to talk to his leaders. When there is a communication problem, the aliens destroy a rocket base. In short time, the aliens let the Earth and its people know that their intent is to take over the planet. Marlowe, working in conjunction with the military, develops a machine which renders the space ships incapable of straight flight. The film is a prime example of what good science fiction is all about. It has tension, extraterrestrials, fast pacing, and good special effects for its day. This film is very suspenseful and well worth a look.

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17 out of 21 people found the following comment useful :-
Good Special Effects Effort Undone By Budget, 17 October 2000

Author: Bob-45 from Savannah, GA

A model of restrained, professional film making, EARTH VS. THE FLYING SAUCERS would be one of the best 50s sci-fi efforts had Columbia studios provided more of a budget. Hugh Malowe plays a scientist attempting to launch earth satellites. After repeated failures, he discovers that flying saucers are destroying his satellites. After the destruction of Cape Canaveral by the "saucermen," Marlowe discovers a method of "toppling" the anti-gravity saucers.

From there the story pretty much unravels. The "saucermen" give Marlowe and his team plenty of time to develop a weapon capable of defeating them. Worse, the final assault on Washington is as senseless and ineffectual as the typical US Presidential debate. The aliens pick virtually no targets of tactical or strategic importance. Ray Harryhausen's flying saucers, the alien's "exoskeletons" and sound effects in this movie are especially standout.

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15 out of 19 people found the following comment useful :-
Pretty Intelligent For Its Genre, But Lacks Excitement, 30 May 2006

Author: ccthemovieman-1 from Lockport, NY, United States

This was fairly interesting and nicely low-key for a 1950s sci-fi flick....which usually means one thing: hysterical women shrieking and screaming. Well, there's none of that nonsense here. Ray Harryhausen's special-effects were lauded and justifiably so for his era, but you can imagine how they look today 50 years later! They look pretty primitive.

The acting is respectable considering the three stars - Hugh Marlow, Joan Taylor and Donald Curtis - are anything but "stars." I do think the story could have used a bit of humor to spice it up a bit, but you can't always get everything.

At least this one was one "flying saucer movie" that had some intelligence. It might have had too much, because it had very little excitement.

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11 out of 12 people found the following comment useful :-
Terrific sci-fi movie. Like wine, gets better with age., 21 January 2003

Author: m-fan

This is a terrific older sci-fi movie. It has all the elements to make it a sold movie; a good variety of characters, an interesting plot, and a solid script. The great special effects are just icing on the cake. Much of the movie is told in documentary style with a voice-over of someone, which adds to the realism.

You can feel connected with the main characters and what goes on in the movie. Even most of the characters that don't have much of a role seem realistic, not two-dimensional (like some in Spider-man). The plot has many viable twists and the movie comes to a exciting and feasible conclusion (un-like Independence Day). Many/most people will find it more entertaining than the "classic" sci-fi invasion movie War of the Worlds.

This movie, even though it was a relatively mid-budget movie made in the 1950's, should serve as a message to modern day Hollywood. It shows how a movie if made with a lot of thought and heart, as opposed to just violence and/or sensualism, can produce a real winner.

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23 out of 37 people found the following comment useful :-
My favorite Si Fi, for obvious reasons, 5 February 2001
Author: ramarvin (ramarvin@hotmail.com) from Connecticut

I always wondered how they managed to pick the name of the main character in this movie (Dr. Russell A. Marvin). That is my name, and it is very uncommon. When I saw the credits in the IMDB, I realized the answer. The inspiration for this movie was a book by Donald E. Keyhoe, who was consulted on this film. In 1956, Keyhoe started an organization called NICAP (National Investigations Committee on Aerial Phenomena). In 1956, I was a real flying saucer enthusiast, and was one of the very first people to join NICAP. I believe that they picked my name off of Keyhoe's membership list. I was 14 years old at the time. Anyway, it's a good flick with some great special effects (done the old fashioned way) by the legendary Ray Harryhausen.

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14 out of 21 people found the following comment useful :-
A solid 1950's B-movie sci-fi with all the weaknesses that come with the genre, 30 December 2002
Author: bob the moo from Birmingham, UK

Dr Russell Marvin is working on experimental rockets launched into orbit around the earth to help with the advancement of space exploration. He has so far lost 11 rockets for unknown reasons. However on a drive with his wife they witness a flying saucer. No-one believes them but later the same saucers attack and massacre their military base leaving only them as survivors. They are told that the earth has 56 days to come quietly rather than spark a pointless war against superior forces. However Dr Marvin and his team begin work on a weapon to repel the forces.

With a title like that I didn't need to be told I was in 1950's B-movie `allegory for commies' territory and all that that entails. The plot is pretty straight forward and the film wastes no time in wading into it. The meaning of the plot is a little tasteless and blatantly spells out these invaders are – `humanoids'. The thing that annoyed me was that the film ignored the fact that soldiers opened fire on the aliens first – without knowing why they were there. True they were coming to invade but the `shoot first ask questions later' message wasn't very palatable.

The effects are OK for the time but of course look very shaky nowadays. However it is still enjoyable and the aliens do look a little creepy despite being very stiff looking. The action is OK but I never felt tense as the 56 days counted down, and the race for the weapon seemed to happen a little too easily. The final battle in Washington is pretty cool though.

The cast are as wooden and stiff as you'd expect in a B-movie but I suppose it all adds to the feeling of the film! There are some funny lines and much of the dialogue (and effects) has been spoofed in recent films but it is still worth a watch. Overall as a film it is pretty poor, but if you're in a mood for a bit of 50's sci-fi hokum then this will probably deliver what you're after.

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6 out of 6 people found the following comment useful :-
UFO's AND Joan Taylor: Beam ME Up!!!, 25 June 2006

Author: Ken from United States

Certainly, the renowned/redoubtable Ray Harryhausen's special effects are absolutely superb in this 1956 sci-fi film. As several of the previous posters have already pointed out, the late Maj. Donald E. Keyhoe (one-time director of the National Investigations Committee on Aerial Phenonema, based in Washington, D.C.) served as technical adviser to this film. In fact, Maj. Keyhoe always maintained that alien (?) spacecraft HAD buzzed our nation's capital, during the summer of 1952. Veteran actors Hugh Marlowe, Morris Ankrum and Donald Curtis (who, I believe, portrayed "Prince Barron" in one of the final Flash Gordon serials) appear in the film. However, the wonderful and voluptuous Joan Taylor also appears as Carol Marvin (Hugh Marlowe's new bride in the film). Now, Ms. Taylor also appeared as the medical student granddaughter (?) of a scientist in another 1950s sci-fi flick, "20 Million Miles to Earth." And, I MUST say that Ms. Taylor looked terrific in those shorts of hers, as she and her granddad were conducting scientific research in sunny Sicily, when that U.S. space ship returned, rather abruptly, to Earth. (Seeing her perambulate through the verdant Sicilian countryside, I felt like singing Dean Martin's "That's Amore!") Yet, my favorite scene in "Earth Versus the Flying Saucers," was at the film's conclusion, when, Ms. Taylor and Mr. Marlowe are sitting on a beautiful beach as the sun is starting to set, and she says to Mr. Marlowe: "Do you think that the aliens will ever return to Earth?" To which, Mr. Marlowe (looking at his beautiful bride, attired in her extremely-flattering one-piece bathing suit) dreamily replies: "Not on such a beautiful day as this." And, hands held-together, they both happily and somewhat, "saucily" scamper into the water!

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