EARTH VS. THE FLYING SAUCERS (1956)
Directed by Fred F. Sears
Starring:
Hugh Marlowe - Dr. Russell A. Marvin
Joan Taylor - Carol Marvin
Donald Curtis - Major Huglin
Morris Ankrum - General John Hanley

Out of the gate, this picture has a pretty fine pedigree: First, it is one of the consistently entertaining (at the least) and often great “Clover Production” pictures produced by Sam Katzman. Secondly, the screen story was written by Curt Soidmak (Wolf Man, Donovan’s Brain); and finally, and most memorably, it features the stop-animation and technical effects of the great Ray Harryhausen. Any one of these heavyweight ingredients would make it worthwhile – all three make it a classic.

The plot? Well, the title says all we need to know about the plot. This is one of the greatest of the “invasion pictures” of the 1950’s, inspired by a heated melding of the era’s love, hatred, embracement, and terror of all things scientific. The picture begins in classic, docudrama style; urgent, basso profundo voiceover describing the phenomenon of UFOs as an international phenomenon. We see an Oriental peasant in a rice paddy looking up into the sky - an American farmer, putting the brakes on his tractor – as saucers hum overhead. Military pilots and commercial airline passengers all are seen doing double takes out their respective windows, pointing and going slack-jawed. UFOs are presented as fact, not crackpot mirage or swamp gas.

We are given our first glimpses of the Harryhausen flying saucers, and they are magnificent. If you are the type of little weasel that loves pointing out the flying saucer’s wires, don’t be an ass for once in your life. This is a Harryhausen picture. There are no telltale wires. Even in these early, tantalizing glimpses, these babies have weight, power, and produce an eerie, inhuman screech (Harryhausen just didn’t move models around one frame at a time. He designed entire “effects,” covering aspects of set design, lighting, and sound). It makes you wonder: perhaps the only thing Ed Wood lacked in his Ahab-like search for acceptance was a Ray Harryhausen

The opening narration continues along in this portentous manner, giving quite a bit of weight, if not actual evidence, to the notion that at least a small percentage of these unidentifiable objects are flying saucers from other planets. It’s so possible, in fact, the official-male-voice narration makes it very clear that our military as developed a very itchy trigger finger.

Enter your hosts for the evening, Dr. Russell A. Marvin (Hugh Marlowe) and his newly-minted bride, Carol (Joan Taylor), driving through a vast, desolate stretch of desert (of course). Russell’s a government rocket scientist on his way to work, his work being a secret, restricted (of course) project called Sky Hook.

A couple of saucer sightings and scenes of 1950s domestic perfection later, we learn that Operation Sky Hook has developed a problem. The Operation is sending up missiles to explore the possibility of life in the universe, but Command has lost contact with any of them. Hmmm.

Well, with sufficient foreshadowing, a saucer finally comes knocking at the Red Hook facility, scaring the crap out of radio operators, personnel at the guard house, and some groundskeepers. The Harryhausen creation lowers its landing gear, sets down, and three robotic creatures stroll out very slowly, looking childlike. Enough chit-chat. Without as much as a how-dee-do our boys open up with a battery of M3 anti-aircraft cannons. One of the aliens drops like a sack of sand, but the rest are protected by an electrical force field, which seems to come standard with all alien invasion craft. Aliens proceed to destroy everything and everyone at the facility, using an obligatory death ray from extended arms, save a general, who is taken prisoner, and our two newlyweds, who by luck were working in a bomb-proof area. To say the least, the battle between the flying saucers and Earth is on, and Earth has lost the first round big time.

Eventually Dr. Marvin develops a kind of electric sound gun that interrupts the saucer’s power source, but not until the saucers manage to take out most of the high-profile tourist attractions at our nation’s capital. The Marvin gun, which looks like a large satellite dish (and, upon closer insepection, is a large satallite dish), causes the alien crafts to wobble and crash, tallying far more damage that the alien death rays have been able to dish out. Aiding in a Earth victory as well is the fact that the aliens are extremely pathetic when unprotected by their ship's immediate electrical field. Once they stray from the field at all, their space suits prove woefully inadequate (despite the fact that they are made of “solidified electricity”). One of the many great action scenes has a soldier popping an alien on the steps of the Capital Building with a garden variety M1 Garand, sending it rattling and clunking back down the way it came like an empty oil drum. While we are on the topic, the overt aggression is pretty impressive in this film.

All military personnel have adopted a “shoot first – who has questions?” posture and don’t even wait for the fire command. One abducted officer, having no sidearm and completely at the alien's mercy, simply picks up a handy wrench and gives it a heave at an alien scout light. The wrench misses and goes banging around the scaffolding, but it was a hell of a try, soldier!

The casting choices in this movie are interesting. Hugh Marlowe, going against the grain of the standard 1950s man of science (think Jeff Marrow in Kronos), has the soft manners and voice of a poet; an almost dreamy presence. But if you think our pipe-puffing doc is a puss, think again, homey! Remember, Dr. Marvin decides to destroy the aliens on some damn shaky evidence (he becomes convinced that the aliens have interpreted the Red Hook project as a threat and are in full scale invasion – all this based on some mumbo-jumbo translation device and Nostradamus-like interpretations). Where is our prototype progressive scientist, urgently suggesting communication? No where in this film, that’s for goddamn sure. What we have here is a rocket scientist/weapons expert and designer who doesn’t mind a bit manning the guns himself.

Joan Taylor is also interesting as the resolute wife/secretary. She actually seems very intelligent and capable as an assistant, meaning she is at times helpful. Plus, she never once begs hubby to stay out of harm's way or twists an ankle. She is also lovely in a fine-featured way, where American male tastes of the era were definitely running toward the more exotic and, well, full-figured. She is believable, and in the final scenes actually looks un-made-up and exhausted! How rare is that for Radiation Cinema, where most women, even at the end of the world, had perfect lipstick. As for the effects, you have to see them. Scope! Size! Weight! Harryhausen was a master of technical details, spending painstaking hours pouring over the small stuff. His effects always looked three dimensional, even in a two dimensional world. His creations were even lit correctly, matching the action on film. This film represents an important step in the master’s development.

What a film. A real treasure and one that gets better with each viewing. WATCH THE TRAILER BELOW! --Radiation Cinema