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This is a great example of 1950's sci-fi movies and the flying saucer scare craze that was sweeping the nation and of course parallels the cold war threat and the resilience and ingenuity of American science and military might. Retired Major Donald E. Keyhoe was the author of a series of non-fiction books of the era outlining his belief in the reality of flying saucers and this film draws from his book Flying Saucers From Outer Space. Veteran monster movie writer Curt Siodmak adapted a story based on the book for this film and veteran monster movie screenwriter George Worthing Yates wrote the screenplay. Special effects legend Ray Harryhausen supervised the effects and Josh Westmoreland, a sound veteran of westerns and monster movies, provided the sound. B-movie director Fred F. Sears and B-movie cinematographer Fred Jackman Jr. put it all together on the screen. In what would be a foreboding of things to come on 9/11 American monuments are under attack and destroyed. Aliens from a dying planet come to earth to claim it as their own but earth fights back. Hugh Marlow and Joan Taylor star. It's campy but it's still a good flick and a good representative of it's era and genre and I would give it an 8.0 out of 10.

The title pretty much sums up the story. Malevolent aliens in the titular vehicles try to intimidate Earth into surrendering before launching an all-out attack. Unusual for the genre, we 'fired first', (although the aliens were likely up to no good from the beginning, having shot down all of our satellites). The typical B-movie story finds scientist Russel Marvin (Hugh Marlowe) (and his pretty wife Carol (Joan Taylor)) constantly in the thick of things as the heroic boffin whips up a last minute miracle weapon. The script and acting are pretty trite, and other than Ray Harryhausen's stop-action work, the production values are weak (notably in the use of excessive and sometimes poorly matched stock footage). Some of the matte footage (such as the heroes running through the fire) is amateurish, and there are a number of irritating inconsistencies in the plot, especially with respect to the alien's capabilities. Of course, what makes the film a must see for genre fans are Harryhausen's iconic stop-action flying saucers. The design is classic, the model work excellent, the saucers are well integrated into the live action footage, and the film was one of the first to include the now de rigueur 'alien invasion' motif of trashing national monuments. Typical of Harryhausen projects, if the rest of the movie had been as good as the special effects, it would have been a classic.

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!

Above-average sci-fi which I had missed on its solitary TV broadcast years ago and one that I had been eyeing as a possible DVD purchase for what seems like forever; I'm overjoyed, therefore, that I managed to get my hands on it at long last.

The film is basically an amalgam of THE DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL (1951) – with Hugh Marlowe convincingly making the leap from despicable villain to intelligent hero here – and WAR OF THE WORLDS (1953): even if its outlook is a naïve one (while also displaying something of an obsession with technology) and the plot rather contrived, it is nonetheless generally absorbing and tremendously entertaining along the way. The special effects (by Ray Harryhausen) must have looked spectacular back then but come off as pretty shaky nowadays; still, this takes nothing away from his achievement and doesn't affect one's enjoyment – or involvement – in the film in any way (the design of the aliens' metallic suits and the briefly glimpsed creatures themselves is also quite impressive).

This is actually the first black-and-white Harryhausen film I've watched, and also the only one which doesn't have to do with prehistoric or mythological monsters of some kind; as such, it's not as juvenile as his other work and makes me look forward to the effects wizard's other sci-fi outings – IT CAME FROM BENEATH THE SEA (1955), TWENTY MILLION MILES TO EARTH (1957) and FIRST MEN IN THE MOON (1964). The Columbia DVD includes, among other things, an engaging 9-minute featurette on the making of EARTH VS. THE FLYING SAUCERS where Harryhausen is interviewed by genre enthusiast Joe Dante (who recalls first watching the film on a double-bill with the obscure THE 27TH DAY [1956]).

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.