Invasión de discos voladores

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.

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.

Operation Skyhook's (an actual military operation, although the real one dealt with high altitude balloon research) location was at White Sands, New Mexico. Someone here mentioned the aliens "blew up Cape Canaveral" which may be a fun fantasy but the truth be its New Mexico.

I've always liked this movie, maybe because there are so many "flubs" in it. The special effects are really great for the time period, when digital didn't exist and all they had were screen mattes and stop-action photography.

I really get a kick out of the scene where they've just abandoned their laboratory with the new fangled sound weapon. They are running through the woods, in front of a rear projected screen to provide a sense of movement, but they are running at the wrong pace in reference to the projected image.

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?

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.