Invasion

This British film is a good example of how intelligence and care can be very adequate substitutes for big budgets and endless CGI. It was made in the sixties but I can watch it again and again while bloated modern sci-fi films are seen and soon forgotten.

It is a low key film and the people in, in the face of something alien, get on with their jobs as best they can. This makes them more like real people than a lot of films do. Each one is fallible and anxious, trying to cope with the unknown. Edward Judd is his usual morose self but is a plausible doctor. Valerie Gearon as another doctor is great. The scene where she is discovered sprawling on the carpet, reading a text book and listening to music makes you warm to her instantly. She was an under used actor in British films.

The plot is simple; a strange man in a rubbery suit is knocked down in the road, taken to hospital and discovered to be an alien. Meanwhile two other aliens are searching for him. And that's it. The atmosphere of suspense is quietly conveyed by the lighting and the black and white photography.

At one point a force field is established around the hospital. There is no CGI to show this but car stops dead and kills the driver, the temperature goes up, the hospital workers react. One believes in that force field without a penny being spent on a special effect. That is good film making. There are many such interesting British films of the fifties and sixties that need re-appraisal and will be worth looking at again when we have tired of over blown under nourishing block busters

I have seen Invasion a couple of times and found it rather eerie. I taped it when it came on Channel 4 during the early hours.

A spaceship crashes near a rural, English hospital and its occupant, who looks human, is taken there to be treated after being run over by a car. Just after, a force field appears around the hospital, obviously something to do with the aliens. The army are called in to help to investigate. Strange things then start happening in the surrounding countryside as two mysterious Chinese looking women kill a man and head for the hospital. These are more aliens. They are searching for their colleague. They find him and they head back to their home planet in a flying saucer.

This is a well shot, British sci fi and must one of the last to be shot in black and white.

The only actors I am familiar with in this movie are sci fi regular Edward Judd (Island Of Terror, First Men In the Moon) and Barrie Ingham (Dr Who And the Daleks).

This movie is worth a look if you get the chance, but it does not seem to be available on VHS or DVD anywhere.

Rating: 3 stars out of 5.

The 60s was probably Britain's finest hour for well-made, believable science fiction and "Invasion" is no exception.

This tense, moody little masterpiece is a joy to watch. No wobbly sets, laughable aliens or flying saucers on strings. Just lots of moody set pieces enhanced by little incidental music and some stark lighting effects.

Co-scripted by Robert Holmes of "Doctor Who" fame, this film bears more than a little resemblance to Jon Pertwee's debut DW story "Spearhead from Space" - also scripted by Holmes. However, what do not have here is any of DW's trademark bad points: wobbly sets, bad acting and cardboard monsters!

Catch this if you can. A real must see for early, British sci-fi fans.

This film had a kind of haunting effect on me for over 25 years.

There is a scene in it where a man (later to be realised a doctor) drives his car away from a building in a manic fashion, trying to get away from something, and crashes, he stops dead, literally dead as his car hits an invisible barrier. Then other people come out of the building and comment on how it's their turn next etc. You know that moment in time has come back to me on a number of occasions through life and until last year I didn't have the faintest idea what film it came from. Then one night I stayed up until the early hours - the vegetable slot - and started watching this Very Low Budget but Very Intriguing film. Good lord, it must have been put together for a few shillings in the old money but HEY was it watchable. And then this same scene came up and it was like a sheer relief that a question that went unanswered for so long was finally solved.

If you get the chance, see this film. Don't expect Hollywood budgets or special effects 'cos they're not present - what you will see is the kind of solid acting and credible performances that only come from a cast who take pride in what they are doing; committing something to celluloid for the benefit of others and something sadly lacking nowadays - real movie art.

Not a masterpiece but certainly very worthy.

Made with a shoestring budget ,without stars (at least unknown to me),with very few special effects (Ed Wood style),the story takes place in a hospital where an E.T. (who looks like an Asian person)is cured.We learn he was actually a prisoner and that pretty soon,"the others" are going to take him away.An invisible wall -which is very economical in the end!-surrounds the clinic and the temperature rises and makes the staff sweat.

Shot in black and white ,it is a curious little film ,more MTV style than a flick for movie theaters.An Asian nurse has been added for good measure.