Killers from Space

This is the definitive low-budget early-1950s sci-fi movie.

Not bad enough to go down in the annals of the worst movies ever made, but it comes close. Part of the "problem" from that perspective is that Peter Graves is pretty good in the lead, and the special effects aren't as horrific as the Ed Wood movies. There are also some mainstays of B and C movies of the Fifties in supporting roles, such as my longtime favorite Frank Gerstle. I always wanted to grow up to be like Frank Gerstle but unfortunately never succeeded. Sure, we get to see some wild beasts that are obviously running on a film screen, but that is OK. It's all good fun.

Peter Graves, all jut-jawed seriousness and desire to do good for the world, is nuclear scientist Dr. Doug Martin. (One of his earliest lead roles.) After an atom bomb test, he disappears in a plane crash. Later, he resurfaces, but he doesn't seem to be quite the same man as before. During an inquiry during which he is supposedly incapable of being imaginative, he tells his colleagues and friends a wild story: he was temporarily abducted by bug-eyed aliens. They intend to use him as an instrument in their scheme to take over the world. Naturally, nobody believes Dougs' story, but he's determined to foil the aliens before it's too late.

Passably directed by Billy Wilders' less talented brother W. Lee Wilder, "Killers from Spaces" is actually reasonably engrossing - provided the viewer has a soft spot for micro-budget 50s cheese. It tells a pretty entertaining story, with a lot of exposition shoved into the confrontation between Doug and the nefarious extraterrestrials. And these E.T.s are so wonderfully tacky with their egg-carton eyes and bargain basement wardrobe. The special effects are likewise endearing in their own way, with the standout sequence being Dougs' attempted escape from the cavern: he is overwhelmed by a variety of Earth animals that the creatures are manipulating into becoming giants. The music, cinematography, and atmosphere are all pretty enjoyable for this kind of sci-fi fare. The performances are on point: obviously not award-worthy, but effective in their sincerity. Co-starring are James Seay (also in the directors' "Phantom from Space"), Steve Pendleton ("The Great Missouri Raid"), Frank Gerstle ("Monstrosity"), John Frederick ("Blindman"), Barbara Bestar ("Navajo Trail Raiders"), Shepard Menken ("The Phantom Tollbooth"), and future prolific trailer narrator Ron Gans as a sentry.

While hardly a "quality" production, a movie like "Killers from Space" packs more earnest entertainment into its trim running time (71 minutes in this case) than some of the mega-budget movies of the modern era.

Six out of 10.

And, when William Raynor takes a screenplay credit as Bill Raynor, that is an instant tip-off one is about to visit the Land of the Gobblers. First rattle out of the box Peter Graves, as a nuclear scientist, is inspecting his handiwork flying over a bomb test area and crashes, and the next thing he knows he awakens in a California cavern. His host, John Merrick, bulb-eyed and dressed in pea-green, introduces himself as an Astronian scientist from Astrol Delta, and is on a mission to destroy the human race. He explains that the sun if falling on his home planet and the billion or so Astronians must take over another planet---Earth. Astro Delta and Earth evidently do not share the same sun or else their master plan would just be a short-term solution to a long-term problem.

So old Daneb-Tala shows Miles, or Doug, some gigantic reptiles and insects of the hair-lice variety---these are really, really big mothers---and the main and only item produced on Astro Delta must be these monsters because they have a bunch of them. A really, really big bunch of these really, really big monsters. But they need a bunch as their master plan to take over Earth is to have these monsters traveling around and about and killing off all the earthmen. Daneb-Tala does not mention women, so one can only shudder at the thought of what the Astronians have in mind for them. And Daneb-Tala seems to be unaware of the danger that an American housewife with a can of Flit and a flyswatter---albeit a really, really big flyswatter--- could pose for his master plan.

And Daveb-Tala informs Doug that oh-by-the-way you were killed in the plane crash but us Astrolians, with skill, knowledge and instruments beyond the current knowledge of man---and he doesn't even capitalize man, just to show we ain't much in the bulb-eyes of the Astrolians. But they are going to use Doug as their unwilling-but-helpless slave in supplying the Astrolians with top-secret atomic-energy information. Gee, they can bring a dead guy back to life but can't split an atom?

Doug can't tell what he has seen, heard and been through, for fear of being locked up in a Nervous Place, but the Army slams him with a needle full of truth serum and hears his story. They of course don't believe it---we must of overdosed him---and proceed to prepare Nervous Place papers on him, but government red tape being what government red tape is allows Doug to get away. And Doug has a plan of his own. He has learned that the Astrolians are all holed up in caves scattered all over California, and their diet is an all-electric one and if they don't have electricity they will blow up. They are stealing it naturally because even Astronians couldn't afford to pay California electricity bills. And, as soon as Cable TV came available, they intended to steal it also. So Doug plans to pull the one switch that supplies all of California with electricity.

Not wishing to write a "spoiler", even for a movie that a spoiler would be a surprise for any viewer with an I.Q. of anything over 29, the ending will not be given away here.

But since California has gone to rolling-blackouts, has anyone seen any Astrolians anywhere in the state...Carmel, O.J. Simpson houseguests and the Golden Globe Awards show excepted.

Killers From Space is undeniably a cheap science fiction film. The story centers around Peter Graves, having landed inexplicably in what looked like a blast, somehow living through his crash landing. Only trouble for Graves is that he cannot account for the time between his flight in the sky and his return - nor can he explain the surgery done on his chest. Graves is one of a handful of men in charge of these tested explosions, and now the army has concerns with Graves's return and his memory loss. Well, turns out Graves was intercepted by some real cheap-looking aliens. Aliens with bulging eyes that look incredibly artificial. Their suits are just as bad. And they have alien monsters which are nothing more than lizards and frogs showed to be giants(if you really, really, really stretch your imagination). I enjoyed Killers From Space. Sure, even for B science fiction films it is cheap, but the story really isn't that bad and Graves does a workmanlike job acting. The rest of the actors are adequate as well. The biggest detractors - other than the non-existent budget - is the cheap feel the movie has, its mediocre direction, the lack of even remotely believable special effects, and the aliens themselves. The aliens just do not carry off any believability. Notwithstanding these, the film is fun and short.

Pretty bad. The premise is the test pilot, Peter Graves, is saved by a group of creatures from Astron Delta after a certain fatal crash. He acts irrationally after finding his way back to the base. The aliens look like a

hybrid of Marty Feldman and Eddy Cantor. They are on earth, setting up an environment for their doomed species. Graves has been brainwashed and sent on his way to bring secrets back to the aliens. If it weren't so dull, it would be genuinely funny. There is a scene where Graves runs through a series of tunnels for 10 minutes, getting nowhere. No one believes him when he tells the truth under sodium pentathol. For some reason these creatures have felt the need to tell their emissary every secret of their existence. This is a fatal flaw which inevitably gets so many villains in trouble. Pretty silly all the way around.