The Love War

Okay, first of all, I was very young when I first saw this movie. I must have been all of ten years old. At that time, I thought it was pretty neat... two alien races conducting a discrete little war on Earth, unbeknownst to us mere Earthlings. When an alien agent kills another, they turn a key in the other agent's navel, and *sizzle* the corpse disintegrates. Decent suspense throughout, but remember ... we're talking a made-for-TV movie from 1970, no big-budget special effects.

What I find most amusing now is realizing who was in the movie .. Angie Dickenson, Daniel J. Travanti and LLOYD BRIDGES ... The Late Great Lloyd was very good in this, as an agent trying to protect a human woman (Dickenson) who had gotten caught up in the war, purely by accident.

I have no idea if this movie is available anywhere ... I'd like to see it again. No blockbuster of a movie, but it was fun.

Aaron Spelling-produced TV-movie has attractive, penniless hitchhiker Angie Dickinson latching onto enigmatic bus traveler Lloyd Bridges outside Fresno. After checking into a roadside motel, he tells her what's really going on: he's an alien from the planet Argon, an assassin vying with hit-men from another planet over who will control Earth and its population. Only Aaron Spelling would put the fate of the world in Lloyd Bridges' hands! Film is very low in budget (making extensive use out of back-projection with scenes on the road and backlot sets for the entire final reel), but this scenario turns out to be restricted in regards to locations, so a bigger budget wasn't really necessary (it just looks tacky). There's a plot twist late in the game that is a surprise (though, in hindsight, doesn't make a lot of sense) and the cast does well with the teleplay, which is neither dumbed-down nor overly complex.

I feel as though an angel has smiled on me. After years of wanting to see this movie I finally saw it. This was one of the ABC movie of the week deals that I learned about in high school back in the 80's. Unfortunately I was born a scant 5 or 6 months before it aired on ABC, which meant my parents were probably enjoying it whilst I was napping in my crib in another room. I can't remember how I found out about it back in 1988 but I did, and had a nice enough of a working idea of the plot to attempt a remake of my own. That became my senior video project in my Mass Media class and while it got me an "A" in the class, it didn't garner me much recognition. I even built the props in addition to making the script! The producers needn't get their lawyers ready as I have long since lost the footage of me and my friends running around reenacting what was poorly but cogent rendition of their movie. However it would be nice if someone would remake the movie for a more modern retelling. A good made for TV movie with a nice twist-ending.

I saw this movie on TV when I was a lot younger but it impressed me. Mainly because despite the unlikely pairing of Loyd Bridges and Angie Dickinson in a Sci-Fi movie it worked quite well. The plot was complex but while moving quickly enough did not become garbled or incoherent as some movies do when trying to achieve the "unexpected". The partnership between the main characters develops quite naturally although it may seem cliché to some in this day and age. Perhaps much of it's charm for me is that it came before many other similar movies and was in its way a ground breaker in this genre. I would love to see it again but as another commented I have yet to see it on either tape or DVD. Not many resources even list it. The title of lost sci-fi classic is quite appropriate and I feel many sci-fi fans would enjoy it if it were available to them.

Whole decades have passed since I've seen this one. Up until the late-70's, "The Love War" was TV grist for the afternoon just-home-from-school crowd or nightowls on the independent stations. It has since vanished.

Lousy title, but a terrific premise: aliens fight a low-level, unseen war in a U.S. city for territorial control of the Earth. Some neat special effects (for 1970), a starry cast and a twist in the tale make this worth another look. Certainly worth consideration for a re-make.