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

Invasion is not a bad movie, but neither is it particularly good. I think the enthusiastic reviews are reaching. I will say, it is an awfully strange movie. The protagonists can't figure out whether the aliens are "Chinese" or "Japanese." All they know, or think they know, is that they are - "Asian" - and that apparently there is an alien Asian invasion. It seems like this component of the movie is supposed to lend some kind of air of mystery or exoticism, or perhaps mere novelty, to the story. It's muddled so you really can't ever tell what the filmmaker's intentions were. I would love to read an interview to hear what they were thinking.

In any case, as other reviewers have noted, the movie is atmospheric, has some nice B&W cinematography, and an effective, understated score. Unfortunately the heroic act of Edward Judd toward the end relies on a very weird stroke of luck, which is reflects the unevenness of the script, which is fine in parts but nonsensical in other parts. (Funnily, Judd is just as grim and sweaty in Invasion as he was in The Day the Earth Caught Fire, a far superior movie from a few years earlier.)

Being a fan of 1950s and '60s British sci-fi, it was very much worth the money. While I can't see myself watching it repeatedly the way I do classics like Village of the Damned, Day the Earth Caught Fire, and the Quatermass productions, it is worth tracking down if you like the particular temperament of the classical era of Brit sci-fi.

Fyi: I couldn't find this movie streaming anywhere so I bought a region 2 DVD for 12 bucks, including shipping, from Amazon. It's the Studiocanal edition. (I've included a few photos so you can make sure you're ordering the addition you want to order or so if you get the wrong version you can justifiably return it.) The picture is properly letterboxed at 1:66, which was the standard UK aspect ratio of the time. The picture is surprisingly good, with no blurring of grays and blacks, sharp lines between tones, with the blacks being surprisingly deep. The DVD includes a trailer, which, oddly, is narrated by the guy with an American accent, as well as the smallest photo gallery I've ever seen on a DVD, maybe six or seven pictures. Frankly, it's amazing this movie got a DVD release, so beggars can't be choosers.

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.

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 is one of a cycle of low-key British Sci-Fi movies of the early to mid 1960s (see also UNEARTHLY STRANGER, NIGHT CALLER FROM OUTER SPACE and NIGHT OF THE EAGLE for other examples) which are technically unspectacular, but which establish and maintain an effectively eerie atmosphere. Its setting is a remote hospital under siege by humanoid aliens whose motives are initially unknown. The morning after I first saw it (on TV in the middle of the night), I thought I had dreamt it. An unheralded gem.