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.

George McGowan must have liked this plot, as he did a second movie along a similar theme that same season for ABC MOVIE OF THE WEEK. That film, THE CHALLENGE, had Darren McGavin in the Lloyd Bridges role. Both films had the same premise-- rather than an all-out war between two forces, a select group of champions is chosen to fight it out, winner take all. McGowan obviously did not care for the final version of THE CHALLENGE, as he attached the dreaded Alan Smithee name to its directorial credit. Maybe THE LOVE WAR is closer to how he wanted to end that other film?

Lloyd Bridges had a great deal going during those wonderful days of the MOVIE OF THE WEEK series. He got a wide range of roles, from action roles like this to horror flicks like HAUNTS OF THE VERY RICH to dramas like SILENT NIGHT LONELY NIGHT. In terms of number of films made, I'd say he and Darren McGavin were the most prolific actors (Bridges= 14, McGavin = 11), with Christopher George and Doug McClure fighting for 3rd and 4th places.

I was fourteen when I saw these and man, did that ending take me by surprise! 31 years later, I'm still not sure what happened after the film's events ended..... Talk about a "Lady or the Tiger" ending!

Like most of the comments here, I'm working off of my childhood memory. But the fact that I remembered the title after all these years has to count for the quality of the storyline, low-budget or not.

I have several scenes of this film stuck in my brain - which I won't give away here should we actually get a DVD box set of the Best of the Movies of the Week some day (hint, hint). But I have to go on record as saying that Spielberg's DUEL isn't the only TV film ABC produced under the Movie of the Week banner that is worthy of note. I'd venture to guess that there were a dozen of these suspense/horror/sci-fi genre films nearly as good (or better) as much of the summer movies we're seeing in theaters these days (and I'm talking about storytelling, not effects and explosions). That may not say as much about the quality of those TV movies as the lack thereof in modern films. But LOVE WAR in particular, was one I watched every time it was on and has held up - at least in my mind.

I'd love to see it again, if only for the sake of nostalgia.

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.

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.