Les envahisseurs invisibles

Invisible invaders arrive in invisible spaceships and warn Earth they can and will take over the planet in three days. To do this they take over the bodies of the recently dead. Sound familiar? Well hold on because this 1959 thriller got here before PLAN NINE FROM OUTER SPACE (1959), LAST MAN ON EARTH (1962), and NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD (1968). John Carradine picked up a quick paycheque playing Dr. Karol Noymann, a scientist killed in a lab explosion who becomes the first one resurrected by the aliens. (Interesting enough "Karol Noymann" was also the name of a scientist in the 1957 sci/fi'er THE GIANT CLAW directed by Fred F. Sears. Coincidence?) Air Force officer John Agar and spineless scientist Robert Hutton spend way too much of the 66 minute movie fighting over who gets to fall in love with femme physicist Jean Byron. The briefly seen alien invaders look suspiciously like the title monster in IT! THE TERROR FROM BEYOND SPACE; and since Edward L. Cahn directed both pictures it is highly likely that he did not want to waste a chance to re-use the costume. Many movies ask us to suspend our disbelief but this one demands we leave all logic outside before we enter the cinema. The aliens, via Mr. Carradine, inform us that they invaded the moon 20,000 years ago and destroyed the civilisation living there. They have also managed to make everything on their planet invisible, which probably means they spend a lot of time bumping into things. The destruction of Earth is accomplished by stock footage from action serials and newsreel footage of real life disasters. B-movie fans will note that Hal Torey, playing a farmer killed by Agar in self defence and then returned to life as an invader, proved such a memorable figure that MTV exploited his image in commercials and on t-shirts for much of the late 1980's. Also showing up briefly is Chuck Niles who played the mad hunchback in Jerry Warren's memorable TEENAGE ZOMBIES. John Agar had fought monsters before in TARANTULA, THE MOLE PEOPLE and many others. He finally became a monster himself in the rarely seen 1962 thriller HAND OF DEATH. Robert Hutton would soon meet up with THE MAN WITHOUT A BODY (1959) and THE SLIME PEOPLE (1963). For all it's low budget short-comings this is a fun film; just the sort to make a Saturday afternoon enjoyable.