SCI-FI MOVIE PAGE PICK:  EARTH VS. THE FLYING SAUCERS

Directed by Fred F. Sears. Written by George Worthing Yates and Raymond T. Marcus (based on a story by Curt Siodmak, suggested by "Flying Saucers from Outer Space" by Maj. Donald E. Keyhoe). 1956. Running time: 82 minutes.

So there I was on a Sunday afternoon at my parents-in-law (sorry, girls) slouched down in front of the TV waiting for that week's episode of Mystery Science Theater 3000 on the Europe/Africa Sci-Fi Channel. Except they had changed the starting times (again!) and instead of Mike and his robot pals there was to be Earth vs. the Flying Saucers, a movie judging from its title probably worthy of MST3K treatment.

I groaned aloud: the last movie I watched on the Sci-Fi Channel was Mars Needs Women, a movie so mind-boggingly bad that one would chew off one's own leg like a trapped fox so not as to watch it. Earth vs. the Flying Saucers didn't sound too promising (to put it mildly) either. Being always keen on some DIY MST3K (one has to be to write reviews for this site), there are some limits as fellow DIYers would probably know. Bad sci-fi movies are more fun to review than good movies. They are however much much worse to watch. Being inebriated while watching them helps, so does having some equally inebriated pals over.

However, being neither inebriated and being alone (the parents-in-law and wife taking an afternoon nap) I apprehensively toyed with the remote, wondering what the other 22 odd channels might have on offer. Not much it would seem: 22 channels and nothing on and all that . . .

So, Earth vs. the Flying Saucers, a movie about which I know nothing, it'd have to be. Black & white and made in the 'Fifties? For sure. Any good? Who knows? If you remember the 'Fifties with nostalgia and fondness then you probably were there, but your memory is probably faulty. "We forgive too many music just 'cause it's old," I told a friend after listening to a particularly self-indulgent late-1960s Moody Blues album one day. Same goes for movies: just because it's older, doesn't mean it's cooler. Then again, the opposite also isn't true: just because it's old doesn't mean it's bad. (To be honest, one can make a better argument that older - yes, older than The Karate Kid - movies are better because they were less formulaic than most post-Star Wars output.)

The credits roll. The music is typical of the era. And then: the special effects are by Ray Harryhausen! Okay, so I'm definitely going to watch it then! Harryhausen, as if you didn't know, is one of the most well-known and influential special effects people to have ever worked in the business. His name has graced the credits of films from the 1950s through to the 1980s - from Mighty Joe Young in 1949 and The 7th Voyage of Sinbad in 1958 to One Million Years B.C. (the one with Raquel Welsh in skimpy furs) to Clash of the Titans in 1981.

His effects are mostly stop motion based. Stop motion is a method by which inanimate objects are manipulated (or moved) one film frame at a time, creating the illusion of movement in the process. The last films to have made extensive use of stop motion were the brilliantly executed Nightmare Before Christmas and James and the Giant Peach. Director Tim Burton (who served as producer on both aforementioned movies) was so enamoured of the process that he wanted to use it to breathe life into his offbeat Martian invaders of Mars Attacks! He was however divested of the notion when experts convinced him that modern computer generated effects would not only be much quicker to implement, but cost a whole less as well.

Are computer-generated effects any better? I dunno. In Earth vs. the Flying Saucers Harryhausen apparently used stop motion to depict the destruction of major Washington landmark buildings because it was cheaper than simply blowing models. So the models were "disintegrated" bit by bit, Harryhausen filming them falling apart frame by meticulous frame. The effect is startlingly similar to the destruction of a building in the recent direct-to-video cheapie sequel to The Arrival, The Second Arrival. Neither of the two sequences look very realistic, let's be honest, but it makes one wonder whether there had been any progress in special effects at all! Or at least, amend that statement to that cheap computer special effects still look cheap . . .

(Did I enjoy Earth vs. the Flying Saucers? Yes I did. More than The Second Arrival - a more recent movie about alien invasions. There is a gleeful energy to the B-movie Earth vs. the Flying Saucers that seem absent from most of its contemporary direct-to-video sci-fi equivalents today. )
 

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Copyright © March 2000  James O'Ehley/The Sci-Fi Movie Page