On the afternoon of June 24th, 1947, the pilot Kenneth Arnold was flying a small plane near
Mt. Rainier when he saw a series of bright flashes.
He then saw what he would later describe as nine unidentified flying objects that were
convex in shape--similar to crescents--moving in single file at twice the speed of sound.
He would describe their movement as skipping across the atmosphere, kind of like a river
rock or a teacup saucer thrown on the water.
One fateful misquote later and the phenomenon of "flying saucers" was born.
From that day forward--and despite Arnold's insistence that the objects he saw were not
actually saucer-shaped--flying saucers were sighted across the globe at an astonishing
rate, and Hollywood almost immediately took notice.
Starting with 1950's The Flying Saucer, they became a staple of science-fiction cinema,
appearing in everything from The Day the Earth Stood Still to Forbidden Planet.
Around the same time, the American Marine Corps naval aviator and pulp sci-fi writer
Donald Keyhoe became the first well-known researcher of the phenomenon, what would nowadays
be called a "ufologist."
Advocating full government disclosure and cooperation, Keyhoe published a book purported
to be non-fiction called The Flying Saucers Are Real, followed by another book titled
Flying Saucers from Outer Space.
These became the inspiration for a science-fiction film shortly thereafter, with a story that
involved the worst case scenario: the idea that flying saucers have come to the Earth
with destructive intent.
The noble ladies and gentlemen of science at Project Sky Hook aim to send multiple communications
satellites into the heavenly heights of Earth's orbit.
All of their previous attempts have been thwarted, however, by unknown failures and disappearances.
As they send up their eleventh rocket, Brigadier General John Hanley informs his daughter,
Carol, and her new husband, Russell Marvin, leaders of Project Sky Hook, that the previous
satellites have all fallen back to Earth.
After the eleventh satellite crashes not far away, an alien spacecraft lands just outside
of the Sky Hook base, setting off a war between the forces of planet Earth and the flying saucers.
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With that out of the way, let's get back to the subject at hand.
After the success of 1953's The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms, the special effects grandmaster
Ray Harryhausen was introduced to producer Charles Schneer, who worked for Columbia Pictures
under Sam Katzman.
Harryhausen and Schneer made It Came from Beneath the Sea together, which was so successful
that it would be the start of a long and fruitful partnership in which Schneer would produce
nearly all of Harryhausen's subsequent films.
One day, Schneer read an article in the newspaper about flying saucers and approached Harryhausen
with the idea of making a film based on the idea.
Harryhausen was keen, and so they conscripted the writer Curt Siodmak to come up with a story.
Siodmak was known primarily for working on several of the Universal Classic Monster movies,
along with B-pictures like The Magnetic Monster and Creature with the Atom Brain.
He and Harryhausen developed the story together and did extensive research on the subject
of UFOs, including studying Donald Keyhoe's books and even interviewing eyewitnesses like
George Adamski.
It was then up to George Worthing Yates and Bernard Gordon to write the screenplay while
the workhorse Fred F. Sears was tasked to direct.
Bernard Gordon, however, was on the Hollywood blacklist for once being a member of the Communist
Party of the United States, so he and Charles Schneer had an under the table arrangement
whereby Gordon would write under the pseudonym Raymond T. Marcus, an actual person who was
Gordon's friend but who didn't actually work in the industry.
It would take fifty years for Gordon's real name to be restored in the film's credits.
Ironically, a year after Earth vs. the Flying Saucers, Gordon would help write Hellcats
of the Navy, a movie notable for introducing future president Ronald Reagan to future first
lady Nancy Davis.
To play the lead, Dr. Russell Marvin, they brought on Hugh Marlowe, a character actor
who'd been in All About Eve and The Day the Earth Stood Still.
Opposite him as Dr. Marvin's new wife, Carol, is Joan Taylor, a former member of Paramount's
"Golden Circle."
While Marlowe does a decent job as a fairly typical scientist hero--
"I must get this to a lab."
--Taylor does a better job as an intelligent woman who loses her father and doesn't want
to lose her husband.
Granted, she isn't given much to do, but Taylor elevates a thankless role to become probably
the best actor in the film.
Morris Ankrum plays her father, General Hanley.
Ankrum was a prolific character actor who would become most well-known for his work
on sci-fi B-pictures like Rocketship X-M, Invaders from Mars, and Kronos.
Major Huglin is played by Donald Curtis, who had a significant role in Harryhausen and
Schneer's It Came from Beneath the Sea.
The only other actor worth noting is an uncredited Paul Frees, who voices the aliens.
"People of Earth, attention!
This is a voice speaking to you from thousands of miles beyond your planet."
Principle photography took place over two weeks in September of 1955, with location
shooting done in Washington, D.C., at UCLA, along Malibu Beach just outside of Ray Harryhausen's
own property, and at the Hyperion Treatment Plant near Redondo Beach, where the sound
of sewage moving through the various pipes was used to create the saucer sound effects.
Harrhausen, as a one-man special effects department, worked the entire time behind the scenes,
usually making stop-motion sequences in an abandoned store that was big enough to suit
his needs.
Harryhausen used saucers of various sizes, with the largest being twelve inches across,
that were actually created by his father out of aluminum and wood.
He often put multiple sizes of saucers in the same shot in order to create a forced
perspective, and warped glass was used to create the distortion fields.
A lot of simple compositing and double exposure techniques created shadows and other visual
effects, including the death rays, which were created with roman candles and sparklers,
no doubt inspired by the heat rays from George Pal's War of the Worlds, which were made with
welding torches.
In fact, this shot of what was actually L.A.'s city hall exploding came directly from
War of the Worlds.
Stock footage was also extensively used, cleverly combined with the effects and even cleaned
up frame-by-frame by Harryhausen to look more natural.
This wasn't too big of a deal since he was already going frame by frame to carefully
paint over the wires holding his spaceships and other stop motion materials aloft.
Earth vs. the Flying Saucers released in June of 1956 to decent reviews and a good box office
haul of one and a quarter million dollars in rentals.
As a B-picture, it had a very low budget--somewhere in the two hundred to three hundred thousand
dollar range--and was aimed at general audiences.
As such, it was a huge success, giving Schneer the boost he needed to get out from under
Sam Katzman and create his own production company, Morningside Productions.
Despite being a B-picture, in the long run, Earth vs. the Flying Saucers has proven far
more influential than most A-pictures of the same time period.
After destroying Golden Gate Bridge in It Came from Beneath the Sea, Harryhausen quickly
learned the impact he could have by destroying iconic landmarks, something he did multiple
times with Earth vs. the Flying Saucers and which has become a major trope of science-fiction,
most notably in Independence Day, a movie to which Earth vs. the Flying Saucers shares
more than just a passing resemblance.
It also heavily influenced Tim Burton's Mars Attacks, which spoofs/homages a few of its
scenes, and aspects of it can be seen in pratically any alien invasion movie made after 1956.
However, I'm not going to lie to you and tell you it's anything but a very schlocky movie
that says things like "solidified electricity" with a straight face.
"What's it made of?"
"We don't know exactly.
'Solidified electricity' is the fancy name given to it by the Bureau of Standards."
The effects are fun and were no doubt impressive in their day, but it's hard to look at things
like these alien costumes and not at least chuckle at the kitchiness of it all.
This is a stereotypically silly 50's sci-fi romp that really shouldn't be taken seriously,
despite the influence that it has had.
Everything that made it unique in 1956 has been repeated so many times that it now feels
like a jumble of clichés and ludicrous plot beats rather than a coherent movie of its own.
Still, it's an undeniable classic that is entertaining as long as you know what you're
getting into.
Harryhausen might have considered it his least favorite of the films he worked on, but even
he still loved it enough to fully embrace its legacy a few years back when the movie
was colorized.
Sure, it's cheesy, tacky, silly, and adolescent.
Sure, the science is laughably bad.
Sure, the costumes look ridiculous,
but come on, how can you not love a movie self-aware enough to call itself
Earth vs. the Flying Saucers?
And that's all for today, my fellow Earthlings.
What's your favorite flying saucer movie?
Let me know in the comments, and while you're there, don't forget to like and subscribe
if you haven't already.
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You can also check out my website at emagill.com, where you'll find written reviews of plenty
more sci-fi classics in both film and literature.
Until next time, though, when I'll finally get around to covering the black sheep of
a certain sci-fi series, this is The Unapologetic Geek telling you to never be ashamed of what
you love, as long as you're not hurting anybody.
"Say something into the microphone."
"The quality of mercy is not strained."
"Ack, ack ack!"