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Earth vs. the Flying Saucers (1956)

 -  Fantasy | Horror | Sci-Fi  -  July 1956 (USA)
6.2
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Ratings: 6.2/10 from 3,575 users  
Reviews: 96 user | 81 critic

Extra-terrestrials flying in high-tech flying saucers contact scientist Dr. Russell Marvin as part of a plan to enslave the inhabitants of Earth.

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(book), (screen story), 2 more credits »
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Title: Earth vs. the Flying Saucers (1956)

Earth vs. the Flying Saucers (1956) on IMDb 6.2/10

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Cast

Complete credited cast:
...
...
Donald Curtis ...
Maj. Huglin
Morris Ankrum ...
John Zaremba ...
Thomas Browne Henry ...
Vice Adm. Enright (as Tom Browne Henry)
Grandon Rhodes ...
Larry J. Blake ...
Motorcycle Cop (as Larry Blake)
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Storyline

While driving through the desert with his wife Carol Marvin to a military base to send the eleventh rocket into Earth orbit to assist the exploration of outer space in Operation Sky Hook, Dr. Russell A. Marvin and Carol see a flying saucer and accidentally records a message on their tape recorder. Once in the base, Dr. Russell is informed by his father-in-law and general that the ten first satellites mysteriously fell back to Earth. When Dr. Russell decodes the message, he encounters the aliens, who ask him to schedule a meeting with the leaders of Earth in Washington in 56 days in order to invade Earth without panicking the population. Dr. Russell develops an anti-magnetic weapon that becomes the last hope of the human race against the hostile aliens. Written by Claudio Carvalho, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Plot Summary | Plot Synopsis

Taglines:

Warning! Take Cover! Flying Saucers Invade Our Planet! Washington, London, Paris, Moscow Fight Back! See more »

Genres:

Fantasy | Horror | Sci-Fi

Certificate:

Unrated | See all certifications »

Parents Guide:

 »
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Details

Country:

Language:

Release Date:

July 1956 (USA)  »

Also Known As:

Invasion of the Flying Saucers  »

Company Credits

Production Co:

 »
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Technical Specs

Runtime:

Sound Mix:

(Westrex Recording System)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1
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Did You Know?

Trivia

This science fiction movie was "suggested" by the 1953 non-fiction book "Flying Saucers From Outer Space" by retired U.S. Marine Corps Maj. Donald E. Keyhoe, who believed that certain aerial phenomena were interplanetary in origin. See more »

Goofs

When the aliens destroyed the navy ship, they gave the location as a longitude and latitude with no reference to north/south and east/west. Without these directions those two numbers could describe four different points on the globe. See more »

Quotes

Carol Marvin: My father! What have you done to him?
Alien: You're addressing General Hanley's mind, not General Hanley.
See more »

Crazy Credits

The opening credits are presented in a book motif, while a hand turns the pages, revealing the credits. The cover of the book reads "A true story of a flying saucer", even though the usual "All characters, events are fictitious.." disclaimer appears within the credits. See more »

Connections

Featured in F for Fake (1973) See more »

Frequently Asked Questions

See more (Spoiler Alert!) »

User Reviews

 
Better-than-average '50's saucer flick
24 February 2005 | by (United States) – See all my reviews

Ray Harryhausen should have received top billing in this film, since his superb stop-action animation is the real star here. None of this nonsense about wise and benevolent aliens a la "The Day the Earth Stood Still"! Here, the aliens are nasty and mean business. The mass saucer attack on Washington is a classic scene; swiped by everything from "Independence Day" to a TV commercial for a nationwide chain of fast-food restaurants. Although the saucer's "magnetic propulsion" is scientific balderdash (Earth's magnetic field is just about strong enough to swing a compass needle.); still it's thrilling to see the military and the scientists racing around D.C. in 1-and-a-half ton trucks with diesel generators and "magnetic disruptor's" mounted on the truck beds. (They look a bit like an out-sized Maxim machine gun.) When these are fired at an alien ship, it starts to wobble wildly until it falls and crashes. At one point, a saucer lands on the White House lawn in an attempt to kill or capture the President (Eisenhower) (gasp!) The aliens step out clad in silver spacesuits that act as powered exoskeletons that enable them to walk while under Earth's gravity. Fortunately, these are magnetically powered like their ships and Hugh Marlowe (who played Patricia Neal's lunkhead boyfriend in "The Day the Earth Stood Still") arrives on the scene with one of those disruptor's and drives them off.

There is an interesting scene earlier in the film where an alien is subdued and the helmet wrenched off of his suit. Before crumbling to dust in our atmosphere, you can see out-sized black eyes, no nose, and a slit-like mouth set in a light-bulb shaped head. I didn't think this idea of an alien occurred to anybody until the 1970's.

Despite perfunctory acting and scientific howlers, this movie is still endearing, not only for the fine special effects (CGI is a bit too slick for me.), but also for an innocence that would soon be lost. For the following year after this film was made, the Soviet Union would shock America by launching the first artificial satellite (Sputnik I) into Earth orbit using the first ICBM. This meant that the Soviets could launch a nuclear warhead at the United States. From then until the Cuban Missile Crisis persuaded both sides to back down from hair-trigger postures, fears of nuclear war would put possible interplanetary war very much in the shade.


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