The Space Children (1958)

An alien intelligence aborts the launching of a rocket with the help of a bunch of children.

Director:

Jack Arnold

Writers:

Tom Filer (story), Bernard C. Schoenfeld (screenplay)

Stars:

Michel Ray, Adam Williams, Peggy Webber

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Michel Ray	...	Bud Brewster
Adam Williams	...	Dave Brewster
Peggy Webber	...	Anne Brewster
Johnny Washbrook	...	Tim Gamble
Jackie Coogan	...	Hank Johnson
Richard Shannon	...	Lieutenant Colonel Alan Manley
Raymond Bailey	...	Dr. Wahrman
Sandy Descher	...	Eadie Johnson
Larry Pennell	...	Major Thomas
Peter Baldwin	...	Security Officer James
Ty Hardin	...	Sentry (as Ty Hungerford)
Russell Johnson	...	Joe Gamble (as Russell D. Johnson)
David Bair	...	Saul Wahrman
Johnny Crawford	...	Ken Brewster
Eilene Janssen	...	Phyllis Manley

Storyline

A glowing brain-like creature arrives on a beach near a rocket test site via a teleportation beam. The alien communicates telepathically with the children of scientists. The kids start doing the alien's bidding as the adults try to find out what's happening to their unruly offspring.

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Plot Keywords:

alien | children | scientist | beach | missile | 

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Taglines:

Slowly...and with horror the parents realized THEIR CHILDREN WERE THE SLAVES OF 'THE THING' FROM OUTER SPACE!

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Genres:

Sci-Fi

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Certificate:

Approved

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

June 1958 (USA)

Also Known As:

Avaruuden kosto

Filming Locations:

California, USA

Company Credits

Production Co:

Paramount Pictures

Technical Specs

Runtime:

69 min

Sound Mix:

Mono (Westrex Recording System)

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

The interior of the Brewster trailer - Unit #3 - is the set that had been built for the MGM movie The Long, Long Trailer. The exterior of the trailer however is not the same New Moon model.

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Goofs

Whenever the 'lightning' effect occurs as the holy blob uses his power, the shadows of both objects and people show up on the 'sky' and background elements revealing them to be back-drops in a studio.

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Connections

Featured in Mystery Science Theatre 3000: The Space Children (1998)

User Reviews

Not bad at all!

I have yet to see this movie un-mstied but would love to as I think it's a pretty damn good movie. This is one of the rare cases of mst3k being way off the mark in choosing this movie. Don't get me wrong, I loved the episode and their were some great riffs but I couldn't help but think that this movie was not nearly as bad as Mike, Crow and Tom (or any of these reviewers here) made it out to be. I will admit thought that on first watching it I did feel that the kids were being somewhat (but not completely) controlled by the alien but on repeated viewings it does appear that that is certainly not the case. I really need to see the unedited, un-mstied version, this is a b-movie classic in my humble opinion.