Battle in Outer Space (1959)
"Uchû daisensô" (original title)

The nations of the Earth unite in a common cause to fight off an invader from outer space.

Director:

Ishirô Honda

Writers:

Jôjirô Okami (story), Shin'ichi Sekizawa

Stars:

Ryô Ikebe, Kyôko Anzai, Koreya Senda

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Ryô Ikebe	...	Maj. Ichiro Katsumiya
Kyôko Anzai	...	Etsuko Shiraishi
Koreya Senda	...	Professor Adachi
Minoru Takada	...	The Commander
Leonard Stanford	...	Dr. Roger Richardson
Harold Conway	...	Dr. Immerman
Yoshio Tsuchiya	...	Iwomura
Hisaya Itô	...	Kogure
Nadao Kirino	...	Gravity Man
Fuyuki Murakami	...	Inspector Iriake
Malcolm Pearce	...	Dr. Achmed
Leonard Walsh	...	Thomas Sheldon
Kôzô Nomura	...	Rocket Commander
Ikio Sawamura	...	Lantern Man
Tadashi Okabe	...	Newscaster

Storyline

Munchkin-like aliens invade Earth full force with their flying saucers and laser weapons, rendering cities helpless. All eyes turn to the most powerful nations on Earth as they unite to concoct a plan to vanquish the aliens and return Earth to the hands of humans, thus, resulting in the most fierce and ultimate battle royale in outer space the galaxy as ever seen.

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Plot Keywords:

iranian | zero gravity | mind control | tokusatsu | spaceship | 

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Taglines:

SPACE DECLARES WAR ON EARTH - OUTLAW PLANET CAPTURES THE MOON! (original ad - all caps)

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Genres:

Sci-Fi

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Details

Country:

Japan

Language:

English Japanese

Release Date:

8 July 1960 (USA)

Also Known As:

Battle in Outer Space

Company Credits

Production Co:

Columbia Pictures Corporation, Toho Company

Technical Specs

Runtime:

93 min

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Recording)

Color:

Color (Eastmancolor)

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

A different cast had to be brought in for this movie because the original actors were unavailable except for Harold Conway, who portrayed Dr. Immelman.

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Goofs

The strings holding the flying machines (rocket ships and flying saucers) aloft are clearly visible in several scenes.

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Connections

Followed by Wakusei daisenso (1977)

User Reviews

A fun movie, worth seeing

Saw this when I was 11 years old, I recall the rocket fighters sent up by the Earth Forces are based on the X-15 rocket plane. One thing I remember-and it moved me at the time, and is one of the movie's strengths-is the scene where the earth space ships go past the area where the space station was destroyed-and you see the bodies of the crew. The action moves at a brisk pace, no long winded speeches or philosophizing. The SFX are pretty good for the time. As a side issue, I got a chuckle when I saw "Star Wars" in 1977, I recognized the "futuristic weapons" as being models of British Lee Enfields, German MG-42 machine guns, Heckler & Koch submachine guns.