The Fredösphere

For good old fashioned futuristic fun, we turn today to Earth Vs. the Flying Saucers.  Scrutinizing these sci-fi matinee features from the 50s is like stealing candy from fish in a barrel, and I can't think of a better reason to proceed.

For most of the movie you see the aliens only dressed in their suits of armor.  When one is unmasked, it turns out to have the typical slanty-eyed, plucked-chicken alien look.  Missing the chance to build some anticipation before the unmasking is only one of many dramatic opportunities the script missed.  These aliens' technology is greatly advanced beyond ours in most ways -- they have real-time language translation, exotic energy sources, armor made from "solidified electricity," and of course interstellar travel -- but judging from this image, it seems they have not yet invented elbows.

The special effects are dreadful only by modern standards.  It looks like extra effort went into them.  The one effect that still impresses, partly because it is used in an understated way, is the screen (or window)  in the interior of the flying saucer.  In fact, every detail of that room has a minimalist beauty that makes you think for a moment you are watching a Kubrick film.  The screen shows the view outside the saucer.  This view is frequently clouds floating past, as shown in this image.  I'd like to know how they made it work.

Why do we love to watch our Capitol get blown up?  Earth Vs. the Flying Saucers does not fail to feed this shameful lust.  The stop-action scenes of saucers crashing into buildings fools no one today.  For one thing, one expects to see a tremendous amount of dust.  For another, the speed of the impact is all wrong.  Nevertheless, you sense a lot of effort went into making these scenes.

Few clichés are left unturned.  Saucers sound suspiciously like Zube Tubes.  The aliens are, weirdly, both more wise and more sinister than us.  The U.S. army is given the command to, basically, "shoot anything you don't understand."  The main character is insanely indispensable, acting as theoretical physicist, engineer, machinist, Q & A tester, military strategist, and platoon leader.  (He's almost as competent as Tom Swift!)  His pretty bride follows him around the battlefield like a good-luck charm.  As the last cliché I will mention, we get an Orson Wells sound-alike (Paul Frees) as the voice of the head alien.