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Killers from Space
Atomic scientist/pilot Doug Martin is missing after his plane crashes on an reconnaissance mission after a nuclear test. Miraculously appearing unhurt at the base later, he is given sodium amethol, but authorities are skeptical of his story that he was captured by aliens determined to conquer the Earth with giant monsters and insects. Martin vows to use existing technology to destroy them.
Release : | 1954 |
Rating : | 3.5 |
Studio : | Planet Filmplays, |
Crew : | Director of Photography, Makeup Artist, |
Cast : | Peter Graves Barbara Bestar James Seay Frank Gerstle Steve Pendleton |
Genre : | Horror Science Fiction |
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Reviews
Surprisingly incoherent and boring
Simply A Masterpiece
The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful
Watching it is like watching the spectacle of a class clown at their best: you laugh at their jokes, instigate their defiance, and "ooooh" when they get in trouble.
Definite B-grade mid 50's sci-fi. An air force pilot of experimental aircraft (I think) crash lands and when the proper authorities go to recover his body from the wreckage; POOF, what happens? Why he's gone. Later, to everyone's surprise he shoes up wandering in a daze with what appears to be major surgery performed on him. He has no recollection of this and starts having creepy dreams. After he starts acting eractically and even dangerously he is given truth serum and recalls his abduction by space aliens with pop eyes and grandiose plans to take over the Earth. Now said pilot must foil their aims with nukes. Absolutely poor effects, but an OK Saturday afternoon time-passer. The Film Detective DVD-R claims to be restored but it is not, and the Alpha Video DVD is mediocre quality at best. The best version is a DVD-R with great cover art I obtained elsewhere. That is the one to get. Recommended for fans of B 50's sci-fi.
What can you say about a sci-fi where the biggest effects are eyeballs made of pingpong balls. Even my 6-year old neighbor laughed. Too bad generally good acting is wasted on a muddle resembling the excellent This Island Earth (1955) on a bad day. A virile young Peter Graves gives it his all despite the many provocations. Take that escape in a tunnel where he's menaced by every piece of stock footage on the big critter process screen. And what would these 50's cheapos do without a Bronson Canyon that I've almost got memorized. Well, casting does manage to get Barbara Bestar, a Liz Taylor lookalike, as eye-candy for us guys. But that's really small potatoes since she doesn't get much screen time. At least, not much time compared with the atomic blast footage going off every few minutes. I'm glad the great Frank Gerstle at least picked up a payday and gets a bigger part than usual. Check out his broad shoulders and muscular torso that look like a man at least twice his height. (It's Gerstle who presents Edmond O'Brien with the vial of luminous poison that's killing him in the classic DOA {1950}). That he and the rest of the cast bear up so ably is testimonial to some kind of Hollywood professionalism. Then too, President Eisenhower should get a cast credit since he looks down from the wall through half the run-time. Anyway, in the Ed Wood So-Bad-It's-Good Sweepstakes, this nag never gets out of the starting gate.
This is a wonderful, engrossing film which skillfully captures your attention from the onset. Beginning with actual footage of Nevada atomic tests & a mysterious accident of the lead scientist involving extra terrestrial invaders; excellently portrayed by Peter Graves. First class believable acting by the entire cast. Quality directing, quality film & sound production. Excellent plot & continuity. It captures & keeps your interest from beginning to end. I was quite surprised considering the poor, ridiculous title. It deserved a better name. Atomic Invaders perhaps.Yet everyone seems to obsess on the primitive bug-eyed alien makeup prosthetics without stopping to realize there were none of the silicones, plastics, latex, vinyls, makeup or technology available in 54. Everything used glass vacuum tubes to operate. There were no miniaturized circuits.Appreciate these films for the Technology they had available. Judge them on the story, acting, directing, production, quality & methodology available at that time. Also keep in mind the level of scientific knowledge at the time the story was written. 54 was the era of the hydrogen Superbomb. No color TV. Rotary phones. No cordless or wireless anything. No internet. No satellites. No space travel. Giant Univac computer.If you cannot view these old movies objectively with consideration of the timeframe & technology capabilities when it was made, don't bother to watch them at all.If these post Xgen's can pull their heads out of their chum buckets long enough to see past the limited makeup & prosthetics available in the early 50's B&W, you might be able to appreciate how great this little sci-fi movie really is. You can't bash a movie for lack of available technology. They didn't have plastics, silicones, vinyl, latex, cgi or any of the makeup or special effects capabilities we have today. They barely had B&W TV and only 3 channels at best. Not even cable. Only the biggest high budget major studio productions were allowed color cameras & color film processing. Huge expensive units processing 3 simultaneous film strips to create color movies & were limited in availability & processing labs.Don't base your opinions on technology, special effects & Makeup comparisons with modern technology. It is evidence of a shallow mind. Like bashing our country's founders because they did not have electricity, cars, planes or trains in the 1700's. It shows the lack of intelligence of the commenter.If you are intelligent enough to see past the limitations of makeup prosthetics & 50's technology & can appreciate a good sci-fi story, then give this gem a chance. It was a truly well written, well acted, excellently directed, quality produced, riveting story which was poorly titled and stuck with primitive alien makeup prosthetics available in 54. It was one of Peter Graves better performances.Ignore the opinions of this neophytes who weren't even alive in the 50's & lack the capability or education to base judgments intelligently. There was a lot more substance & quality to this film story than most sci-fi films produced in the past 15 years.
Atomic scientist/pilot Doug Martin is missing after his plane crashes on an reconnaissance mission after a nuclear test. Miraculously appearing unhurt at the base later, he is given sodium amethol, but authorities are skeptical of his story that he was captured by aliens determined to conquer the Earth with giant monsters and insects. Martin vows to use existing technology to destroy them.Mission Impossible!This is one of those 50s sci fi flicks that will bore the pants off you.And not in a good way.It was so cheaply made the sound echos when they are indoors. The aliens are bug eyed and then they throw in cheap stock footage of bugs being burnt