Comments on: Earth Vs. The Flying Saucers (1956) http://exclamationmark.wordpress.com/2006/08/27/earth-vs-the-flying-saucers-1956/ Vintage SciFi/Horror Film Reviews Mon, 14 Dec 2009 05:31:43 +0000 http://wordpress.com/ hourly 1 By: exclamationmark http://exclamationmark.wordpress.com/2006/08/27/earth-vs-the-flying-saucers-1956/#comment-2010 exclamationmark Wed, 23 Jan 2008 00:43:36 +0000 https://exclamationmark.wordpress.com/2006/08/27/earth-vs-the-flying-saucers-1956/#comment-2010 Fred: Lots of great observations. A lot of sci-fi movies use WWII footage as stock footage and I've often wondered if anyone ever made a stink about it. How would it feel, for example, to recognize a ship your buddy was killed on being spliced into a movie used as a vehicle to entertain teenagers? Special Editions drive me crazy, by the way. I have so many movies I want to purchase, it makes me a little nuts to be buying the same one over and over again just so I can pick up a few extra perks. But I'm an addict, and I have no choice. Thanks for dropping by, Fred. Glad to have you anytime! Exclamation Mark Fred: Lots of great observations. A lot of sci-fi movies use WWII footage as stock footage and I’ve often wondered if anyone ever made a stink about it. How would it feel, for example, to recognize a ship your buddy was killed on being spliced into a movie used as a vehicle to entertain teenagers?

Special Editions drive me crazy, by the way. I have so many movies I want to purchase, it makes me a little nuts to be buying the same one over and over again just so I can pick up a few extra perks. But I’m an addict, and I have no choice.

Thanks for dropping by, Fred. Glad to have you anytime!

Exclamation Mark

]]> By: Fred http://exclamationmark.wordpress.com/2006/08/27/earth-vs-the-flying-saucers-1956/#comment-1998 Fred Mon, 21 Jan 2008 20:21:18 +0000 https://exclamationmark.wordpress.com/2006/08/27/earth-vs-the-flying-saucers-1956/#comment-1998 I am looking forward to getting the new release of this film on DVD in Special Edition, with the colorized version included. The "50 Million Miles To Earth" DVD SE was awesome. Even though it means making my RH "science fiction" DVD box set obsolete one movie at a time. Looking forward to "It Came From Beneath the Sea" in a like SE also. I thought it was awesome how the saucers were used in Tim Burton's "Mars Attacks" without much change, even duplicating scenes from EvsFS. The solution that Burton used to defeat the Martians was basically the same as Harryhausen's film, except for the humorous element. I also got a chuckle from the Simpson's episode where Homer crashes Kang and Kodo's saucer -also identical- into the White House in the same attitude. I get a laugh from the aliens in this film, with the arms and legs that don't bend and the round ball on the ends of the arms. Clumsy is not even sufficient a word to describe it. But I always thought it was chilling when the aliens dump the girl's father out of the ship onto the burning countryside. Somewhat brutal for a film of it's time. Being in radio I discovered by accident how to make the same garbled effect used on Paul Frees voice for the aliens. Just wobble the tape reel as the pre-recorded voice is playing to make it drag over the tape head. Slowing it down and with feedback echo, it sounds exactly the same. I always thought it was a little cold how Ray used stock footage of a fatal airplane collision for one of the special effects scenes. But I guess back then folks weren't so sensitive to such things. Nowadays he would get sued by the families for mental anguish! Enjoyed the review! I am looking forward to getting the new release of this film on DVD in Special Edition, with the colorized version included. The “50 Million Miles To Earth” DVD SE was awesome. Even though it means making my RH “science fiction” DVD box set obsolete one movie at a time. Looking forward to “It Came From Beneath the Sea” in a like SE also.

I thought it was awesome how the saucers were used in Tim Burton’s “Mars Attacks” without much change, even duplicating scenes from EvsFS. The solution that Burton used to defeat the Martians was basically the same as Harryhausen’s film, except for the humorous element. I also got a chuckle from the Simpson’s episode where Homer crashes Kang and Kodo’s saucer -also identical- into the White House in the same attitude.

I get a laugh from the aliens in this film, with the arms and legs that don’t bend and the round ball on the ends of the arms. Clumsy is not even sufficient a word to describe it.

But I always thought it was chilling when the aliens dump the girl’s father out of the ship onto the burning countryside. Somewhat brutal for a film of it’s time.

Being in radio I discovered by accident how to make the same garbled effect used on Paul Frees voice for the aliens. Just wobble the tape reel as the pre-recorded voice is playing to make it drag over the tape head. Slowing it down and with feedback echo, it sounds exactly the same.

I always thought it was a little cold how Ray used stock footage of a fatal airplane collision for one of the special effects scenes. But I guess back then folks weren’t so sensitive to such things. Nowadays he would get sued by the families for mental anguish!

Enjoyed the review!

]]> By: exclamationmark http://exclamationmark.wordpress.com/2006/08/27/earth-vs-the-flying-saucers-1956/#comment-1990 exclamationmark Sun, 20 Jan 2008 00:43:56 +0000 https://exclamationmark.wordpress.com/2006/08/27/earth-vs-the-flying-saucers-1956/#comment-1990 Paul: You make some great points here. A lot of these old sci-fi pictures were produced for sheer entertainment purposes, and who can fault anyone for that? It's funny that Hugh Marlowe is in both this film and <i>The Day the Earth Stood Still</i>. Marlowe is often noted as the "weak link" in the latter picture, yet gets top billing in this one. This is one of my earliest reviews, by the way. I would like to rewrite it to bring out more facts and trivia, but if I rewrote everything I wanted to I'd never get to anything new. Thanks again for your insights, Paul. Paul: You make some great points here. A lot of these old sci-fi pictures were produced for sheer entertainment purposes, and who can fault anyone for that? It’s funny that Hugh Marlowe is in both this film and The Day the Earth Stood Still. Marlowe is often noted as the “weak link” in the latter picture, yet gets top billing in this one.

This is one of my earliest reviews, by the way. I would like to rewrite it to bring out more facts and trivia, but if I rewrote everything I wanted to I’d never get to anything new. Thanks again for your insights, Paul.

]]> By: Paul http://exclamationmark.wordpress.com/2006/08/27/earth-vs-the-flying-saucers-1956/#comment-1988 Paul Fri, 18 Jan 2008 22:31:59 +0000 https://exclamationmark.wordpress.com/2006/08/27/earth-vs-the-flying-saucers-1956/#comment-1988 This was one of the movies I had on 8mm when I was a kid. It was condensed down to about 12 minutes, but included the best parts, i.e. the attacks at Project Sky Hook and Washington D.C. IMO, of all the 1950s “visitors from space” features, this movie comes in second only to “The Day the Earth Stood Still,” which is my all time favorite sci-fi film. “Day” had a more intelligent story and the melting of the tanks and guns by Gort’s destructive ray is far more realistic than when the aliens did the same thing in “E vs. S,” but the as far as pure action goes, “E vs. S” beats “Day” hands down. When you get right down to it, the story isn’t as important as watching the flying saucers destroy everything is sight. This movie doesn’t pretend to be intelligent; its purpose is to be fun! The only thing that would have made “E vs. S” better would have been if Harryhausen had animated the aliens, instead of having guys wobbling around in metal space suits. This was one of the movies I had on 8mm when I was a kid. It was condensed down to about 12 minutes, but included the best parts, i.e. the attacks at Project Sky Hook and Washington D.C.

IMO, of all the 1950s “visitors from space” features, this movie comes in second only to “The Day the Earth Stood Still,” which is my all time favorite sci-fi film. “Day” had a more intelligent story and the melting of the tanks and guns by Gort’s destructive ray is far more realistic than when the aliens did the same thing in “E vs. S,” but the as far as pure action goes, “E vs. S” beats “Day” hands down. When you get right down to it, the story isn’t as important as watching the flying saucers destroy everything is sight. This movie doesn’t pretend to be intelligent; its purpose is to be fun! The only thing that would have made “E vs. S” better would have been if Harryhausen had animated the aliens, instead of having guys wobbling around in metal space suits.

]]>