Earth Vs. The Flying Saucers (1956)

There are many factors that can influence individual movie viewings, and when writing up a review it's important, I feel, to mention these if they've notably contributed to the final rating/view of a movie. I try to mention the rose-tinted glasses of nostalgia when applicable. I've mentioned when my own lack of knowledge may be working against me when it comes to certain genres/subgenres/world cinema releases (world cinema releases? I do hate that phrase but have never come up with anything better, sorry). Or, of course, it's worth mentioning if you hate one particular type of movie. A review of Halloween will be very different if the film is watched by someone who doesn't like slasher/horror movies. This is all just leading up to me saying that I fairly enjoyed Earth Vs. The Flying Saucers, but I think that has as much to do with me having recently watched Mars Attacks! as it does to do with the final product on display here.

Hugh Marlowe and Joan Taylor star as the couple who may have the key to fending off an attack by aliens when flying saucers starts appearing everywhere and causing lots of destruction. Well, it's mainly Marlowe thinking up the defence/retaliation plan while Taylor is the loving wife bravely sticking by his side. That's really all there is to it.

I don't know, off the top of my head, if anything similar came along before this film so I'm going to take a guess and say that, despite its many flaws and moments of ridiculousness, Earth Vs. The Flying Saucers has remained quite an influential movie. It undoubtedly cast a large shadow over Independence Day, a film made and released four decades later, with the scenes featuring flying saucers hovering over, and ready to attack, some very famous buildings and landmarks.

Director Fred F. Sears keeps things moving briskly enough, and the script by George Worthing Yates and Bernard Gordon (based on a NON-FICTION book by Donald E. Keyhoe) may often be downright silly most of the time, but is also very entertaining.

The acting isn't the best, but I guess Marlowe and Taylor do okay in the lead roles. Donald Curtis and John Zaremba are two main supporting cast members, both do fine with their limited screentime.

The special effects by Ray Harryhausen are fine. Sadly, he doesn't get to create any living, breathing creatures of myth, but the flying saucers are good, old-fashioned flying saucers that work just fine onscreen. The model work helping to realise the big scenes of destruction in the final reel is nice enough, even if it's not on a par with his usual stuff.

Part of me wonders why I enjoyed Earth Vs. The Flying Saucers so much, but another part of me knows that . . . . . . . sometimes that's just the way it goes. I saw all of the failings and mis-steps, I just found myself easily able to overlook them thanks to the sheer fun factor of the whole thing.

6/10

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Ray-Harryhausen-Collection-Million-Saucers/dp/B0012OTRR0/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1369521808&sr=8-3&keywords=earth+vs+the+flying+saucers

The Giant Claw (1957)

Directed by Fred F. Sears, and written by Paul Gangelin and Samuel Newman, The Giant Claw is an abject lesson in bad movie making. Never mind the fact that the creature putting the fear of god into everyone looks like a heroin-addicted cousin of Gonzo from The Muppets, nothing in this movie works at all. If you watch it in the right mood, and probably with the right company, you should be able to wring some laughs from how bad it is but even that is a struggle. It's too easy, which makes mocking it feel like tripping up a floppy-eared puppy.

Jeff Morrow stars as Mitch MacAfee, a man who upsets everyone when he starts insisting that he has seen a UFO during a flight. Nobody believes him until more flights are affected. Then they start to, reluctantly, consider the possibility that he might be telling the truth. When it comes to light that the UFO is actually some giant creature that seems pretty indestructible there's only one man that the world turns to for a solution. Mitch. He, along with the pretty and intelligent Sally Caldwell (Mara Corday), sets out to find a way to kill the deadly beast.

Apparently, leading man Morrow didn't see the creature until the film's premiere in his home town. When he saw, and heard, how laughable it was he cringed for a while and then left early so that nobody would recognise him. That's understandable but what's harder to understand is how he thought the rest of it would be any good.

It feels like almost a third of the movie is narrated. At least the opening narration accompanies relevant footage. The narration explaining the terror caused by the giant bird has nothing alongside it really showing you any terror.

Director Sears can get most of the blame but I can't imagine anything that would have lifted such a poor script. Full of pseudo-scientific mumbo jumbo, characters that it's hard to care about and unmemorable dialogue, it's an embarrassment from start to finish. The acting from all involved isn't that great either but as that's the least of the onscreen problems it's an easier fault to overlook.

If you're a connoisseur of bad cinema then this is one that you need to check out. Everyone else should avoid it like the plague. I give it 2 points for making me chuckle but even that is being generous.

2/10

http://www.amazon.com/Icons-Horror-Collection-Creature-Werewolf/dp/B000UAFDR0/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1352764457&sr=8-1&keywords=the+giant+claw