When we approach the 4th of July holiday, I’m reminded of the summer of 1996 when the movie Independence Day was released. The trailer was spectacular with giant shadows creeping over the Lincoln Memorial, Washington Monument, and White House that led to even bigger explosions as the White House and Capitol were destroyed. It was a big deal for me and my friends. We were there opening night to watch it on the giant screen at the Glenwood Theater in Kansas City.
That was (gulp) 30 years ago, but as I recently watched Earth vs. the Flying Saucers from 40 years earlier than that, I wondered if it was the Independence Day of its time. We love our destruction on a mass scale, the bigger, the better, and Earth vs. the Flying Saucers had it. Granted, the Washington D.C. “attacks” were mostly ships crashing into monuments and government buildings due to our efforts to stop the alien invasion, but the trailer (and movie) features other magnificent big city explosions.
The War of the Worlds (1953) had come three years prior but depicted no similar destruction except for a building in Los Angeles. In fact, Washington D.C. was mentioned as “the only unassailed strategic point.” Plus, the attacking machines weren’t exactly flying saucers. Instead, they were war machines hovering along the ground. Other films like The Man from Planet X (1951), Invaders from Mars (1953), and This Island Earth (1955) featured aggressive aliens, but no widescale demonstrations of terror.
Earth vs. the Flying Saucers claims an original source for its story. It was “suggested by” a 1953 non-fiction book by retired U.S. Marine Corps Major Donald El Heyhoe, Flying Saucers from Outer Space. I don’t know what he thought about potential destruction of the planet, but Kehoe believed that some UFO phenomena were interplanetary in origin. Several shots from the film, though, cannot be considered original. They were apparently borrowed from other movies and/or real-life accidents, explosions, and experiments.
Director Fred F. Sears, producer Charles H. Schneer, and probably editor Danny B. Landres do a good job of incorporating the borrowed footage. Unlike many other sci-fi adventures of the time, they aren’t always obvious to the naked eye, which keeps you involved in the action without distraction. And while a different type of the animation that made Ray Harryhausen famous, I love the saucers, falling buildings, and special effects. Today, they are “charming,” but I can imagine them being breathtaking in 1956.
My favorite shots, though, are not the ones you might think. When leading man and woman Dr. Russell A. Marvin (Hugh Marlowe) and Carol Marvin (Joan Taylor) are driving down the road, a saucer swoops down behind them. We see it through the back window of the car, then it flies over and swoops back down in front before zipping away. Equally effective is a shot from inside one of the saucers as it speeds upward, and we see Earth become smaller and smaller through a porthole.
The plot is relatively standard; however, there are a few standout details. After the saucer flyover described above, the first real clues of an invasion involve one-by-one failures of our own space exploration with the launch of 12 satellites. Also, no one is on the aliens’ side, arguing that we should try to talk to or reason with them. We do not assume positive intent for one moment. And, among other details I appreciat, since the leading characters are already married, no time is wasted on interoffice romances.
Those fond of fan fiction could claim the movie isn’t about aliens at all, but ghosts. That’s because the voice of their leader is provided by none other than Paul Frees, the familiar narrator of Disney’s Haunted Mansion theme park attraction. And while we’re being silly, a year later Sears directed The Giant Claw. (Sam Katman’s name is all over the place when you look at the creative lineage of these films.) Anyway, if you have an annual tradition of watching Independence Day, why not try a retro version with Earth vs. the Flying Saucers this year?
From what I can tell, Earth vs. the Flying Saucers is currently available only on DVD and in a colorized version from Sony. I rented it on Amazon Prime in its original black-and-white form. Originally released in Salt Lake City on June 12, 1956, we’re celebrating it 70th anniversary this month!
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