Every week I bring to you a classic from underbelly of cinema.Forgotten and often overlooked films of the psychotronic film genre

 

 

Invasion of the Saucer Men (aka Invasion of the Hell Creatures, with the working title Spacemen Saturday Night), is a 1957 science fiction/horror comedy film, personally produced by James H. Nicholson for release by his American International Pictures. The film was directed by Edward L. Cahn and starred Steven Terrell and Gloria Castillo. The screenplay by Robert J. Gurney Jr. and Al Martin was based on the 1955 short story “The Cosmic Frame” by Paul W. Fairman.

Plot:
A flying saucer lands in the woods. A teenage couple, Johnny Carter (Terrell) and Joan Haydon (Castillo), while driving to their local lover’s lane without the headlights on, accidentally run down one of the saucer’s large-headed occupants.

Joe Gruen (Frank Gorshin), a drunken opportunist, stumbles across the alien’s corpse after the teenagers have left to report the incident. Imagining future riches and fame, he plans to keep the body, storing it for now in his refrigerator. After failing to convince his buddy Artie Burns (Lyn Osborn) to help him retrieve the alien body, Joe decides to head for home. Other aliens soon arrive, however, and quickly inject alcohol into his veins via their retractable hypodermic needle fingernails. Joe, already intoxicated, soon dies from alcohol poisoning.

Having reported the accident and the deceased alien to the police, Johnny and Joan return with the sheriff, only to find Joe’s dead body instead of the alien. The police then decide to charge both teenagers with vehicular manslaughter.

Meanwhile, the dead alien’s hand detaches itself from its host, grows an eye and then runs amok, causing trouble. The military, following up an earlier UFO report, soon get involved, eventually surrounding the alien’s saucer. In the end, it is the teenagers, not the military, who defeat the aliens when they discover that the saucer’s occupants cannot stand the glare from their car’s bright headlights.

The film was made by Malibu Productions Film rights to Fairman’s short story were purchased through Forrest J Ackerman’s Ackerman Science Fiction Agency.[2] Special effects technician Paul Blaisdell, who provided the alien make-up and flying saucer, recalled that Invasion of the Saucer Men was originally intended as a serious film but gradually developed into a comedy.[3] The entire film takes place during the period of one night, with 98% of it filmed on a studio sound stage.

The flying saucer built by Blaisdell for the film was later reused in the opening scene of The Outer Limits episode “Controlled Experiment” (1964).

Invasion of the Saucer Men was released by AIP as part of a double feature with I Was a Teenage Werewolf. ~ From Wikipedia

I love how Roger Corman put Dick Miller in nearly every film he directed, this is one of his better roles. This film was conceived, written and shot in two weeks for $70,000 in 1958. Its nice to see that this film recently had a proper DVD and Blu-ray release, complete in its original aspect ratio. This film is a Roger Corman psychotronic classic ! enjoy !

 

 

War of the Satellites is a 1958 independently made black-and-white science fiction film distributed in the US and the UK by Allied Artists. The film was produced and directed by Roger Corman and stars Richard Devon, Dick Miller, and Susan Cabot. This low budget feature was rapidly conceived, filmed, and released to exploit the international media frenzy surrounding the launch of the Russian Sputnik satellite, the first in space.

An “unknown force” declares war against planet Earth when the United Nations disobeys warnings to cease and desist in its attempts at assembling and then launching the first satellite into space.

Plot:
Members of the United Nations space program are dismayed by the inexplicable annihilation of a manned satellite. The satellite is the tenth in the Sigma Project to be destroyed after coming into contact with a mysterious space barrier. At the control center, U.N. representative Mr. Akad demands that the project, which has yielded limited results, be terminated because of the loss of money and lives. Soon after, a young teenage couple witnesses the landing of a small missile-like object which they turn over to authorities. After examining the capsule, the U.N. calls a meeting and reads aloud a message from the capsule that proclaims to be from the Masters of the Spiral Nebula Ghana, aliens displeased by Earth’s repeated attempts to explore space. Calling humans a “disease,” the aliens declare they will set up a quarantine to protect the universe.

In response, Mr. Hotchkiss, the United States representative, gives a rousing speech asserting that no other life force has the right to thwart mankind’s ambitions, and the continuation of the Sigma Project is enthusiastically approved. After the meeting, the head of Sigma Project, Dr. Van Ponder, tells reporters that he suspects that the message is a fake, but nevertheless announces his plan to lead the next satellite mission. In private, Van Ponder reveals to colleagues and mission crew members, astronomer David Boyer and researcher Sybil Carrington, that the capsule has defied all analysis and its origins remain unknown. Over the next several weeks, preparations for the next mission proceed. One evening, Hotchkiss summons Van Ponder to a U.N. meeting, but while driving there, Van Ponder’s car is attacked by a mysterious ball of light which drives him off the road.

At the U.N., as Akad leads another diatribe against the project, Hotchkiss receives notification of Van Ponder’s death. The council is stunned, however, when moments later, Van Ponder arrives at the meeting. Unknown to the council, aliens have assumed the form of Van Ponder to infiltrate the project. Later, alone in Hotchkiss’ office, Van Ponder splits into two separate replicas of the scientist to extend his ability to impede Sigma. Back at the research center, David asks Van Ponder to reconsider Sybil’s inclusion in the mission because he fears for her safety. As Van Ponder refuses, the men are interrupted by news that a large number of natural disasters have occurred worldwide. Speculation arises in the press that the disasters may be part of the U. N.’s strange warning from outer space. Van Ponder then suggests to Hotchkiss that in light of the events, they should call a halt to Sigma. After Hotchkiss reluctantly agrees, Van Ponder writes a letter to be read at the U. N. declaring the end of space exploration. David volunteers to present the letter, but at the council meeting makes an impassioned declaration that the Sigma Project will continue despite the alien intervention.

Some days after, while chatting with Van Ponder in a lab, David is disconcerted to notice the scientist has identical markings on each arm, which prompts him to investigate Van Ponder’s wrecked car. Meanwhile, while meeting with astronomical engineer John Campo at the lab, Van Ponder fails to notice that his hand is being burned by a torch. While John races for a doctor, Van Ponder heals the wound. When John arrives with Dr. Howard Lazar, Van Ponder’s hand is intact, and when John insists that Van Ponder was severely injured, Howard suggests he has been working too hard.

After David finds Van Ponder’s demolished car, he realizes that no one could have survived the accident. David then contacts Sybil, only to learn that the Sigma launch has been moved forward and is to occur in a few hours. David hurries to the launch site, but realizes that he will be unable to speak with Sybil until after the launch. As preparations continue for lift-off, Van Ponder is unsettled to note that John is part of the crew. Later, while hurrying to his post, David is shocked to see Van Ponder replicate himself.

After the successful launch of the satellite, Van Ponder corners John in a small control room, paralyzes him so that he cannot escape, and then reveals that he is an alien. He explains that the warning from space came from powerful beings with the ability to transform energy into matter and back again. Van Ponder offers to transform John if he will help him, but when John adamantly refuses, Van Ponder kills him.

After Sybil enters the control room and finds them, Van Ponder explains that John did not survive the ship’s rapid acceleration process. While Van Ponder arranges a funeral service for John, David tells Sybil that Van Ponder is an alien, but Sybil refuses to believe him. Later, when David asks Howard about John’s death, the doctor asserts that John was completely healthy. After David tells Howard that Van Ponder murdered John because he uncovered something Van Ponder was trying to conceal, Howard agrees to examine Van Ponder. Before meeting with Howard, Van Ponder creates a heart for himself, then is startled by his sudden surge of emotion for Sybil. While Sybil meets David to report Van Ponder’s unusual behavior, Van Ponder murders Howard, then announces to the crew that he suspects David of having killed John. Just before his arrest, David, unaware of Howard’s death, pleads with Sybil to seek protection with the doctor.

Going in search of Howard, Sybil spots Van Ponder and takes refuge from him in the solar radiation room. Van Ponder follows her, but when he hears an announcement that David has escaped his guards, Van Ponder replicates himself in front of Sybil. While one replica goes after David, the other attempts to seduce Sybil. As the satellite nears the space barrier, the pilots are confused by Van Ponder’s order to head toward it. David confronts one of the Van Ponder replicas and wounds him with a gunshot. After a fierce brawl, David finally shoots Van Ponder to death, after which the replica with Sybil also collapses and dies. David then orders the satellite to detonate a radiation blast which should catapult them through the barrier. David rescues Sybil from the radiation room just before the blast. David’s plan succeeds and the Sigma satellite reports to Earth control that the universe lies before them. ~ From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The first time I saw this film was in the early seventies during a summer matinée film series at Crossroads Cinema in Bellevue Washington. This film was made long before CGI, all the effects were done using matte boxes, rear projection , optical printers, models and miniature sets. Every was done on film and what you see is what you get. I really love the production style of a lot of the early to mid sixties Paramount Pictures releases. The colors, the sets and over all look is great. I recently rediscovered this classic while re organizing my blu-ray and dvd collection. So I thought I might make it this weeks Movie of the Week. I hope you enjoy it

Crack in the World is a 1965 American science-fiction doomsday disaster movie filmed in Spain. It is about scientists who launch a rocket in the Earth’s core to research its geothermal energy but accidentally unleash a cataclysmic destruction that threatens to sever the earth in two. It was released by Paramount Pictures on February 24, 1965.

Plot
An international consortium of scientists, operating as Project Inner Space in Tanganyika, Africa, is trying to tap into the Earth’s geothermal energy by drilling a very deep hole down to the Earth’s core. The scientists are foiled by an extremely dense layer of material at the boundary between the two. To penetrate the barrier and reach the magma below, they intend to detonate an atomic device at the bottom of the hole.

The leader of the project, Dr. Stephen Sorenson (Dana Andrews), who is secretly dying of cancer, believes that the atomic device will burn its way through the barrier, but the project’s chief geologist, Dr. Ted Rampion (Kieron Moore), is convinced that the lower layers of the crust have been weakened by decades of underground nuclear tests, and that the detonation could produce a massive crack that would threaten the very existence of Earth.

The atomic device is used and Rampion’s fears prove justified, as the crust of the Earth develops an enormous crack that progresses rapidly. Sorenson discovers that there was a huge reservoir of hydrogen underground, which turned the small conventional atomic explosion into a huge thermonuclear one that was millions of times more powerful. Another atomic device is used in the hope of stopping the crack, but it only reverses the crack’s direction. Eventually the crack returns to its starting point at the test site, and a huge chunk of the planet outlined by the crack is expected to be thrown out into space. Sorenson remains at the underground control center to record the event despite pleas by his wife Maggie to evacuate with the rest of the project staff. She and Rampion barely escape in time to observe the fiery birth of a second moon. Its release stops the crack from further splitting the Earth

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia