Monsters and Matinees: It’s Earth vs. The Flying Saucers and Harryhausen is there to help

Thoughts of flying saucers and alien invasions make me nervous.

Though intrigued by the concept enough as a kid to watch movies and read books on the topic, the fact that flying saucers could be real freak me out. (I remember reading War of the Worlds when I was about 10 and pulling the shade down in my bedroom because the alien images were too vibrant in my mind.)

That fear of UFOs isn’t unique to me, nor is it new. In 1947, pilot Kenneth Arnold reported seeing nine objects flying in a “V” formation near Mount Rainier, Washington. They were skipping across the sky like saucers, he said, and the name stuck.

Then in
1949, former Marine Corps naval aviator Donald E. Keyhoe, who became a UFO
researcher, wrote an article called Flying Saucers Are Real that was
published in the January 1950 issue of True magazine. It was such a
popular article that he quickly expanded it into a best-selling book.

Keyhoe
wasn’t alone in writing about UFOs. Other articles, books and movies fed into a
prevalent fear during the 1950s that UFO’s were real.

That was one of things addressed by filmmaker Joe Dante before he introduced Earth vs. the Flying Saucers at the 2025 Turner Classic Movie Film Festival. Dante is a great fan of these classic films and to have him share his passion and behind-the-scenes knowledge is a unique experience not to be missed.

“It was something that people just took as part of their life,” Dante said about the fear of UFOs during his introduction. “They would ask themselves: Are they real? Are they here?”

In 1955, Columbia Pictures had a hit with the low-budget It Came from Beneath the Sea, a giant octopus film produced by Sam Katzman and Charles Schneer that benefited from the great talents of Ray Harryhausen. Filmed for only $150,000, it made more than $1.7 million and you know what that means: the studio wanted more.

Katzman believed Keyhoe’s book would be a great basis for a new sci-fi film to make with Harryhausen so it was loosely used for what became Earth vs. the Flying Saucers. (The film’s opening credits read: Screen story by Curt Siodmak, suggested by the book Flying Saucers Are Real by Major Donald E. Keyhoe.)

I’m not sure that I ever watched Earth vs. the Flying Saucers in its entirety before I saw it at the TCM festival or if it was familiar because of its famous images of flying saucers destroying such iconic sites as the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial, but it was fun to watch. As Dante said, “It helps if you channel your inner 10-year-old when you’re watching this movie.” It was good advice.

That end sequence, which takes the last 12 minutes of the film, is so impressive and unlike anything that had been seen on film, that it inspired filmmakers for decades and Harryhausen’s footage of the saucers were often used in other films.

“The interesting thing about it
is that there’s so much destruction at the end of this movie that it’s
virtually a template for everything that came after. There would be no Independence
Day if it wasn’t for this picture,” Dante said, referencing Roland
Emmerich’s big-budget 1996 alien invasion spectacle.

The movie

“Since Biblical times, man has witnessed and recorded
strange manifestations in the sky and speculated on the possibility of visitors
from another world.”

That’s the voice-over opening Earth vs. the Flying Saucers, a device often used in 1950s B-movie films to explain what’s happening in a budget-friendly way.

It’s only two hours after their wedding but scientist Dr. Russell A. Marvin (played by Hugh Marlowe) and his wife and secretary Carol, (Joan Taylor), are on their way to the Hemispheric Defense Command Headquarters in Colorado Springs, for the launch of the 11^th of 12 artificial satellites or “birds” that Russell is overseeing as part of his Project Skyhook.

To their disbelief, a flying saucer hovers over their car and disappears. No one will believe them, of course, but a recorder picked up the whirly sounds of the saucers. (What you’re hearing is the real sound of a waste treatment plant.)

Joan’s dad is Brigadier General John Hanley (he’s played by Morris Ankrum with his usual sturdy authority) who has just returned from surveying the damage of a meteor strike in Panama. But it wasn’t a meteor, he tells them, it was one of the satellites. In fact, most of the satellites have fallen to the ground around the world, almost like they were shot down and destroyed. And that’s exactly what happened.

The aliens destroyed the satellites believing they were weapons being used against them, later realizing they were only “primitive observation” machines. (You can’t help but feel the aliens are mocking the humans.)

While it sounds like the aliens may have come in peace and just want to protect themselves, they haven’t.

The flying saucer sound captured on tape was a message to Russell that didn’t fully come through so he misses a meeting with them. The aliens – called “creatures” in this film – wanted to share their demands with him. When he didn’t show up, they destroyed the 12^th rocket and the entire Project Skyhook. Hundreds were killed with only the Marvins surviving because they were in a basement bunker.

Russell eventually hears the message and contacts them, learning the awful truth of why they are there: They are survivors of a disintegrated solar system and wish to take over Earth.

He sees some of their advanced technology. A language translating device that looks like a big white flower (there is a large one in their ship and mini versions in their helmets) is used to communicate with humans. The awesomely named Infinitely Indexed Memory Bank is a ray that pulls knowledge out of humans, turning them zombie-like. And they have force fields around their ships which make it impossible to destroy them. (The aliens in big black suits outside of the saucers can be killed with bullets – if you can get off the shots before they incinerate you with their death rays.)

The aliens are here for business and when Russell can’t get
them what they want, they take over all electronic devices for 12 hours to repeat
this warning around the world: “People of Earth attention … this is a voice
speaking to you from thousands of miles beyond your planet … look to your sun
for a warning.”

They talk of explosions on the sun which cause all sorts of turmoil and technical issues on Earth – tidal waves, earthquakes and more – during the eight days leading up to the invasion.

But the title of the film is Earth vs. the Flying Saucers, so expect a battle. While conventional weapons don’t work on the saucers, Russell and other scientists work feverishly on a sonic weapon in hopes of knocking saucers out of the sky. Can they get it right on time?

Out of this world effects

Though Earth vs. the Flying Saucers was one of the big special effects movies of 1956, its achievements were not honored. “Did anybody say anything about it? No. Why? It was a Sam Katzman movie,” Dante said, and was not going to honor Katzman – a producer known for being cheap – or give him an Oscar. “They were embarrassed by Sam and Sam was embarrassed because he was just raking in the dough.”

It may not have won an Oscar, but nearly 70 years later we can still marvel at Harryhausen’s flying saucers.

In his book The Art of Ray Harryhausen, the artist calls the saucers “the real stars of the film.” Dante said creating them was more complex for Harryhausen than in making some of the creatures in his previous films like that giant octopus.

“It was much more complicated than doing a cyclops or a dragon, because it had to be sustained and then at various points, it had to hit things and knock them over,” Dante explained about the saucers. “So every falling rock is hand-done by Ray with strings and done one frame at a time. The result is remarkable. This had a reality to it that is unique. And the movie itself is also pretty good.”

Part of that is through Harryhausen’s
use of stock footage, which Dante called “brilliant.”

“He managed to use actual stock
footage of planes crashing and put his own flying saucers in it. And because he
was such a master of lighting, the illusion is perfect. It’s pretty remarkable
for the period.”

– Toni
Ruberto for Classic Movie Hub

You
can read all of Toni’s Monsters and Matinees articles here.

Toni Ruberto, born and raised in Buffalo, N.Y., is an editor and writer at
The Buffalo News. She shares her love for classic movies in her blog, Watching Forever and is a member
and board chair of the Classic
Movie Blog Association. Toni was the president of the former Buffalo
chapter of TCM Backlot and led the offshoot group, Buffalo Classic Movie Buffs.
She is proud to have put Buffalo and its glorious old movie palaces in the
spotlight as the inaugural winner of the TCM in Your Hometown contest. You can
find Toni on Twitter at @toniruberto or on Bluesky at @watchingforever.bsky.social