Killers from Space

Last updated
Killers from Space
Killers from space.jpg
Theatrical release poster
Directed by W. Lee Wilder
Written by
Produced byW. Lee Wilder
Starring
Narrated by Mark Scott
Cinematography William H. Clothier
Edited byWilliam Faris
Music byManuel Compinsky
Production
companies
  • Planet Filmplays, Inc.
  • RKO Radio Pictures
Distributed by RKO Radio Pictures
Release date
  • January 23, 1954 (1954-01-23) [1]
Running time
71 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish

Killers from Space (also known as The Man Who Saved the Earth) is a 1954 American independent science fiction film produced and directed by W. Lee Wilder, and starring Peter Graves, Barbara Bestar, Frank Gerstle, James Seay, and Steve Pendleton. Shot in black-and-white, the film originated as a commissioned screenplay from Wilder's son Myles Wilder and their regular collaborator William Raynor. [2]

Contents

Lee Wilder's production company, Planet Filmplays, usually producing on a financing-for-distribution basis for United Artists, wound up making this film for RKO Radio Pictures distribution.

Plot

Dr. Douglas Martin is a nuclear scientist working on atomic bomb tests. While collecting aerial data on a United States Air Force (USAF) atomic blast at Soledad Flats, the pilot loses control of their aircraft and they crash. Dr Martin appears to have survived, unhurt, walking back to the air base with no memory of what happened. On his chest is a strange scar that was not there before the crash.

At the base hospital, Martin acts so strangely that the USAF brings in the FBI to investigate, thinking he might be an impostor. He is eventually cleared but told to take some time off. Martin protests being excluded from his project while on leave.

When an atomic test is set off without his knowledge, Martin steals the data, then goes back to Soledad Flats and places the information under a stone. An FBI agent follows him, but Martin is able to elude him until he crashes his car. Now back at the hospital, he is given truth serum. Deep under the drug's influence, Martin tells a story about being held captive by space aliens, led by Denab, in their underground base. The aliens, with large, bulging eyes, are from the planet Astron Delta, ruled by a being called The Tala. They had revived his lifeless body as he had died in his aircraft.

The aliens plan to exterminate humanity using giant insects and reptiles, grown with the radiation absorbed from our own atomic bomb tests. Martin intuits that the aliens use stolen electric grid power to control their powerful equipment. This so that the A-bomb's released energy levels can be predicted and then balanced. The aliens wiped his memory and hypnotized him into collecting the data for them.

The FBI agent and the base commander are skeptical of this incredible story and keep him confined at the hospital. Nevertheless, the attending physician says that Martin genuinely believes that what he told them is true.

With calculations made using a slide rule, Martin determines that if he shuts off the power to Soledad Flats for just 10 seconds, it will create an overload in the aliens' equipment. He escapes from the hospital and goes to the nearby electrical power plant, where he forces a technician to turn off the power. After 10 seconds, the alien base is destroyed in a massive explosion, saving the Earth from conquest.

Cast

Production

Advertisement from 1954 Center Theatre Ad - 4 March 1954, Fremont, CA.jpg
Advertisement from 1954

Under the working title of The Man Who Saved the Earth, production took place from early- to mid-July 1953 at KTTV Studios. [3] Scenes featuring the cavern hideout of the aliens were shot in Bronson Canyon in Los Angeles. [4]

The effect for the aliens in the film was done by Harry Thomas. He was told to make large eyes for them, albeit on a cheap budget, since glass eyes would have cost too much. Needing an idea, he found it while looking in his refrigerator: plastic egg trays, of which he used the top portion by cutting it with a heated screwdriver. He then cut little holes with the screwdriver. Owing to a lack of further time meant that he did not do further work that he would have liked to do, such as sealing the sides with cotton. [5]

Reception and legacy

Killers from Space was released as a B-movie, hampered by low production values and a minuscule budget.

In 2006, film reviewer Thomas Scalzo also noted: "Killers From Space is an enjoyable, if slow-going, sci-fi / horror diversion, and if these killers from space had somehow found a way to stop their yammering long enough to get on with some actual killing, the combination of Peter Graves, mutant insects and amphibians, a palpable atmosphere of ’50s atomic fear, and the directorial efforts of Billy Wilder’s brother, would have been enough to bump the film into the upper echelon of early sci-fi essentials". [6]

In 2006 skeptic Dr. Aaron Sakulich noted similarities between the film and many alien abduction stories that would first appear over a decade later, such as the medical testing done by the aliens, the protagonist's strange scar, his memory erasure, the aliens' giant eyes, and their way of mind control. [7]

In 2007, The Film Crew , consisting of Bill Corbett, Kevin Murphy and Michael J. Nelson from the cult TV series Mystery Science Theater 3000 , mocked the film in its entirety. [8] They revisited the film in 2019 with new commentary under the Rifftrax banner. [9]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">H. R. Giger</span> Swiss artist (1940–2014)

Hans Ruedi Giger was a Swiss artist best known for his airbrushed images that blended human physiques with machines, an art style known as "biomechanical". He was part of the special effects team that won an Academy Award for the visual design of Ridley Scott's 1979 sci-fi horror film Alien, and was responsible for creating the titular Alien itself. His work is on permanent display at the H.R. Giger Museum in Gruyères, Switzerland. His style has been adapted to many forms of media, including album covers, furniture, tattoos and video games.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hannibal Lecter</span> Character created by Thomas Harris

Dr. Hannibal Lecter is a character created by American novelist Thomas Harris. Lecter is a brilliant, cannibalistic serial killer and former forensic psychiatrist; after his incarceration, he is consulted by FBI agents Will Graham and Clarice Starling to help them find other serial killers.

Grey aliens, also referred to as Zeta Reticulans, Roswell Greys or Greys, are purported extraterrestrial beings. They are frequent subjects of close encounters and alien abduction claims. The details of such claims vary widely. That said, Greys are typically described as being human-like with small bodies, smooth, grey-colored skin; enlarged, hairless heads; and large, black eyes. The Barney and Betty Hill abduction claim, which purportedly took place in New Hampshire in 1961, popularized Grey aliens. Precursor figures have been described in science fiction and similar descriptions appeared in early accounts of the 1948 Aztec UFO hoax and later accounts of the 1947 Roswell UFO incident.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Madman (Mike Allred character)</span> Fictional character created by Mike Allred

Madman is a creator-owned fictional superhero that appears in comic books by creator Mike Allred and which has been published by a number of publishers over the years. The character first appeared in Creatures of the Id #1. His name, Frank Einstein, is a combination of Frank Sinatra and Albert Einstein, and is also a reference to Frankenstein.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">James Seay</span> American actor (1914–1992)

James Seay was an American character actor who often played minor supporting roles as government officials.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Shepard Menken</span> American actor (1921–1999)

Shepard Menken was an American film, television, voice, radio character actor.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Titano</span> Comics character

Titano the Super-Ape is a supervillain who appears in American comic books published by DC Comics, primarily as a foe of Superman. The character is a small chimpanzee named Toto who was sent into space for test flight, until an exposure of combined rays have made him grow to gigantic size and gave him Kryptonite-like powers. As a "Super-Ape", Titano rampaged through Metropolis several times in Superman and Superman's Pal Jimmy Olsen during the Silver Age, and also appeared in some "Tales of the Bizarro World" stories in Adventure Comics. After a poorly-received 1978 appearance, Titano was not used again in the comic.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">The Bellero Shield</span> 20th episode of the 1st season of The Outer Limits

"The Bellero Shield" is an episode of the original The Outer Limits television show. It first aired on 10 February 1964, during the first season. There are several similarities in the story's theme, plot, and structure to William Shakespeare's Macbeth, and many critics agree it was the series' take on that play.

<i>Arrival II</i> 1998 American science fiction film

Arrival II, alternatively titled The Second Arrival, is a 1998 American science fiction direct-to-video film directed by Kevin S. Tenney. The film is a sequel to the 1996 film The Arrival. It was written by Mark David Perry and based on characters created by David Twohy. The film stars Patrick Muldoon, Michael Sarrazin, Jane Sibbett, Catherine Blythe, Michael Scherer, and Larry Day.

<i>Monstrosity</i> (film) 1964 film by Jack Pollexfen

Monstrosity is a 1963 American science fiction horror film produced by Jack Pollexfen and Dean Dillman Jr. and directed by Joseph V. Mascelli. The film stars Marjorie Eaton, Frank Gerstle, Erika Peters, and Xerxes the cat. It tells the story of a wealthy elderly woman who wants to have her brain transplanted into the head of a young woman. Actor Bradford Dillman, the younger brother of co-writer and producer Dean Dillman, Jr., narrated the film.

Pilot (<i>The X-Files</i>) Pilot episode of The X-Files

"Pilot" is the pilot episode of the science fiction television series The X-Files. The episode aired on September 10, 1993, on the Fox network in the United States and Canada. The episode was written by series creator Chris Carter, and directed by Robert Mandel. As the pilot, it would set up the mythology storyline for the series. The episode earned a Nielsen rating of 7.9 and was viewed by 7.4 million households and 12.0 million viewers. The episode itself was generally well received by fans and critics alike, which led to a growing cult following for the series before it hit the mainstream.

<i>The Atomic Kid</i> 1954 film by Leslie H. Martinson

The Atomic Kid is a 1954 American black-and-white science fiction comedy film directed by Leslie H. Martinson and starring Mickey Rooney and Robert Strauss. It was distributed by Republic Pictures and produced by Maurice Duke and Mickey Rooney.

<i>Galaxy Invader</i> 1985 film directed by Don Dohler

Galaxy Invader is a 1985 American direct-to-video science fiction film directed and co-written by Baltimore filmmaker Don Dohler. The film's plot centers on an alien who is pursued by hillbillies after his spaceship crash-lands on Earth. The cast is made of entirely non-professional actors, mainly friends and family of Dohler.

<i>Phantom from Space</i> 1953 film by W. Lee Wilder

Phantom from Space is a 1953 independently made American black-and-white science fiction film produced and directed by W. Lee Wilder and starring Ted Cooper, Noreen Nash, Dick Sands, and Burt Wenland. The screenplay was by William Raynor and Myles Wilder. Working with most of the same crew, this was one of several early 1950s films made by Wilder and son Myles on a financing-for-distribution basis with United Artists and, on occasion, RKO Radio Pictures.

<i>Silence! The Musical</i> Musical by Jon Kaplan , Al Kaplan

Silence! The Musical is a 2005 musical created by Jon Kaplan and Al Kaplan as a parody of the 1991 Academy Award-winning film The Silence of the Lambs, which is in turn based on 1988 novel of the same name by Thomas Harris. The musical is itself based on a parody screenplay of the same name written by Jon Kaplan and Al Kaplan.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dwayne Hill</span> Canadian voice actor

Dwayne Hill is a Canadian actor. In 2009, he was nominated for two Gemini awards, one in the solo category for Grossology, the other, which he won, was for best ensemble in Atomic Betty. Overall, he has voiced over 20 animated series, playing hundreds of voices as well as voicing over 100 commercials each year. He voiced Cat in the PBS animated series Peg + Cat which was nominated for an Emmy Award among the best performances in animated series.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Frank Gerstle</span> American actor (1915–1970)

Francis M. Gerstle was an American character actor who appeared in supporting roles in numerous films, radio programs and TV shows following World War II.

Jason Colavito is an American author and independent scholar specializing in the study of fringe theories particularly around ancient history and extraterrestrials. Colavito has written a number of books, including The Cult of Alien Gods (2005), The Mound Builder Myth (2020), and Legends of the Pyramids (2021).

Planets Against Us is a 1962 Italian-French science fiction horror film directed by Romano Ferrara, based on a story by Massimo Rendina. It is also known by the names Planets Around Us, Hands of a Killer, The Man With the Yellow Eyes and The Monster with Green Eyes. It is notable for featuring a planned invasion by cyborgs, humanoid shaped robots, rather than the common sci-fi film plot of aliens inhabiting, taking-over or duplicating humans.

References

  1. ↑ "Detail View" 'Killers from Space'." American Film Institute. Retrieved: June 1, 2014.
  2. ↑ Johnston 2011, p. 78.
  3. ↑ "Original print information: 'Killers from Space'." Turner Classic Movies. Retrieved: May 3, 2016.
  4. ↑ "Notes: 'Killers from Space'." Turner Classic Movies. Retrieved: May 3, 2016.
  5. ↑ "Killer's from Space".
  6. ↑ Scalzo, Thomas. "Review: 'Killers from Space'. NotComing.com, 2006. Retrieved: May 3, 2016,
  7. ↑ Sakulich, Aaron. "The Iron Skeptic: Killers from Space". The Iron Skeptic. Retrieved 22 September 2018.
  8. ↑ The Film Crew: Killers from Space (Video 2007) - IMDb
  9. ↑ Rifftrax - Killers From Space

Bibliography

  • Johnston, Keith M. Science Fiction Film: A Critical Introduction. London: Bloomsbury Academic, 2011. ISBN   978-1-8478-8476-3.
  • Warren, Bill. Keep Watching the Skies: American Science Fiction Films of the Fifties, 21st Century Edition. Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Company, 2009. ISBN   0-89950-032-3.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.