The True Story Of Flying Saucers!

I didn't realize this movie existed until I stumbled across it on YouTube. UFO or Unidentified Flying Objects: The True Story of Flying Saucers was released in 1956. The movie purports to be a documentary, though the bulk of the run dramatized with an actor portraying a journalist who works for the United States government and is himself quite skeptical of UFO reports. Turns out this journalist was named Albert Chop and his real-life self came across the producer of the movie when the latter reported his own sighting. At that time Chop told Clarence Greene of actual existing footage of UFO's and two of those films become the cherry in this movie. 

The first twenty minutes or so of the movie showcase classic UFO sightings such as the Kenneth Arnold 1947 sighting which started the modern UFO craze. It then shifts focus to two Air Force encounters with UFO's, one of which resulted in a crash of a jet and the death of an airman named Captain Thomas Mantell. This story is of particular significance to me since it happened in my home state of Kentucky around the Fort Knox area. 

Then the story shifts to the "Albert Chop" tale in which the reporter is played by actor Tom Towers. To add authenticity to the story, many of the other characters in the yarn portray themselves and it's easy to spot the non-actors or the most part. Over the course of his involvement with UFO's Chop becomes increasingly convinced of their reality and especially so after squadrons of the unidentified lights buzz Washington D.C. a few times in 1952. The movie closes with Chop having been convinced. We also get to see several times during the movie actual footage of UFO's from Montana and Utah. Both quite compelling films in their day. 

This is a diverting, if at times somewhat droll documentary. I was often reminded of the approach Jack Webb used on the show Dragnet and others. We get the purported facts and only the purported facts. (Ironically Harry Morgan who co-starred on the 60's version of Dragnet plays some of the disembodied voices of air pilots in the movie as well.)

Give a whirl. It's well worth the ticket price. 

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