When Flying Saucers Attack!

What is one to do when flying saucers attack? The answer is given in some ways in Earth Vs. The Flying Saucers, a Ray Harryhausen movie. Harryhausen's involvement means the visuals will be spectacular and they are. The movie embraces the UFO furor of the era and uses that to propel us into a tale about a young couple who having just gotten married suddenly find themselves in the middle of an interplanetary war. 

 

The movie advertises itself as based in part on Flying Saucers from Outer Space by Major Donald Keyhoe, one of the more UFO investigators of the era. Having never read Keyhoe's book, I cannot speak to how much or little is extracted from its pages, but I imagine only the bare concept of saucers from space come to Earth for mysterious purposes. 

The movie starts quickly with our newlyweds on their way back to a secret missile project where they work. Their satellites have been falling to Earth and they don't know why. It seems the Saucer people want to restrict Earth's entry into space and move to talk to us about it. That message is garbled and the result is a fracas which ends in the destruction of the base and that triggers an all-out war. Eventually events move to Washington DC just in time for the flying saucers to destroy many a recognizable building and monument. Our young scientist hero does develop a solution (no surprise) and a counterattack is arranged.

This black and white movie is a lot of fun to watch. Harryhausen's meticulous effects make for some astonishing screen images, stuff that won't be topped for decades. And even then his work has a charm which cannot be matched in any era. This one is a must-see movie. 

It's never been remade. The closest thing to a remake I can think of is Mars Attacks which does a lot of the same things, but with a much more humorous tone. Or perhaps Independence Day which elevates the threat. 

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