Total Sci-Fi’s Guide to Incredibly Strange and Obscure Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror Movies

The Facts

Written by Robert J. Gurney Jr., Al Martin
Based on the short story ‘The Cosmic Frame’ by Paul W. Fairman
Directed by Edward L. Cahn
Produced by Samuel Z. Arkoff, Robert J. Gurney Jr., James H. Nicholson
Music: Ronald Stein
Cast: Steve Terrell, Gloria Castillo, Frank Gorshin, Raymond Hatton, Lyn Osborn, Russ Bender
Running time: 69 minutes
Also Known As:
Invasion of the Hell Creatures (USA)
Spacemen Saturday Night (working title)
Hell Creatures

The Plot

Aliens of restricted stature, with giant heads and bulging eyeballs, land on Earth only to fall foul of 1950s American teenagers…

The Lowdown

This light SF comedy is a neat way to pass an hour or so, but it would have been utterly unforgettable kiddie fodder if it wasn’t for the Saucer-Men creatures of the title.

Little guys with giant heads and bulging eyes, they were created on the cheap by 1950s’ movie creature specialist Paul Blaisdell. He worked for Roger Corman and other low-budget independent producers, manufacturing impressive monsters from very limited resources. Blaisdell decided the classic ‘little green man’ of flying saucer reports had not been seen on film before, so he set about creating some. The big heads were worn by dwarf actors, who were in constant danger of toppling over due to the top-heavy nature of the costumes.


The low-budget movie was originally intended as a serious film (based on a story in which aliens frame a man for murder), but seems to have been turned into a comedy halfway through, which might explain the mostly-earnest military scenes clashing with the goofy aliens-versus-teens stuff. Intended to capitalise on 1950s flying saucer reports, the film needed a UFO. Blaisdell built something that (appropriately, given the film’s teen-appeal) resembles nothing less than a ‘hot rod’ muscle car flying saucer. Upon landing it is promptly attacked and destroyed by the military, although the occupants of the interstellar craft escape to menace farmers, teenagers, travelling salesmen and the local bull.

One of the aliens is run down by a couple of careless kids, only for its hand to detach and go on the rampage. This rogue alien hand of doom provides much of the comedy as the kids try to prove to disbelieving adults that the little green men are on the prowl. With their retractable needle-like fingers, the aliens overcome their prey by injecting alcohol, resulting in the death of Gorshin’s lush salesman. He’s already more than three sheets to the wind when he encounters the aliens, who he thinks might help make his fortune.

In the middle of the silly teen comedy stuff, the alien creatures themselves are effectively presented. They’re filmed in short glimpses, in the dark, hiding in foliage. Naturally (like Gremlins) they don’t cope well with bright light, and this provides the clean-cut (suit wearing) 1950s teens with a clue to their defeat.

Cult Cast

Frank Gorshin is now, of course, better known as The Riddler from the 1960s Adam West-starring Batman TV show. He started as an impressionist and TV entertainer in the 1950s before moving into acting, after a spell in the US Army. The late 1950s saw him appear in a string of B-movies, including Hot Rod Girl and Drag Strip Girl. Another notable TV character was the half-white, half-black Bele in Star Trek’s preachy episode ‘Let That Be Your Last Battlefield’. He died in 2005.

Lyn Osborn is little-remembered today, but he was a big star with 1950s kids thanks to his sidekick role as Cadet Hap ‘Happy’ Hapgood in SF kid-vid show Space Patrol. This cheaply-produced ‘as-live’ pulp SF TV show ran between 1950 and 1955, complete with fan club and tons of snazzy merchandise. Osborn appeared in more TV shows (Playhouse 90, Leave it to Beaver) and a handful of B-movies (The Amazing Colossal Man, The Cosmic Man) before dying in 1958 following brain surgery.

Director’s Cut

Edward L. Cahn was the director of the iconic IT! The Terror from Beyond Space (1958), so that alone secures his place in the SF Hall of Fame. He started out directing Our Gang comedies in the 1940s, but quickly came to specialize in low-budget shockers like The Creature with the Atom Brain (1955) and Voodoo Woman (1957). This wasn’t through choice but market circumstances, and Cahn never seemed comfortable as a B-movie maven. He eventually escaped into the world of Westerns and crime movies. He died in 1963.

Cult Moments

This film features the classic military response to the landing of an alien craft: if perfunctory attempts to communicate fail, start shooting. Although some of the lines suggest the military may be being satirised, these sequences were scripted when the film was still intended as a serious movie…


WTF? Moment

There’s an amazing, disjointed sequence that sees the diminutive aliens launch an all-out attack on a bull! The bull gives as good as it gets, escaping the alien’s alcohol-tipped needle fingers, and gouging out the eye of one of the invaders using its horns. This sequence featured creature maker Blaisdell and his fan pal Bob Burns operating the bull and alien puppets and props, resulting in one of the film’s more bizarre — and gory — scenes.

Behind-the-Scenes

The original script, based on a serious short story, pre-dated the involvement of screenplay writer Robert J. Gurney Jr., but was deemed unsuitable. His take on the material was that the only way to salvage it was to turn the film into a comedy. His rewrite built up the two salesmen into leading roles, developed the alcohol-delivering needle fingers and made the bull attack a major scene.

Creators Talk

“Eddie Cahn was [a] really nice, old, professional hack. Any dreams about making professional motion pictures perished long before I met him. He was good at doing things in a hurry: [Saucer-Men] was shot in about six-to-eight days. Considering the speed and the budget we were working in, I had no complaints.” — Writer Robert J. Gurney Jr., Filmfax #94


Availability

Invasion of the Saucer-Men is available on an all-region DVD that is now out-of-print. Copies can be found on Amazon Marketplace and eBay.

Online Resources

http://www.1000misspenthours.com/reviews/reviewsh-m/invasionofthesaucermen.htm [fan review]
http://www.badmovieplanet.com/3btheater/tributes/paulblaisdell.html [creature creator Paul Blaisdell tribute/biography]

Remake

AIP remade the film in colour in 1966 as The Eye Creatures, directed by B-movie specialist Larry Buchanan, under a very restricted budget to add to AIP’s American television package.

The Bottom Line

An amusing if slight tale, this Invasion is saved by the design and depiction of the Saucer-Men.

By Brian J. Robb