3/26/08: Earth vs. the Flying Saucers (1956)
Here’s an interview in which Keanu Reeves confirms the idiocy of his upcoming remake of
The Day The Earth Stood Still. Fortunately, this isn’t a case of a great old film being ruined.
The Day The Earth Stood Still was always crap. Even a little kid could tell that there was something wrong about a movie where we’re asked to celebrate an alien who comes down and forces Earthlings to change their ways—whether by giving up nuclear devices (as in the original) or confronting the threat of global warming (as in the remake-—and why does an alien worry about that, unless his people are planning to take over our planet later on? We’re still convinced that “
Klaatu barada nikto” translates into “Klaatu says to prepare the slave camps.”)
The Day The Earth Stood Still was released in 1951. Thankfully, the film failed. That’s proven by the greatness of
Earth vs. the Flying Saucers. Hugh Marlowe stars in the latter, after playing the xenophobic bad guy in the former. He’s a lot more believable in
Earth vs. the Flying Saucers. A lot of the credit goes to screenwriter Curt Siodmak, who improves on the source novel. Siodmak had fled the Nazis and knew better than to trust foreign leaders threatening genocide if everyone doesn’t conform to their view of responsible behavior.
Siodmak’s pseudonymous co-writer was Bernard Gordon. He was a Commie. It was probably his idea to keep the novel’s notion of the aliens originally claiming to have arrived in peace. The script makes that peaceful intent seem very questionable. You’ll notice that the aliens are quick to attack every nation on the planet. Some critics still cling to that peaceful pose as a moral anti-war point. That’s so they can pretend to like a fun classic film. Leftists need an excuse for that kind of thing.
Other critics dismiss
Earth vs. the Flying Saucers as classic Cold War hysteria. That’s why this entry will be old news to certain readers. Still, let’s recap a few favorite things about this epic tale of soldiers killing alien invaders. There’s Marlowe’s character of Dr. Russell Marvin, who works for the government as a Project Director for the Internal Security Division. That job title would be enough to get the script banned today. Dr. Marvin is newly married to his assistant Carol, as played by Joan Taylor. She’s a real find.
The movie establishes its right-minded credentials from the start, as UFOs appear and the military is ordered to “fire on sight at any flying objects not identified.” Have you ever paid a friendly visit to anyone while accompanied by more than two cars? The aliens don’t like our lack of gullibility. Dr. Marvin has to defy his superiors to finally contact the aliens directly. That’s how he learns that they’ve arrived to take over Earth.
The aliens know how things work on this planet. They want all the Earthlings to surrender at a conference in D.C. Instead of contacting the UN to finalize things, Dr. Marvin gets busy on finding a way to kill the aliens. Meanwhile, the overconfident invaders take a little break. They must’ve seen
The Day The Earth Stood Still.
The sheer normalcy of Marlowe’s character—blandness, as some say—actually has impact once the movie becomes a proper war film. There’s also a great scene where Carol steps in to help the military try out a language translator. She speaks some Shakespeare into the device. “The quality of mercy,” says Carol, “is not strained.” What comes out on the other end is a garbled mess that’s definitely no Romance language. The generals decide that it’s probably not a good time to be considering mercy.
You also get those flying saucers, which are kind of an offbeat creation from special-effects legend Ray Harryhausen. They spend a lot of time trying to destroy our national monuments. A lot of this was redone on a big budget in Tim Burton’s
Mars Attacks! It wasn’t nearly as impressive, mostly because Burton was representing the Hollywood that believes destroying landmarks is a lot of fun.
It can be, but you can tell when the result is meant to be entertaining instead of disturbing.
There are Leftist critics who’ll insist all that destruction is a big metaphor, as the saucers crash and destroy more of Washington’s national monuments. See, our own military might has brought destruction upon ourselves—but those Leftists really wouldn’t value saving the Capitol Building over living as slaves to aliens. They just like the fantasy of blowing up American landmarks. Still.
Speaking of idiots and destruction—you know the best thing about that Keanu Reeves interview? It’s when Reeves declares that the giant robot in the original
The Day The Earth Stood Still is “iconoclastic.” He’s probably using a big word that he doesn’t understand. Or maybe Reeves knows something about the robot that we always suspected.
Make it your own: A
two-disc Special Edition of
Earth vs. the Flying Saucers came out a few months ago, and it’s pretty nice. You get a colorized version along with a print of the original black-and-white greatness. There are some bonus features, too, including a recycled Tim Burton interview with Harryhausen. There’s also some great footage of Joan Taylor. Another featurette lets you learn more about Bernard Gordon and the Hollywood Blacklist—but it’s the kind of documentary that doesn’t want you asking too many questions.
And here's
the trailer.
