Invasion Of The Saucer-Men One Sheet

Press book pages for INVASION OF THE SAUCER-MEN

The Cast: Steve Terrell, Gloria Castillo, Frank Gorshin, Raymond Hatton, Lyn Osborn, Russ Bender and Ed Nelson. Executive producer Samuel Z. Arkoff; Produced by James Nicholson and Robert J. Gurney Jr. Directed by Edward L. Cahn. Make-up by Carlie Taylor; Technical effects and creature designs by Paul Blaisdell. Screenplay by Robert J. Gurney Jr. and Al Martin from the short story "The Cosmic Frame" by Paul Fairman. (Working title: "Spaceman Saturday Night") Production began: April 8, 1957 at ZIV Studios; Release date: June 19, 1957 on a double bill with I WAS A TEENAGE WEREWOLF; Released in England as INVASION OF THE HELL CREATURES; in Mexico, LA INVASION DE LOS HOMBRES VERDES (INVASION OF THE GREEN MEN); remade as THE EYE CREATURES. Running time 69 minutes. Sort of a science fiction-comedy. Lots of fun. (Note: In the advertising, Saucer-Men has a hyphen between Saucer and Men, but in the movie itself, there is no hyphen. Both seem to be correct.)

The Plot: The story opens in a small community where some youngsters, Joan Hayden (Gloria Castillo) and Johnny Carter (Steve Terrell), plan to elope without the consent of Joan's father, the local city attorney (Don Shelton).
They are riding down a country road at night with their lights off when they hit a little green monster from outer space. Naturally, they are horrified when they see the tiny monster lying dead underneath their stalled car. To make the situation worse, the dismembered hand of the creature is very much alive and has an eye on it.
They are not aware that they are being watched by other monsters. They abandon their vehicle and make their way on foot to a nearby farmhouse to call the police. The police think they are saturday night jokesters and dismiss the call laughingly.
The youngsters return to their car and find the police at the scene and the body of a man named Joe (Frank Gorshin) lying there instead of the monster. They are accused of manslaughter.
Meanwhile, the Army Air Force locates a flying saucer nearby, and on investigation, finds it abandoned and its occupants gone. The saucer-men have become a menace, but unknown to everyone at the time, the creatures inject pure alcohol into their victims, and since Joe had been drinking a lot, died of too much alcohol in his body. The local farmer's bull tangles with one of the creatures. The bull gets drunk in the battle, but one of the monsters has his eye impaled and killed.
Joan and Johnny escape from the police and discover, after several narrow escapes with the dismembered hand that got into the back seat of the police car they were driving, that the one weakness of the saucer-men is that light disentegrates them. At the climax, Joan and Johnny, with the help of their teenage friends, who had been "parking" at the local lover's lane, destroy the monsters by shining the headlights and spotlights of their cars on them in the middle of a country road.

Some of the Saucer-Men models and toys

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Critic Ted Holmberg's review in the Providence Journal: Those much maligned youngsters are at it again in the second half of this twin bill as they forestall the INVASION OF THE SAUCER MEN. The visitors from outer space bamboozle the air force, an old farmer and an average bull before the younger set takes over and destroys every ugly one of them. If the space travelers had seen as many films about teenagers as I have they would have known better than to fool with these kids.

INVASION OF THE SAUCER MEN was copyright in 1957 by Malibu Productions and renewed in 1985 by Selma Enterprises. All rights reserved. Do not use any material from this website without permission. Current copyright owner is Susan Nicholson-Hofheinz and Academy Pictures Corporation. All rights reserved. No rights given or implied. Used here for historical, educational and nostalgic purposes with reviews, comments, cast and credits.

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