Stars: Hugh Marlowe, Joan Taylor, Donald Curtis, Morris Ankrum, Charles Evans, Larry Blake, Thomas Brown Henry, Harry Lauter, Grandon Rhodes

Director: Fred F. Sears

Summary: Zombie aliens arrive at a U.S. Army base to seek help for their dying planet. But the Army greet them with gunfire...

Space scientist Dr. Russell Marvin (Hugh Marlowe) and his wife Carol (Joan Taylor) are working on a secret missile project, but every time their rockets are launched, they are intercepted and destroyed by the more advanced technology of mysterious flying saucers hovering near the Earth. The alien race has completely surrounded the planet, giving the Earth sixty days to surrender. The enemy spacecraft appear indestructible, and Marvin sets out to find a weapon that can defeat them. The special effects of stop-motion animator Ray Harryhausen are legendary, most notably in the scene in which flying saucers attack the Capitol building in Washington, D.C.

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A textbook example of '50s-era science fiction, Earth vs. the Flying Saucers boasts not only a solid script and competent performances, but some genuinely impressive stop-motion effects courtesy of one of the industry's uncontested masters, Ray Harryhausen. Scientist Hugh Marlowe (who faced a more benevolent invader from space five years earlier in The Day the Earth Stood Still) discovers that UFOs are responsible for the destruction of a series of exploratory space rockets launched by his space exploration project. The saucers' helmeted pilots land on Earth and deliver an ultimatum to humanity via Marlowe.

Harryhausen's painstakingly intricate saucers and the destruction they wreak (particularly during an assault on Washington, D.C.) are the film's unquestionable highlights, but Marlowe and Joan Taylor (as his wife/partner) are capable leads, and veteran B director Fred F. Sears doesn't let the dialogue and expositional scenes fall apart in between the barrage of effects. Earth vs. the Flying Saucers is a fun and effective slice of sci-fi that should please younger audiences as well as nostalgic return viewers. Sears later reused some of the effects footage for his jaw-droppingly awful 1957 effort, The Giant Claw. --Paul Gaita

Aspect Ratio:	1.85 H D Widescreen
Main Language:	English
Region:	Region B
Special Features:	Feature film in black and white or colour, Ray Harryhausen on EARTH VS. THE FLYING SAUCERS , The Colourisation Process , The Hollywood Blacklist and Bernard Gordon , Original screen credits , Interview with Joan Taylor , Photo gallery
Subtitles:	Portuguese Brazilian, Japanese, Hindi, French, Spanish Latin American, English, Arabic
Year:	1956
Release Date:	October 13, 2008
Runtime:	82 minutes
Certification:
Catalogue Number:	S B R P 5655
Keywords:	Earth, General, Flying, Wide, Screen, Fiction, Science, Saucers, Horror, Sci, Fi, Vs
Genre:	Science Fiction