INVASION OF THE SAUCER MEN (1957)

After the opening credits, which are played over a light-hearted, comic score, a narrator tells us that Hicksburg is a boring little town. At a late night diner, Artie and Joe, two traveling con-men, are bemoaning the town's lack of nightlife and female companionship. The slightly drunk Joe decides to take off in his car and look for fun, but before he can get very far, he sees a UFO landing in the woods outside of town. Meanwhile, young couple Johnny and Joan are driving up to Lover's Point (headlights off so as not to bother the other parking and necking couples) for their own fun and accidentally run over and kill a short bulbous-headed alien from the UFO. Its hand detaches itself from the body and its long, sharp fingernails puncture the car's tires. The kids go to old man Larkin's place to call the police (Larkin being one of those angry "get off my lawn" types that crop up in teen movies of the era); meanwhile, Joe happens on the body and decides to take it to use in a money-making scheme, but other big-eyed, big-brained aliens come along and, with their retractable fingernails (pictured at right), inject Joe with a large amount of alcohol, which, since he's already drunk, kills him. By the time the cops arrive in response to the kids' bizarre story, they find Joe instead of the alien, and the Air Force, alerted to the UFO sighting, has sent a couple of men to Hicksburg. But by the end, it's the teenagers at Lover's Point who figure out the aliens' weakness: they disintegrate when flashlights and headlights are shined on them.

This wacky story is played more for laughs than anything else, but the humor only sporadically works. Professional comic Frank Gorshin is OK as Joe, but he bites the dust fairly early, leaving B-range actors in charge of delivering the comic relief and most of it falls flat. One amusing scene involves Larkin's bull getting attacked by aliens, though the bull winds up drunk instead of dead. I would have thought that, if comedy was their point, the filmmakers would have had scenes of townsfolk getting attacked and getting immediately drunk instead of dying. (Woulda, coulda, shoulda…) The blandly handsome Steve Terrell (MOTORCYCLE GANG) held my attention as Johnny, and Lyn Osborn had promise as Gorshin's buddy, but doesn't get much to do. Gloria Castillo is serviceable as Joan. The aliens, based on publicity stills and posters, look like something out of Outer Limits (that's a compliment), but they are barely seen in the film as they spend most of their time in the bushes or in the dark—the whole thing plays out in almost real time over one night. Fans of SF schlock or 50s teen flicks should like this. Others beware. [YouTube]