''The Flying Saucer'' is a 1950 independently made American

black-and-white Black-and-white (B&W or B/W) images combine black and white in a continuous spectrum, producing a range of shades of grey. Media The history of various visual media began with black and white, and as technology improved, altered to color. ...

science fiction Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, parallel unive ...

spy film The spy film, also known as the spy thriller, is a genre of film that deals with the subject of fictional espionage, either in a realistic way (such as the adaptations of John le Carré) or as a basis for fantasy (such as many James Bond films) ...

drama. It was written by

Howard Irving Young Howard Irving Young (April 24, 1893 – February 24, 1952) was an American screenwriter and playwright.Marshall p.297 During the 1930s and 1940s he worked on a number of British films. Selected filmography * '' A Million A Minute'' (1916) * '' Mi ...

, from an original story by

Mikel Conrad Mikel Conrad (30 July 1919 – 11 September 1982) was an American actor and film director, writer and producer. He was born in Columbus, Ohio and died in Los Angeles, California at the age of 63. Filmography Actor * ''Untamed Fury'' (1947) - 'Ga ...

, who also produced, directed, and stars with Pat Garrison and Hantz von Teuffen. The film was first distributed in the U.S. by

Film Classics Film Classics was an American film distributor active between 1943 and 1951.Slide p.72 Established by Irvin Shapiro, the company initially concentrated on re-releases of earlier hits by other studios, but began to handle new independent productions ...

and later re-released in 1953 by

Realart Pictures Realart Pictures was a motion picture distribution company founded in 1948 by Jack Broder and Joseph Harris. The company specialized in reissues of older pictures, particularly from the library of Universal Pictures, but also handled an occasion ...

, on a

double-bill The double feature is a motion picture industry phenomenon in which theatres would exhibit two films for the price of one, supplanting an earlier format in which one feature film and various short subject reels would be shown. Opera use Opera ho ...

with ''Atomic Monster'' (the retitled-reissue of ''

Man Made Monster ''Man-Made Monster'' is a 1941 American science-fiction horror film directed by George Waggner and produced by Jack Bernhard for Universal Pictures. Filmed in black-and-white, it stars Lon Chaney, Jr. (in his horror film debut) and Lionel Atwill ...

'', originally released in 1941 by

Universal Pictures Universal Pictures (legally Universal City Studios LLC, also known as Universal Studios, or simply Universal; common metonym: Uni, and formerly named Universal Film Manufacturing Company and Universal-International Pictures Inc.) is an Ameri ...

). ''The Flying Saucer'' is the first

feature film A feature film or feature-length film is a narrative film (motion picture or "movie") with a running time long enough to be considered the principal or sole presentation in a commercial entertainment program. The term ''feature film'' originall ...

to deal with the (then) new and hot topic of

flying saucers A flying saucer (also referred to as "a flying disc") is a descriptive term for a type of flying craft having a disc or saucer-shaped body, commonly used generically to refer to an anomalous flying object. The term was coined in 1947 but has g ...

. Flying saucers, or alien craft shaped like flying disks or saucers, were first identified and given the popular name on June 24, 1947, when private pilot

Kenneth Arnold Kenneth Albert Arnold (March 29, 1915 – January 16, 1984) was an American aviator, businessman, and politician. He is best known for making what is generally considered the first widely reported modern unidentified flying object sighting in ...

reported nine silvery, crescent-shaped objects flying in tight formation. A newspaper reporter coined the snappy tagline, "flying saucers", which captured the public's imagination. During the

1947 flying disc craze The 1947 flying disc craze was a rash of unidentified flying object reports in the United States that were publicized in the summer of 1947. The craze began on June 24, when media nationwide reported civilian pilot Kenneth Arnold, Kenneth Arnold' ...

, over 800 'copycat' sightings were reported throughout North America. The film has no relationship and should not be confused with the later

Ray Harryhausen Raymond Frederick Harryhausen (June 29, 1920 – May 7, 2013) was an American-British animator and special effects creator who created a form of stop motion model animation known as "Dynamation". His works include the animation for '' Might ...

science fiction film ''

Earth vs. the Flying Saucers ''Earth vs. the Flying Saucers'' (a.k.a. ''Invasion of the Flying Saucers'' and ''Flying Saucers from Outer Space'') is a 1956 American science fiction film from Columbia Pictures. It was produced by Charles H. Schneer, directed by Fred F. Sears, ...

'', released by

Columbia Pictures Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc. is an American film production studio that is a member of the Sony Pictures Motion Picture Group, a division of Sony Pictures Entertainment, which is one of the Big Five studios and a subsidiary of the mu ...

Plot

American Intelligence officials learn that

Soviet The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...

spies have begun exploring a remote region of the Alaskan Territory in search of answers to the worldwide reports of "flying saucers". A wealthy American playboy, Mike Trent (Mikel Conrad), who was raised in that remote region, is recruited by intelligence officer Hank Thorn (

Russell Hicks Edward Russell Hicks (June 4, 1895 – June 1, 1957) was an American film character actor. Hicks was born in 1895 in Baltimore, Maryland. During World War I, he served in the U.S. Army in France. He later became a lieutenant Colonel in the Cali ...

) to assist a

Secret Service A secret service is a government agency, intelligence agency, or the activities of a government agency, concerned with the gathering of intelligence data. The tasks and powers of a secret service can vary greatly from one country to another. For ...

agent in exploring that area to discover what the Soviets may have found. To his pleasant surprise, Mike discovers the agent is an attractive woman named Vee Langley (Pat Garrison). They set off together and slowly become mutually attracted to each other. Their cover story is that Mike is suffering from a nervous breakdown and she is his private nurse. At Mike's family's wilderness lodge, they are met by a foreign-accented caretaker named Hans (Hantz von Teuffen), new to the job. Mike is very skeptical of the flying saucer reports until he spots one flying over the lodge. Assorted complications ensue until Mike and Vee finally discover that Hans is one of the Soviet agents who is trying to acquire the flying saucer. It turns out that the saucer is an invention of American scientist Dr. Lawton (

Roy Engel Roy Engel (September 13, 1913 – December 29, 1980) was an American actor on radio, film, and television. He performed in more than 150 films and almost 800 episodes of television programs. Career Engel's ancestry was Irish and Dutch. His ...

). But Turner (

Denver Pyle Denver Dell Pyle (May 11, 1920 – December 25, 1997) was an American film and television actor and director. He was well known for a number of TV roles from the 1960s through the 1980s, including his portrayal of Briscoe Darling Jr. in se ...

), Lawton's assistant, is a communist sympathizer and has other ideas: he tries to make a deal to sell the saucer to the Soviets for one million dollars. Mike's trip to Juneau to see old friends, including Matt Mitchell (Frank Darrien), is ill-advised. When Vee tracks him down, he is in the company of a

bar girl A bargirl is a woman who is paid to entertain patrons in a bar, either individually or, in some cases, as a performer. The exact nature of the entertainment varies widely from place to place; depending on the venue this can be individual enterta ...

, named Nanette (Virginia Hewitt). Matt gets mixed up with the Soviet agents who are trying to obtain control of the saucer. When he tries to strike a bargain with ring leader Colonel Marikoff (Lester Sharpe), at the spy's headquarters, Matt is knocked unconscious. He is able to escape and seeks out Mike, but they are attacked by the Soviets, who kill Matt. Before he dies, however, Matt reveals the location of the saucer: Twin Lakes. Mike rents an aircraft and flies to where the saucer is hidden at an isolated cabin. After flying back to his lodge, he tries to find Vee, who has tried to spirit Lawton away. The trio are captured by the turncoat Taylor and a group of Soviet agents. The Soviets lead their prisoners through a secret tunnel hidden under the glacier. An avalanche begins and wipes them out. Mike, Vee, and Lawton escape the tunnel just in time to see Turner fly off in the saucer. It suddenly explodes in mid-air, due to a time bomb that Lawton had planted on board for such an eventuality. Their mission now accomplished, Mike and Vee embrace and kiss.

Cast

as Mike Trent * Pat Garrison as Vee Langley * Hantz von Teuffen as Hans *

as Dr. Lawton * Lester Sharpe as Col. Marikoff *

as Turner, a spy * Earl Lyon as Alex, a spy * Frank Darrien as Matt Mitchell *

as Intelligence Chief Hank Thorn * Virginia Hewitt as Nanette, bar girl *

Garry Owen The 7th Cavalry Regiment is a United States Army cavalry regiment formed in 1866. Its official nickname is "Garryowen", after the Irish air " Garryowen" that was adopted as its march tune. The regiment participated in some of the largest ba ...

as Bartender

Production

Principal photography for ''The Flying Saucer'' took place from late September to early October 1949 at

Hal Roach Studios Hal Roach Studios was an American motion picture and television production studio. Known as ''The Laugh Factory to the World'', it was founded by producer Hal Roach and business partners Dan Linthicum and I.H. Nance as the Rolin Film Company on Ju ...

. Additional

B-roll In film and television production, B-roll, B roll, B-reel or B reel is supplemental or alternative footage intercut with the main shot. The term ''A-roll'', referring to main footage, has fallen out of use. Film and video production Films and ...

photography was shot in Alaska on location where, according to a September 21, 1949 article in the ''Los Angeles Examiner'', Mikel Conrad claimed to have obtained footage of actual flying saucers while shooting ''

Arctic Manhunt ''Arctic Manhunt'' is a 1949 American adventure film directed by Ewing Scott and starring Mikel Conrad, Carol Thurston and Wally Cassell. Plot Insurance agents head to the icy wilderness to collect an ex-con in possession of $250,000 in stolen f ...

'' in Alaska in the winter of 1947. The opening prologue appears before the onscreen credits and states: "We gratefully acknowledge the cooperation of those in authority who made the release of the 'Flying Saucer' film possible at this time." The message obliquely alluded to some authorized government films of flying saucers. None of that footage was actually included in ''The Flying Saucer''."Notes: The Flying Saucer."
''Turner Classics Movies''. Retrieved: January 8, 2015.

Reception

''The Flying Saucer'' did not rise above its

B film A B movie or B film is a low-budget commercial motion picture. In its original usage, during the Golden Age of Hollywood, the term more precisely identified films intended for distribution as the less-publicized bottom half of a double feature ...

origins. Its low budget production doomed it to the bottom end of theater playbills and drive-ins. ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'' film critic

Bosley Crowther Francis Bosley Crowther Jr. (July 13, 1905 – March 7, 1981) was an American journalist, writer, and film critic for ''The New York Times'' for 27 years. His work helped shape the careers of many actors, directors and screenwriters, though his ...

observed: "A film called 'The Flying Saucer' flew into the Rialto yesterday and, except for some nice Alaskan scenery, it can go right on flying, for all we care. In fact, it is such a clumsy item that we doubt if it will go very far, and we hesitate, out of mercy, to fire even a critical shot at it".Crowther, Bosley
"Movie Review: The Flying Saucer (1950)."
''The New York Times'', January 5, 1950.

Copyright

All rights to ''The Flying Saucer'' have been owned worldwide since 1977 by Wade Williams. Copyright was renewed on November 29, 1977 (R 677308), Library of Congress Copyright Office.

References

Notes

Bibliography

* Strick, Philip. ''Science Fiction Movies''. London: Octopus Books Limited, 1976. . * Warren, Bill. ''Keep Watching the Skies: American Science Fiction Films of the Fifties'', 21st Century Edition. Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Company, 2009. .

External links

*
''The Flying Saucer'' at IMDB
*
Trailer for ''The Flying Saucer'' at Internet Archive
{{DEFAULTSORT:Flying Saucer, The 1950 films American science fiction films 1950s science fiction films American spy films Cold War spy films UFO-related films 1950s English-language films Film Classics films American black-and-white films Avalanches in film Films set in Alaska Films shot in Alaska 1950s American films