Killers from Space
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''Killers from Space'' (a.k.a. ''The Man Who Saved the Earth'') is a 1954 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 film, produced and directed by
W. Lee Wilder William Lee Wilder (August 22, 1904 – February 14, 1982) was an Austrian-American screenwriter, film producer and director. He was the brother of the film director Billy Wilder and father of television comedy writer and producer Myles Wilder ...
(brother of
Billy Wilder Billy Wilder (; ; born Samuel Wilder; June 22, 1906 – March 27, 2002) was an Austrian-American filmmaker. His career in Hollywood spanned five decades, and he is regarded as one of the most brilliant and versatile filmmakers of Classic Hol ...
), that stars
Peter Graves Peter Graves (born Peter Duesler Aurness; March 18, 1926 – March 14, 2010) was an American actor. He was best known for his role as Jim Phelps in the CBS television series ''Mission: Impossible (1966 TV series), Mission: Impossible'' from 1967 ...
, Barbara Bestar,
Frank Gerstle Francis M. Gerstle (September 27, 1915 – February 23, 1970) was an American character actor who appeared in supporting roles in numerous films, radio programs and TV shows following World War II. Biography Gerstle's notable appearances inc ...
,
James Seay James Seay (September 9, 1914 – October 10, 1992) was an American character actor who often played minor supporting roles as government officials. Early years Seay demonstrated an interest in acting at an early age, as he and his mothe ...
, and
Steve Pendleton Steve Pendleton (September 16, 1908 – October 3, 1984) was an American film and television actor. He also went by Gaylord Pendleton as a Broadway performer. He was in more than 220 different films and television episodes. Pendleton appeare ...
. The film originated as a commissioned screenplay from Wilder's son
Myles Wilder Myles Wilder (January 28, 1933 – April 20, 2010) was a television comedy writer and producer. Wilder attended and graduated from UCLA's Theater Arts Department. During his senior year, he and two of his friends, Mitch Rose and Wayne Thoms, prod ...
and their regular collaborator William Raynor. Lee Wilder's production company, Planet Filmplays, usually producing on a financing-for-distribution basis for
United Artists United Artists Corporation (UA), currently doing business as United Artists Digital Studios, is an American digital production company. Founded in 1919 by D. W. Griffith, Charlie Chaplin, Mary Pickford, and Douglas Fairbanks, the stud ...
, wound up making this film for
RKO Radio Pictures RKO Radio Pictures Inc., commonly known as RKO Pictures or simply RKO, was an American film production and distribution company, one of the "Big Five" film studios of Hollywood's Golden Age. The business was formed after the Keith-Albee-Orph ...
distribution.


Plot

Dr. Douglas Martin (
Peter Graves Peter Graves (born Peter Duesler Aurness; March 18, 1926 – March 14, 2010) was an American actor. He was best known for his role as Jim Phelps in the CBS television series ''Mission: Impossible (1966 TV series), Mission: Impossible'' from 1967 ...
) is a
nuclear scientist Nuclear physics is the field of physics that studies atomic nuclei and their constituents and interactions, in addition to the study of other forms of nuclear matter. Nuclear physics should not be confused with atomic physics, which studies the ...
working on atomic bomb tests. While collecting aerial data on a
United States Air Force The United States Air Force (USAF) is the Aerial warfare, air military branch, service branch of the United States Armed Forces, and is one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. Originally created on 1 August 1907, as a part ...
(USAF) atomic blast at Soledad Flats, the pilot loses control of their aircraft and they crash. Dr Martin appears to have survived, unhurt, walking back to the air base with no memory of what happened. On his chest is a strange scar that was not there before the crash. At the base hospital, Martin acts so strangely that the USAF brings in the
FBI The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the domestic intelligence and security service of the United States and its principal federal law enforcement agency. Operating under the jurisdiction of the United States Department of Justice, t ...
to investigate, thinking he might be an impostor. He is eventually cleared but told to take some time off. Martin protests being excluded from his project while on leave. When an atomic test is set off without his knowledge, Martin steals the data, then goes back to Soledad Flats and places the information under a stone. An FBI agent follows him, but Martin is able to elude him until he crashes his car. Now back at the hospital, he is given
truth serum "Truth serum" is a colloquial name for any of a range of psychoactive drugs used in an effort to obtain information from subjects who are unable or unwilling to provide it otherwise. These include ethanol, scopolamine, 3-quinuclidinyl benzilate, ...
. Deep under the drug's influence, Martin tells a story about being held captive by space aliens, led by Denab, in their underground base. The aliens, with large, bulging eyes, are from the planet Astron Delta, ruled by a being called The Tala. They had revived his lifeless body as he had died in his aircraft. The aliens plan to exterminate humanity using giant insects and reptiles, grown with the radiation absorbed from our own atomic bomb tests. Martin intuits that the aliens use stolen electric grid power to control their powerful equipment. This so that the A-bomb's released energy levels can be predicted and then balanced. The aliens wiped his memory and hypnotized him into collecting the data for them. The FBI agent (
Steve Pendleton Steve Pendleton (September 16, 1908 – October 3, 1984) was an American film and television actor. He also went by Gaylord Pendleton as a Broadway performer. He was in more than 220 different films and television episodes. Pendleton appeare ...
) and the base commander (
James Seay James Seay (September 9, 1914 – October 10, 1992) was an American character actor who often played minor supporting roles as government officials. Early years Seay demonstrated an interest in acting at an early age, as he and his mothe ...
) are skeptical of this incredible story and keep him confined at the hospital. Nevertheless, the attending physician says that Martin genuinely believes that what he told them is true. With calculations made using a
slide rule The slide rule is a mechanical analog computer which is used primarily for multiplication and division, and for functions such as exponents, roots, logarithms, and trigonometry. It is not typically designed for addition or subtraction, which ...
, Martin determines that if he shuts off the power to Soledad Flats for just 10 seconds, it will create an overload in the aliens' equipment. So he escapes from the hospital and goes to the nearby electrical power plant, where he forces a technician to turn off the power. After 10 seconds, the alien base is destroyed in a massive explosion, saving the Earth from conquest.


Cast

*
Peter Graves Peter Graves (born Peter Duesler Aurness; March 18, 1926 – March 14, 2010) was an American actor. He was best known for his role as Jim Phelps in the CBS television series ''Mission: Impossible (1966 TV series), Mission: Impossible'' from 1967 ...
as Dr. Douglas Martin * Barbara Bestar as Ellen Martin *
Frank Gerstle Francis M. Gerstle (September 27, 1915 – February 23, 1970) was an American character actor who appeared in supporting roles in numerous films, radio programs and TV shows following World War II. Biography Gerstle's notable appearances inc ...
(as Frank Gerstel) as Dr. Curt Kruger *
James Seay James Seay (September 9, 1914 – October 10, 1992) was an American character actor who often played minor supporting roles as government officials. Early years Seay demonstrated an interest in acting at an early age, as he and his mothe ...
as Col. Banks *
Steve Pendleton Steve Pendleton (September 16, 1908 – October 3, 1984) was an American film and television actor. He also went by Gaylord Pendleton as a Broadway performer. He was in more than 220 different films and television episodes. Pendleton appeare ...
as FBI Agent Briggs *
Shepard Menken Shepard Menken (November 2, 1921 – January 2, 1999) was an American film, television, voice, radio character actor. Early life Menken began his career at the age of 11, when he started appearing on children's radio programs. After high school ...
(as Shep Menken) as Major Clift, M.D. * John Frederick (as John Merrick) as Deneb and The Tala * Jack Daly as Powerhouse Supervisor * Burt Wenland as Sgt. Bandero * Ruth Bennett as Miss Vincent *
Ron Gans Ronald Kenneth Gans (August 9, 1931 – June 29, 2010), sometimes credited as Ron Kennedy, was an American character actor and voice-over artist, known for portraying Q.T. the Orangutan on The Disney Channel's ''Dumbo's Circus'', the voice of Ar ...
(as Ron Kennedy) as Sentry Sergeant Powers *
Lester Dorr Lester Dorr (born Harry Lester Dorr; May 8, 1893 – August 25, 1980) was an American actor who between 1917 and 1975 appeared in well over 500 productions on stage, in feature films and shorts, and in televised plays and weekly series. Even ...
as Gas Station Attendant * Mark Scott as Narrator *
Ben Welden Ben Welden (born Benjamin Weinblatt; June 12, 1901 – October 17, 1997) was an American character actor who played a wide variety of Damon Runyon-type gangsters in various movies and television shows. Early years Welden was born in Toledo, Oh ...
as Tar Baby 2 Pilot *
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 ...
as 1st Police Dispatcher (uncredited) *
Coleman Francis Coleman Chambers Francis (January 24, 1919 – January 15, 1973) was an American actor, writer, producer and director. He was best known for his film trilogy consisting of ''The Beast of Yucca Flats'' (1961), ''The Skydivers'' (1963) and '' ...
as Power Plant Phone Operator (uncredited) * Robert Roark as Unspecified Guard


Production

Under the working title of ''The Man Who Saved the Earth'', production took place from early- to mid-July 1953 at KTTV Studios. Scenes featuring the cavern hideout of the aliens were shot in
Bronson Canyon Bronson Canyon, or Bronson Caves, is a section of Griffith Park in Los Angeles that has become known as a filming location for many films and television series, especially Westerns and science fiction, from the early days of motion pictures to th ...
in Los Angeles. The effect for the aliens in the film was done by Harry Thomas. He was told to make large eyes for them, albeit on a cheap budget, since glass eyes would have cost too much. Needing an idea, he found it while looking in his refrigerator: plastic egg trays, of which he used the top portion by cutting it with a heated screwdriver. He then cut little holes with the screwdriver. Owing to a lack of further time meant that he did not do further work that he would have liked to do, such as sealing the sides with cotton.


Reception and legacy

''Killers from Space'' was released as a B-movie, hampered by low production values and a minuscule budget. In 2006, film reviewer Thomas Scalzo also noted: "Killers From Space is an enjoyable, if slow-going, sci-fi / horror diversion, and if these killers from space had somehow found a way to stop their yammering long enough to get on with some actual killing, the combination of Peter Graves, mutant insects and amphibians, a palpable atmosphere of ’50s atomic fear, and the directorial efforts of Billy Wilder’s brother, would have been enough to bump the film into the upper echelon of early sci-fi essentials". In 2006 skeptic Dr. Aaron Sakulich noted similarities between the film and many
alien abduction Alien abduction (also called abduction phenomenon, alien abduction syndrome, or UFO abduction) refers to the phenomenon of people reporting their experience of being kidnapped by extraterrestrial beings and subjected to physical and psychologica ...
stories that would first appear over a decade later, such as the medical testing done by the aliens, the protagonist's strange scar, his memory erasure, the aliens' giant eyes, and their way of mind control. In 2007, ''
The Film Crew The Film Crew was a comedic team similar to '' Mystery Science Theater 3000'' and was released in 2007. It comprised former '' MST3K'' cast members Michael J. Nelson, Bill Corbett, and Kevin Murphy. They hosted Legend Films' colorized Three St ...
'', consisting of Bill Corbett, Kevin Murray and
Michael J. Nelson Michael John Nelson (born October 11, 1964) is an American comedian and writer, most known for his work on the television series '' Mystery Science Theater 3000'' (''MST3K''). Nelson was the head writer of the series for most of the show's origi ...
from the cult TV series '' Mystery Science Theater 3000'', mocked the film in its entirety. They revisited the film in 2019 with new commentary under the
Rifftrax RiffTrax is an American company that produces scripted humorous commentary tracks which are synced to mostly public domain feature films, education shorts, and television episodes. With the talents of former ''Mystery Science Theater 3000'' (''M ...
banner.Rifftrax - Killers From Space
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See also

* '' Don't Ask Don't Tell'', a comically redubbed version of this film. *
1954 in film The year 1954 in film involved some significant events and memorable ones. Top-grossing films United States The top ten 1954 released films by box office gross in the United States are as follows: International Events * A reproduction of " ...


References


Bibliography

* Johnston, Keith M. ''Science Fiction Film: A Critical Introduction''. London: Bloomsbury Academic, 2011. . * Warren, Bill. ''Keep Watching the Skies: American Science Fiction Films of the Fifties'', 21st Century Edition. Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Company, 2009. .


External links

* * * * * (without tinting) * (with green tinting) {{DEFAULTSORT:Killers From Space 1954 films 1954 horror films Alien abduction films American science fiction horror films 1950s science fiction films 1950s science fiction horror films RKO Pictures films American black-and-white films 1950s monster movies American monster movies Films directed by W. Lee Wilder 1950s English-language films 1950s American films