Invasion Of The Saucer Men (1957) is a youth oriented science fiction thriller produced by American International Pictures. The low budget of the film as well as its hokey dialogue and cornball sentiments have ensured its place as one of the most popular B-Movies of the fifties. When people think of the old atomic age alien invasion pictures, Invasion Of The Saucer Men is one of the first titles that springs to mind.
Invasion Of The Saucer Men may be an easy target for riff tracks and the like, but it was far more influential than most films of its ilk from that time. The uncanny sounds that the saucer men make and the way they scuttle through the woods frantically had a major impact in one the design of Spielberg’s beloved E.T. character. Similarly, the film also marks a trend in B-Movies that saw sock-hop romantic comedies combine with the more macabre and fantastic genres of horror and science fiction.
Gradually teen interest films became synthesized with these other genres in an effort to maximize marketability. This move on the part of B-Movie producers and distributors lead directly to the teen centered horror and adventure movies that would dominate the American market of the eighties. The filmmakers behind these eighties blockbusters, like Joe Dante, grew up watching Invasion Of The Saucer Men and similar films. In these B-Movies the directors of the eighties saw young people like themselves on amazing adventures interacting with the types of creatures that fascinated them as children.
But that’s all the legacy of Invasion Of The Saucer Men. On its own merits Invasion Of The Saucer Men is a charming, tongue in cheek alien invasion thriller that makes the most of its limited budget. Unlike an Ed Wood picture, the audience never really laughs at Invasion Of The Saucer Men but rather with it. Producer James H. Nicholson knew the film was goofy from the start and wisely decided to let the audience in on all of the jokes.
For example the titular Saucer Men attack people with needles that protrude from their finger tips that inject alcohol into the victim’s blood, essentially getting them drunk. The teenaged couple (Steven Terrell and Gloria Castillo) who decide to stop the invasion constantly complain that everyone dismisses them because they’re kids. Then, after some convoluted hijinks, the heroic couple discovers that the head lights of a car will cause Saucer Men to combust, leading to an all out attack by the kids parked on lover’s lane on the alien invaders. Obviously Invasion Of The Saucer Men is a self-satirizing adventure that likes of which Joe Dante would be proud. There’s a clear aesthetic trajectory from films like Invasion Of The Saucer Men to Gremlins (1984) and on to Mars Attacks! (1996).
One of the major reasons that Invasion Of The Saucer Men works both as satire and escapist genre film is that Nicholason chose Edward L. Cahn as the director. Cahn made a number of Our Gang shorts in the late thirties through the forties that tuned him in to that careful balancing act of broad comedy and heart string tugging sentiment. Cahn brought that same sensibility to Invasion Of The Saucer Men and wholly embraced the dual potential of the alien designs as both comic and grotesque.
If one takes Invasion Of The Saucer Men seriously or expects the film to take itself seriously then you’ve missed the point. Sure it is easy to make fun of Invasion Of The Saucer Men but are those jokes ever going to outshine the humor the film has about itself? It isn’t very likely.
