ALL SCI-FI

[Bud Brewster]

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When this movie came out in 1956 I was just eight years old, Dwight D. Eisenhower was president, Sputnik was a year away from making history, and there were 4,000 drive-in theaters across America.

Like this one, the Roosevelt Drive-In in College Park, Georgia.





Sometime in July of that year my parents took me and my sister there to see Earth vs the Flying Saucers . . . and I haven't been exactly normal since!

Thank goodness.

Imagine being eight years old and seeing this through the windshield of the family car. It certainly impressed Hugh Marlow and Joan Taylor!





This was a dream come true for a kid who was already living and breathing science fiction, even though he hadn't been around one whole decade yet. This movie has everything a kid could want! It's got alien brain scans —





— low-flying saucers in broad daylight —





— battles with brave but soon-to-be-vaporized Army guys —





— creepy aliens that absolutely, positively were NOT here to be anybody's friend —





— saucers that cruised in formation over Washington like they owned the place —








— lots of national monuments whose insurance rates were about to go way up —





— amazing scenes of destruction which the guys in the Kremlin probably watched every weekend while they clapped and cheered —





— and a brave scientist willing to try on a big alien helmet and risk having all the folks around him make funny faces while he couldn't see them!





If this great movie had a bigger budget, it would not have been stuck with these suits which had no eyes, no hands and (the one that really puzzles me) no elbows!





Instead, we'd have gotten something a bit more on the cool side of awesome — like this, my own graphite drawing showing a version of the alien suits.
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But this movie is still a crowd pleaser after almost 70 years (as of this July 2026, to be exact). Heck, I'm 76, and I wish I'd held up as well as this movie!
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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)

[Bud Brewster]

For years I've been aware that the so-called "widescreen" versions of It Came From Beneath the Sea, 20 Million Miles to Earth, and Earth vs the Flying Saucers was actually the 4:3 image with the top and bottom masked off to create the 16:9 version.

That's just fine when the director of photography has framed the shots so that there's unnecessary portions of the image at the top and bottom that are intended to be left out when the frame is masked off, but Harryhausen didn't do that with his shots.

Here's what I mean. Look at this widescreen version on the current DVD.





And here's the full screen version from the old laser disk. Look at all the additional image that actually improves the composition.





Here's another scene in the movie, first with the widescreen version, and then the 4:3 version.







And these two shots show the dramatic difference between widescreen and full screen versions when the Supreme Court building is hit.







Seeing that large area below the saucer, with those long steps leading up to the columns, gives this scene a scope and grandeur it lacks in the so-called widescreen version. I wish all the DVDs of the 1950s Harryhausen sci-fi movies had included the option of choosing widescreen or full screen, the way the old DVD (but not the Blu-ray) of 20 Million Miles to Earth does.

What a pity . . .
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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)

[Brent Gair]

[Robert (Butch) Day]

The one thing that ALWAYS bugged me about these movies was the tanks and/or artillery started shooting; failed; THEN the foot soldiers took over!

Shouldn't it have been the other way around?
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Common Sense ISN'T Common

[Robert (Butch) Day]

Unused artwork:


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Common Sense ISN'T Common

[Bud Brewster]

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"Unused", Butch?
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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)

[Robert (Butch) Day]

Unused as in that it was going to be the entire poster, not part of one.
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Common Sense ISN'T Common

[Bud Brewster]

[Bud Brewster]

[scotpens]

[Randy]

You know, those saucers in the movie, look an awfully lot like the one I photographed over our lake.

Hmmmm ...



Note from Bud to Hostpic users: I read somewhere that Hostpic dumps images periodically. I wouldn't trust them, guys. Randy's image above is less than two years old!!

[Bud Brewster]

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Ah come on, Randy! That is SO bogus. Do you really expect us to believe that you . . . have a lake?

Now be honest. Where did you really take that picture of the flying saucer?
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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)

[Bud Brewster]

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When I saw this movie in 1956 it started my lifelong tendency to look up in the sky and imagine scenes like this.



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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)

[Bud Brewster]

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The opening credits for Earth vs the Flying Saucers state that it was inspired by the book shown above.

Back in the early 1960s, when I was about 12 years old, my two buddies (Jimmy Harmon and Chuck Sandusky) would occasionally have sleepovers on Friday nights to watch Big Movie Shocker, with Hall of Fame late show host, Bostoink Dooley.


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The movies were rarely very good — and only occasionally scary — but my friends and I often provided ourselves with some genuine chilly moments by taking turns reading the book above aloud to each other. The allegedly true stories of alien encounters included some truly creepy scenes on back roads, when country bumpkins in pickup trucks stumbled upon hovering spacecraft in the middle of road, and the small hairy visitors from outer space would do truly otherworldly things that proved they weren't just lost trick-or-treaters!

Sound like a lot hokum?

Well, possibly, but Major Keyhoe backed up his disturbing tales with corroborating evidence, like various police reports which described strange things at the sites of the incidents, and numerous eyewitnesses who saw the glowing objects from miles away at the time of the event.

I have more fond memories of sharing that book (along with the awe and wonder it inspired) than I do of the movies I watched on Big Movie Shocker (with a few exceptions, of course.)
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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)

[Bud Brewster]

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I am pleased to report that on this day, August 5th 2016, the wonderful book shown below is still available from Amazon — 63 years after it's publication! And just wait 'til you find out why.


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After sharing my fond memories in the post above about reading this terrific book when I was just a dewy-eyed monsterkid in the 1960s, I ordered it today from Amazon today.

Gee, I wished I'd thought of doing that two weeks ago. I could have spent this entire week getting myself really pumped up for All Sci-Fi's Friday Live Chat tonight!

Wikipedia has a very short article about this book, but it's interesting nonetheless.
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In 1956 a science-fiction film credited as "suggested by" the book was made under the title Earth vs. the Flying Saucers, also known as Invasion of the Flying Saucers. The working titles of this film were Attack of the Flying Saucers, Invasion of the Flying Saucers and Flying Saucers from Outer Space.

In a letter contained in the film's production file at the AMPAS Library, blacklisted screenwriter Bernard Gordon stated that he wrote the screenplay for this picture using the pseudonym Raymond T. Marcus.

Screen credits for Earth vs. the Flying Saucers are: screen play by George Worthing Yates and Raymond T. Marcus, screen story by Curt Siodmak, suggested by "Flying Saucers From Outer Space" by Major Donald E. Keyhoe.

Keyhoe's descriptions of UFO reports and Air Force investigations were used to give a realistic background to a fictional story.

Keyhoe's recounts of descriptions of UFOs with a stationary central cabin and rotating slotted outer disk inspired the design of the saucers in the movie.
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Hey, that last item is pretty cool, huh? Major Keyhoe's description of a flying saucer, based on an eyewitness account, inspired Ray's fabulous "spinning slotted outer disk" on the top and bottom of saucers.





I love that!

And I found the actual foreword from the novel, too.
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Three years ago, in a book entitled The Flying Saucers Are Real, I reported the results of my first investigation into this world-wide mystery. At that time I stated my belief that the U.S. Air Force knew the answer and was hiding it from the public.

Since July, 1952, in a new investigation of the saucers, I have been privileged to cooperate with the Air Force. Because of my present understanding of their very serious problem, and certain dangers inherent in the situation, I have been given information unknown to most Americans.

Scores of impressive sighting reports by service pilots have been cleared for me, with the conclusions of Air Technical Intelligence — some so incredible they would have been ridiculed two or three years ago.

As a result of this close association, this book reveals, I believe, all that the Air Force has learned about the flying saucers. It also explains the contradictions that have come, from time to time, from various Defense officials, as well as the reasons for official silence.

It is my hope that this book will help to prepare all Americans, whether skeptics or believers, for the final act of the saucer drama — an act that will have an impact on the lives of all of us.

In closing this brief foreword, I should like to thank all the officers and civilian officials — not only of the Air Force, but other government departments — who so generously aided me in this long investigation. Without their advice and guidance, when I ran into blind alleys, this book could not have been written.

Major Donald E. Keyhoe

U. S. Marine Corps, Retired
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Incredible! This guy wrote an intelligent, well-researched book with the complete authorization and cooperation of the United States government, to prepare the public for "the final act of the saucer drama — an act that will have an impact on the lives of all of us."

This is astounding!

But wait a minute . . . he wrote another book about flying saucers three years earlier? I did NOT know that!

Amazon has that one too, but instead being $4.95, it's $22.99 (even though it does say "new", which tempts me to buy it anyway.)


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The Wikipedia article for that little gem is even more interesting than the one for Flying Saucers from Outer Space. Check THIS out, sci-fi fans!
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It was printed in paperback by Gold Medal Books, in 1950, and sold for 25 cents. In December, 1949, prior to the publishing of the book, Keyhoe published an article by the same name in True magazine, with similar material. The book was a huge success and popularized many ideas in ufology that are still widely believed today.

The Flying Saucers Are Real is short: only 175 pages. It is referenced by footnotes, and cites a panoply of sources: newspapers, magazines, Air Force records and press statements, and personal interviews. It is written in a dramatic, narrative style reminiscent of mystery novels and spy thrillers (Keyhoe also wrote fiction in these genres).

Keyhoe contended that the Air Force was actively investigating these cases of close encounter, with a policy of concealing their existence from the public until 1949. He stated that this policy was then replaced by one of cautious, progressive revelation.

Keyhoe further stated that Earth had been visited by extraterrestrials for two centuries, with the frequency of these visits increasing sharply after the first atomic weapon test in 1945.

Citing anecdotal evidence, he intimated the Air Force may have attained and adapted some aspect of the alien technology: its method of propulsion and perhaps its source of power. He believed the Air Force or the US Government would eventually reveal these technologies to the public when the Soviet Union was no longer a threat.
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Oh my God, this guy's a freakin' genius!

His theories inspired the plots of damn near every intelligent alien invasion story for decades after his book came out, from The Day the Earth Stood Still to Independence Day. The whole "reverse engineered alien technology" idea was his, long before it became the mantra of UFOlogy in general.

I can hardly wait to get my copy of his 2nd book!
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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)