ALL SCI-FI

[Bud Brewster]

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From director Sherman H. Rose comes this modest tale of a mostly unseen alien invasion that seems to have been focused on the city of Chicago.

Well now, that's certainly a new twist, eh?

Invaders from Venus send warrior robots armed with death rays, but we learn (through dialog) that the invaders haven't done so well against the military, and all that remains are a brigade of robots who have taken over Chicago, forcing the population to evacuate.

Yeah, I know . . . I've never gotten a real clear picture of how this alleged invasion went down either, but there you have it, folks.

Anyway, the survivors in deserted Chicago include Richard Denning ("Creature from the Black Lagoon"), Kathleen Crowley ("The Flame Barrier") and several criminal types who are almost as dangerous as the robots — which unfortunately are neither well-designed or constructed (boxy in shape, clumsy in movement).







Miss Crowley is considerably more pleasingly built.





For the record, she also smoldered visibly in The Flame Barrier.





However, the robots do manage to convey a certain sinister air, and "Target Earth" contains a modest amount of action and suspense. Whit Bissell ("I Was a Teenaged Werewolf") heads a small team of scientist who work diligently to find the Achilles heel of the robot invaders.





This minor effort might not be inspiring, but it isn't offensive either, showing enough intelligence, sincerity, and good intentions to make it fun to watch if you're willing forgive what its shortcomings.
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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)

[orzel-w]

A couple of the shortcomings...

I felt really cheated when I saw this as a kid at the local theater. In this shot, the first we "see" of the robots, the robot's shadow cast by sunlight on the building covers at least six stories... and that isn't even the entire robot.



So I was expecting... GIANT robots! What a letdown.

This technical flaw wasn't something I caught until I was much older.



A .45 caliber M1911 semi-automatic pistol has a safety lock (#35 in the diagram) built into the grip just below the hammer.



The grip must be squeezed to release the safety lever in order to pull the trigger. All the robot could do was pull back on the trigger without squeezing.
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...or not...

WayneO
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[alltare]

I can't explain it, but I have a fondness for this movie. Enough so that I bought the DVD in 2003 when it was first released.

TARGET EARTH is based on the short story DEADLY CITY. The most notable difference between the two is the ending: In the movie, the two main characters, Frank Brooks (Richard Denning) and Nora King (Kathleen Crowley) are implied to have become lovers or at least good friends, who drive off into the sunset together. DEADLY CITY, on the other hand, has a very downbeat ending: Frank and Nora simply go on their separate paths- Frank to another town and Nora back to her former occupation as a hooker.

You can download DEADLY CITY from
http://www.feedbooks.com/book/4852/deadly-city

Wow! I just noticed that the DVD is selling (or probably not selling) for $84 at Amazon. Maybe it's time to cash in.

[Robert (Butch) Day]

[Krel]

[orzel-w]

[alltare]

Why does a robot need a codpiece?

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[Eadie]

[Bud Brewster]

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Good point, Eadie. Modest robots don't go around showing the parts they want keep private.
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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)

[alltare]

I notice that there are at least two threads that are about the movie TARGET EARTH. There is this thread, "Taget Earth", started by Bud, and there is another thread started by bulldogtrekker, which has had no replies. It's at
http://www.allsci-fi.com/viewtopic.php?t=2342&highlight=target+earth

The odd thing about all of this is that the thread with the correctly spelled title is the one that's had no action. One would think that simple search engine results would have steered people to bulldogtrekker's thread more often than to this one.

I guess we'll have to attribute this phenomenon to Bud's magnetic personality. Or to the fact that Bud's Enhanced Alphabetical Index of Sci-Fi Movies only points to this thread.

[Bud Brewster]

[alltare]

Ah, yes. I see it now. If you're surfing the menu, and if you're at the top menu, there is that "click and watch" note just below the "All Sci-Fi's Movie Room" link. However, if you get to the TARGET EARTH movie room via search engine results, as I did, then that message isn't seen at all and it is not immediately apparent that you're in the movie room. When I view the thread itself, the only indicator is the menu path shown just below the title, which is not something of which I ordinarily take notice. Now I know better.

I have been looking at that misspelled title for at least a year, and didn't notice "Taget" until a few days ago. Now that you changed the spelling, it will be interesting to see if gets a few more hits.

[Bud Brewster]

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Good Lord, Steve! Why are you using that god awful search function? It's as useless as a surf board on Tatooine!

You should familiarize yourself with the wonderful organization of All Sci-Fi. I've been perfecting it for ten years. It's the best organized message board on the web. Here's a few reasons why.

Every movie is located in the appropriate forum according to it's release date. The index has no silly names for the forums like, "The Golden Age of Alien Invades and Bug-Eyed Monsters!" Just a clear title that everybody understands instantly.

Sci-Fi Movies and Serials from 1950 to 1969

Every movie forum has our exclusive Alphabetical Indexes and Chronological Indexes, the only board that has these features — except for the two indexes on the Science Fiction Message Board . . . and I made those too!

Enhanced Alphabetical Index of Sci-Fi Movies - 1950 to 1969

Chronological Index of movies by release dates

Every movie that has a thread on All Sci-Fi is listed on the Alphabetical Index and Chronological Index for that forum. So, there are two quick and easy ways to find any movie.

Ever movie title is a link directly to the one-and-only thread for that movie. We have NO duplicate threads — unlike the poor folks at the CHFB, who have (for example) 30 threads for The Creature from the Black Lagoon. I had to just pick the largest thread to include in the Enhanced Index, to accompany the link to our own (single) thread.

Creature from the Black Lagoon (1954)

____________________________________CHFB thread

I can find the thread for any movie on this board in under ten seconds flat, with just my right hand on the mouse. I don't even have to type the title!

If you'd like to be both entertained and informed at the same time, click on the link below and become an instant expert! You'll save a lot of time if you learn just how well organized All Sci-Fi is.

Take the Grand Tour and get to know All Sci-Fi!
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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)

[alltare]

Bud,

I'm very familiar with your menus and indices- I even referred to alphabetical index in my message above, but those are only lists of topic TITLES, and they contain no information whatsoever about the contents of posts within the topics. Although they're extremely useful (thanks again for all the hard work!), they are limited in that respect.

I was searching for any mentions of TARGET EARTH in any other posts, anywhere on the ASF site. I wasn't searching for only topic titles. I know of no way, other than the clunky search engine, to find such info. For example, if I recall that someone has mentioned a .357 magnum pistol in an unknown message somewhere on ASF, and I had no idea where I had read it, I would do the following:

Type "357 magnum" in the search bar,
Check the "Search for all terms" box,
Enter "All Available" in the Forum selection box,
and click the "Search" box.

In this case, there will be only one result- the TARGET EARTH topic.

How would YOU find that particular term? I would be very interested to learn of a better way.

I completely agree with you about the quality of the search function, but it does have its uses, as I have just described. The very worst thing about it is that it can only search for words, not phrases. It would be extremely useful if multi-word phrases could be enclosed in quotes, so that phrases would be searched as if they were single words (example: searching for TARGET EARTH or "TARGET EARTH" returns identical results). Currently, the 2 words appear in 21 posts to 17 topics. Not all of those posts are about "TARGET EARTH", however. Many of the posts simply contain the 2 unconnected words. (The results give WISHBONE EXPRESS chapters 3 and 12 as two of the results, because TARGET and EARTH both occur in those topics, but the 2 words are paragraphs apart).

See, there is some sense to my methods after all.

[Bud Brewster]

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Ah, I stand corrected, sir.

You've obviously had much better luck (and much more patience) with the search function than I have. Perhaps I need more practice (and more of my patience pills).

Yes, the fact that it does not search for phrases "as entered" is one of the reasons I dislike it so much.

Anyway, I'm sure you enjoyed the "grand tour" of All Sci-Fi at the link I included and you'll do well on the short follow-up quiz you'll receive by email.

I did mention that there'd be a quiz, right?

No?

Damn, I'll have to up the dosage on my memory pills, too.
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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)