*For the next week or so plus, I’m going to add a random film the great Ray Harryhausen worked on. The legendary special effects MASTER passed away yesterday at age 92 in London and yes, the film world owes him more than they can ever repay.

Without Ray Harryhausen’s still impressive special effects, Earth vs. The Flying Saucers would probably have been just another 1950’s “B” movie lost to the ages, only popping up on one of those cheapo compilation DVD’s you see as impulse items at some big box stores. However, thanks to those awesome saucers and some fine destruction of federal property by some rather cranky aliens, the film has been a favorite as well as an inspiration for other flicks from Independence Day to Mars Attacks! and more. The somewhat clunky acting and use of WWII stock footage don’t hurt the film one bit because they’re usually only a few minutes from one of Harryhausen’s cool animated saucers blowing the heck out of something or simply flying across the sky…

The plot concerns US research satellites being blown out of the sky by a race of rather paranoid aliens who think the Earth is sending weapons after them. A little overreacting certainly goes a long way, as the aliens resort to kidnapping and blowing up some important facilities just to make sure nothing else takes off. By the time there’s communication set up between the humans and aliens, it’s clear that a full-on invasion and occupation is planned, and it’s up to a scientist and his new wife to come up with a means of dealing with the threat. Of course, you know who’s going to win, as I can’t think of many movies from that era where the aliens actually came out ahead. That said, the military does get its collective butt kicked in a few scenes where troops and vehicles get zapped into nothing courtesy of some powerful death rays.

The aliens themselves are seen in some great-looking dark “metal” space suits that protect them as long as they’re behind a force field. One of them is killed during a brief gunfight and when it’s autopsied, we find out they’re quite fragile and skinny under that armor. The film also does a decent job of showing off some alien tech aboard one of the saucers, a nice touch that immerses the viewer even more into the story. That mind reading/mind control device they use on a few characters leads to a predictable answer to a baseball trivia question (“Which team won the most World Series?”) and some other revealing information, but thankfully, the movie doesn’t dwell too much on trying to be too scientific once the action gets going.

I still remember seeing this flick as a kid and thinking the Washington Monument has indeed been knocked down by a flying saucer and upon getting the chance to go to D.C. on a trip, getting a little chill from seeing the structure up close and personal. Yeah, I looked around and listened for that telltale saucer sound before approaching the building… just in case. Anyway, things wrap up with all good and well and back to “normal” by the end… er, save for plenty of real estate needing repair and some undertakers soon to become pretty wealthy from all the funerals that would need to be held. But that’s par for the course in these sci-fi flicks, right? We get beat to hell, but as long as the heroes save the day, we’ll bounce back from whatever those damn aliens zap or drop on us.