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Earth vs. the Flying Saucers

Play trailer 2:15 Poster for Earth vs. the Flying Saucers Released Jul 4, 1956 1h 23m Sci-Fi Play Trailer Watchlist
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73% Tomatometer 15 Reviews 55% Popcornmeter 2,500+ Ratings
A space scientist (Hugh Marlowe) figures out how to down a fleet of alien spacecraft looming over Washington, D.C.
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Earth vs. the Flying Saucers

Critics Reviews

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Rob Humanick Slant Magazine One of countless pieces of '50s pulp to come out of a social fabric defined equally by interest in the unknown and mounting Cold War paranoia. Rated: 3/4 Jan 14, 2008 Full Review Mike Massie Gone With The Twins While the special effects may seem absurd when compared to all the CG images that inhabit most of today's blockbusters, this 1956 piece still focuses on a coherent storyline. Rated: 6/10 Aug 18, 2020 Full Review Tim Brayton Antagony & Ecstasy [The finest] of these formula-driven alien invasion movies... and not only because its flying saucers are pretty much the best ever. Rated: 7/10 May 16, 2013 Full Review Fernando F. Croce CinePassion Machine gun-happy paranoia to The Day the Earth Stood Still's messianic disarmament Mar 9, 2010 Full Review Steve Crum Video-Reviewmaster.com Harryhausen effects are first reason to see this sci-fi mini-classic, and it is a fun trip. Rated: 4/5 Mar 14, 2009 Full Review Emanuel Levy EmanuelLevy.Com Rated: 2/5 Aug 16, 2005 Full Review Read all reviews

Audience Reviews

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Blu B It's ok. Pretty standard 50's B Movie Sci-Fi stuff. I'd say it was probably very impressive for it's time (which to a degree it was) but Forbidden Planet was released the same year and War of the Worlds came out a few years before that. So I'm sure even than this looked a bit cheesy. The special effects are quite the buffett of stock images, minitures, stop motion, clever editing and practical work. You can see the ambition in seqeuences like the end attack on the capital at times. Problem is, it's very dated looking at times and nowhere as clean or impressive as some of the best from this era. The acting is pretty wooden and stock. The characters are super forgettable like the humans in the Sonic the Hedgehog movies. The direction is pretty basic stuff also and doesn't match the ambition in the effects. The plot is just a standard aliens attack and our plan to save the world. Pretty standard stuff, nothing executed particular bad or well, makes perfect sense but is just very dry and boring at certain points. I swear the final 15 minutes feels like 45. The action can just drag at times surpsingly for such a short runtime. This feels like it's over 2 hours. It gets expose heavy at times to and just feels like it isn't the clearest when trying to make things work smoothly though it does make perfect sense. Skip this. Nothing really much more to say besides there are tons and tons of better alien invasion movies out there. Rated 3 out of 5 stars 09/23/25 Full Review Dave S Once you get past the fact that the aliens look a bit like humans disguised as fire hydrants and that the alien translation device looks a lot like a snot-soaked, luminescent wad of tissue, and that the whole thing is terribly predictable (we’re still walking around on the planet, so you kind of know who wins), Earth vs. the Flying Saucers is actually a pretty decent little sci-fi movie. It moves along at a really nice clip, Ray Harryhausen’s special effects are more than decent, the acting and the script are solid, and the production values are respectable considering the fact that it’s a low-budget B movie. Compared to other movies of its genre from the same time period, Earth vs. the Flying Saucers stands up quite nicely. Rated 3 out of 5 stars 07/31/25 Full Review Lautaro M This is the most amazing movie I've ever seen! this movie is so creative and soulful than todays movies. Rated 5 out of 5 stars 07/28/25 Full Review Loretta M I really loved it! The Characters and actors in the leading roles had good chemistry. A love story and I loved Joan Taylor's strong female lead. Hugh Marlowe is one of my favorite actors. Liked him in the classic film, "The day the earth stood still" as well. Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars 09/18/24 Full Review Liam D Made during the height of Cold War tension this sci-fi thriller has some Campy b movie delights with effects by the legendary Ray Harryhausen (Mighty Joe Young, The Valley of Gwangi) Rated 4 out of 5 stars 07/05/24 Full Review Jack S Generally well made but hokey sci-fi that's impossible to take seriously since Tim Burton's amusing send-up, Mars Attacks. But the special effects are actually quite good for the era plus, the finale—where Washington DC is devastated (mostly by crashing flying saucers knocked out of the sky by humans, rather than alien attacks!) is really very exciting. Rated 3 out of 5 stars 12/31/23 Full Review Read all reviews
Earth vs. the Flying Saucers

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Movie Info

Synopsis A space scientist (Hugh Marlowe) figures out how to down a fleet of alien spacecraft looming over Washington, D.C.
Director
Fred F. Sears
Producer
Charles H. Schneer
Screenwriter
Donald E. Keyhoe, Curt Siodmak, George Worthing Yates, Bernard Gordon
Distributor
Columbia Pictures, Columbia Tristar
Production Co
Columbia Pictures Corporation
Genre
Sci-Fi
Original Language
English
Release Date (Theaters)
Jul 4, 1956, Original
Release Date (Streaming)
Apr 16, 2012
Runtime
1h 23m
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