The Flying Saucer

This article is about the 1950 film. For other uses, see Flying saucer (disambiguation).
The Flying Saucer

Directed by Mikel Conrad
Produced by Mikel Conrad
Written by Howard Irving Young
Mikel Conrad
Starring Mikel Conrad
Music by Darrell Calker
Cinematography Phillip Tannura
Edited by Robert Crandall
Production
company
Colonial Productions, Inc.
Distributed by Film Classics Inc.
Release dates
  • 1950 (1950)
Running time
 75 minutes
Country United States
Language English

The Flying Saucer is a 1950 independently made American black-and-white science fiction film, written by Howard Irving Young from an original story by Mikel Conrad who also produced, directed, and stars with Pat Garrison and Hantz von Teuffen. The film was distributed in the United States by Film Classics Inc.

The Flying Saucer is the first feature film to deal with the (then) new and hot topic of flying saucers.[1] Flying saucers, or alien craft shaped like flying disks or saucers, were first identified and given the popular name on June 24, 1947, when private pilot Kenneth Arnold reported nine silvery, crescent-shaped objects flying in tight formation. A newspaper reporter coined the snappy tagline, "flying saucers", which captured the public's imagination.[2] The film has no relationship and should not be confused with the later Ray Harryhausen science fiction film Earth vs. the Flying Saucers, released by Columbia Pictures.

Plot

American Intelligence officials learn that Soviet spies have begun exploring a remote region of the Alaskan Territory in search of answers to the worldwide reports of "flying saucers". A wealthy American playboy, Mike Trent (Mikel Conrad), who was raised in that remote region, is recruited by intelligence officer Hank Thorn (Russell Hicks) to assist a Secret Service agent in exploring that area to discover what the Soviets may have found.

To his pleasant surprise, Mike discovers the agent is an attractive woman named Vee Langley (Pat Garrison); they set off together and slowly become mutually attracted to each other. Their cover story is that Mike is suffering from a nervous breakdown and she is his private nurse. At Mike's family's wilderness lodge, they are met by a foreign-accented caretaker named Hans (Hantz von Teuffen), new to the job.

Mike is very skeptical of the flying saucer reports until he spots one flying over the lodge. Assorted complications ensue until Mike and Vee finally discover that Hans is one of the Soviet agents who is trying to acquire the flying saucer, hidden at Twin Lakes. It turns out that the saucer is an invention of American scientist Dr. Laughton (Roy Engel). But Turner (Denver Pyle) Laughton's assistant, a communist sympathizer, has other ideas and tries to make a deal to sell the saucer to the Soviets for one million dollars.

Mike's trip to Juneau to see old friends including Matt Mitchell (Frank Darrien), is ill-advised and when Vee tracks him down, he is in the company of a bar girl, Nanette (Virginia Hewitt). Matt gets mixed up with the Soviet agents who are trying to obtain control of the saucer. When he tries to strike a bargain with ring leader Colonel Marikoff (Lester Sharpe) at the spy's headquarters, Matt is knocked unconscious.

Matt is able to escape and seeks out Mike, but they are attacked by Soviet agents, who kill Matt. Before he dies, Matt reveals the location of the saucer. Mike rents an aircraft, flies to Twin Lakes where the saucer is hidden at an isolated cabin. When he flies back to his lodge, he tries to find Vee who has tried to spirit Lawton away, but all of the trio are captured by the turncoat Taylor and a group of Soviet agents. The Soviets lead their prisoners through a secret tunnel under the glacier, an avalanche, however, wipes out the agents. Mike, Vee, and Lawton escape from the tunnel in time to see Turner fly off in the saucer, which explodes in mid-air, due to a bomb that Lawton planted on board. Their mission accomplished, Mike and Vee embrace and kiss.

Cast

  • Mikel Conrad as Mike Trent
  • Pat Garrison as Vee Langley
  • Hantz von Teuffen as Hans
  • Roy Engel as Dr. Lawton
  • Lester Sharpe as Col. Marikoff
  • Denver Pyle as Turner, a spy
  • Earl Lyon as Alex, a spy
  • Frank Darrien as Matt Mitchell
  • Russell Hicks as Intelligence Chief Hank Thorn
  • Virginia Hewitt as Nanette, bar girl
  • Garry Owen as Bartender

Production

Principal photography for The Flying Saucer took place from late September to early October 1949 at Hal Roach Studios.[3] Additional B-roll photography was shot in Alaska on location where, according to a September 21, 1949 article in the Los Angeles Examiner, Mikel Conrad claimed to have obtained footage of actual flying saucers while shooting Arctic Manhunt in Alaska in the winter of 1947. [4]

The opening prologue appears before the onscreen credits and states: "We gratefully acknowledge the cooperation of those in authority who made the release of the 'Flying Saucer' film possible at this time." The message obliquely alluded to some authorized government films of flying saucers. None of that footage was actually included in The Flying Saucer.[4]

Re-release

The Flying Saucer was re-released in 1953 in the United States by Realart Pictures Inc., on a double-bill with Atomic Monster, the retitled-reissue of Man Made Monster, originally released in 1941 by Universal Pictures.

Reception

The Flying Saucer did not rise above its B film origins; its low budget production doomed it to the bottom end of theater playbills and drive-ins. New York Times film critic Bosley Crowther observed: "A film called 'The Flying Saucer' flew into the Rialto yesterday and, except for some nice Alaskan scenery, it can go right on flying, for all we care. In fact, it is such a clumsy item that we doubt if it will go very far, and we hesitate, out of mercy, to fire even a critical shot at it".[5]

References

Notes

  1. ↑ Warren 2009, p. 6.
  2. ↑ Wright, Bruce Lanier. "Invaders from Elsewhere: Flying Saucers, Weirdness, and Pop Culture." Strange Magazine. Retrieved: January 8, 2015.
  3. ↑ "Original print information: The Flying Saucer." Turner Classics Movies. Retrieved: January 8, 2015.
  4. 1 2 "Notes: The Flying Saucer." Turner Classics Movies. Retrieved: January 8, 2015.
  5. ↑ Crowther, Bosley. "Movie Review: The Flying Saucer (1950)." The New York Times, January 5, 1950.

Bibliography

  • Strick, Philip. Science Fiction Movies. London: Octopus Books Limited, 1976. ISBN 0-7064-0470-X.
  • Warren, Bill. Keep Watching the Skies: American Science Fiction Films of the Fifties, 21st Century Edition. Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Company, 2009. ISBN 0-89950-032-3.
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