Invisible Invaders (1959)

Absolutely the worst movie.

The first must-see film of the year.

After playing with our expectations, this turns out to be a very different sort of film.

The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

Invisible Invaders (1959) ** (out of 4) Incredibly silly film about an invisible alien who comes to Earth to once again try to wipe us all out. Thankfully for us humans Maj. Bruce Jay (John Agar) is on hand to try and save us. INVISIBLE INVADERS has the reputation of being one of the worst films ever made but I think that's a tad bit too harsh for a number of reasons. The biggest for me is that it's hard for a 66-minute movie to be the worst ever made because the filmmakers are at least smart enough to not keep giving us stuff to make the movie run longer than it should. The 66-minutes actually go by rather fast for the most part and this is always a good thing. Another thing this film has going for it is that we're given some familiar names that cult and "B" movie fans are going to know. Agar certainly looks a bit tired here but maybe he just wasn't feeling good during the production. He's at least entertaining and has no problem carrying the film. John Carradine appears briefly at the start of the picture and while he's certainly not reaching the levels he did in THE GRAPES OF WRATH, it's still fun seeing him. Jean Byron plays the female/love interest and does a nice job as well. Robert Rutton is also in the cast and adds some charm. The special effects are pretty bland as usually we just gets piles of dirt "moving" to show us the invisible creature or we get branches moving. These certainly aren't groundbreaking but at the same time they could have been a lot worse. There's some stock footage used throughout with the funniest bit happening when a plane crashes, due to the aliens, but the stock footage is from a test run and you can see the "X" mark to where it's supposed to hit.

No, this movie did not "inspire" Ed Wood.Plan Nine From Outer Space may have been released after this film, but it was shot at least two years prior to this one (around 1956), and probably was written one or two years before that. Ed Wood spent some time trying to get the thing made/gathering money together, and then after the film was actually completed, PNFOS sat on the shelf for quite a while before it got minimal screen time from a barely interested distributor in 1959 at the bottom of low budget double or triple bills.Having said that, I highly doubt that the makers or writers of this film actually saw PNFOS prior to putting together Invisible Invaders. PNFOS was just that ignored and low profile before it achieved its notorious reputation as "The Worst Film Ever Made," which did not take place until the early 1980's.I'm sure it's just a matter of pure coincidence, or let's be a little more generous and say zeitgeist among 1950's low budget science fiction/monster movie makers, and leave it at that. There were many other plot threads repeated in these low budget genre pictures during that time. There was the "traveling to another planet and finding the underground civilization of hot female beauty pageant winners in high heels and showgirl costumes" plot, or there was the "astronaut goes up into space and returns to Earth as a mutated monster" yarn. How about the similarities between the Steven King/Frank Darabont "The Mist" and the 1963 Grade-Z cheapie "The Slime People"? Many others I could mention.Although as far as George Romero goes, it's quite possible that both Invisible Invaders and Plan Nine From Outer Space did make some contribution towards the idea behind Night of the Living Dead. Both films were occasionally screened on late night local TV broadcasts during the 1960's on various local channels around the USA. But, I'm sure Romero would deny it.

"Invisible Invaders" is mostly the typical '50s B movie: totally ridiculous and very enjoyable. When a bunch of see-through aliens invades earth, the scientists go to work trying to figure out how the planet can fight back. One can definitely see how the movie provided some material for "Night of the Living Dead", as possessed corpses traipse around looking for more people to kill.If the movie has any lesson, it's about working together to solve problems. Not something that humanity's been too good at in the past decade. For the most part, it's just your typical corny but fun sci-fi flick. And if I may say so, Jean Byron looked sexy in those pants! PS: John Agar was Shirley Temple's first husband.

During the Fifties, studios churned out hundreds of low budget science fiction films, some awful, many good. Often the starting point was that radiation from A-bomb tests was causing headaches for Mankind, making people radioactive was one of the few things it did not do! Films about unseen aliens were popular, mainly because they negated the need for make-up and special effects. 'Invisible Invaders', directed by Edward Cahn from a screenplay by Sam Newman, was typical.Scientist Dr.Karol Noymann ( John Carradine ) is killed when an experiment goes wrong. Another scientist, Penner ( Philip Tonge ), receives a visit from the dead Noymann, whose corpse has been reanimated by hostile aliens. They claim to have a base on the Moon, from which they will launch an all-out attack unless we stop meddling with atomic power. Penner tries to warn the world but is treated like a lunatic. The aliens commence the attack. They reanimate the dead all over the world, and panic ensues.Penner, along with a few other scientists, a pretty girl and a military officer ( John Agar ) retreat to an underground bunker to endeavour to find a solution to the problem...What is interesting about this picture is that the walking dead bear a striking similarity to those in George A.Romero's 'Night Of The Living Dead', nearly a decade in the future. The same blank, glassy-eyed stare, the lumbering gait, the outstretched arms, about the only thing they do not do is actually eat anybody.Despite its Poverty Row status ( stock footage of collapsing buildings is used to represent the Earth in peril ), the picture manages a few genuinely suspenseful moments, such as the scientist's experimentation on a captured zombie. Alas it has a few hokey moments too, most notably the possessed pilot informing spectators at an ice hockey match that their world is doomed. Hearing this, they flee in terror ( its like something of an old Three Stooges short ). But the good points outweigh the bad.John Agar has acquired something of a cult following amongst bad movies buffs, and while he was never in danger of winning an Oscar is actually no worse than many other Fifties leading men ( and knocks spots off Keanu Reeves! ). Robert Hutton later starred in another daft picture about invading aliens - 'They Came From Beyond Space' ( 1967 ).Rather than snarkily denigrating low budget 50's sci-fi films, we should treasure them for succeeding as entertainment, something many modern big budget productions ( the remake of 'The Day The Earth Stood Still' comes to mind ) consistently fail to do.