Today I watched both movies in one of the many Midnite Movies DVD sets. I have been picking up the Midnite Movie series when I see them. They're a good deal, the movies vary in quality but are usually entertaining. The discs are pretty bare bones, just a trailer for an extra. First up was Invisible Invaders, a 1959 movie about invading aliens who are invisible. That's tough to see. It was written by Samuel Newman and directed by Edward L Cahn. Samuel was the story editor on the Perry Mason TV show from 1961 to 1965 and he wrote a number of episodes. I've only seen one of his feature films, the 1951 Tarzan film Tarzan's Peril. Edward has directed several low budget SF and Horror films, here's 3 you might know, Creature With The Atom Brain, Invasion Of The Saucer Men and It! The Terror From Beyond Space. The last film is my favorite of his works.
Robert Hutton, Jean Byron, Philip Tonge and John Agar are the main cast. Robert and Philip are scientists, Jean's Philip's daughter and John is an Air Force Captain guarding the scientists. They have a fairly good looking lab, with plenty of props but no other people. Much of the movie is filmed there. The outdoor scenes are mostly woods and there are more extras there. The aliens attack, and as you know, no one can even see them. Some of the aliens animate dead bodies and move the corpses about. The aliens are pretty much the dicks here, what with planning to take over the world and all.
The scientist's are looking for a weapon to defeat the invisible invaders. There's a bit of running about outside. It's dangerous out there, the zombie like aliens are looking for the secret lab. They've managed to destroy a lot of the human cities and kill a lot of people. They plan to eliminate the human's and live on Earth. See, it's non-stop dickishness from the invisible douche-bags from space.
Eventually the scientist's come through with the goods and their weapon blasts those aliens right out of the dead. The left over human's are saved. Hooray. I liked it, even though it's not that great, there's a bit of excitement, some shambling dead, and a goofy weapon. I gave it a 5 and that's what it's score is on the IMDb. I've seen it before and might watch it again someday.
The second movie is on the other side of the disc. It's called Journey To The Seventh Planet and it came out in 1962. It's another John Agar film and it was directed by Sidney W Pink. Sid co-wrote the movie with Ib Melchior. Sid was a producer, writer and director, he directed 6 films, I've only seen this one and Reptilicus.
John is the Captain of a spaceship to Uranus. When they get there they find a strange place that's similar to Earth. It's shrouded in a barrier that they can pass through. People and places appear as they look around. People and places from their minds. One of the men is fearful of rats and the party is attacked by a giant rat.
Eventually they figure out some alien is manipulating them and they have to figure out how to beat him.
Maybe it's not as well made as the other movie but it has a nice mix of seriousness and goofiness. Sid's just not as good a film maker as Edward was. I still gave it a 5 on the IMDb, a 4 seemed too low, it's got a 4.8 average there. I was glad to see it again. I had forgotten the story from the first time I saw it 15 years or so ago. I doubt I'll wait 15 more years to see it again.
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