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登録情報
- アスペクト比 : 1.85:1
- 言語 : 英語
- 製品サイズ : 30 x 10 x 20 cm; 83.16 g
- EAN : 4547462071569
- 監督 : Fred F. Sears, Morris Ankrum
- メディア形式 : 色
- 時間 : 1 時間 23 分
- 発売日 : 2010/8/25
- 出演 : Hugh Marlowe, Joan Taylor, Donald Curtis
- 販売元 : ソニー・ピクチャーズエンタテインメント
- ASIN : B003U13KBW
- ディスク枚数 : 1
-
Amazon 売れ筋ランキング:
- 147,343位DVD (の売れ筋ランキングを見るDVD)
- - 2,861位外国のSF映画
- カスタマーレビュー:
商品の説明
内容紹介
この映画なくして、UFO映画を語ることはできない
【ストーリー】
打ち上げられた観測衛星が撃ち落とされる事件が発生。
やがて謎の円盤が飛来する。
応戦した軍は、円盤の破壊光線の前に壊滅する。
円盤人と接触したマーヴィン博士は、彼らの母星が崩壊し移住先に地球を選んだと知る。
円盤の推進力、磁場を遮る兵器の開発が始まるが、その完成を前に円盤の総攻撃が始まった。
【音声特典】
■音声解説
■オリジナル劇場予告編集
【Copyright】(C)1956, RENEWED 1984, COLUMBIA PICTURES INDUSTRIES, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
※ジャケット写真、商品仕様、映像特典などは予告なく変更となる場合がございますのでご了承ください。
内容（「Oricon」データベースより）
空飛ぶ円盤がワシントンを襲撃。宇宙人の目的は地球征服だった…。UFO映画の金字塔的作品。SFX界の巨匠レイ・ハリーハウゼンのDVDコレクション。
カスタマーレビュー
5つ星のうち4.5
星5つ中の4.5
721 件のグローバル評価
評価はどのように計算されますか?
全体的な星の評価と星ごとの割合の内訳を計算するために、単純な平均は使用されません。その代わり、レビューの日時がどれだけ新しいかや、レビューアーがAmazonで商品を購入したかどうかなどが考慮されます。また、レビューを分析して信頼性が検証されます。
トップレビュー
上位レビュー、対象国： 日本
レビューのフィルタリング中に問題が発生しました。後でもう一度試してください。
2021年5月25日に日本でレビュー済み
違反を報告
Amazonで購入
いかにも前時代的な空飛ぶ円盤。このイメージはティムバートンがマーズアタックでいただいてます。ハリーハウゼンのモデルアニメーションが楽しい反面エイリアンは役者が着ぐるみ着たものでいささか物足りない感じ。ハリーハウゼンのクリーチヤーにしてほしかった。でも円盤群が頑張っているので良しとします。モノクロ、カラーライズの切り替えできるのもポイント高し。
1人のお客様がこれが役に立ったと考えています
役に立った
2016年6月30日に日本でレビュー済み
Amazonで購入
もう５０年くらい昔のこと、『ウルトラＱ』のソノシートに海外の怪獣映画に登場するモンスターの紹介がオマケで付いてました。その中にここで登場する”円盤人”のイラストもありました。パッケージを見て、その記憶が一気に蘇り、ストーリーを度外視してとても懐かしい気持ちになりました。５０年を経て、絶対に観ることはないであろうと子ども心に思っていた宇宙人に会えたことを素直に喜んでます。
冷静に観ると「インデペンデンスデイ」などの侵略ものの原点になった映画なんだろうなと感じました。
冷静に観ると「インデペンデンスデイ」などの侵略ものの原点になった映画なんだろうなと感じました。
2014年9月30日に日本でレビュー済み
Amazonで購入
顔のアップなどは白黒でもくっきりでインパクトがある。カラーなら良いのに。カメラアングルが上手。
ストーリーは先に人工衛星やロケットが撃つ落とされるが、宇宙人は博士にワシントンとの話し合いにして欲しいと申し入れる。
意思疎通の脚本が変？で施設が爆破される。話し合いもせずにアメリカ軍がいきなり円盤を攻撃する。
平行して軍部は新兵器開発で円盤を落として最終はアメリカが勝利する。
野蛮アメリカそのもののストーリーでビルが破壊されるのは、映画を面白くしたいのが見え見えで面白くない。
他に無数の移住円盤がどうなったかも描かれていない。
脚本のまずさが古いSFそのもの。
特写はぎこちないが結構楽しめる。
ストーリーは先に人工衛星やロケットが撃つ落とされるが、宇宙人は博士にワシントンとの話し合いにして欲しいと申し入れる。
意思疎通の脚本が変？で施設が爆破される。話し合いもせずにアメリカ軍がいきなり円盤を攻撃する。
平行して軍部は新兵器開発で円盤を落として最終はアメリカが勝利する。
野蛮アメリカそのもののストーリーでビルが破壊されるのは、映画を面白くしたいのが見え見えで面白くない。
他に無数の移住円盤がどうなったかも描かれていない。
脚本のまずさが古いSFそのもの。
特写はぎこちないが結構楽しめる。
他の国からのトップレビュー
Amazon Customer
5つ星のうち5.0
EARTH vs. THE FLYING SAUCERS [1956 / 2008] [Blu-ray]
2016年11月5日に英国でレビュー済みAmazonで購入
EARTH vs. THE FLYING SAUCERS [1956 / 2008] [Blu-ray] Warning! Before You Scoff at Flying Saucers – See The Greatest SHOCK of All Time! Ray Harryhausen Presents For The FIRST TIME in COLOUR!
Aliens are everywhere, and they're attacking planet Earth in one of Ray Harryhausen's most amazing stop motion Sci-Fi classics. Dr. Russell Marvin [Hugh Marlowe] works for Operation Skyhook, a government task force sending rockets into space to probe for future space flights. But when the rockets begin mysteriously disappearing, Dr. Russell Marvin investigates along with his wife Carol [Joan Taylor], only to find the rockets are being intercepted by an army of space aliens who give humanity an ultimatum: Loyalty or death! As the aliens begin attacking cities and landmarks across the Earth including an unforgettable assault on Washington, D.C. and it’s up to Dr. Russell Marvin and his wife to figure out how to stop these diabolical creatures before it’s too late. Narrated by William Woodson (uncredited).
Cast: Hugh Marlowe, Joan Taylor, Donald Curtis, Morris Ankrum, John Zaremba, Thomas Browne Henry, Grandon Rhodes, Larry J. Blake, Fred Aldrich (uncredited), Nicky Blair (uncredited), Jimmy Cross (uncredited), Jack Deery (uncredited), Charles Evans (uncredited), Raoul Freeman (uncredited), Paul Frees (Alien voice) (uncredited), James Gonzalez (uncredited), Duke Green (uncredited), Ed Haskett (uncredited), Clark Howat (uncredited), Harry Lauter (uncredited), Don Marlowe (uncredited), William Meader (uncredited), Sol Murgi (uncredited), Forbes Murray (uncredited), William J. O'Brien (archive footage) (uncredited), Murray Pollack (uncredited), Mike Ragan (uncredited), Alan Reynolds (uncredited), Bert Stevens (uncredited), Arthur Tovey (uncredited), Dale Van Sickel (uncredited), Guy Way (uncredited), Bob Whitney (uncredited), Frank Wilcox (uncredited), Beal Wong (uncredited) and William Woodson (Narrator voice) (uncredited)
Director: Fred F. Sears
Producers: Charles H. Schneer and Sam Katzman
Screenplay: Bernard Gordon (screenplay) (originally as Raymond T. Marcus), Curt Siodmak (screen story), George Worthing Yates (screenplay) and Major Donald E. Keyhoe (novel)
Composer: Mischa Bakaleinikoff (uncredited)
Cinematography: Fred Jackman Jr. (Director of Photography)
Special Visual Technical Effects: Ray Harryhausen
Video Resolution: 1080p [Black-and-White and Colour]
Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1
Audio: English: 5.1 TrueHD Master Audio, English: 2.0 Dolby Digital Stereo and French: 2.0 Dolby Digital Audio
Subtitles: English SDH, English, French, Japanese, Portuguese, Arabic and Hindi
Running Time: 83 minutes
Region: All Regions
Number of discs: 1
Studio: Sony Pictures Home Entertainment
Andrew’s Blu-ray Review: Here we are again with another entry in my “Alien Invasion Films of the 1950s” series, this time we have this Sci-Fi classic from 1956 called ‘EARTH vs. THE FLYING SAUCERS.’ This is an interesting film in that has a typical 1950s fun feel to it made all the better by the amazing special effects by animation master Ray Harryhausen! This is actually the first time Ray Harryhausen animated something other than a living creature showing how creative and versatile he was. Stop-motion animation is done by photographing models one frame at a time to give the illusion that they are in motion when the film is played back and the models are normally constructed around flexible armatures, and then optically combining the results with live action, often using a technique known as the traveling matte. This Sci-Fi film was influenced by a book written by Major Donald E. Keyhoe entitled “Flying Saucers From Outer Space.”
When live action is combined with the animated miniature, tricks can be played with scale, so that a model less than a foot tall can appear to loom up like a colossus. The first film with Ray Harryhausen in full charge of technical effects was ‘The Beast From 20,000 Fathoms’ [1953]. The filmmakers learned that a long-time friend of Ray Harryhausen, author Ray Bradbury, had sold a short story called “The Fog Horn” to The Saturday Evening Post, about a dinosaur drawn to a lone lighthouse by its foghorn. Because the story for Ray Harryhausen’s film featured a similar scene, the film studio bought the rights to Ray Bradbury’s story to avoid any potential legal problems. Ray Harryhausen soon met and began a fruitful partnership with producer Charles Schneer, who was working with the B-movie unit of Columbia Pictures.
With the Sci-Fi film ‘EARTH vs. THE FLYING SAUCERS’ [1956] we find the space scientist Dr. Russell Marvin [Hugh Marlowe] rushes home from his honeymoon with new wife Carol [Joan Taylor] because alien androids have been shooting down his satellites. Dr. Russell Marvin soon discovers that the evil extra-terrestrials plan to take over the Earth, so he tries to come up with a weapon that will stop them. Full of spectacular sequences involving huge flying saucers, ray guns and weird aliens, the film climaxes with an exciting battle between Earth’s military and the saucers over the city of Washington D.C. during which a number of famous landmarks are destroyed by the saucers. So impressive is the destruction that, for a time, we find ourselves rooting for the aliens.
When the Russian Sputnik was only a year away from being launched, alien invaders descended on Washington D.C. with their terrifying death rays in director Fred F. Sears’s ‘EARTH vs. THE FLYING SAUCERS’ one of countless films of the 1950s period to come out of a social fabric defined equally by interest in the unknown and mounting Cold War paranoia. Here, however, such social significance takes a backseat to pure B-movie matinee fun, albeit without losing any of its implicit self-examinations of moral questions in the process; the film lacks the weight of works like ‘Invasion of the Body Snatchers’ or ‘The Thing from Another World,’ but its thrills never want for intelligent examination of human behaviour under duress.
A series of rocket ships designed to collect information while orbiting the earth have been falling back to the surface almost as quickly as they’ve been launched, an occurrence soon explained by presence an extra-terrestrial species hovering nearby. Secretly planning to take over with as little force as necessary, the invaders only use force when fired upon by a typical belligerent knee-jerk US military, and quickly, their malicious intentions send scientists scrambling to discover a means to defend the earth against such technologically superior beings. Nuclear power is never explicitly invoked in the film, but a question of “what if” hangs dreadfully over the proceedings as the destruction ensues, begging reflection on the effectiveness of first attack versus the necessity of weapons as a means of self-defence.
Admittedly, to some people it is a very silly film, but to me I totally disagree, especially as it has some really spectacular special effects, so I feel it is a great deal of fun to watch, thanks mainly to the genius of Ray Harryhausen’s superbly animated saucers, yet in his autobiography he makes it quite clear that this was his least favourite film: “A prime fascination to me was the challenge of seeing just how interesting one could make an inanimate object such as a rounded metal spaceship. Although the variations were limited for stop-motion, they did provide the potential for doing something a little different than the other “flying saucer” pictures of the time.” The film can also be seen as a counter-argument to ‘The Day The Earth Stood Still’ [1951], in which Hugh Marlowe‘s character was wrong not to trust the alien who landed in Washington D.C.
The credible cast also includes Donald Curtis, Morris Ankrum and John Zaremba, but right now I’d like to focus on the voice of the aliens, the talented Paul Frees who, from the fifties to the seventies, was kept busy dubbing dialogue for other actors: He re-voiced Humphrey Bogart (who was suffering from throat cancer) in his final film ‘The Harder They Fall’ [1956]; replaced Tony Curtis‘s ‘Josephine’ dialogue in ‘Some Like It Hot’ [1959]; and re-recorded Toshiro Mifune‘s voice for ‘The Battle Of Midway’ [1976]. Unlike many voice actors who worked mainly for only one studio, Paul Frees worked extensively with some of the greatest animation companies of the last century, including Walt Disney, Walter Lantz, UPA, Hanna-Barbera, Filmation, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, DePatie Freleng, Jay Ward and Rankin-Bass. In fact, Paul Frees was still actively working until his sudden death in 1986 from heart failure.
Animator Willis O’Brien, who passed away in 1962, lived long enough to see some of his former pupil’s success, though most of the early films on which Ray Harryhausen worked were comparatively minor. But in the late fifties Ray Harryhausen, along with the producer with whom he nearly always worked, Charles Schneer, had a breakthrough film, ‘The Seventh Voyage of Sinbad’ [1958].
‘EARTH vs. THE FLYING SAUCERS’ [1956] is certainly not the first film to show elliptical spinning ships buzzing around bewildered researchers. But it does achieve repute from Ray Harryhausen’s memorable stop-motion animation and photographic effects, as well as the archetypal designs for wrinkled spacemen in stiff-armoured suits. Thanks to this forefather of science-fiction, many of today’s CGI extravaganzas have a foundation for crafting their own twists on the concept of sadistic creatures from the unknown bent on world domination.
‘EARTH vs. THE FLYING SAUCERS’ was well received by the audiences and critics alike at the time of the film’s release and the Variety publication noted that the special effects were the real stars of the film and now viewing this Blu-ray disc, I agree with that comment. The simple-minded story of the alien invasion being thwarted by a scientist’s sonic solution that looks to modern audiences a very basic scientific technique to fight back against the alien invaders, but it is still has a very entertainment value, especially of the master works of the genius of Ray Harryhausen, who went onto play a major role in subsequent fantasy and Sci-Fi genre films, many of which are still considered to be great classics and remain memorable examples of his work. They include: ‘The Seventh Voyage of Sinbad’ [1958], Jason and The Argonauts [1963], ‘The First Men in The Moon’ [1964], ‘The Golden Voyage of Sinbad’ [1973], and ‘Clash of The Titans’ [1981], to name but a few. I would like to thank the genius of Ray Harryhausen for his inspired profession work in Stop-motion animation.
Blu-ray Video Quality – Sony Pictures Home Entertainment brings you this wonderful Blu-ray with an equally wonderful 1080p encoded image, with an equally superb 1.85:1 aspect ratio. Also you have the choice of either watching the film in Black-and-White or in the Colourisation processing which I really enjoy viewing and I cannot understand why people are so negative about this process. Restoration has been successful, running damage out of the frame. Specks of dirt or scratches have been relegated to stock footage. All of that aside, this Blu-ray disc looks to come from a relatively high resolution source, the master was capable enough for the format with some grandiose texture on the saucer models and facial close-ups. The effect is similar to noise reduction at its peak, although lacking the usual aggression of that process. The grey scale affords the images with great. Blacks are superb, and contrast vivid without blotching sections of the video. Shadow detail is totally preserved and as for the colour and leaving the Colorization processing debate aside, saturation is clean especially with the usual pastel quality to the flesh tones.
Blu-ray Audio Quality – Sony Pictures Home Entertainment brings you this wonderful Blu-ray with an equally wonderful 5.1 TrueHD Master Audio. The hums of spaceship technology pan overhead in this wholly wonderful sound experience, making it feel as though saucers are really there, so making it totally fun and very enjoyable. The Alien machines are all over the sound field, spreading to all of your speakers. Explosions really breach the high-end, although there is a slightest hint of muffled sound activity when they crash into the water to give them a modern splash. Laser blasts sweep through the newly mixed channels without hiding the original mono sound track. Static, hiss, and pops are all cleaned up from the ageing material, dialogue is preserved from its low-budget roots. All of it stays in the centre without the mixers breaking from the frontal nature of the camera work.
Blu-ray Special Features and Extras:
Feature Film in Colour and Black-and-White.
Audio Commentary with Ray Harryhausen, Film Producer Arnold Kunert, Visual Effects Artists Jeffrey Okun and Ken Ralston: Here Arnold Kunert introduces himself and informs us that he is with three of his friends, who introduce themselves, and also inform us that they are here to talk about the colourization the classic Sci-Fi film ‘EARTH vs. THE FLYING SAUCERS’ that was produced by the genius that was Ray Harryhausen who of course chats about his involvement with the film as they all watch it. They all talk about the use of seeing the flying saucers at the beginning of the film, which Ray points out it is very unusual early on with most Sci-Fi films that seeing the flying saucers in films are very reluctant to do so until about half way through the film. They all ask Ray who made the flying saucers and Ray informs them that he designed the saucers that were made out of Aluminium and his father made them on his Sears, Roebuck & Company Lathe. The biggest saucer was 12 inches in diameter and there were three medium size saucers and three very small saucers for the long distance shots, and they were only 3 inches in diameter. They of course get on to talk about the screen credits and of course the business of Bernard Gordon who was “blacklisted” and now his name has been reinstated on the credits on this Blu-ray release. They also talk extensively about the stock shots used throughout the film and of course ray tells them that the reason they were used is because of the studio heads had a tight grip on the budget for making the film. They ask Ray about all the photographic images of The White House, Washington D.C. and the Pentagon and asked Ray if he was given permission to take these photographs and to be allowed to use them in the film and Ray answers them back with a big emphatic “NO.” But Ray also informs then he had to take the photos himself, as he could not afford to pay for a professional cameraman to take the photos. When we see Hugh Marlowe and Joan Taylor go down into the basement where all the pipes are featured, Ray informs us that this facility was actually a redundant sewage plant and even at the time of filming, sewage was still entering the pipes, which the three in the room thought that the smell was terrible, but Ray never commented about this. But one thing Ray did inform us that he suggested he record the noise of the pipes and that is what was used to give the sounds of the flying saucers, which amazed the three other people in the room with Ray. They talk about the different stock music score you hear in the background which were uncredited and we are told that it was from other Columbia Pictures films that included compositions from people like David Raksin, George Duning, Max Steiner, Miklós Rózsa to name but a few. As we get to the end of the film, they all say, “thank you for viewing this colorized film with us and we hope you enjoyed our running commentary like we did.” Well I say to that, that it was quite interesting hearing everyone’s comments, but sometimes they go very silly and a bit over the top, whereas Ray Harryhausen was really the only sane and sensible person who came out with the most intelligent and sensible replies out of the group. But despite this, it is still quite an interesting audio commentary.
Special Feature: The Hollywood Blacklist and Bernard Gordon [2007] [1080i] [1.78:1] [29:27] We hear why the screenwriter Bernard Gordon [1918 – 2007] American screenwriter and producer and for much of his 27-year career, toiled in obscurity, prevented from taking screen credit by the powers-that-be who were the Hollywood Blacklist for his political beliefs, and therefore his credits were removed from the films, and his best-known works are screenplays for the films ‘Flesh and Fury,’ ‘Earth vs. the Flying Saucers’ and ‘55 Days at Peking.’ In this look at this ludicrous situation, Del Reisman of the Writers Guild of America explains the ins and outs of Fifties communism inspired paranoia. Through his friendship with writer/entrepreneur Philip Yordan, and Bernard Gordon found regular work as a writer and producer in Madrid for the Samuel Bronston Productions. At first, however, he was still denied screen credit, with Philip Yordan frequently listing himself as sole author of films like ‘Circus World,’ ‘Battle of the Bulge,’ ‘Custer of the Wes’t and ‘The Day of the Triffids.’ Bernard Gordon did receive on-screen credit for ‘55 Days at Peking,’ and the first screen adaptation of ‘The Thin Red Line.’ As a producer, Bernard Gordon made a number of westerns in Spain and the well-received sci-fi thriller ‘Horror Express,’ co-starring Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee. Another film he wrote, ‘Cry of Battle,’ was playing at the cinema in which Lee Harvey Oswald was arrested by Dallas police on 22nd November, 1963. Bernard Gordon's blacklist-era work remained relatively anonymous until journalist Ted Newsom happened upon the man behind the assumed name Raymond T. Marcus (a name under which Bernard Gordon wrote or co-wrote). When the Writers Guild of America took up the task of correctly crediting pseudonymous screenwriters from the 1950s and 1960s, awarding retroactive screen credits to them, Bernard Gordon received more after-the-fact credits than any other blacklisted writer. His first film to receive posthumous credit was ‘The Day of the Triffids,’ originally credited to the film's producer, Phillip Yordan. Bernard Gordon subsequently wrote two autobiographical books detailing the 20-year surveillance of him by the FBI, and often spoke publicly about his experiences. He helped lead the fight against the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Lifetime Achievement Award to Elia Kazan, who cooperated with HUAC during the blacklist era. Sadly Bernard Gordon passed away on 11th May, 2007 in Hollywood, California. All in all this is a fascinating look at the life and times of the genius people that lived and worked in Hollywood and especially Bernard Gordon and Del Reisman is very articulate on telling us about the great black stain on that period of time in American history, which was The House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) that was created in 1938 to investigate alleged disloyalty and subversive activities on the part of private citizens, public employees, and those organizations suspected of having Communist ties.
Special Feature: Remembering ‘EARTH vs. THE FLYING SAUCERS’ [2007] [1080i] [1.78:1] [21:25] Here we find Ray Harryhausen [1920 – 2013] talking about the good times he had and the hard work into bringing his pet projects to fruition. Ray Harryhausen talks about his dear friend Charles Sneer [Producer] who use to cut news items out of the newspaper about sightings of flying saucers, and wondered if they could make a film about this phenomenon, and Ray Harryhausen was very enthusiastic about the project. We also get to hear from John Canemaker [Filmmaker, Author & Historian] and talks extensively about the genius that was Ray Harryhausen, and how he was also a very generous person, but most importantly how Ray Harryhausen wanted to make the flying saucers look realistic, and in this interview Ray Harryhausen has two of the small models in front of him and demonstrates how with his Stop-motion animation made the flying saucers look like they were actually flying and was a very time consuming process. We hear that Ray Harryhausen designed the alien space suites, and who coined the term “solidified electricity” in reference to the external suits that the aliens wear, and also informs us that it was all a load of old “hogwash” and just wanted to come up with a name to sound very scientific. We see Ray Harryhausen and a book signing convention and especially signing books for very young fans and really enjoyed attending these special conventions. Stan Winston [Special Make-Up Effects Artist] talks about his inspiration on why he want to pursue a career in films and it was all down to the genius of Ray Harryhausen, who he really admires and especially being the genius he was. Frank Darabont who is a French-Hungarian-American film director, screenwriter and producer who has been nominated for three Academy Awards and a Golden Globe Award, and also gives great praise to Ray Harryhausen and who he also thought was a total genius and inspired Frank Darabont to work in the film industry. All in all this is again a very fascinating insight into the life and times of Ray Harryhausen and is a must watch.
Special Feature: Interview with Joan Taylor [2007] [1080i] [1.78:1] [17:29] Joan Taylor the actress talks about her life and career with this very nice personal interview, and first talks about the two specific Ray Harryhausen this actress appeared in and mentions that it is now well over 52 years ago the films were first released and now being retired has not done any acting for a very long time. But one thing Joan was very surprised that anyone wanted to being asked to do this personal interview and was very happy and a nice gesture to be asked. When Joan was a very young child, dreamed of being a Shirley Temple and was a very keen tap dancer. We find out her father owned a cinema and at the weekends always went to the cinema to watch the films being shown and was totally enthralled to see all the Hollywood actors up on the big screen, and of course dreamed of being up their also with the stars on the silver screen. Over time Joan studied very hard, especially at music, dancing and did lots of shows for the USO [United Service Organization] which is The USO Show Troupe and is part of an American tradition that goes back 75 years to its beginnings in the muddy camp shows of the South Pacific, but the USO shows that Joan appeared in was where she lived in Illinois that was between the great lakes and the troupe would perform in the Military Hospital Wards for the young men who were badly injured very badly and it use to upset Joan very much. Eventually Joan moved on and moved to Pasadena in California and was warned there was no chance that Joan would not be allowed to perform at the Pasadena Playhouse, which is a historic performing arts venue located 39 S. El Molino Avenue in Pasadena, California, but with grit and determination, eventually performed in the Pasadena Playhouse, and this was in 1946 and performed there for 3 years and at the time met her husband and admits it was the best thing to happen to Joan in getting married to her husband. Eventually Hollywood beckoned and with her friend Victor got a part in a film with Randolph Scott, and this is where Joan learnt her craft, especially with all aspects of her acting career. Suddenly we get a notice appear on the screen, where it states, “Joan Taylor reminisces about working at M-G-M on its 1954 musical ‘Rose Marie,’ which was directed by Mervyn LeRoy, with choreography by Busby Berkeley and starring Howard Keel, Ann Blyth, Bert Kahr and Fernando Lamas.” Joan tells us that she had a great time working with Howard Keel and bert Lahr, who Joan thought was a really very kind and lovely man. When Joan’s contract with Paramount Pictures, went freelance, and came into contact with the producer Charles H. Schneer and of course got a part in the film ‘EARTH vs. THE FLYING SAUCERS,’ and found Hugh Marlowe a really wonderful actor, and one key thing Joan learnt from Hugh and especially being involved with the SAG [Screen Actors Guild] because he was a very big in the union business, and because Joan was asked to do some extra scenes in a her lunch break, Hugh stepped in and would not allow Joan to do that extra work, but overall, Joan really liked Hugh Marlowe, because he was very professional in his acting career and a joy to work with. Joan remembers the time in ‘EARTH vs. THE FLYING SAUCERS,’ and working in the locations of Washing D.C. and the Pentagon and had a marvellous time, but there was a downside because having to be delayed because of a hurricane, was not able to attend her daughters first birthday celebration and vowed this would never happen again. The following year Joan appeared in the film ‘20 MILLION MILES TO EARTH’ [1957] and appeared with the actor William Hopper, who was the only child of actress and Hollywood columnist Hedda Hopper, who was the American actress and the newspaper gossip columnist, and Joan also had a great time working with William Hopper, who felt he was also a very professional actor. Joan finally gets round to mentioning her family and especially her husband Leonard Freeman and the father to their three daughters and also was the man who created the TV series “Hawaii Five-0” and Joan was very proud of her husband being involved in the very successful TV series.
Special Feature: The Colourization Process [2007] [1080i] [1.78:1] [11:02] Ray Harryhausen and folks from Legend Films discuss the colourization process in films in general. Here again we meet Ray Harryhausen and talks about his films to be finally turned into the colorization process, and how pleased he was with the more up-to-date process, compared to when colorization first started, which was not very good at the time, but now have gone into leaps and bounds, and Ray Harryhausen that if they had a bigger budget they would of shot the films in colour. We also meet Barry B. Sandrew, who is the founder of Legend Films which is a San Diego-based company that was founded in August 2001. The company specialises in the conversion of feature films, both new release and catalogue titles, and commercials from their native 2D format into 3-D film format utilising proprietary technology and software. We hear all about the very intricate technology process details on how via a computer they add the subtle colours to a black-and-white film and we meet Rosemary Horvath [Creative Director] at Legend Films. All in all this a really nice and fascinating insight into the company that is the pioneer and recognized leader in the restoration and colorization of classic black-and-white films.
Special Feature: Original Screenplay Credits [2007] [1080i] [1.78:1] [3:16] In the 1950s, hundreds of actors, writers and directors were “blacklisted” by the Hollywood studios for their political beliefs and forbidden from working within the motion pictures and television industry. The actual co-writer of ‘EARTH vs. THE FLYING SAUCERS,’ along with George Worthing Yates, was blacklisted writer Bernard Gordon, whose credit has been restored with the original DVD release, and now with this Blu-ray disc release. As the following original credit roll shows, film audiences in 1956 saw the name “Raymond T. Marcus,” a Bernard Gordon acquaintance, receive co-writing credit for the film ‘EARTH vs. THE FLYING SAUCERS.’ So what you get to view is the beginning of the film until the actual film starts after the credits have finished.
Special feature: “FLYING SAUCERS vs. THE EARTH” Comic Book [1080p] What you have to do is use the Left and Right arrow keys on your remote control to navigate through the 15 pages of the Comic Book. Enjoy! If you press the centre arrow under the Comic Book images it takes you instantly back to the menu. What you view looks really fascinating, as it is a totally different story to the film and it was a shame they could not have been allowed to turn the Comic Book images and storyline into an actual film.
Special Feature: Galleries [2007] [1080p] [1.78:1] [23:20] Here you have two different categories that consist of Advertisement Art Photo Gallery and Production Photo Gallery. You can either play each category separately or Play All. What you get while viewing the images is the audio soundtrack of the film ‘EARTH vs. THE FLYING SAUCERS.’
Blu-ray Trailers: Here you get to view a selection of four Blu-ray trailers, which are as follows: SONY Pictures Home Entertainment Blu-ray Disc is High Definition [2008] [1080p] [1.78:1] [2:24]; ‘20 Million Miles To Earth’ [2007] [1080p] [1.78:1] [2:00]; ‘It Came from Beneath the Sea’ [2008] [1080p] [1.78:1] [2:03]; ‘The 7th Voyage of Sinbad’ [2008] [1080p] [1.78:1] [1:41].
Special Feature: BD-LIVE: BD-LIVE is a feature on Blu-ray discs that allows new content to be downloaded to the Blu-ray player. BD-Live features include movie trailers, automatic firmware updates, featurettes, games, and more.
BONUS: ChromaChoice: You have the facility to use the “Angle” button on your remote control to toggle between the colour and black-and-white versions at any time!
Finally, ‘EARTH vs. THE FLYING SAUCERS’ [1956] is of its time and the acting is slightly stiff, and the Mischa Bakaleinikoff’s film music score helps to move the film along. Overall though ‘EARTH vs. THE FLYING SAUCERS’ is well put together and is a lot of good fun from beginning to end, and feel it has its place in the Sci-Fi genre and of course in 1956 things were so different to what we see in the cinema today and I personal think it is a Sci-Fi classic of its time, that was helped with the genius that was Ray Harryhausen and it has now gone pride of place in my Blu-ray Collection. Highly Recommended!
Andrew C. Miller – Your Ultimate No.1 Film Aficionado
Le Cinema Paradiso
United Kingdom
Aliens are everywhere, and they're attacking planet Earth in one of Ray Harryhausen's most amazing stop motion Sci-Fi classics. Dr. Russell Marvin [Hugh Marlowe] works for Operation Skyhook, a government task force sending rockets into space to probe for future space flights. But when the rockets begin mysteriously disappearing, Dr. Russell Marvin investigates along with his wife Carol [Joan Taylor], only to find the rockets are being intercepted by an army of space aliens who give humanity an ultimatum: Loyalty or death! As the aliens begin attacking cities and landmarks across the Earth including an unforgettable assault on Washington, D.C. and it’s up to Dr. Russell Marvin and his wife to figure out how to stop these diabolical creatures before it’s too late. Narrated by William Woodson (uncredited).
Cast: Hugh Marlowe, Joan Taylor, Donald Curtis, Morris Ankrum, John Zaremba, Thomas Browne Henry, Grandon Rhodes, Larry J. Blake, Fred Aldrich (uncredited), Nicky Blair (uncredited), Jimmy Cross (uncredited), Jack Deery (uncredited), Charles Evans (uncredited), Raoul Freeman (uncredited), Paul Frees (Alien voice) (uncredited), James Gonzalez (uncredited), Duke Green (uncredited), Ed Haskett (uncredited), Clark Howat (uncredited), Harry Lauter (uncredited), Don Marlowe (uncredited), William Meader (uncredited), Sol Murgi (uncredited), Forbes Murray (uncredited), William J. O'Brien (archive footage) (uncredited), Murray Pollack (uncredited), Mike Ragan (uncredited), Alan Reynolds (uncredited), Bert Stevens (uncredited), Arthur Tovey (uncredited), Dale Van Sickel (uncredited), Guy Way (uncredited), Bob Whitney (uncredited), Frank Wilcox (uncredited), Beal Wong (uncredited) and William Woodson (Narrator voice) (uncredited)
Director: Fred F. Sears
Producers: Charles H. Schneer and Sam Katzman
Screenplay: Bernard Gordon (screenplay) (originally as Raymond T. Marcus), Curt Siodmak (screen story), George Worthing Yates (screenplay) and Major Donald E. Keyhoe (novel)
Composer: Mischa Bakaleinikoff (uncredited)
Cinematography: Fred Jackman Jr. (Director of Photography)
Special Visual Technical Effects: Ray Harryhausen
Video Resolution: 1080p [Black-and-White and Colour]
Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1
Audio: English: 5.1 TrueHD Master Audio, English: 2.0 Dolby Digital Stereo and French: 2.0 Dolby Digital Audio
Subtitles: English SDH, English, French, Japanese, Portuguese, Arabic and Hindi
Running Time: 83 minutes
Region: All Regions
Number of discs: 1
Studio: Sony Pictures Home Entertainment
Andrew’s Blu-ray Review: Here we are again with another entry in my “Alien Invasion Films of the 1950s” series, this time we have this Sci-Fi classic from 1956 called ‘EARTH vs. THE FLYING SAUCERS.’ This is an interesting film in that has a typical 1950s fun feel to it made all the better by the amazing special effects by animation master Ray Harryhausen! This is actually the first time Ray Harryhausen animated something other than a living creature showing how creative and versatile he was. Stop-motion animation is done by photographing models one frame at a time to give the illusion that they are in motion when the film is played back and the models are normally constructed around flexible armatures, and then optically combining the results with live action, often using a technique known as the traveling matte. This Sci-Fi film was influenced by a book written by Major Donald E. Keyhoe entitled “Flying Saucers From Outer Space.”
When live action is combined with the animated miniature, tricks can be played with scale, so that a model less than a foot tall can appear to loom up like a colossus. The first film with Ray Harryhausen in full charge of technical effects was ‘The Beast From 20,000 Fathoms’ [1953]. The filmmakers learned that a long-time friend of Ray Harryhausen, author Ray Bradbury, had sold a short story called “The Fog Horn” to The Saturday Evening Post, about a dinosaur drawn to a lone lighthouse by its foghorn. Because the story for Ray Harryhausen’s film featured a similar scene, the film studio bought the rights to Ray Bradbury’s story to avoid any potential legal problems. Ray Harryhausen soon met and began a fruitful partnership with producer Charles Schneer, who was working with the B-movie unit of Columbia Pictures.
With the Sci-Fi film ‘EARTH vs. THE FLYING SAUCERS’ [1956] we find the space scientist Dr. Russell Marvin [Hugh Marlowe] rushes home from his honeymoon with new wife Carol [Joan Taylor] because alien androids have been shooting down his satellites. Dr. Russell Marvin soon discovers that the evil extra-terrestrials plan to take over the Earth, so he tries to come up with a weapon that will stop them. Full of spectacular sequences involving huge flying saucers, ray guns and weird aliens, the film climaxes with an exciting battle between Earth’s military and the saucers over the city of Washington D.C. during which a number of famous landmarks are destroyed by the saucers. So impressive is the destruction that, for a time, we find ourselves rooting for the aliens.
When the Russian Sputnik was only a year away from being launched, alien invaders descended on Washington D.C. with their terrifying death rays in director Fred F. Sears’s ‘EARTH vs. THE FLYING SAUCERS’ one of countless films of the 1950s period to come out of a social fabric defined equally by interest in the unknown and mounting Cold War paranoia. Here, however, such social significance takes a backseat to pure B-movie matinee fun, albeit without losing any of its implicit self-examinations of moral questions in the process; the film lacks the weight of works like ‘Invasion of the Body Snatchers’ or ‘The Thing from Another World,’ but its thrills never want for intelligent examination of human behaviour under duress.
A series of rocket ships designed to collect information while orbiting the earth have been falling back to the surface almost as quickly as they’ve been launched, an occurrence soon explained by presence an extra-terrestrial species hovering nearby. Secretly planning to take over with as little force as necessary, the invaders only use force when fired upon by a typical belligerent knee-jerk US military, and quickly, their malicious intentions send scientists scrambling to discover a means to defend the earth against such technologically superior beings. Nuclear power is never explicitly invoked in the film, but a question of “what if” hangs dreadfully over the proceedings as the destruction ensues, begging reflection on the effectiveness of first attack versus the necessity of weapons as a means of self-defence.
Admittedly, to some people it is a very silly film, but to me I totally disagree, especially as it has some really spectacular special effects, so I feel it is a great deal of fun to watch, thanks mainly to the genius of Ray Harryhausen’s superbly animated saucers, yet in his autobiography he makes it quite clear that this was his least favourite film: “A prime fascination to me was the challenge of seeing just how interesting one could make an inanimate object such as a rounded metal spaceship. Although the variations were limited for stop-motion, they did provide the potential for doing something a little different than the other “flying saucer” pictures of the time.” The film can also be seen as a counter-argument to ‘The Day The Earth Stood Still’ [1951], in which Hugh Marlowe‘s character was wrong not to trust the alien who landed in Washington D.C.
The credible cast also includes Donald Curtis, Morris Ankrum and John Zaremba, but right now I’d like to focus on the voice of the aliens, the talented Paul Frees who, from the fifties to the seventies, was kept busy dubbing dialogue for other actors: He re-voiced Humphrey Bogart (who was suffering from throat cancer) in his final film ‘The Harder They Fall’ [1956]; replaced Tony Curtis‘s ‘Josephine’ dialogue in ‘Some Like It Hot’ [1959]; and re-recorded Toshiro Mifune‘s voice for ‘The Battle Of Midway’ [1976]. Unlike many voice actors who worked mainly for only one studio, Paul Frees worked extensively with some of the greatest animation companies of the last century, including Walt Disney, Walter Lantz, UPA, Hanna-Barbera, Filmation, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, DePatie Freleng, Jay Ward and Rankin-Bass. In fact, Paul Frees was still actively working until his sudden death in 1986 from heart failure.
Animator Willis O’Brien, who passed away in 1962, lived long enough to see some of his former pupil’s success, though most of the early films on which Ray Harryhausen worked were comparatively minor. But in the late fifties Ray Harryhausen, along with the producer with whom he nearly always worked, Charles Schneer, had a breakthrough film, ‘The Seventh Voyage of Sinbad’ [1958].
‘EARTH vs. THE FLYING SAUCERS’ [1956] is certainly not the first film to show elliptical spinning ships buzzing around bewildered researchers. But it does achieve repute from Ray Harryhausen’s memorable stop-motion animation and photographic effects, as well as the archetypal designs for wrinkled spacemen in stiff-armoured suits. Thanks to this forefather of science-fiction, many of today’s CGI extravaganzas have a foundation for crafting their own twists on the concept of sadistic creatures from the unknown bent on world domination.
‘EARTH vs. THE FLYING SAUCERS’ was well received by the audiences and critics alike at the time of the film’s release and the Variety publication noted that the special effects were the real stars of the film and now viewing this Blu-ray disc, I agree with that comment. The simple-minded story of the alien invasion being thwarted by a scientist’s sonic solution that looks to modern audiences a very basic scientific technique to fight back against the alien invaders, but it is still has a very entertainment value, especially of the master works of the genius of Ray Harryhausen, who went onto play a major role in subsequent fantasy and Sci-Fi genre films, many of which are still considered to be great classics and remain memorable examples of his work. They include: ‘The Seventh Voyage of Sinbad’ [1958], Jason and The Argonauts [1963], ‘The First Men in The Moon’ [1964], ‘The Golden Voyage of Sinbad’ [1973], and ‘Clash of The Titans’ [1981], to name but a few. I would like to thank the genius of Ray Harryhausen for his inspired profession work in Stop-motion animation.
Blu-ray Video Quality – Sony Pictures Home Entertainment brings you this wonderful Blu-ray with an equally wonderful 1080p encoded image, with an equally superb 1.85:1 aspect ratio. Also you have the choice of either watching the film in Black-and-White or in the Colourisation processing which I really enjoy viewing and I cannot understand why people are so negative about this process. Restoration has been successful, running damage out of the frame. Specks of dirt or scratches have been relegated to stock footage. All of that aside, this Blu-ray disc looks to come from a relatively high resolution source, the master was capable enough for the format with some grandiose texture on the saucer models and facial close-ups. The effect is similar to noise reduction at its peak, although lacking the usual aggression of that process. The grey scale affords the images with great. Blacks are superb, and contrast vivid without blotching sections of the video. Shadow detail is totally preserved and as for the colour and leaving the Colorization processing debate aside, saturation is clean especially with the usual pastel quality to the flesh tones.
Blu-ray Audio Quality – Sony Pictures Home Entertainment brings you this wonderful Blu-ray with an equally wonderful 5.1 TrueHD Master Audio. The hums of spaceship technology pan overhead in this wholly wonderful sound experience, making it feel as though saucers are really there, so making it totally fun and very enjoyable. The Alien machines are all over the sound field, spreading to all of your speakers. Explosions really breach the high-end, although there is a slightest hint of muffled sound activity when they crash into the water to give them a modern splash. Laser blasts sweep through the newly mixed channels without hiding the original mono sound track. Static, hiss, and pops are all cleaned up from the ageing material, dialogue is preserved from its low-budget roots. All of it stays in the centre without the mixers breaking from the frontal nature of the camera work.
Blu-ray Special Features and Extras:
Feature Film in Colour and Black-and-White.
Audio Commentary with Ray Harryhausen, Film Producer Arnold Kunert, Visual Effects Artists Jeffrey Okun and Ken Ralston: Here Arnold Kunert introduces himself and informs us that he is with three of his friends, who introduce themselves, and also inform us that they are here to talk about the colourization the classic Sci-Fi film ‘EARTH vs. THE FLYING SAUCERS’ that was produced by the genius that was Ray Harryhausen who of course chats about his involvement with the film as they all watch it. They all talk about the use of seeing the flying saucers at the beginning of the film, which Ray points out it is very unusual early on with most Sci-Fi films that seeing the flying saucers in films are very reluctant to do so until about half way through the film. They all ask Ray who made the flying saucers and Ray informs them that he designed the saucers that were made out of Aluminium and his father made them on his Sears, Roebuck & Company Lathe. The biggest saucer was 12 inches in diameter and there were three medium size saucers and three very small saucers for the long distance shots, and they were only 3 inches in diameter. They of course get on to talk about the screen credits and of course the business of Bernard Gordon who was “blacklisted” and now his name has been reinstated on the credits on this Blu-ray release. They also talk extensively about the stock shots used throughout the film and of course ray tells them that the reason they were used is because of the studio heads had a tight grip on the budget for making the film. They ask Ray about all the photographic images of The White House, Washington D.C. and the Pentagon and asked Ray if he was given permission to take these photographs and to be allowed to use them in the film and Ray answers them back with a big emphatic “NO.” But Ray also informs then he had to take the photos himself, as he could not afford to pay for a professional cameraman to take the photos. When we see Hugh Marlowe and Joan Taylor go down into the basement where all the pipes are featured, Ray informs us that this facility was actually a redundant sewage plant and even at the time of filming, sewage was still entering the pipes, which the three in the room thought that the smell was terrible, but Ray never commented about this. But one thing Ray did inform us that he suggested he record the noise of the pipes and that is what was used to give the sounds of the flying saucers, which amazed the three other people in the room with Ray. They talk about the different stock music score you hear in the background which were uncredited and we are told that it was from other Columbia Pictures films that included compositions from people like David Raksin, George Duning, Max Steiner, Miklós Rózsa to name but a few. As we get to the end of the film, they all say, “thank you for viewing this colorized film with us and we hope you enjoyed our running commentary like we did.” Well I say to that, that it was quite interesting hearing everyone’s comments, but sometimes they go very silly and a bit over the top, whereas Ray Harryhausen was really the only sane and sensible person who came out with the most intelligent and sensible replies out of the group. But despite this, it is still quite an interesting audio commentary.
Special Feature: The Hollywood Blacklist and Bernard Gordon [2007] [1080i] [1.78:1] [29:27] We hear why the screenwriter Bernard Gordon [1918 – 2007] American screenwriter and producer and for much of his 27-year career, toiled in obscurity, prevented from taking screen credit by the powers-that-be who were the Hollywood Blacklist for his political beliefs, and therefore his credits were removed from the films, and his best-known works are screenplays for the films ‘Flesh and Fury,’ ‘Earth vs. the Flying Saucers’ and ‘55 Days at Peking.’ In this look at this ludicrous situation, Del Reisman of the Writers Guild of America explains the ins and outs of Fifties communism inspired paranoia. Through his friendship with writer/entrepreneur Philip Yordan, and Bernard Gordon found regular work as a writer and producer in Madrid for the Samuel Bronston Productions. At first, however, he was still denied screen credit, with Philip Yordan frequently listing himself as sole author of films like ‘Circus World,’ ‘Battle of the Bulge,’ ‘Custer of the Wes’t and ‘The Day of the Triffids.’ Bernard Gordon did receive on-screen credit for ‘55 Days at Peking,’ and the first screen adaptation of ‘The Thin Red Line.’ As a producer, Bernard Gordon made a number of westerns in Spain and the well-received sci-fi thriller ‘Horror Express,’ co-starring Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee. Another film he wrote, ‘Cry of Battle,’ was playing at the cinema in which Lee Harvey Oswald was arrested by Dallas police on 22nd November, 1963. Bernard Gordon's blacklist-era work remained relatively anonymous until journalist Ted Newsom happened upon the man behind the assumed name Raymond T. Marcus (a name under which Bernard Gordon wrote or co-wrote). When the Writers Guild of America took up the task of correctly crediting pseudonymous screenwriters from the 1950s and 1960s, awarding retroactive screen credits to them, Bernard Gordon received more after-the-fact credits than any other blacklisted writer. His first film to receive posthumous credit was ‘The Day of the Triffids,’ originally credited to the film's producer, Phillip Yordan. Bernard Gordon subsequently wrote two autobiographical books detailing the 20-year surveillance of him by the FBI, and often spoke publicly about his experiences. He helped lead the fight against the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Lifetime Achievement Award to Elia Kazan, who cooperated with HUAC during the blacklist era. Sadly Bernard Gordon passed away on 11th May, 2007 in Hollywood, California. All in all this is a fascinating look at the life and times of the genius people that lived and worked in Hollywood and especially Bernard Gordon and Del Reisman is very articulate on telling us about the great black stain on that period of time in American history, which was The House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) that was created in 1938 to investigate alleged disloyalty and subversive activities on the part of private citizens, public employees, and those organizations suspected of having Communist ties.
Special Feature: Remembering ‘EARTH vs. THE FLYING SAUCERS’ [2007] [1080i] [1.78:1] [21:25] Here we find Ray Harryhausen [1920 – 2013] talking about the good times he had and the hard work into bringing his pet projects to fruition. Ray Harryhausen talks about his dear friend Charles Sneer [Producer] who use to cut news items out of the newspaper about sightings of flying saucers, and wondered if they could make a film about this phenomenon, and Ray Harryhausen was very enthusiastic about the project. We also get to hear from John Canemaker [Filmmaker, Author & Historian] and talks extensively about the genius that was Ray Harryhausen, and how he was also a very generous person, but most importantly how Ray Harryhausen wanted to make the flying saucers look realistic, and in this interview Ray Harryhausen has two of the small models in front of him and demonstrates how with his Stop-motion animation made the flying saucers look like they were actually flying and was a very time consuming process. We hear that Ray Harryhausen designed the alien space suites, and who coined the term “solidified electricity” in reference to the external suits that the aliens wear, and also informs us that it was all a load of old “hogwash” and just wanted to come up with a name to sound very scientific. We see Ray Harryhausen and a book signing convention and especially signing books for very young fans and really enjoyed attending these special conventions. Stan Winston [Special Make-Up Effects Artist] talks about his inspiration on why he want to pursue a career in films and it was all down to the genius of Ray Harryhausen, who he really admires and especially being the genius he was. Frank Darabont who is a French-Hungarian-American film director, screenwriter and producer who has been nominated for three Academy Awards and a Golden Globe Award, and also gives great praise to Ray Harryhausen and who he also thought was a total genius and inspired Frank Darabont to work in the film industry. All in all this is again a very fascinating insight into the life and times of Ray Harryhausen and is a must watch.
Special Feature: Interview with Joan Taylor [2007] [1080i] [1.78:1] [17:29] Joan Taylor the actress talks about her life and career with this very nice personal interview, and first talks about the two specific Ray Harryhausen this actress appeared in and mentions that it is now well over 52 years ago the films were first released and now being retired has not done any acting for a very long time. But one thing Joan was very surprised that anyone wanted to being asked to do this personal interview and was very happy and a nice gesture to be asked. When Joan was a very young child, dreamed of being a Shirley Temple and was a very keen tap dancer. We find out her father owned a cinema and at the weekends always went to the cinema to watch the films being shown and was totally enthralled to see all the Hollywood actors up on the big screen, and of course dreamed of being up their also with the stars on the silver screen. Over time Joan studied very hard, especially at music, dancing and did lots of shows for the USO [United Service Organization] which is The USO Show Troupe and is part of an American tradition that goes back 75 years to its beginnings in the muddy camp shows of the South Pacific, but the USO shows that Joan appeared in was where she lived in Illinois that was between the great lakes and the troupe would perform in the Military Hospital Wards for the young men who were badly injured very badly and it use to upset Joan very much. Eventually Joan moved on and moved to Pasadena in California and was warned there was no chance that Joan would not be allowed to perform at the Pasadena Playhouse, which is a historic performing arts venue located 39 S. El Molino Avenue in Pasadena, California, but with grit and determination, eventually performed in the Pasadena Playhouse, and this was in 1946 and performed there for 3 years and at the time met her husband and admits it was the best thing to happen to Joan in getting married to her husband. Eventually Hollywood beckoned and with her friend Victor got a part in a film with Randolph Scott, and this is where Joan learnt her craft, especially with all aspects of her acting career. Suddenly we get a notice appear on the screen, where it states, “Joan Taylor reminisces about working at M-G-M on its 1954 musical ‘Rose Marie,’ which was directed by Mervyn LeRoy, with choreography by Busby Berkeley and starring Howard Keel, Ann Blyth, Bert Kahr and Fernando Lamas.” Joan tells us that she had a great time working with Howard Keel and bert Lahr, who Joan thought was a really very kind and lovely man. When Joan’s contract with Paramount Pictures, went freelance, and came into contact with the producer Charles H. Schneer and of course got a part in the film ‘EARTH vs. THE FLYING SAUCERS,’ and found Hugh Marlowe a really wonderful actor, and one key thing Joan learnt from Hugh and especially being involved with the SAG [Screen Actors Guild] because he was a very big in the union business, and because Joan was asked to do some extra scenes in a her lunch break, Hugh stepped in and would not allow Joan to do that extra work, but overall, Joan really liked Hugh Marlowe, because he was very professional in his acting career and a joy to work with. Joan remembers the time in ‘EARTH vs. THE FLYING SAUCERS,’ and working in the locations of Washing D.C. and the Pentagon and had a marvellous time, but there was a downside because having to be delayed because of a hurricane, was not able to attend her daughters first birthday celebration and vowed this would never happen again. The following year Joan appeared in the film ‘20 MILLION MILES TO EARTH’ [1957] and appeared with the actor William Hopper, who was the only child of actress and Hollywood columnist Hedda Hopper, who was the American actress and the newspaper gossip columnist, and Joan also had a great time working with William Hopper, who felt he was also a very professional actor. Joan finally gets round to mentioning her family and especially her husband Leonard Freeman and the father to their three daughters and also was the man who created the TV series “Hawaii Five-0” and Joan was very proud of her husband being involved in the very successful TV series.
Special Feature: The Colourization Process [2007] [1080i] [1.78:1] [11:02] Ray Harryhausen and folks from Legend Films discuss the colourization process in films in general. Here again we meet Ray Harryhausen and talks about his films to be finally turned into the colorization process, and how pleased he was with the more up-to-date process, compared to when colorization first started, which was not very good at the time, but now have gone into leaps and bounds, and Ray Harryhausen that if they had a bigger budget they would of shot the films in colour. We also meet Barry B. Sandrew, who is the founder of Legend Films which is a San Diego-based company that was founded in August 2001. The company specialises in the conversion of feature films, both new release and catalogue titles, and commercials from their native 2D format into 3-D film format utilising proprietary technology and software. We hear all about the very intricate technology process details on how via a computer they add the subtle colours to a black-and-white film and we meet Rosemary Horvath [Creative Director] at Legend Films. All in all this a really nice and fascinating insight into the company that is the pioneer and recognized leader in the restoration and colorization of classic black-and-white films.
Special Feature: Original Screenplay Credits [2007] [1080i] [1.78:1] [3:16] In the 1950s, hundreds of actors, writers and directors were “blacklisted” by the Hollywood studios for their political beliefs and forbidden from working within the motion pictures and television industry. The actual co-writer of ‘EARTH vs. THE FLYING SAUCERS,’ along with George Worthing Yates, was blacklisted writer Bernard Gordon, whose credit has been restored with the original DVD release, and now with this Blu-ray disc release. As the following original credit roll shows, film audiences in 1956 saw the name “Raymond T. Marcus,” a Bernard Gordon acquaintance, receive co-writing credit for the film ‘EARTH vs. THE FLYING SAUCERS.’ So what you get to view is the beginning of the film until the actual film starts after the credits have finished.
Special feature: “FLYING SAUCERS vs. THE EARTH” Comic Book [1080p] What you have to do is use the Left and Right arrow keys on your remote control to navigate through the 15 pages of the Comic Book. Enjoy! If you press the centre arrow under the Comic Book images it takes you instantly back to the menu. What you view looks really fascinating, as it is a totally different story to the film and it was a shame they could not have been allowed to turn the Comic Book images and storyline into an actual film.
Special Feature: Galleries [2007] [1080p] [1.78:1] [23:20] Here you have two different categories that consist of Advertisement Art Photo Gallery and Production Photo Gallery. You can either play each category separately or Play All. What you get while viewing the images is the audio soundtrack of the film ‘EARTH vs. THE FLYING SAUCERS.’
Blu-ray Trailers: Here you get to view a selection of four Blu-ray trailers, which are as follows: SONY Pictures Home Entertainment Blu-ray Disc is High Definition [2008] [1080p] [1.78:1] [2:24]; ‘20 Million Miles To Earth’ [2007] [1080p] [1.78:1] [2:00]; ‘It Came from Beneath the Sea’ [2008] [1080p] [1.78:1] [2:03]; ‘The 7th Voyage of Sinbad’ [2008] [1080p] [1.78:1] [1:41].
Special Feature: BD-LIVE: BD-LIVE is a feature on Blu-ray discs that allows new content to be downloaded to the Blu-ray player. BD-Live features include movie trailers, automatic firmware updates, featurettes, games, and more.
BONUS: ChromaChoice: You have the facility to use the “Angle” button on your remote control to toggle between the colour and black-and-white versions at any time!
Finally, ‘EARTH vs. THE FLYING SAUCERS’ [1956] is of its time and the acting is slightly stiff, and the Mischa Bakaleinikoff’s film music score helps to move the film along. Overall though ‘EARTH vs. THE FLYING SAUCERS’ is well put together and is a lot of good fun from beginning to end, and feel it has its place in the Sci-Fi genre and of course in 1956 things were so different to what we see in the cinema today and I personal think it is a Sci-Fi classic of its time, that was helped with the genius that was Ray Harryhausen and it has now gone pride of place in my Blu-ray Collection. Highly Recommended!
Andrew C. Miller – Your Ultimate No.1 Film Aficionado
Le Cinema Paradiso
United Kingdom
Amazon Customer
5つ星のうち4.0
Revisit a classic piece of 50s sci-fi
2017年1月6日に英国でレビュー済みAmazonで購入
A good quality film transfer, the Special Features are really good for such a vintage movie (but since I grew up watching Ray Harryhausen's stop-motion creations maybe I'm biased?) and the audio commentary is entertaining enough. The colourised version looks somewhat suspect by current standards and doesn't add anything to the film, but I suppose it's a nice curiosity. I love the 50s attempts at futurism (e.g. "solid electricity") and the all-too-briefly seen alien face is excellent - one character describes it as "humanoid and ancient". Revisit a classic piece of 1950s black-and-white science fiction - you may be pleasantly surprised.
Ozzieal
5つ星のうち4.0
It's a B Classic
2016年12月27日に英国でレビュー済みAmazonで購入
How far wrong can you go with the 1950s and flying saucers? There is a certain charm these old films had - a bit naive, with men in suits and hats or slicked-back hair and women in pretty dresses and high heels, all in the midst of an alien invasion.
'Earth vs The Flying Saucers' is an unashamedly low budget production that could easily have been forgotten, but it had the fortune of having Ray Harryhausen behind the special effects. Although crude by today's standards, the effects must have been a marvel back in the 50s.
But the film is more than just the effects and the story holds together remarkably well considering its age. And what makes the whole production so much fun today is that the film has been restored and expertly colourised. Although there are many horribly grainy sequences there are just as many decent quality sections and the sound is great with a quality Dolby 5.1 TrueHd soundtrack.
Certainly worth your time to watch and also one for the young kids who should like the flying saucer crashes and who will laugh at some of the outdated concepts.
'Earth vs The Flying Saucers' is an unashamedly low budget production that could easily have been forgotten, but it had the fortune of having Ray Harryhausen behind the special effects. Although crude by today's standards, the effects must have been a marvel back in the 50s.
But the film is more than just the effects and the story holds together remarkably well considering its age. And what makes the whole production so much fun today is that the film has been restored and expertly colourised. Although there are many horribly grainy sequences there are just as many decent quality sections and the sound is great with a quality Dolby 5.1 TrueHd soundtrack.
Certainly worth your time to watch and also one for the young kids who should like the flying saucer crashes and who will laugh at some of the outdated concepts.
G. Georgiou
5つ星のうち5.0
I love it because I love 50's American sci fi
2018年5月14日に英国でレビュー済みAmazonで購入
I love it because I love 50's American sci fi.
If you are of the 'it's b&w and the special effects are really bad' school that compares current movies (whatever genre) to present day blockbusters and movies generally don't buy this. You don't have a sense of movie history and / or appreciation and will not enjoy this.
If you are of the 'it's b&w and the special effects are really bad' school that compares current movies (whatever genre) to present day blockbusters and movies generally don't buy this. You don't have a sense of movie history and / or appreciation and will not enjoy this.
Michael Sommer
5つ星のうち5.0
Earth vs. the Flying Saucers
2014年3月9日に英国でレビュー済みAmazonで購入
The 1950's was the cinematic decade of sci-fi flics, for the 'big bug' and awakened prehistoric beast, radiation kind and thirdly, the outter space kind in which either we go out there, are the aliens drop in on us, without invitation kind. In Earth vs. the Flying Saucers it is the latter. Alien space ships and creatures arrive and the battle for survival begins as we quickly realise that they want to take over. As an early effort, (which MAY have, I'm guessing, inspired Independence Day, decades later,) it is a well done effects effort and good entertainmùent in it's genre. One of the 50's best in my opinion. So, unless you are one of the generation who rejects out of hand, all films in black and white, earlier, less sofisticated tech. films, it's worth getting.
