I have always enjoyed KILLERS FROM SPACE. I first saw it on television in the late fifties. This low-budget job made quite an impression on me back when I was a kid. Lot's of smoking in the movie so open a window when you watch. The woman who plays Peter Graves wife, Barbara Bestar is a real looker. The car that Graves drives is a ’53 Studebaker, a classic. That car is worth the price of the movie.
shareI can't wait to see it!! I just watched Beginning Of The End, and I'm now a BIG Peter Graves (of the 50's) fan. Got to get all of his movies.
shareDon't forget that cool art deco clock-radio by the bed. I'd love to find one of those. (probably contained 10 or more vacuum tubes.)
Actually, I like this movie. I don't know totally why. It is pretty silly in places (The mystery aspect if it actually isn't too bad)
But notice that this movie seems to be always in print. Apparently it has it's share of fans.
Killers from Space actually starts off alright (full of mysterious unanswered questions) but after about 30 minutes it suddenly drops into pure B-Grade hokum. Nobody knows where Doctor Martin has gone but the FBI guy is waiting right next to the 'rock in the desert' where he has to drop his message!!?!
Then under the truth serum things drop right down to z-grade level. The aliens eyes have to be seen to be believed and the giant insects and lizards would be hilarious if this segment of the film wasn't so long and repetitive.
But I watched it till the end and it is a lot of fun (and,yes everybody seems to smoke all the time).
Things to look out for- The big hand written sign (with helpful arrow)saying 'Control Room'in the powerhouse.
- The nuclear explosion outside the window that makes the venitian blinds move about 5cm.
I just watched this today with bunch of friends, and I have to say, that we all rolled around the house laughing our heads off when the scene came about the giant insects and spiders and lizards. The whole thing was just too damn silly, like directly from some Monty Pyton's scifi parody or something. I also loved the explosion in the end, and the airplane heading straight down to Earth with clouds whirtling behind it (and often, through it).
sharei especially like the main villain character, the way he talks combined with the absolute rediculousness of the eyes is a real winner. Not even mentioning the mistakes, the blown up lizard/insect/reptil underground scene was a real hoot too.
shareI just watched it on sci fi channels video page and i am still laughing at it. besides the control room sign, the explosion ouside the window at the end is from an ariel view,LOL.
signed
David G
thats alright,my dog found the chainsaw
I always found this movie to be a lot of fun, not dull at all as some say.
That atomic bomb going off out the window is stock footage you've seen a zillion times -- of an A-bomb test in the Pacific, with lots of old warships floating around it, filmed from above and originally in color. If you look closely you can see most of the ships around the base of the explosion -- a pretty neat trick, getting all those ships into the Nevada desert. Maybe it's supposed to be Lake Mead??
Is this thing also known as "Aliens from Space"?
Nothing is more beautiful than nothing.
Nope. Just plain old "Killers".
shareStrange. IMDb has no listing for Aliens from Space so I thot they might be the same.
Nothing is more beautiful than nothing.
Never heard of "Aliens from Space". What if anything have you heard or know about it?
shareGot it on dvd from a friend in one of those cheap sf sets. Haven't watched yet, but will report here when I do so you may gleen the facs.
Nothing is more beautiful than nothing.
Now I know all. Guess what hob? Aliens from Space is the same flick! I am not surprised at all. Watched some of it yesterday. Made in '53 with Graves and same sad story. Only difference is a different title card, in 2 colors, announcing title change and it says 1986 at bottom in small numbers. Evidentally rereleased then with title change to cash in on huge box office. Right.
Nothing is more beautiful than nothing.
My God! A cheap rip-off of a cheap rip-off!!?? This sounds like we're delving into Jerry Warren territory. Can you imagine someone so utterly inept and dishonest and chintzy that they have to stick a phony title on a movie that's in public domain? Wow. I assume the print was lousy, and no RKO logo or anything on it either.
I wonder if they did the same thing to writer-producer-director W. Lee Wilder's 1953 sort-of companion flick, PHANTOM FROM SPACE? Bet they came up with an equally clever and incisive fake title for that, something like "Alien from Space". You know, just to distinguish between one alien and a bunch.
Was the set from Canada by any chance? Hey, at least YOU didn't pay for it.
Thanks, bathwater!
I've come across things like this before; a flick that had Edgar Buchanan as a sheriff of some nowhere town that had no credits of any kind. The title was only on the box, but I don't remember what it was. Something to do with a Satan worshipper and it had a goat in it. Pure dullness anyway.
Nothing is more beautiful than nothing.
DEVIL'S PARTNER (1962), right? I went to check the site and found your post on it from March '07! It must indeed be very forgettable. Maybe the makers of the film were grateful for the lack of credits!
That'll never happen with KILLERS FROM SPACE. I understand that Billy Wilder was so embarrassed by his brother W. Lee's oeuvre that they often quarreled and Billy tried to pretend that W. Lee (real name: Willy) wasn't around.
"Phantom from Space" is, oddly enough, so much better than "Killers..." that it's hard to believe it was made by the same guy! It really isn't such a bad little flick; it makes a lot more sense than this one and has kind of a dark undercurrent to it, sort of "sci-fi noir." (Not that it's cinema genius, or anything, but compared to this thing it's "Citizen Kane!") How on earth could he make this one AFTER that one? (And he did know a thing or two about making noirs, with a couple of nifty, if minor, ones under his belt in the 40's.)
Also I was just watching this again today (well, the first half, anyway) and it struck me that, as bad as the rest of the picture is, that opening narration is (if it's humanly possible) 10 times worse! Just listen to all that nonsense and needless exposition! After the plane crashes the dialog just becomes ordinary and mundane compared to that! It's almost as if the producer decided to add it in later and got his five-year-old to write it up!
I agree with you, "Phantom" is a better movie (although, as Billy Wilder might have said of W. Lee, it's all relative)...but I LIKE "Killers" a whole lot more -- it's just much more fun, more enjoyable. And oddly, it also has a much better cast than "Phantom", which mostly has a lot of no-name actors; compared to several well-known character actors, and of course Peter Graves, in KFS. From your attentive description of its opening, it seems you probably find "Killers" more fun than "Phantom" too!
I think your description of "Phantom" as a sort of sci-fi noir is very apt. It is kind of a detective story, isn't it? Good observation.
I've always been a big fan of this movie. It's pure B-movie fun. The special effects are cheesy, the atomic theme is there, the music is perfect for the film, the aliens are among the coolest of any 1950s' aliens. Hands down, this is one of the most enjoyable low-budget sci-fi movies of the era.
"You can dish it out, but you got so you can't take it no more." - Caesar Enrico Bandello
Pretty enjoyable movie! Very suspensful until they show the aliens...after that I kept thinking what a great Three Stooges vehicle this movie could be, so many eyes to poke out! But no, it's fun.
have a nice life!
If you think this is fun, may I ask you what you think is dull?
Let it be unsaid: insignificance is the locus of true increpation.
What is dull? Baby, excite me, baby, excite me, no more.
I would go with Transformers -movies. Pretty cliched answer, I know. Or Ballistic: Ekcs versus Sever. Have no recollection of what even happened in that one. And I was trying to watch it properly.
Hey, there's buckets of mindless drivel I take in and some of it I even liked, but no matter the amount of huffing and puffing, I'll never care for this one.
The sense itself was I.
Well, you don't need to, I respect your opinion. There is enough movies to like without Killers from the goddamn Space.
share[deleted]
"Go ahead, Tar Baby 2."
Not the most PC movie ever made but the writer, Myles Wilder, may have been referencing the Br'er Rabbit and the Tar Baby episode in Disney's Song of the South (1946).
"Please use elevator, stairs stuck between floors."
If U were trying something it didn't work.
Significance is the popsicle of a melting mind.
OK. So where am I now?
"Please use elevator, stairs stuck between floors."
You're going to have to cut and paste whatever it was you are referring to, TDF
"Please use elevator, stairs stuck between floors."
Still didn't work. I guess there's no formula for it. Thanx.
Significance is the popsicle of a melting mind.
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the first part of this movie seem to be entirely nothing but stock footage. you can really tell here a younger graves is family with arness. among the cheapest looking movies i've seen, strange that one recognise an actor. very uncommon sight to see elvira hosting from outside by the end, even running into one of the spacekillers.
early this december morn,
on a sleigh madeleine arrived on,
santa claus' way busy,
and asked pete to take on a mission,
some reindeer to borrow, to fly over woods and town,
got a sack of toys and pipes, to deliver madeleine and i,
heading off above windows of candlesticklights, by chimneys and gravel roads,
you might see some unexplainable prints in the snow,
there around grandma and grandpa at the country home,
in the dark eve only the cat saw us from the window,
but look above you might see reindeers by moon and stars,
and one or the other tryin to deliver christmas gifts wherever on gods earth you are.