I'm surprised RH thinks so poorly of this film. I disagree with the poster above, the acting here is much better than in, say, IT CAME FROM BENEATH THE SEA or 20 MILLION MILES TO EARTH, as well as some of his later color epics, and the script was better in many ways as well.
Frankly, I think RH's worst films came in the 1970s; his two later Sinbad films, for instance, were pretty weak in both script and acting, and worse, boring and repetitive, since by then Harryhausen had revisited his favorite fields of fantasy (as opposed to sci-fi) once too often and had little new to explore.
Naturally, his effects work was always superb, but his more modest 50s b&w quickies were much more entertaining than the more opulent but stale films he worked on in the last decade of his career. And let's face it, script and acting were not what these films were primarily about, although in his peak years RH's films often managed to combine excellent trick work with decent writing and even acting (MYSTERIOUS ISLAND, JASON AND THE ARGONAUTS, etc.).
Shame on Ray, by the way, for embracing colorization of his three b&w classics and some other classic films with which he was not associated (SHE, THINGS TO COME).
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obit1
16 years ago
I'm actually one of those stop motion fanatics that actually LIKED the animated models of the various Washington D.C. buildings crumbling in single frame photography. Sure it isn't realistic, but it is certainly SURREAL and very entertaining to me (I loved Harryhausen's movies and George Pal's movies among others, and they inspired me to become a disgustingly successful commercial illustrator of mostly science fiction and fantasy)
Years ago, I had a pleasant, non-heated argument (ok, ok debate might be more appropriate) over the special effects in Earth vs The Flying Saucers, with a then wanna be make up effects guy named Bill Malone who has since become a working class director. (I don't hate the guy, I mean anybody that would hire Lori Petty for a project is okay in my book.)
Malone rambled on about how ridiculous it was to animate those flying saucers in Earth vs. He said they looked jerky and the buildings looked artificial. I guess he was more of a fan of War of the Worlds or Forbidden Planet or even Day the Earth Stood Still saucer effects and HEY!...ME TOO!!!
But you would NEVER get the feel of a living creature like Harryhausen did by animating the suacers whirring and tilting and DYING as they crashed into buildings and such (even objectively speaking, the crashing of a saucer into the Washington Monument and the resulting shot of the Monument falling onto the fleeing extras...well, that's just plain GREAT as special effects in a low budget 50's movie goes.
Anyway, Bill Malone was not an animator and I was...(I was working at an effects facility across town on stop motion tv spots) so I was one of those stop motion geeks.
Guess I still am.
point being that Earth vs The Flying Saucers is not a very good movie, but the saucer stuff is great and I prefer the goofy suits to the worm invaders Ray wanted to do (and we get to see that type of physiognamy in the dancing snake woman in 7th Voyage...The Medusa in Clash...the Kraken in....but how i do go on!)
Earth vs The Flying Saucers is not a documentary. It's a matinee space attack movie, made for me and hobnob53 and other popcorn eating kids who love to suspend their disbelief for about 90 minutes.
And let the herky jerky pieces of stop motion debris fall where they may.
AND KEEP FIRING AT SAUCERS.....KEEP FIRING AT SAUCERS
I love it.
http://www.woodywelch.com
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