Excellent success at creating a feeling of unease when the doppelgangers interact with the human family members. Even though occurring at a big estate, a atmosphere of vulnerable isolation is achieved. Excellent! Wish Kent Taylor had been in more of these genre movies. Very good actor! Marie Windsor was still very nice on the eyes.
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This is one of those movies you have to see a few times before you come to appreciate it a little. It is slow and meandering, but ultimately the payoff is quite unnerving, even scary -- more so, in my view, than something like Invasion of the Body Snatchers. Depressing, actually.
I do think the concept of having almost the entire film take place around the family's mansion is pretty weak and points up the film's cheapness. One gets the feeling the director sneaked in and shot the movie while the home's actual owners were away on vacation. The film is too often claustrophobic, stodgy, verbose and clunky, and the canned music is dull.
Still, the actors do what they can, which helps. Yet overall, were it not for the basic story and the picture's mysterious mood -- provided you stick with it long enough to find out what's going on -- this film would simply be bad. As it is, I'd call it weak, but with just enough originality and creepiness to make it worth while. Give it a respectful viewing, and if you're patient, you'll find it kind of unsettling.
Neat opening credit sequence, too, of the robot explorer on Mars. Aside from the payoff, that's the best part of the movie, and a good lead-in for the plot. Too bad the body of the film can't evenly sustain that eerie beginning.
No doubt the movie was padded. A lot of walking around, driving down, driving up, more walking around. But I think it works pretty well, all that padding keeps the viewer waiting for something to happen. And I always enjoy seeing stock footage of missiles blasting off.
I very much enjoyed the acting and the music, canned or not. Sure, the SPFX are hokey, but that's OK with me. The Mars rover reminded me of one of the robots from Gog (1954).
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-EWRSN-NliYo/UCKJdnjdhLI/AAAAAAAAOk4/qusYu6sY 9PQ/s1600/Screen+Shot+2012-08-08+at+11.44.15+AM.png
http://www.millionmonkeytheater.com/moviepics20/mars3.jpg
Quite frankly, the body looks like it was made from a shade from those spotlight lamps that were in vogue back in the 60's.
http://amsterdammodern.com/image/product_small/11451.jpg?1339215606
Ah, well. That's fine. It is what it is, isn't it? The story counts for something, too, and this one is interesting.
Please use elevator, stairs stuck between floors.
I don't know, esc. If you're waiting around for something to happen that means nothing's happening -- no suspense, no lead-in, no real anticipation of anything. That's the film's major problem, not its being cheap. Cheap films can be good.
They needed more than simply having people walk around the house and grounds. When the movie gets to the point it's good but it takes an awfully long time getting there. And having to pad a movie that ends up at only 70 minutes to begin with is pretty desperate.
You're right, the robot on Mars does look a little like Gog and Magog, but smaller. It also looks a little like Ginzburg and Cohen, the pair of robots that own the clothing store in Woody Allen's Sleeper!
"You vant corduroy, ve got corduroy!"
"Sam! I'm vit a customah!"
There is no doubt that much of it was just Time Fillers, but some of that was necessary as I'm sure you would agree.
In recent time I saw some modern movies on television and while commercial breaks may spoil the suspense that theater audiences apparently experienced, I think it was just poor film making. I'm talking about some hit titles like the Paranormal Activity (2007) series (I believe I saw two of them. I'm uncertain because they seemed alike to me) and some other thing that people are foaming about on it's IMDb page but I don't recall the title anymore (it was a total bore). Both featured L-O-N-G stretches where nothing happened before something "paranormal" did occur (like a door opening by itself or something innocuous like that).
I did like the music for The Day Mars Invaded Earth, unfortunately some cues were too pretty to build any suspense. Actually the absence of music and sound would have helped the parts where the Kent Taylor character wandered around the vacant estate. The score made it more like a travelogue.
And the cinematography was very fine. The fellow that shot it also did many of the original Outer Limit episodes. In fact, this title could have easily fit into that canon had it been cut down for commercials, titles and end credits.
Stretching it out to fit the second bill hampered it, but as I said before, I liked the story.
(HOB, would you ever go to this page and see if you can close out the comments and question raised by the late, great TDF? http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0058512/board/thread/182478338)
Please use elevator, stairs stuck between floors.
I just got to your post and went over to the link you provided. Raiders From Beneath the Sea is another 60s quickie that often shows up on FXM. In fact it was on twice this past week...as was The Day Mars Invaded Earth!
I did try to look up Ken Scott but couldn't find that Ken Scott. I'll poke around to see if I can as you say bring closure to TDF's thread. I loved his OP about the "cardboard cut-out scuba diver" being chopped up in the boat's propeller!
Incidentally I re-watched TDMIE this week and truth be told it was a bit better than I remembered. There still is a lot of boring to-ing and fro-ing around the mansion but parts are unnerving and scary, and actually depressing in the end. One problem is that most of the scenes drag on too long with not much camera movement. Director Maury Dexter wasn't much of an auteur, I think. It needed much better direction and conception instead of being a series of staged pieces strung together...even though some of those pieces are pretty frightening and effective.
The opening on Mars is still the most interesting-looking part of the movie.
Thanks for looking into TDF unfinished business. It seemed to me that if anyone could possibly answer the question that it might be you,HOB.
I missed that last part of Raiders... the very part that James fingered, possibly the choicest scene, about the frogman/spinning propeller mash-up)
It was the music that drew me to Raiders..., wondering if it was the same composer/musician that released Telstar by The Tornadoesthat worked (very minimally) on that score. I posted an opinion on that page.
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Insofar as The Day Mars Invaded Earth , I suppose it is a bummer of an ending...for us Earthlings! I suppose the writer may have figured that we would infect other planets with our bent toward mass destruction, A-Bomb style.
I kind of like the existential twist to the story. The Martians win. Maybe they went on and invented BIC disposable lighters.
Speaking of writers, it's interesting that Harry Spalding wrote both The Day Mars Invaded Earth andRaiders from Beneath the Sea. When I noticed that little factoid, I wondered if Mr. Spalding had just died and these two little works were some sort of memorial or if it was a Harry Spalding Movie Marathon. OK, don't mention another possibility, I'll do it -- Low-Budget Movies Extravaganza!.
"Please use elevator, stairs stuck between floors."
These two movies had the same writer? That, I never noticed. Damn! I'm not all that familiar with Raiders anyway. But they're on about the same production level.
That score in RFBTS is an odd one. Also the title sounds like a sci-fi epic, not at all like a bank heist flick.
Ken Scott died at 58 -- not old but not "so young" either. I'll see if I can dig up anything, though so far it's not encouraging.
Say, do you realize you gave away the ending to TDMIE in your last post? Maybe you ought to go back and envelope it with "spoiler" tags so future generations scanning this board won't have the ending prematurely revealed to them. Which of course assumes they're still awake at the end.
I sent in an entry for this film's Goofs section today and was surprised that none has been sent in yet. I wrote that during the opening credits, as the rocket nears Mars, they show an image, not of Mars but of Jupiter instead; and that the following close-up shot is also not of Mars, but of the Moon. Hopefully they'll put it up in a few days.
Yeah, I guess there is something existential about this movie's finale. I just wonder whether Harry Spalding and Maury Dexter knew what "existential" meant.
By the way, the FXM broadcast of this film this week was in widescreen, 2.35:1 aspect ratio, and no interruptions for ads. I don't know if or when they're planning to run it again but if I find out I'll let you know.
I'll thank you, again, for looking into the Ken Scott matter.
Ha! -- I thought the same thing about possibly ambushing unsuspecting viewers of this title with "spoilers", so I went ahead and added the warning to that posting. Thanks for that.
Interesting entry to the Goof section. I wonder if you wouldn't ever submit a bit o' TRIVIA to the page on The Bamboo Saucer (1958) about the various space scenes that seem to be borrowed from other films. I'd have to watch it again, but I could almost sear that one looks like it was from Invaders from Mars (1953), the scene that open and close the movie, similar to the one in the opening credits of The Adventures of Superman (1952).
http://i.ytimg.com/vi/s1C8d2qZrbA/hqdefault.jpg
I've seen some of Harry Spalding's work, and though I am not a fan, I did like his Curse of the Fly (1965) though it seems not many others like anything about it.
Thanks for the notices, too, HOB.
Please use elevator, stairs stuck between floors.
My memory of the opening credit sequence of The Bamboo Saucer is that it's stock footage taken in midair of military jets flying in formation. I don't remember anything in space, but there might be something afterward. The only space scenes I remember come at the climax, when Bob Hastings, John Ericson and Lois Nettleton are sent into space in the titular saucer and figure out a way of getting back. But those space shots are original to the film.
However, there may be other expository sequences with the footage you mention that I don't remember. I'll have to check it out.
Harry Spalding wrote Curse of the Fly too? Looks like a trifecta, along with The Day Mars Invaded Earth and Raiders From Beneath the Sea. Next thing I know you'll tell me he also wrote The Bamboo Saucer!
-- No I don't think Mr. Spalding had anything to do with The Bamboo Saucer, wouldn't that be something (Well, of course, William Mims appeared in both).
I know it is off topic however, just to close it up now that I've opened it, yes, the very sequence you mention. If I recall correctly the various celestial vistas did not seem to have any style continuity, hence my belief that -- though the saucer scenes throughout are original -- when the accidental travelers look out the window, they look like swipes.
I have some questions about The Bamboo Saucer but I'll post them on that page.
Please use elevator, stairs stuck between floors.
Off-topic too, but they put up my goof about the wrong planet being shown in the opening credits.
The Day Jupiter Invaded Earth. No, damn! The Day the Moon Invaded Earth. No, damn! The Day Gog Invaded Earth. No...!
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I tells you, having a Second Grade education IS A CURSE! A CURSE!
Really, now. Was it the fellow that cut the movie together that was sadly lacking and believed that one planet is as good as another, or did they just say, "Ahhh! No one will notice! Go with it as it is. This ain't no documentary anyways!"
As always, it surely came down to budget restrictions and budget means time. Funny that no one paid any attention or cared enough to point it out before you did (I didn't even notice, but I was getting my popcorn at the time!)
There are two things that irk me, one is when people pretend to drink a hot beverage out of a cup and it should be obvious that there was nothing in the cup (I watched Fritz Lang's 1953 opus, The Blue Gardenia, and the Raymond Burr character brews up some coffee, pours it into a cup and hands it to Anne Baxter and she chugs it down! )
And the other thing -- this is celestial -- is when we see a character's POV of the Moon and the image is either flopped or upside down! I have no example of that but you surely must have seen such things yourself, HOB.
"Please use elevator, stairs stuck between floors."
Damn right about second grade. Although that's the grade where I learned to curse, starting with "Damn right about second grade."
I think you're right, the underpaid editor on The Day Mars Invaded Earth just grabbed some stock shots of a planet and happened to pick up Jupiter, then the moon for a close-up. Funny that they went to some trouble to fashion a "real" Mars-scape for the scenes with the robot (which was fairly elaborate for this picture) yet were so careless about showing the correct planet, which should have been much easier and cheaper to do. After all, finding shots of the real Mars isn't at all difficult, even in 1963.
Re your drinking observation, what I hate are scenes where people sit down in a bar or café, order a drink, then don't drink it. The waiter puts the glasses on the table, the characters have a conversation, then abruptly get up to go onto the next urgent scene without a swallow. Maybe a quick sip if we're lucky. But take a look -- in older movies, tables in bars and cafés are always left strewn with the unfinished, and usually unquaffed, drinks the characters had just ordered! Sometimes several glasses!
The worst was the kid playing Tiny Tim in the 1951 version of A Christmas Carol with Alistair Sim. At their Christmas Day dinner, the Cratchits twice drink a toast of hot gin punch (whatever that is), but in both instances Tiny Tim puts the glass to his lips but doesn't take even a tiny sip! And it's really obvious, especially since the first shot is a close-up. Tiny really needed a first shot, too.
(Speaking of The Blue Gardenia, of course you saw that George Reeves played the detective, but did you notice the hospital doctor standing at the end of the bed in the very last scene? He had no lines, but it was Robert Shayne...both men doing this film after completing what they thought -- hoped? -- would be the one and only season of Adventures of Superman!)
Celestial goofs are legion, of course. I must have seen some upside down ones, though none comes immediately to mind. (In the 1960 Ocean's 11, the doctor holding Richard Conte's chest X-ray is holding it upside down!) But celestially, when I see the Earth shown as basically a kid's globe with no clouds and practically everything but the names of countries printed on it, it's a bit aggravating. Much as I like Rocketship X-M, for example, this is one of its failings. On the other hand, they had a great depiction of Mars in the distance in that film, looking very real and spooky. The editor on TDMIE could surely have copped it.
I've done harm to this page by going off topic but I will say this and it is about George Reeves. In the wonderful The Adventures of Superman, it is altogether fitting and proper that everyone else be shorter than the other character (hey! -- he's Superman!) and it wasn't until watching The Blue Gardenia and noted how he towered over everyone made me wonder if it was not just that he was type-cast as the Man of Steel, but also because of his height. It must have been difficult to match him up with other actors. Richard Conte in The Blue Gardenia for example, was surprisingly short next to Reeves.
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_qskaSRkns8A/S1AT_AjV1TI/AAAAAAAAKX8/6Wm6EmIY C5o/s1600-h/conte-reeves.jpg
(See you at The Bamboo Saucer, HOB. Maybe you can answer a question I'll post later today)
"Please use elevator, stairs stuck between floors."
Well, one could argue there is a slight link between Superman and The Day Mars Invaded Earth. Have you forgotten Mr. Zero? A more benevolent invasion, granted, but still, he beat Kent Taylor's duplicate by six years!
And to think, he's only 5 foot one and a half inches tall!
See you later on TBS. Not the network.
Well, that's a good link all right. Want another one? Well, here's another one: It's been said that the name "Clark Kent" derived from movie stars Clark Gable and Kent Taylor.
"Please use elevator, stairs stuck between floors."
Nuts! I thought it was Clark Gable and Kent Smith.
Excellent choice of emoticon!
Say esc, do you get FXM? Our film here will be on that channel next Wednesday, January 7 (2015 -- yay!), twice: at 3:30 AM and later that day at 1:45 PM. Don't know if it's letterboxed. FXM tends to show w/s films in a modified letterboxed format, i.e., instead of showing it at its correct 2.35:1 aspect ratio, they flip it to something closer to 1.85:1 for the body of the picture.
shareYes, that is where I saw this title.
(I'm sorry I have not responded to your other posting. I have been bit by the flu bug and it is doing a bit of a job on me. I'll write soon. Stay well, HOB)
Please use elevator, stairs stuck between floors.
Agree. I just caught this on the Moviestv channel, and rate it a pretty good B sci-fi/horror film in the best 1950s tradition. Kent Taylor does his best Vincent Price impersonation, and fun to see film noir femme fatale legend Marie Windsor as a blonde housewife. And Richard LaSalle's Bernard Herrmann-like score is quite good and adds effective atmosphere.
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