EARTH
VS. THE FLYING SAUCERS ($25) may not be the same caliber science
fiction movie as THE DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL, but it does feature
the wonderful special effects of stop motion master Ray Harryhausen to
separate it from other similarly themed movies of the 1950s. Personally, I
love EARTH VS. THE FLYING SAUCERS and think that the movie is a
genuine hoot. Filled with that distinctly 1950s flavored paranoia, EARTH
VS. THE FLYING SAUCERS tells the story of alien spaceships that come
to Earth with the intention of taking over the planet. As Harryhausen fans
might expect the plot is almost secondary to his wonderful special
effects, which have a personality all their own. There is almost nothing
better than the climax of the movie, which features the Ray Harryhausen
created flying saucers crashing into a number of well-known Washington
D.C. landmarks.
EARTH
VS. THE FLYING SAUCERS features
Hugh Marlowe as Dr. Russell Marvin, the scientist in charge of Skyhook
Project, which is placing a series of artificial satellites in orbit
around the Earth. One by one, each of the satellites falls back to Earth
shortly after its launch- leaving Dr. Marvin puzzled as to the cause.
However, after an encounter with an unidentified flying object, Dr. Martin
discovers that an extraterrestrial invasion force is behind the failure of
the satellites. When the military tries to destroy one of the flying
saucers, the aliens use their superior weaponry and defenses to
demonstrate that conventional weapons are useless against them. Of course,
it falls to Dr. Marvin to develop some form of unconventional means to
defeat the alien invaders. The cast of EARTH VS. THE FLYING SAUCERS
also features Joan Taylor, Donald Curtis, Morris Ankrum, John Zaremba, Tom
Browne Henry, Grandon Rhodes and Larry Blake.
Columbia
TriStar Home Entertainment has made EARTH VS. THE FLYING SAUCERS
available on DVD in a 1.85:1 wide screen presentation that features the
anamorphic enhancement for 16:9 displays. This is a great looking
transfer, with one caveat. EARTH VS. THE FLYING SAUCERS made use of
a lot of stock footage, much of which looked pretty beaten up at the time
it was first spliced into the movie's negative. All of the scratches and
blemishes that were present in stock footage in 1956 are still present
today. However, the rest of the movie is in very good shape, displaying
very few age related blemishes. Sometimes there is a noticeable grain
structure in the picture, but it never becomes objectionable. The black
and white image is usually crisp and displays very nice detail. Some of
the rear screen projection work is a bit soft looking, but not at all bad
for a film of this vintage. Blacks appear solid and deep, while the whites
are clean and stable. Dual layer authoring keeps digital compression
artifacts at bay.
EARTH
VS. THE FLYING SAUCERS comes with a
Dolby Digital monaural soundtrack that has the expected fidelity
limitations of a forty six year old movie. However, even with those
limitations, the soundtrack managed to sound pretty darn good. A number of
the non-direction sound effects are fun and serve to invigorate the film's
visuals. Dialogue is always completely understandable, although some of
the voices occasionally have a canned quality. Music can be a bit thin,
but I think it holds up rather well with a bit of amplification. Subtitles
are provided on the DVD in English, French and Spanish.
Music
underscores the basic interactive menus, which allow one access to the
standard scene selection and set up features, as well as a few
supplements. Starting things off is The Making of The Earth Vs. The
Flying Saucers featurette. The Making of The Earth vs. the
Flying Saucers runs under ten minutes and features director Joe
Dante interviewing Ray Harryhausen about his work on the movie and
Harryhausen demonstrates how the flying saucers worked. Appearing yet
again from the previous Ray Harryhausen DVDs are the This Is
Dynamation featurette and the Ray Harryhausen Chronicles.
This Is Dynamation runs about three and a half minutes and
explains the special photographic process Harryhausen used to create his
stop motion special effects. TheHarryhausen
Chronicles is an hour-long program hosted by Leonard Nimoy, which
details Ray Harryhausen’s life and career in cinema. Also included on
the DVD is a still gallery and theatrical trailers for EARTH VS. THE
FLYING SAUCERS, THE 3 WORLDS OF GULLIVER and FIRST MEN IN
THE MOON.
EARTH
VS. THE FLYING SAUCERS is a fun
movie and another great Ray Harryhausen offering fro Columbia TriStar. The
DVD offers the finest looking presentation of EARTH VS. THE FLYING
SAUCERS that I've ever seen, making it a must have for Harryhausen
fans.
EARTH
VS. THE FLYING SAUCERS ($25) may not be the same caliber science
fiction movie as THE DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL, but it does feature
the wonderful special effects of stop motion master Ray Harryhausen to
separate it from other similarly themed movies of the 1950s. Personally, I
love EARTH VS. THE FLYING SAUCERS and think that the movie is a
genuine hoot. Filled with that distinctly 1950s flavored paranoia, EARTH
VS. THE FLYING SAUCERS tells the story of alien spaceships that come
to Earth with the intention of taking over the planet. As Harryhausen fans
might expect the plot is almost secondary to his wonderful special
effects, which have a personality all their own. There is almost nothing
better than the climax of the movie, which features the Ray Harryhausen
created flying saucers crashing into a number of well-known Washington
D.C. landmarks.
EARTH
VS. THE FLYING SAUCERS features
Hugh Marlowe as Dr. Russell Marvin, the scientist in charge of Skyhook
Project, which is placing a series of artificial satellites in orbit
around the Earth. One by one, each of the satellites falls back to Earth
shortly after its launch- leaving Dr. Marvin puzzled as to the cause.
However, after an encounter with an unidentified flying object, Dr. Martin
discovers that an extraterrestrial invasion force is behind the failure of
the satellites. When the military tries to destroy one of the flying
saucers, the aliens use their superior weaponry and defenses to
demonstrate that conventional weapons are useless against them. Of course,
it falls to Dr. Marvin to develop some form of unconventional means to
defeat the alien invaders. The cast of EARTH VS. THE FLYING SAUCERS
also features Joan Taylor, Donald Curtis, Morris Ankrum, John Zaremba, Tom
Browne Henry, Grandon Rhodes and Larry Blake.
Columbia
TriStar Home Entertainment has made EARTH VS. THE FLYING SAUCERS
available on DVD in a 1.85:1 wide screen presentation that features the
anamorphic enhancement for 16:9 displays. This is a great looking
transfer, with one caveat. EARTH VS. THE FLYING SAUCERS made use of
a lot of stock footage, much of which looked pretty beaten up at the time
it was first spliced into the movie's negative. All of the scratches and
blemishes that were present in stock footage in 1956 are still present
today. However, the rest of the movie is in very good shape, displaying
very few age related blemishes. Sometimes there is a noticeable grain
structure in the picture, but it never becomes objectionable. The black
and white image is usually crisp and displays very nice detail. Some of
the rear screen projection work is a bit soft looking, but not at all bad
for a film of this vintage. Blacks appear solid and deep, while the whites
are clean and stable. Dual layer authoring keeps digital compression
artifacts at bay.
EARTH
VS. THE FLYING SAUCERS comes with a
Dolby Digital monaural soundtrack that has the expected fidelity
limitations of a forty six year old movie. However, even with those
limitations, the soundtrack managed to sound pretty darn good. A number of
the non-direction sound effects are fun and serve to invigorate the film's
visuals. Dialogue is always completely understandable, although some of
the voices occasionally have a canned quality. Music can be a bit thin,
but I think it holds up rather well with a bit of amplification. Subtitles
are provided on the DVD in English, French and Spanish.
Music
underscores the basic interactive menus, which allow one access to the
standard scene selection and set up features, as well as a few
supplements. Starting things off is The Making of The Earth Vs. The
Flying Saucers featurette. The Making of The Earth vs. the
Flying Saucers runs under ten minutes and features director Joe
Dante interviewing Ray Harryhausen about his work on the movie and
Harryhausen demonstrates how the flying saucers worked. Appearing yet
again from the previous Ray Harryhausen DVDs are the This Is
Dynamation featurette and the Ray Harryhausen Chronicles.
This Is Dynamation runs about three and a half minutes and
explains the special photographic process Harryhausen used to create his
stop motion special effects. The Harryhausen
Chronicles is an hour-long program hosted by Leonard Nimoy, which
details Ray Harryhausen’s life and career in cinema. Also included on
the DVD is a still gallery and theatrical trailers for EARTH VS. THE
FLYING SAUCERS, THE 3 WORLDS OF GULLIVER and FIRST MEN IN
THE MOON.
EARTH
VS. THE FLYING SAUCERS is a fun
movie and another great Ray Harryhausen offering fro Columbia TriStar. The
DVD offers the finest looking presentation of EARTH VS. THE FLYING
SAUCERS that I've ever seen, making it a must have for Harryhausen
fans.
