Search - Earth vs. the Flying Saucers on DVD

MPAA Rating: NR Content Advisory: Excellent For Children Movie Release: 1956 DVD Release: 09/17/2002 Format: DVD - Black and White,Enhanced Wide Screen Letterbox for 16x9 TV - Closed Captioned Edition: Dual Layered Audio Tracks: English Subtitles: English, French, Spanish, Thai SwapaDVD Credits: 1 Number of Discs: 1 Run Time: 1 hrs 23 mins Studio: Columbia TriStar Members Wishing: 11 Genres: Science Fiction, Alien Film See Also: Earth vs. The Flying Saucers, Earth vs. The Flying Saucers [Blu-ray], Earth Vs. The Flying Saucers [Blu-ray]

Anyone who's seen the 1996 science-fiction lampoon Mars Attacks may have trouble watching Earth vs. the Flying Saucers with a straight face. Hugh Marlowe plays scientist Russell Marvin, who is on-hand when an alien spacecraft lands on earth. The saucermen at first insist that they've come in peace, but Marvin suspects otherwise. Sure enough, the visitors eventually declare their intention to take over the earth within the next 60 days, adding that the military's weapons are useless against them. The two-month window gives Marvin and his cohorts plenty of time to build-up superweapon, and thus stave off the seven-saucer invasion force. Special effects maestro Ray Harryhausen does a nice job laying waste to Washington DC in the film's memorable finale. The supporting cast of Earth vs. the Flying Saucers includes those two sci-fi flick stalwarts of the 1950s, Morris Ankrum and Thomas Browne Henry. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Hugh Marlowe - Dr. Russell A. Marvin
Joan Taylor - Carol Marvin
Donald Curtis - Maj. Huglin
Morris Ankrum - Gen. Hanley
John Zaremba - Prof. Kanter

Fred F. Sears' Earth vs. the Flying Saucers -- which is really Ray Harryhausen and Charles Schneer's Earth vs. the Flying Saucers -- has had a spotty history on high-end video. It was issued twice on laserdisc, the first time in the late 1980's from a sub-standard master in a disc edition that was horrendously produced; the first side of that disc, containing the first 30 minutes of the movie -- which have barely any special effects sequences at all -- was the LD's CAV side, permitting freeze-framing and single-frame access; then, in 1993, a new edition was available for a short time on which the second side -- containing the last 25 minutes of the movie, filled with special effects -- was mastered in CAV. This DVD has finally given the movie its due, made from a state-of-the-art digital master -- there are still flaws, to be sure, such as wide variations in contrast between some of the stop-motion scenes and the non-special effects sequences. This disc has the best contrast and detail of any version of the movie that this reviewer has ever seen, and the best sound as well, though the latter is, as is typical of too many DVDs, mastered at too low a level. The overall effect of the disc, however, is to provide a fresh viewing experience of a movie that this reviewer has seen many dozens of times -- there's a startling eeriness even today seeing the scene in which Richard Carlson confronts a spaceship the size of a cruiser on a lonely stretch of beach, seen from above; and the scenes of the destruction of Washington, D.C. during the denouement remain powerful, despite their having been parodied mercilessly in the decades since by Tim Burton in Mars Attacks. The letterboxed image easily matches the quality of the best theatrical showings that this reviewer has seen. Bonus materials include a nine-minute featurette on the movie in which director Joe Dante and special effects designer Ray Harryhausen discuss the way that Earth vs. the Flying Saucers evolved. There's also a three-minute featurette about Harryhausen's Dynamation process issued in connection with The Seventh Voyage Of Sinbad, and "The Harryhausen Chronicles," an hour-long biographical portrait of his life and work hosted by Leonard Nimoy, plus trailers for three of the Harryhausen titles on DVD. The only annoying factor is that the audio track for the trailers is mastered at a higher level than the one for the film, but the latter boosts up in more than satisfactory fashion. The disc opens automatically to the menu, which is easy to navigate -- rather ironically, the makers of the DVD may well have had more time to do their work in assembling and producing this disc than Harryhausen and company had to actually shoot Earth vs. the Flying Saucers back when. ~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide