Artivels Undescribable Perfection

Platicsco Good story, Not enough for a whole film

Neive Bellamy Excellent and certainly provocative... If nothing else, the film is a real conversation starter.

Nayan Gough A great movie, one of the best of this year. There was a bit of confusion at one point in the plot, but nothing serious.

mauro volvox No nonsense, no gazillions of dollars wasted on useless CGI, no annoying "cute oneliners" no political correctness, no confusing plot lines, no social commentaries, no liberal indoctrination ...I guess movie makers nowadays should watch "Invisible Invaders" and reverence it as a true Atomic Age Cinema Classic. This film is perfect. The story flows naturally, linearly without stupid twists.Compare to Invisible Invaders, films such as "Prometheus", "Interstellar" and the like are garbage, and I mean it. This is a perfect film for a cold rainy winter day.

Scarecrow-88 Admittedly, I expected this to be far worse than it turned out. I imagined that in far less capable hands (Ed Wood, as an example), "Invisible Invaders" could have been a disaster to laugh at. However, in the competent directorial reins of Edward L Cahn, this turns out far better than it has any right to be. This little, 68 minute B-movie sci-fi effort from United Artists has an alien invasion, cloaked intentionally in invisibility, purposely plans to overthrow and dominate the earth for their own colonization. Taking the bodies of the dead, the invisible alien invaders emanate a radioactivity that reads their presence in the area, producing a way of warning for the heroes holed up in a secret military bunker (which can withstand an atomic blast as intended) designed for them to have equipment and devices to be used for experimentation. Collected in this bunker are Major Jay (resident in the B-movie universe, John Agar), the soldier/protector of the group, scientists, Dr. Penner (Philip Tonge) and Lamont (Robert Hutton), and Penner's daughter, Phyllis (Jean Byron). Penner was head of a nuclear program, associated with a renowned and dead scientist, Noymann (John Carradine). Penner resigns after Noymann accidentally kills himself in a nuclear blast that destroys his lab. Penner is the first to be "greeted" by an alien invader, taking Noymann's body as a host to forewarn the world of what awaits them. In the bunker, the group will be tasked to come up with a way to stop the invisible invaders as the world is toiling in apocalyptic chaos. Will they be able to find an answer at saving the human race?To think that the fate of humanity lies in four people inside a small bunker in some Podunk rural locale hidden from society at large. Small-scale in as far as the setting, but large-scale in the overall story of how a minute band of characters will have to conceal their anxieties of the current nightmarish situation and the claustrophobic entrapment of the bunker in order to find the weakness (the kink in the armor, so to speak) of the global-threatening enemy, hoping to exterminate the invisible invaders. Carradine fans shouldn't expect to see a great deal of him; this was a way to use (exploit?) the assets he does bring to a film. I mean, he is on the cover of prints for the film. The makeup work is essential to the creepy factor this movie has going for it. The farmer himself is an ideal model for the zombie design that came into form a decade later. When Carradine emerges inside the house of Tonge, it is quite an introduction! The way the makeup lines Carradine's face and his foreboding voice: this sets up the invasion plot neatly. Tonge is so damn good, he actually elevates the plot, and let's face it, this has quite a bill of goods to convincingly sell to an audience. Hutton gets saddled with a part that many might consider a "cowardly nuisance in scientist's clothes", but he does what he can despite of how it undermines him. Byron has the love triangle beauty that courageous and authoritative military man, Agar, and ready-to-pee-in-his-pants, "let's go ahead and surrender" scientist, Hutton, vie for. I think the sight of the undead, either walking the countryside or on the monitor in the bunker, has a nicely unsettling look. The "sound device" is an interesting method of defeating the enemy, using sound waves as a means to circumvent their ascent. The use of movie and stock footage to recognize the alien invasion's success is quite effective; this is using resources imaginatively and cleverly when stuck with a minuscule budget. The resignation of Tonge, as he wishes for Washington to recognize what the H-bomb did to the air we breath, and even perhaps the atmosphere of earth, is an interesting precursor to the global warming debate of today.

JohnHowardReid What a bright idea! How to save thousands of dollars on your "B" movie adventure: Make your invaders invisible! As implied, this is an extremely low-budget, sci-fi horror melodrama from the Robert E. Kent—Edward L. Cahn pill-box. The screenplay by Sam Newman (obviously penned in his lunch hour at CBS TV), begins with some ineptly padded introductory scenes before switching to an enormous amount of stock footage which turns out to be considerably more interesting than the movie itself. Indeed, when the movie itself resumes and director Cahn takes the reins, entertainment flies out the window. Mr. Cahn's painfully inept direction gleans only a minimum of atmosphere and tension from some quite promising Newman material. Admittedly, Cahn is not helped by his fourth-rate cast. The stars, John Agar, Jean Byron and Robert Hutton are particularly weak. Available on an excellent Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer DVD.

ShadeGrenade During the Fifties, studios churned out hundreds of low budget science fiction films, some awful, many good. Often the starting point was that radiation from A-bomb tests was causing headaches for Mankind, making people radioactive was one of the few things it did not do! Films about unseen aliens were popular, mainly because they negated the need for make-up and special effects. 'Invisible Invaders', directed by Edward Cahn from a screenplay by Sam Newman, was typical.Scientist Dr.Karol Noymann ( John Carradine ) is killed when an experiment goes wrong. Another scientist, Penner ( Philip Tonge ), receives a visit from the dead Noymann, whose corpse has been reanimated by hostile aliens. They claim to have a base on the Moon, from which they will launch an all-out attack unless we stop meddling with atomic power. Penner tries to warn the world but is treated like a lunatic. The aliens commence the attack. They reanimate the dead all over the world, and panic ensues.Penner, along with a few other scientists, a pretty girl and a military officer ( John Agar ) retreat to an underground bunker to endeavour to find a solution to the problem...What is interesting about this picture is that the walking dead bear a striking similarity to those in George A.Romero's 'Night Of The Living Dead', nearly a decade in the future. The same blank, glassy-eyed stare, the lumbering gait, the outstretched arms, about the only thing they do not do is actually eat anybody.Despite its Poverty Row status ( stock footage of collapsing buildings is used to represent the Earth in peril ), the picture manages a few genuinely suspenseful moments, such as the scientist's experimentation on a captured zombie. Alas it has a few hokey moments too, most notably the possessed pilot informing spectators at an ice hockey match that their world is doomed. Hearing this, they flee in terror ( its like something of an old Three Stooges short ). But the good points outweigh the bad.John Agar has acquired something of a cult following amongst bad movies buffs, and while he was never in danger of winning an Oscar is actually no worse than many other Fifties leading men ( and knocks spots off Keanu Reeves! ). Robert Hutton later starred in another daft picture about invading aliens - 'They Came From Beyond Space' ( 1967 ).Rather than snarkily denigrating low budget 50's sci-fi films, we should treasure them for succeeding as entertainment, something many modern big budget productions ( the remake of 'The Day The Earth Stood Still' comes to mind ) consistently fail to do.