Invasion of the Saucer Men (also known as Invasion of the Hell Creatures, working title

Working title

A working title, sometimes called a production title, is the temporary name of a product or project used during its development, usually used in filmmaking, television production, novel, video game, or music album.-Purpose:...

 - Spacemen Saturday Night) is a 1957

1957 in film

The year 1957 in film involved some significant events.-Events:* October 21 - The movie Jailhouse Rock, starring Elvis Presley, opens.-Top grossing films : After theatrical re-issue-Awards:...

 sci-fi comedy film starring Steven Terrell and Gloria Castillo

Gloria Castillo

Gloria Castillo is an American stage and motion picture actress of the 1950s.Castillo was born in Belen, New Mexico and graduated from the University of New Mexico in June 1954. She was featured in a production of the play Late Love in July 1954...

 and personally produced by James H. Nicholson

James H. Nicholson

James Harvey Nicholson was an American film producer. He is best known as the co-founder, with Samuel Z. Arkoff, of American International Pictures.-Biography:...

 for his American International Pictures

American International Pictures

American International Pictures was a film production company formed in April 1956 from American Releasing Corporation by James H. Nicholson, former Sales Manager of Realart Pictures, and Samuel Z. Arkoff, an entertainment lawyer...

 (AIP). The screenplay by Robert J Gurney Jr and Al Martin was based on the 1955 short story "The Cosmic Frame" by Paul W. Fairman

Paul W. Fairman

Paul Warren Fairman was an editor and writer in a variety of genres under his own name and under pseudonyms. His detective story "Late Rain" was published in the February, 1947 issue of Mammoth Detective. He published his story "No Teeth For the Tiger" in the February, 1950 issue of Amazing Stories...

. The film was released as a double feature

Double feature

The double feature, also known as a double bill, was a motion picture industry phenomenon in which theatre managers would exhibit two films for the price of one, supplanting an earlier format in which one feature film and various short subject reels would be shown.The double feature, also known as...

 with I Was a Teenage Werewolf

I Was a Teenage Werewolf

I Was a Teenage Werewolf is a 1957 horror film starring Michael Landon as a troubled teenager and Whit Bissell as the primary adult. It was co-written and produced by cult film producer Herman Cohen, and was one of the most successful films released by American International Pictures...

.

Plot

A spaceship lands in the woods. A teenage couple, Johnny Carter (Steven Terrell) and Joan Haydon (Gloria Castillo), driving down lover's lane

Lover's lane

Lovers' lane is a generic term for secluded areas where people kiss or make out. These areas range from parking lots in secluded rural areas to places with extraordinary views of a cityscape or other feature....

 without headlights, accidentally run down one of the aliens. Joe Gruen (Frank Gorshin

Frank Gorshin

Frank John Gorshin, Jr. was an American actor and comedian. He was perhaps best known as an impressionist, with many guest appearances on The Ed Sullivan Show and The Tonight Show...

) a drunken opportunist, comes across the alien's corpse. He plans to keep the body in his fridge, but the aliens arrive and kill him by injecting alcohol into his veins via their hypodermic fingernails. Having reported their close encounter to the police, Johnny and Joan return with the Sheriff, only to find Joe's body in place of the alien. The police plan to charge them with manslaughter. Meanwhile the dead alien's hand detaches itself, grows an eye, and runs amok. The military, following a UFO report, are soon involved. They surround the alien's spaceship, but in the end it is the teenagers who defeat the aliens when they discover that they cannot stand the glare from their car headlights.

Production

Special effects technician Paul Blaisdell who did the alien make-up recalled that the film was intended to be filmed as a serious feature but gradually fell into a comedy. The entire film takes place in the period of one night with 98% shot on a studio soundstage to ensure believable nighttime shooting.

Legacy

Larry Buchanan

Larry Buchanan

Larry Buchanan was a film director, producer and writer, who proclaimed himself a "schlockmeister". Many of his titles have landed on "worst movie" lists, but all at least broke even and many made a profit.Buchanan was born in Mexia, Texas. He was orphaned as a baby, and was raised in Dallas in...

 cheaply remade the film in color in 1966 as a made for television movie for AIP-TV as The Eye Creatures

The Eye Creatures

The Eye Creatures is a 1965 science-fiction film about an invasion of an unnamed American countryside by a flying saucer and its silent, shambling alien occupants...

.

The The Lillingtons

The Lillingtons

The Lillingtons were a punk rock band from Newcastle, Wyoming.Considered a pop punk act by contemporaries, their sound often draws comparisons from punk pioneers the Ramones.-History:...

 had a song entitled Invasion of the Saucermen on their Death by Television album.

The TV series Futurama

Futurama

Futurama is an American animated science fiction sitcom created by Matt Groening and developed by Groening and David X. Cohen for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The series follows the adventures of a late 20th-century New York City pizza delivery boy, Philip J...

based the appearance of character Morbo off of the aliens in this film.

Copyright

Copyright in and to this motion picture is currently held by Susan Nicholson Hofheinz (Susan Hart).

External links

• A review of Invasion of the Saucer Men