Killers from Space (1954)

Director:

W. Lee Wilder

Writers:

William Raynor (screenplay)
Myles Wilder (story)

Release Date:

23 January 1954 (USA)

Genre:

Sci-Fi | Thriller | Horror

Tagline:

Earth attacked!

Plot:

A scientist monitoring atomic tests, killed in a plane crash, is revived by aliens so he can spy on the tests and help them conquer the world.

Plot Keywords:

Flying Saucer | Truth Serum | Atom Bomb | Power Plant | Spaceship

Cast

Peter Graves	...	Dr. Douglas Martin
James Seay	...	Colonel Banks
Steve Pendleton	...	Briggs, FBI
Frank Gerstle	...	Dr. Curt Kruger (as Frank Gerstel)
John Frederick	...	Denab / The Tala (as John Merrick)
Barbara Bestar	...	Ellen Martin
Shepard Menken	...	Major Clift, MD (as Shep Menken)
Jack Daly	...	Power House Guard
Ron Kennedy	...	Sgt. Powers, Sentry
Ben Welden	...	Tar Baby 2 Pilot
Burt Wenland	...	Sergeant Bandero
Lester Dorr	...	Gas Station Attendant
Robert Roark	...	Guard
Ruth Bennett	...	Miss Vincent, Secretary
Mark Scott	...	Narrator
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Roy Engel	...	First police dispatcher. (uncredited)
Coleman Francis	...	Guy in power plant who answers the phone (uncredited)

Directed by
W. Lee Wilder

Writing credits
William Raynor		(screenplay) (as Bill Raynor)
Myles Wilder		(story)

Produced by
Fred M. Muller	....	associate producer
W. Lee Wilder	....	producer

Original Music by
Manuel Compinsky

Cinematography by
William H. Clothier		(director of photography)

Film Editing by
William Faris

Makeup Department
Harry Thomas	....	makeup artist

Production Management
Mack V. Wright	....	production supervisor

Sound Department
George E.H. Hanson	....	sound recordist

Camera and Electrical Department
Jim James	....	lighting

Music Department
Alec Compinsky	....	music supervisor
Manuel Compinsky	....	conductor

Production Companies

• W. Lee Wilder Productions (as Planet Filmplays)

Distributors

• RKO Radio Pictures (1954) (USA) (theatrical)
• Rhino Home Video (1992) (USA) (VHS)
• Englewood Entertainment (1997) (USA) (VHS)
• E-Realbiz.com (2001) (USA) (VHS)
• Alpha Video Distributors (2002) (USA) (DVD)
• Platinum Disc Corporation (2002) (USA) (DVD)
• Brentwood Home Video (2004) (USA) (DVD)
• Reel Media International (2004) (worldwide) (VHS)
• Mill Creek Entertainment (2005) (USA) (DVD)
• Reel Media International (2007) (worldwide) (all media)
• Digiview Entertainment (2007) (USA) (DVD)
• Mill Creek Entertainment (2007) (USA) (DVD)
• Network Enterprises (????) (USA) (VHS)
• Something Weird Video (SWV) (????) (USA) (VHS)

Other Companies

• Consolidated Film Industries (CFI)  optical effects

Runtime:

71 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Recording)

Certification:

UK:U | USA:G (2005 DVD release) | USA:Approved (PCA #16683) | USA:Passed (National Board of Review)

Filming Locations:

Bronson Caves, Bronson Canyon, Griffith Park - 4730 Crystal Springs Drive, Los Angeles, California, USA

Company:

W. Lee Wilder Productions

Goofs:

Continuity: When Dr. Martin leaves his bed, he is barefoot. When he gets to the cave, and starts running around, he has on slippers.

Quotes:

Dr. Douglas Martin: Those eyes! Those HORRIBLE eyes!

Movie Connections:

Edited into Sicko (2007)

Well, did you expect the Astron Delta people to show up at the U.N. with their petty list of complaints?

And, when William Raynor takes a screenplay credit as Bill Raynor, that is an instant tip-off one is about to visit the Land of the Gobblers. First rattle out of the box Peter Graves, as a nuclear scientist, is inspecting his handiwork flying over a bomb test area and crashes, and the next thing he knows he awakens in a California cavern. His host, John Merrick, bulb-eyed and dressed in pea-green, introduces himself as an Astronian scientist from Astrol Delta, and is on a mission to destroy the human race. He explains that the sun if falling on his home planet and the billion or so Astronians must take over another planet---Earth. Astro Delta and Earth evidently do not share the same sun or else their master plan would just be a short-term solution to a long-term problem.

So old Daneb-Tala shows Miles, or Doug, some gigantic reptiles and insects of the hair-lice variety---these are really, really big mothers---and the main and only item produced on Astro Delta must be these monsters because they have a bunch of them. A really, really big bunch of these really, really big monsters. But they need a bunch as their master plan to take over Earth is to have these monsters traveling around and about and killing off all the earthmen. Daneb-Tala does not mention women, so one can only shudder at the thought of what the Astronians have in mind for them. And Daneb-Tala seems to be unaware of the danger that an American housewife with a can of Flit and a flyswatter---albeit a really, really big flyswatter--- could pose for his master plan.

And Daveb-Tala informs Doug that oh-by-the-way you were killed in the plane crash but us Astrolians, with skill, knowledge and instruments beyond the current knowledge of man---and he doesn't even capitalize man, just to show we ain't much in the bulb-eyes of the Astrolians. But they are going to use Doug as their unwilling-but-helpless slave in supplying the Astrolians with top-secret atomic-energy information. Gee, they can bring a dead guy back to life but can't split an atom?

Doug can't tell what he has seen, heard and been through, for fear of being locked up in a Nervous Place, but the Army slams him with a needle full of truth serum and hears his story. They of course don't believe it---we must of overdosed him---and proceed to prepare Nervous Place papers on him, but government red tape being what government red tape is allows Doug to get away. And Doug has a plan of his own. He has learned that the Astrolians are all holed up in caves scattered all over California, and their diet is an all-electric one and if they don't have electricity they will blow up. They are stealing it naturally because even Astronians couldn't afford to pay California electricity bills. And, as soon as Cable TV came available, they intended to steal it also. So Doug plans to pull the one switch that supplies all of California with electricity.

Not wishing to write a "spoiler", even for a movie that a spoiler would be a surprise for any viewer with an I.Q. of anything over 29, the ending will not be given away here.

But since California has gone to rolling-blackouts, has anyone seen any Astrolians anywhere in the state...Carmel, O.J. Simpson houseguests and the Golden Globe Awards show excepted.