INVISIBLE INVADERS (1959)

INVISIBLE INVADERS (1959)

Tagline: An unearthly enemy defying modern science in a war to the death!

(Sci-Fi, Horror, I See Dead People) [G]

Note: This movie was never given an MPAA rating, but if it came out today, it likely would have drawn a G rating even with the dead people walking around. Theatrically this movie was released as a double feature with THE FOUR SKULLS OF JONATHAN DRAKE. 

Can I make you some coffee?

In this one, invisible aliens contact Adam Penner and tell him that they dominate the moon and are going to take over earth shortly, killing everyone unless earth surrenders. The takeover is done by the invisible aliens infesting the bodies of the dead and Penner is told it will take 3 days. Penner decides to hold up with his daughter Phyllis and Major Bruce Jay and a few others to buy enough time to figure out how to kill the invaders. 

First off, whenever John Agar shows up, I get pretty excited, because I like him as an actor and the flicks he’s done are all pretty decent. The reason the aliens in this movie are invisible is that the budget was pretty non-existent. They did seem to have enough money for makeup to make these people look like zombies though or at least “dead” people, so we have that. This is also one of the very few 1950’s movies where you are going to hear a woman tell a guy to shut up. It’s pretty fantastic, just because a lot of people that watch this stuff now dismiss these women as being weak just because they make coffee and are usually faithful to their fiancé or husbands. They are literally the opposite of weak and most aren’t even remotely timid. 

Acting wise I already mentioned John Agar who plays Major Bruce Jay in this. He is very good as per usual and is probably most famous for TARANTULA. We also get a pretty good helping of Jean Byron who plays Phyllis Penner and does a solid job here. Byron was probably most famous for THE MAGNETIC MONSTER. I also liked Philip Tonge in this as Adam Penner. Tonge had a successful career, but this looks to be his only major sci-fi accomplishment from the 50s.

I dig character development in my sci-fi as well as a fast pace. This one did accomplish a fast pace, but we don’t really get to any sort of love story or much character development. One issue is that the movie itself is a short 67 minutes long, but that isn’t an excuse. I have seen 10-minute sci-fi shorts with better character development. So for a story that wasn’t going to give you even 1 monster suit or alien suit, you would have thought they’d be slightly focused on the characters. Nope. The world ending and everyone getting chased down by alien zombies is enough, settle down. One other note is that the two methods used to combat the aliens are at the least pretty interesting. 

Overall this one definitely borrows from PLAN 9 FROM OUTER SPACE which came out a full 2 years before this one. I do have to say though, that at least this movie tried to give us a serious take as comical as some of the ideas presented come across now. I do also like the idea of invisible stuff even if it was to save money. However, this thing utilizes the “something invisible is moving this” idea far too few times to have called itself INVISIBLE INVADERS. They should have named this PLAN 10 FROM EARTH, or SONIC THE ALIEN DESTROYER, or something like that. 

This one gets a 3 out of 7. The middle is just okay and we never really get to know these characters. 

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