| Teenagers From Outer Space - 1959 | ||||
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A commercial title, certainly. How many parents of the late 50s might have seen this title on a movie poster or marquee and wondered if that might explain their own offspring's incomprehensible behavior.... A flying saucer lands, and, in the film's one competent special effect, embeds itself underground (saving the production the cost of building a full-size saucer mockup). As the first inhabitant disembarks (wearing a jet pilot's helmet and face mask), the first thing they do is vaporize a dog (see how mean they are?). It seems they're here to find space to raise their food animals, lobst-- sorry, gargons-- which will grow to massive size and pretty much crud up the entire planet. Young Derek, space teen, however, has misgivings about the whole thing--he doesn't want to destroy Earth and its peoples...(He's an alien with HEART, you see.) He rebels, a definite no-no, and finds himself under arrest. The test lobst-- sorry, gargon-- dies, so they plan to leave, with Derek as prisoner. While they are distracted with the lobst-- sorry, gargon-- Derek legs it...and, in a plot twist, must be brought back as he is the son of the alien Leader (though he doesn't know it...) But wait! The lobst-- sorry, gargon-- revives, so they start setting up shop. They send Thor (not-so-nice space teen) out to retrieve Derek.----------- Derek, in a nearby town, is using the tag from the dog's collar to track down the owners, who turn out to be nubile young Betty Morgan and her grandfather, who, in standard movie circumstance, he winds up living with in their spare room. Meanwhile, Thor, having hitchhiked into town, gets a ten-second driving lesson. Roughly, from this point the plot becomes nothing but Derek and Betty going from place to place, with Thor in pursuit, skeletonizing people at each stop. Finally, Thor gets wounded in a run-in with some plainclothes cops at one of the murders, but escapes. He winds up capturing Derek and Betty at last, forcing them to take him to a doctor to "remove the metal pellets from my flesh!" Thor refuses anesthetic, and winds up in his delirium spilling the beans about Derek being the son of the Leader. After Thor passes out, Derek and Betty leg it, and we get to enjoy even more chasing around once Thor revives, gets his big "I'LL FIND YOU!" scene, and kidnaps the doctor's nurse to drive him around. Meanwhile, two guys blunder across the lobst-- sorry, gargon-- in the cave and one gets snacked on while his buddy escapes just as Thor and Nursie arrive. A car chase! The still-woozy Thor takes off after one guy who escapes, and winds up crashing the car. He winds up in police custody, but by the time the authorities arrive, the lobst-- sorry, gargon-- has escaped from the cave.Derek, out searching for the lobst-- sorry, gargon-- in the dark, gets a romantic scene with Betty, and he cops to the whole extraterrestrial thing....Love blooms, and Derek vows to remain on Earth. Smoochin' ensues, broken only by the appearance of a lobst-- sorry, gargon-- shadow effect!!!! So they run away, leaving the lobst-- sorry, gargon-- to snack upon a search party composed of clueless Earth guys. Derek evolves a plan to use Thor's disintegrator and the power grid to zap the rapidly growing lobst-- sorry, gargon-- and keep it from eating whatever small town this is supposed to be. It works. Break out the nutcrackers and melted butter. Derek winds things up by freeing Thor, meeting the returning alien saucer (which carries the Leader/Daddy), and causes the waiting fleet of lobst-- sorry, gargon-- carrying saucers to crash, destroying them and him in one massive clip of stock footage. (Excuse me while I towel off....) Beyond low-budget - more like NO BUDGET-- TEENAGERS FROM OUTER SPACE is pure, all-dairy cheese. The movie starts off on its weakest foot, beginning with the aliens, with their horrid dialogue, their hideous posturing, and copious scenery-chewing. The movie actually improves (slightly) after Derek meets up with Betty--handling more pedestrian scenes seems to be easier. When it deals with regular people, while it's not good, it's at least less bad. The look of the film is primitive, so cheap that it seems much older than its date of 1959. The plot is slow and plodding, strange considering it never sits still, with characters chasing each other all over creation. This is due in part to the overall monotone of the entire film. The music is the kind of mismatched library selections that lend these kind of low budget epics a surreal and distant mood. The dialogue is mostly looped (redubbed), heightening the same effect. The dialogue is pure comic book stuff. It lacks any punch, and drags on and on and on. But as an example of that 'watch-with-stunned-amazement' brand of cinema, it is right up there with the greats. Keep out an eye for the appearances of the caves in Bronson Canyon, within the confines of Griffith Park in suburban Los Angeles. This is a classic location in literally dozens of science-fiction films, from ROBOT MONSTER to IT CONQUERED THE WORLD and many, many more. ('King' Moody plays the captain of the alien saucer, but is better known as Starker, the assistant to the evil Zigfried of KAOS on GET SMART.)
PLUSES: Undeniable camp appeal. Imagine how bland pop culture would be without strange little cinematic gems like this. MINUSES: Primitive. Very primitive, at all levels. |
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