Skyland Drive-In Theatre presents
Killers From Space (1954)

Director – Arthur Ripley
 

Watch cLASSIC MOVIES

Plot
Film Notes
Cast and Production Credits

The Plot

Scientist Doug Martin disappears after his plane crashes while monitoring an atomic bomb test in the desert. He mysteriously reappears at the military base with no memory of where he's been. He seems healthy, but for a large surgical scar on his chest. The F.B.I. suspects he is a spy. Doug comes to believe it was an alien abduction.

Back to top

Film Notes

Nothing to Fear but But More Fear

The ten years following World War II found Americans in a pecuilar psychological space. The fears brought on by the Great Depression and World War II didn't disappear with the booming economy and total victory over Germany and Japan. The fears were merely redirected toward the terror of the Communist Red Menace and the Atomic Bomb.

The Killers From Space falls into a cinematic crossroads between films of Communist conspiracies and Atomic bomb fears. It is transitional in that the atomic threat, though coming from space aliens, is still from an external calculating foe. Within a few years atomic raditation would be set loose by Americans themselves accidentally creating monsters mindlessly bent on destroying the world.

Image = Action = Image

Killers From Space fills the screen with:

...atomic bombs...fighter planes, ping-pong ball eyed aliens in hoodies, cigarettes, pipes, F.B.I. men, twin pajamas, twin beds, caves, giant lizards and insects, military hospitals, truth serum...

Responsiblity Lies...

Graves Matters

The star of Killers From Space is Peter Graves, younger brother of James Arness. After his appearance in Billy Wilder's Stalag 17, it seemed Peter would be the big star of the family. But a year after Killers From Space was produced, it was his brother who was riding high in TV's Gunsmoke. Graves would toil for years in "B" movies and syndicated television (Fury) before gaining big time fame as Jim Phelps in TV's Mission Impossible. His serious demeanor (along with Leslie Neilson's) was latter put to good comedic use in the Airplane movies

Those Wilder Times

Legendary director Billy Wilder had a older brother - W. Lee Wilder (Willie). He didn't talk much about him, but among the few things he did say:

...(he) "was a fool...He sold his business, he bought a house here, and started making pictures, one worse than the next, and then he died." Billy also stated that Willie was "dull son of a bitch."

Older than Billy by a year, Willie actually came to America first, establishing a successful handbag business in New York. He encouraged his younger sibling to leave Germany and join him. Billy, having worked in the German film industry, had no interest in women's accessaries and headed for Hollywood, quickly becoming a prized and respected writer/director.

Willie decided if Billy could do it, so could he, and he sold off his business to bankroll his own cinema career.

Where Billy was responsible for some of cinema's greatest works, such as Double Indemnity, Sunset Boulevard, The Apartment and Some Like it Hot, Willie's filmography includes not only Killers From Space, but Phantom from Space, The Snow Creature, and The Man Without a Body.

Still, the bottoms of the barrels sometimes contain interesting secrets when looked at closely, so more W. Lee Wilder films are on the way to Alameda TV.

--Ed Schneider – Alameda TV

Back to top

Cast

Production Credits

Back to top

For more on...

Killers From Space

Red Scare Films

Submit a Review

Share your views of cCLASSIC MOVIES with fellow Alamedans...