Les envahisseurs invisibles

We don't see too much of John Carradine, but we sure hear a lot from him as the disembodied voice of the Invisible Invaders coming to a planet near you.

Carradine's a scientist who is killed in a lab explosion. His cadaver is then used by a group of aliens who are invisible to communicate with fellow scientist Phillip Tonge. Tonge's a Linus Pauling type, wanting the world to disarm before Armeggeddon. Of course one encounter with the invisible crowd and he's seen the error of his ways.

The aliens attack, opening the cemeteries and letting loose a gang of zombies on the world. Humans retreat to the underground and in one such bunker is Tonge, his daughter Jean Byron, fellow scientist Robert Hutton and John Agar to lend some military muscle to the project of finding the weapon that will destroy the invisible fiends.

Though it's not quite as campy as Attack of the Killer Tomatoes, Invisible Invaders is right up there. If I had to make a guess as to which player appeared in more garbage in his career, the answer would be John Carradine. His film career lasted over 50 years and a voice that gave life to Shakespeare was used for science fiction at it's worst.

I think Carradine just liked the paycheck and he also probably just loved hamming it up in parts like these. He made a lot of these awful films somewhat endurable.

Robert Hutton and John Agar were a couple of once promising players who had seen their best days and now were scratching out a living in science fiction. Jean Byron though would shortly see her career part as Patty Duke's mother in the Patty Duke Show.

But I'll bet she never saw sights in Brooklyn Heights like these invisible ones.

Invisible Invaders (1959)

** (out of 4)

Incredibly silly film about an invisible alien who comes to Earth to once again try to wipe us all out. Thankfully for us humans Maj. Bruce Jay (John Agar) is on hand to try and save us. INVISIBLE INVADERS has the reputation of being one of the worst films ever made but I think that's a tad bit too harsh for a number of reasons. The biggest for me is that it's hard for a 66-minute movie to be the worst ever made because the filmmakers are at least smart enough to not keep giving us stuff to make the movie run longer than it should. The 66-minutes actually go by rather fast for the most part and this is always a good thing. Another thing this film has going for it is that we're given some familiar names that cult and "B" movie fans are going to know. Agar certainly looks a bit tired here but maybe he just wasn't feeling good during the production. He's at least entertaining and has no problem carrying the film. John Carradine appears briefly at the start of the picture and while he's certainly not reaching the levels he did in THE GRAPES OF WRATH, it's still fun seeing him. Jean Byron plays the female/love interest and does a nice job as well. Robert Rutton is also in the cast and adds some charm. The special effects are pretty bland as usually we just gets piles of dirt "moving" to show us the invisible creature or we get branches moving. These certainly aren't groundbreaking but at the same time they could have been a lot worse. There's some stock footage used throughout with the funniest bit happening when a plane crashes, due to the aliens, but the stock footage is from a test run and you can see the "X" mark to where it's supposed to hit.

Invisible invaders arrive in invisible spaceships and warn Earth they can and will take over the planet in three days. To do this they take over the bodies of the recently dead. Sound familiar? Well hold on because this 1959 thriller got here before PLAN NINE FROM OUTER SPACE (1959), LAST MAN ON EARTH (1962), and NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD (1968). John Carradine picked up a quick paycheque playing Dr. Karol Noymann, a scientist killed in a lab explosion who becomes the first one resurrected by the aliens. (Interesting enough "Karol Noymann" was also the name of a scientist in the 1957 sci/fi'er THE GIANT CLAW directed by Fred F. Sears. Coincidence?) Air Force officer John Agar and spineless scientist Robert Hutton spend way too much of the 66 minute movie fighting over who gets to fall in love with femme physicist Jean Byron. The briefly seen alien invaders look suspiciously like the title monster in IT! THE TERROR FROM BEYOND SPACE; and since Edward L. Cahn directed both pictures it is highly likely that he did not want to waste a chance to re-use the costume. Many movies ask us to suspend our disbelief but this one demands we leave all logic outside before we enter the cinema. The aliens, via Mr. Carradine, inform us that they invaded the moon 20,000 years ago and destroyed the civilisation living there. They have also managed to make everything on their planet invisible, which probably means they spend a lot of time bumping into things. The destruction of Earth is accomplished by stock footage from action serials and newsreel footage of real life disasters. B-movie fans will note that Hal Torey, playing a farmer killed by Agar in self defence and then returned to life as an invader, proved such a memorable figure that MTV exploited his image in commercials and on t-shirts for much of the late 1980's. Also showing up briefly is Chuck Niles who played the mad hunchback in Jerry Warren's memorable TEENAGE ZOMBIES. John Agar had fought monsters before in TARANTULA, THE MOLE PEOPLE and many others. He finally became a monster himself in the rarely seen 1962 thriller HAND OF DEATH. Robert Hutton would soon meet up with THE MAN WITHOUT A BODY (1959) and THE SLIME PEOPLE (1963). For all it's low budget short-comings this is a fun film; just the sort to make a Saturday afternoon enjoyable.

Spooky little horror film that had tentacles which reached far and wide. Many other filmmakers may have taken a dip in this cinematic pool. Don't snicker. Checkout the walking stiffs in business suits staggering around the countryside. Remind you of anyone? The last survivors--holed up in some sought of army bunker--predict a future bird flick. The clash between scientists, civilians and the military is always a staple of the action genre. There may be others, but I would have to watch it again. I first saw this on Creature Feature back in the 70's. It spooked me out to the degree that I swore off this type of movie until Chiller Theatre came on later that night. I came across it again about a dozen years ago when it turned up on New Year's Eve. Weird. Someone's idea of a joke? Recently, I bought it in tandem with another John Agar film called Journey to the Seventh Planet. John Carradine stumbles around as one of the corpses and does very well. Some of the extensive stock footage defies logic. A plane crashes into a marked bulls-eye on a hillside. It looked like a military training ground. The invaders are defeated with the simplest of weapons. They usually are.

That famous film phrase, actually incorrect by military terms, kind of sums up the way a lot of viewers must feel about this movie. The film isn't that bad in concept, but mistakes, goofs and continuity fluffs drag it down far more than it should be. The acting is standard for the genre. Agar is the predictable Air Force major, in yet another military and science versus the invaders epic. They're all there: the obligatory lead scientist, his beautiful daughter, the cowardly fiancée (who obviously eventually loses her to Agar), plastic commanding general and an assortment of dead brought to life to conquer the world ("Plan 9 From Outer Space" did this bit three years before but didn't get released in 1956 because Ed Wood ran out of money). The goofs include radioactive air that somehow can not get up under a loosely-fitting protective hood; a standard truck cabin that is somehow protected from radioactivity coming inside even when the door is opened and the driver is only wearing a suit; ropes that loop conveniently around a fallen invader lying at the bottom of a pit filled with acrylic; and, oh yes, film footage so old you will wonder which century these invaders came to earth anyway. So there you have it. Over and out. ~