Before The Last Man on Earth (1964); A bit after Creature with the Atom Brain (1955); Way before Night of the Living Dead (1968) there was – Invisible Invaders! A cheaply made but somewhat entertaining sci-fi film
Produced by Robert E. Kent
Written by Samuel Newman
Music by Paul Dunlap
Cinematography: Maury Gertsman
Edited by Grant Whytock
Production company: Premium Pictures
Distributed by United Artists
Running time: 67 min.
Cast
John Agar: Maj. Bruce Jay
Jean Byron: Phyllis Penner
Philip Tonge: Dr. Adam Penner
Robert Hutton: Dr. John Lamont
John Carradine: Dr. Karol Noymann
Hal Torey: The Farmer
Paul Langton: Lt. Gen. Stone
Eden Hartford: WAAF Secretary
What’s this?
Aliens…..
On the moon for twenty thousand years!
Undetectable due to their invisibility!
Determined to annihilate humanity unless all the nations of earth surrender immediately!
Taking over and occupying the bodies of the recently deceased!
BUT…..
Who can stop them?
Can they be stopped?
Trailer
Read on for more......
Spoilers follow below.....
A newspaper headline announces that Dr Karol Noymann, an atomic scientist has been killed in an atomic lab explosion. The area around the lab is so contaminated by radiation that even a full investigation has not begun.
Noymann’s colleague, Dr. Adam Penner, is disturbed by the accident. He wants to prevent the military application of atomic energy and decides to resign from his position and call for the peaceful pursuit and application of such technology.
At Dr Noymann’s funeral, a strange presence can be seen moving about, briefly becoming visible before once again disappearing. Later in the evening the strange creature visits Noymann’s grave and disturbs it. The only clue as to the creature’s presence are the dual furrows ploughed into and along the soil by the dragging of its invisible feet. Something wicked this way shuffles!
An invisible alien has now taken over Dr Noymann’s dead body!
At around midnight there is a knock at the Dr Penner’s door. The alien, in Noymann's dead body warns Penner that Earth has 24 hours to surrender or an alien force will invade and take over the Earth by inhabiting the dead. He goes on to explain that the aliens have invisibility technology and that 20,000 years ago they invaded the Moon, destroying all life on it.
Was any make-up really needed?
So far the aliens have had little interest in humanity, but with their ever growing technology they have become a threat – a threat that the aliens plan to put a stop to.
Open your hand and close your eyes….I’m going to give you a big surprise.
By way of demonstration of the aliens’ ability to make things invisible, Alien-Noymann places in Penner’s hand an invisible piece of metal in order to illustrate the veracity of his warning.
How can one fight off an invading enemy who is invisible?
Before leaving, Alien-Noymann instructs Penner to inform the world of what he has been told and shown.
Penner’s daughter, Phillis and Dr John Lamont arrive back at the house where they encounter a clearly disturbed Penner. Dr Penner tells them about his experience and asks John to convey a message to the government in Washington, DC.
The government (in its usual swamp-mired way) of course ignores the warning and the (fake nnneeeewwwssss!) media set about flailing away at Dr. Penner’s reputation and character with headlines suggesting that he is a mentally unstable crank. This all sounds strangely familiar!
“Dear Lord, I pray that I am insane, that all that happened is only in my mind. I pray that tomorrow the sun will shine again on living things, not on a world where only the dead walk the Earth.”
Dr. Penner takes his daughter and Dr. Lamont to Dr. Noymann's grave site, to try and gather more evidence. Imagine their shock when they suddenly witness a pair of furrows moving inexorably toward the grave until they halt and Noymann’s voice can be heard warning them that the Earth will get one last warning………he really, really means it this time, so just you watch out!
Faced with the human propensity to respond in a “Ya boo Sucks to you” manner and realizing that they probably should have gone for a zero-tolerance and one-strike-and-you’re-out policy, the aliens force a plane to crash and then re-animate the pilot’s corpse. Aviator alien zombie then sets about interrupting a radio broadcast of a hockey match by applying an illegal choke hold on the announcer before issuing an ultimatum for the Earth to surrender.
How many times does this same room make an appearance?
Quick to cotton on to the fact that the public generally only pay attention to matters relating to sport, the same thing happens this time with a car crash victim who broadcasts the ultimatum at a football game. Either the announcement or the game’s state of play causes the spectators to take to their heels.
Upon learning of the threat to the world, governments of the planet resolve to resist the invasion. Of course, we would never entertain the prospect of governments using the crisis to seek advantage over their rivals and enemies. Never! As a result of this completely believable display of global unity, the aliens continue with their dead body squatting activity and set about blowing up dams, destroying buildings and generally creating worldwide panic and mayhem.
Desperate for a solution to the global crisis, the US government announces that a group of leading scientists are to be taken to hidden locations to work on developing a successful defense against the alien threat.
Enter Maj. Bruce Jay who arrives on the scene to whisk Dr. Penner, Phyllis and Dr. Lamont away to a secret bunker. On the way, they are confronted by a scared shot-gun brandishing farmer who is intent on taking their vehicle. Maj. Jay showing that his time spent killing Koreans hadn’t been wasted, kills the farmer by shooting him….dead!
“I fought all the way through Korea, probably killed a lot of men... but I never saw their faces. Dropping a bomb from a plane isn't quite so personal.”
Not So Secret Location No.6
At the bunker, the group make contact with the government in Washington and learn that things are going rather pear-shaped. Suddenly, one of the radiation alarms triggers, and it is soon discovered that an alien ship has landed nearby and that many of the dead are being re-animated in preparation for an attack on the base.
Stylishly attired zombies!
Dr Penner believes the invaders use a ray to mask themselves and that the application of acrylic paint to the corpse would render them visible and unable to escape.
While Dr Lamont’s bowels start turning to water, Jay goes all He-Man action-hero and heads outside to test a new paint spray device. He attempts to spray an alien with acrylic to seal it in but fails to capture it.
The idea was sound, but the method of delivery needs a bit of tweaking so that the paint can be applied faster. Armed with the modified device, the major and Dr Lamont head out to try their luck. This time they fill a pit with the acrylic liquid and manage to lure a thick-headed alien into it where it is covered with the paint and rendered immobile.
The captured alien is taken to the bunker where it is placed inside a pressure chamber in order to drive the alien creature out of the human body. The scientists manage to break the acrylic encasing the body by means of high pressure and a ghostly luminescent humanoid apparition emerges from the body.
With the alien confined in the chamber, they perform some experiments to see if they can affect it, but nothing seems to work.
Frustration and pressure combine to turn Dr. Lamont into a tea pot. He proceeds to run amok and engage in a ‘push me, shove you’ tussle with the major. In the process, electronic equipment is damaged and a loud alarm is set off. But, whaaaaat’s this? The captive alien suddenly reacts violently to the cacophony of noise.
Penner, being no idiot, realizes that the alien creatures have an Achilles heel: vulnerability to sound.
A sound gun is soon constructed and is tested on the alien. At first there appears to be no effect but, as the frequency is increased, the creature becomes visible, leaves the corpse and dies.
The team tries to inform the government in Washington but either there’s another government shutdown or the nearby alien ship is jamming their broadcast signal.
A radio detection finder is rigged up onto the back of a truck and our intrepid group use it to locate the ship using the jamming signal as a marker.
Several aliens are killed along the way but the major is injured in the process. Despite his injuries, he finds the alien ship and shoots it with the sound gun. The ship explodes and the jamming signal is finally switched off.
Frustration and pressure combine to turn Dr. Lamont into a tea pot. He proceeds to run amok and engage in a ‘push me, shove you’ tussle with the major. In the process, electronic equipment is damaged and a loud alarm is set off. But, whaaaaat’s this? The captive alien suddenly reacts violently to the cacophony of noise.
The team tries to inform the government in Washington but either there’s another government shutdown or the nearby alien ship is jamming their broadcast signal.
There’s only one thing for it - destroy the alien ship to get the message through!
A radio detection finder is rigged up onto the back of a truck and our intrepid group use it to locate the ship using the jamming signal as a marker.
Several aliens are killed along the way but the major is injured in the process. Despite his injuries, he finds the alien ship and shoots it with the sound gun. The ship explodes and the jamming signal is finally switched off.
With the information now broadcast to the entire world, the alien invasion is defeated. And who do we have to thank for having saved the world? Why, Dr. Penner, Dr. Lamont, Phyllis Penner and Maj. Jay who are now at this moment being lauded by none other than the United Nations. Now the countries of the world can go back to bickering, fighting and arguing among themselves free from alien interference – Hoorah!
Points of Interest
Production of Invisible Invaders was made as part of a package deal with The Four Skulls of Jonathan Drake and was the fourth science fiction film made by Premium Pictures. Both films were directed by Edward L. Cahn.
The film was obviously quite quickly and cheaply made as can be seen from the cheap sets, the use of an “invisible” alien creature, the re-use of special effects artist Paul Blaisdell's monster costume from 1958's It! The Terror from Beyond Space and the quite extensive use of stock footage of collapsing buildings, fires and earthquakes.
Budget constraints resulted in cast members performing their own stunts with little preparation or training. This apparently almost led to a close call with John Agar nearly overturning a jeep carrying himself and Hutton during a scene in which he had to brake and swerve sharply. The jeep tilted onto two wheels and almost toppled over with the actors inside.
The role of Adam Penner was Philip Tonge’s final role. He died on January 28 1959 before Invisible Invaders went into release on May 15.
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