Earth vs the Flying Saucers was great.
This is one of the few Ray Harryhausen pictures that doesn't feature monsters. Ray is famous for all kinds of monsters. But here he created an invading army of saucer men. I watched a short film on how he did his
stop action effect with the saucers. The man has the patients of a saint. And I for one am glad he did.
Earth vs the Flying Saucers, well plot was a little thin. I mean in the first 60 seconds it was decided to shoot anything that approached
an air field. Narrow minded Generals. On the other hand lets get right to the action.
But the Flying Saucers were out standing. I thought they looked like armored tanks. Not being negative, I
mean the looked industrial strength. The Ray Gun coming out the bottom was a nice touch. Remember the Mysterians the ray simply appeared at any point on the edge of the saucer. Made the weapon seem more powerful.
Some of the science was ahead of its time. I remember the audience laughing at "infinitely Indexed Memory Unit". By the 70s virtual memory was the new phrase in computing.
Their ships moved by "creating a magnetic field stronger than the pull of the earth".
Guess what, we have done such experiments. Not on metal object but floated frogs in a magnetic chamber.
The Flying Saucers are tough to figure out. That center post/landing gear. The entire thing is an elevator.
It has to be at least half the height of the saucer itself when its completely retracted. Then the main canon also lowers out the post. Yet when we were in the Saucer no sign of anything. The dome portion of the ship is at least 30 feet in diameter and basically empty. A two seater control system that does not even face the view panel, and a screen to hide your captured personel behind. The reset empty space. If I were a surviver of a disintegrated solar system, I could use the free space for something, anything! I watch it all the time. Its great!
Here are some simple scenes of the Flying Saucers in action.
These set of scenes come from a short move where the saucer swoops in over head. Then pauses, drops the center stand, touch down, shields on and the aliens emerge.
Short and to the point.