Touches You

Did you people see the same film I saw?

If you like to be scared, if you like to laugh, and if you like to learn a thing or two at the movies, this absolutely cannot be missed.

There are moments that feel comical, some horrific, and some downright inspiring but the tonal shifts hardly matter as the end results come to a film that's perfect for this time.

Coming at the tail End of the Fifties Alien Invader/Nuclear Paranoia Films, this is a Fitting Finale to the Cycle. Low-Budget and Proud of it, B-Movie Maker Ed Cahn manages to Cobble Together enough Thrills and Political Inclusions that the Movie just Cannot be Ignored.The Cheesy Effects are incorporated for Your Viewing Pleasure and Aided by enough Stock Footage that Ed Wood would be Proud. But the Lasting Images are the ones of the "Zombies" and Romero Fans might Experience Deja-Vu.Overall, this is a Rich and Rewarding little Ditty that fully Realizes its Place in the Pantheon of Saturday Matinée and Drive In Fodder that so Enamored Baby Boomers and Sci-Fi Geeks who were Coming of Age in the Fifties.The Cast includes Cult-Favorites John Agar and John Carradine. The earnest Anti-Nuke Scientist is stern Serious and makes Us believe that the Only Good Nuclear Weapon is One that is Never Made. The Ending World Coming Together to Fight an Invading Force has become a Standard Geo-Political Mantra given Voice by no less than President Ronald Reagan on More than One Occasion.

*Spoiler/plot- Invisable Invaders, 1959, There's not one man but armies of them hidden on our Moon. They are here to take over the Earth by inhabiting one corpse at a time. They announce it to the world daring us to stop them. Perfecting the body snatching skills the invisible moon men army take over our recent dead. Can any scientist figure out a way to defend the Earth and stop the gruesome plot? *Special Stars- John Carradine, Jon Agar, Jean Bryon, Philip Tonge, Robert Hutton, Hal Torey*Theme- Science can always save the planet given the right amount of time.*Trivia/location/goofs- Bronson Caves in Gower Park Hollywood CA, Stock footage of car and plane crashes from other films of the time. Sometimes the wire used for the alien footprints is clearly seen. Regularly seen B-Movie actors: Robert Hutton, Jon Agar, and John Carradine have roles. The excellent 50's drive-in second feature film in theatrical release was "It! The Terror from Outer Space", featuring Crash Ray Corrigan as the main space monster and a good spaceship crew. *Emotion- Essentially a zombie film with science fiction overtones. The monster scenes are kept to near the film's end but you're first treated to some alien footprints scenes illustrating aliens walking with heavy some breathing. Things get rolling with a secret cave laboratory to capture and experiment on an alien discovering that sound can drive the alien out of the host body. They film is standard plot fair with little distinctive elements. This film is mediocre escapist movie fun.

"Invisible Invaders" is mostly the typical '50s B movie: totally ridiculous and very enjoyable. When a bunch of see-through aliens invades earth, the scientists go to work trying to figure out how the planet can fight back. One can definitely see how the movie provided some material for "Night of the Living Dead", as possessed corpses traipse around looking for more people to kill.If the movie has any lesson, it's about working together to solve problems. Not something that humanity's been too good at in the past decade. For the most part, it's just your typical corny but fun sci-fi flick. And if I may say so, Jean Byron looked sexy in those pants! PS: John Agar was Shirley Temple's first husband.

This film was "panned" by Lenny Maltin in the 1995 edition of his book. I think unjustly so. Many of the reviews here do justice to the film far better. However, even they, in their totality, miss a few points. For example : The scientist who resigns so as not to further Armageddon is not discredited by the end of the film, for the aliens are defeated by a "low-tech" sonic gun, which has nothing to do with ABC WMD. This argues that you do not necessarily need such weapons in order to deal with threats from outer space --- and yet such a threat has been alleged as a main reason for keeping such ABC WMD. So it is implicit in the thesis of the film that the world can and should disarm itself of its ABC WMD. And this is the premise of such subsequent treaties as SALT, et cetera. Again, the use of sound in defeating the aliens also anticipates "Close Encounters of the Third Kind," in which sound is used to communicate with the aliens.( One finds oneself wondering if rumors had been filtering from out of Roswell in the decade or dozen years since 1947.). Do the invaders, in 1959, come from the dark side of the Moon? Could the solution to that be to go there? And what happened ten years later, in 1969? Again, it is notorious that one way to bring the nations of the world together would be to present them with a threat from outer space ---How many other movies and TV series have had that as a premise?! Several national leaders are reported to have talked openly and publicly about just such an eventuality as well. Also, the fact of the very visible foot-dragging, on the part of the aliens, is over-looked as a means to detect and defeat the invaders. But that brings to mind a scene in the film version of "The Andromeda Strain" (not in the original novel ), in which a lab technician falls asleep on duty, thus missing a visual signal indicating a way to deal with the Strain. Vote is 10 out of 10 on the score of prescience. ( The film would get other votes on other scores ) .