The most amazing thing about Invisible Invaders is that it wasn’t produced by Sam Katzman. Old Sam would have loved the idea of invading aliens who are invisible — even whose spaceships are invisible. (You will notice — as I’m sure viewers did in 1959 — that the poster promises something much more spectacular than the movie delivers.) Think of the savings! Then again, producer Robert E. Kent had written screenplays for Katzman, so it’s kind of an extension. It is a film that does not invite much scrutiny. None of it can be said to make a lot of sense. Why, for instance, do the aliens even need these bodies? Offhand, you would think that they could carry out their sabotage under the cloak of invisibility just as well as they could inhabiting the bodies of the dead — possibly better. Certainly invisible monsters from outer space would blend in better than shambling zombies that look like extras from Night of the Living Dead. Maybe it has something to do with the aliens’ apparent inability to walk like normal people. Let’s put it this way, if my mother was around she’d be telling these boys, “Pick up your feet!” Of course, it’s hard not to note that the zombies aren’t exactly light on their feet. As I said, scrutiny is ill-advised here. It’s best just to sit back and enjoy the nonsense.
The Thursday Horror Picture Show will screen Invisible Invaders Thursday, Feb. 26, at 8 p.m. in Theater Six at The Carolina Asheville and will be hosted by Xpress movie critics Ken Hanke and Justin Souther.
Ha! This is the first time I’ve heard John Agar called “indispensible”. But it fits. Now I’ll never see his name again without thinking it.
I’m not trying to be mean. Ol’ John always gave the audience their money’s worth. No matter how silly his lines or part he always tried to carry it off. Which sometimes makes it even more funny. But seriously, where would 50’s SciFi be without John Agar? It wouldn’t have been half as fun.
It’s on Netflix so I decided to watch it.
You’d think that an alien race that ruled most of the universe, as well as the Moon for the last 20,000 years, could find a better venue to announce the imminent destruction of the human race than a local hockey game.
Wow! That’s one heck of a lab! “It has everything. If it isn’t here it doesn’t exist.” That means it must have 18 year old Glenfiddich, right?
So, why don’t they just go to the shelf labelled “Invisible Invader Killing Device”?”
See? It’s quite a movie, isn’t it?
I must say things are not looking good weatherwise for this to come off tonight.
Well, the snow is melting fast — not fast enough to make my driveway passable — so, yes, the show is still on for tonight.