An Ed Wood Clone?

Invisible Invaders and Plan 9 From Outer Space both came out in 1959.  If I hadn't known better, I would've guessed that II was some lost Ed Wood creation.  Perhaps Ed Wood had some influence on II director Edward L. Cahn or vice versa.  Certain similarities, such as continuity problems, generous use of stock footage, and recycling of shots can more easily be explained by low budgets.

However, a small purse cannot be blamed for both films using an omniscient narrator or the common theme of aliens who respond to earthlings's nuclear development by resurrecting dead humans, who then attack live humans.  No sir!

I do not believe that 1950s alien invasion films are really about Communism.  I believe that subconscious eruptions fuel our fear of both aliens and Communism (and a lot of other stuff).  The walking dead could be the return of the repressed!  I think of these films as modern folklore, that reveals our collective uncoscious.

In any case I videoed the opening scene of II, which I think is awesomely bad!  You can watch trailers on youtube.

Aliens R Us

Inspired by Chuck's recent post, I was checking out what Google searches were leading people to my blog.  One searcher from Norway who retrieved my post Who Are These Aliens Anyway? had used the search terms Colleen and aliens.  Could it be that my thoughts on 50s science fiction had risen to fame-level?!

Perhaps.  Or maybe The Norwegian was looking for this Colleen.

How Will We Hide From ET?

I recently watched Dangerous Crossing, a noir shipboard mystery which included Michael Rennie.  It was an excellent little mystery  wrapped in studio fog.  I then remembered that Rennie played the noble alien Klaatu in The Day the Earth Stood Still.  He was one of the helpful aliens.  But now Stephen Hawking says we should avoid alien contact.  (Presumabley he's a fan of The Invaders or Robot Monster.)

OK, we could stop SETI, but what else are we supposed to do? Should we turn out all the lights at night, so it looks like nobody is at home?  While this would aid our environment, I don't think it would save us from alien invaders.   Presumabley these advanced aliens have super-duper telescopes or robot scouts who search out good planets for them to conquer.  If we are lucky, Jupiter and Saturn will hide us or at least divert attention by their bigness.  If we are not lucky, then we will probably have to just surrender.

Where can this lead but to a new government agency devoted to anti-alien affairs:  the Homeplanet dept. for Interplanetary DEfence (HIDE).  They will spend jillions of dollars developing a whole-Earth cloaking device.  

 Klaatu and his Earthling helper

I'm hoping Hawking's comments will revive the long-defunct Extraterrestrial Anti-Defamation Organization (ETADO).  I used to enjoy their website.

Metronome Update

It appears that the "metronome" is actually an LED Wand Clock.  On the right you see the LED wand waving back and forth.  What you do not see is the current time, which, during normal operation, would seem to float in the air.

It seems innocent enough.
Then why has nobody admitted to leaving it there?  One cannot help remembering Stephen Hawking's recent warning about aliens.  Wouldn't it be clever of them to plant their super-high-tech spying mid-control devices in our own pitiful gizmos and then to leave them here and there.  After all, these aliens don't neend to nuke us;  they have sneakier ways of conquering us.

Who are these Aliens Anyway

In my last post, I pointed out the unusual power aliens have over the indwelling spirits of Earthling machinery. Now I wonder if the aliens actually are those spirits. It makes sense. These techno-sprites would have planted the seeds of technical inspiration in human heads. They would be the real ghosts in the machine. So in films like The Day the Earth Stood Still, the techno-sprites are reminding us that they, not we, are the true inventors; if we thing think we are in control of our gadgets, well, think again!