Titles can be deceiving, as we learned with "Red Planet Mars" and tonight was another case in point : "Teenagers From Outer Space"(1959). It kept popping up on various lists and my Youtube recommendations, but I've been avoiding it because it sounded to me like a silly mashup, Frankie and Annette in a flying saucer, probably a comedy, made to cash in on the popularity of goofy youth flicks of the era. But as we know, our choices have narrowed down over the passing weeks. Some nights we get lucky and discover a gem, other nights we're scraping the barrel, looking for anything salvageable. Once in a while, when our search is in vain, we've just had to go against our instincts and cue up a flick we'd previously thought ridiculous. This was one of those nights.
I checked IMDB first and was pleased to see it was listed as a "horror/sci-fi/thriller" and not a comedy. I don't like comedy mixed in with my horror or sci-fi thank you very much. I was also encouraged by the comment of a fan : "Better than a lot of stuff that gets released now". Hmmm, that's interesting I thought. Of all the things to say, not "pretty good for a cheezy flick" or "so bad it's good", but "better than a lot of stuff now". The rating was only 3.8 but that was no biggie. "Monstrosity" had score of 2.9 and turned out to be one of the better films we've seen in our recent crusade. So, back at Youtube I rolled the dice and pressed play. Within five minutes I knew it was gonna be a little different......
An astronomer at Griffith Park Observatory is monitoring an unidentified flying object over Hollywood. "There are some things we have no control over", he muses wearily to his supervisor. "Yes", the man responds, "it makes you wonder about the fate of Mankind". Cut to Bronson Canyon. The UFO is landing in a patch of dirt. It's a classic Flying Saucer. A small dog runs up the hill, barking at the strange silver disc. The hatch opens and a human-looking Alien emerges, a handsome young man of about 25. He's wearing a uniform and carrying a Ray Gun. Seeing the dog, he opens fire. The poor thing is instantly reduced to a skeleton. I have to jump in to say that this made me so mad. What a jerk, I thought. Shooting the doggie with a Ray Gun and turning him into a skeleton, grrrrrr! If I had been in Bronson Canyon when he did that, he'd have been One Sorry Alien.
Another Alien steps out of the saucer, also young and handsome. He walks over to the skeleton and picks up the dog's i.d. tag. After reading it, he approaches the shooter. "I see no reason for you to have eliminated that creature"! He holds up the dog tag. "This medallion shows that it was cared for by whomever engraved these words. The creature was harmless and the inhabitants of this planet appear to be civilised". The gunman is not moved. "It attacked us", he says.
The Commander of the ship then emerges with other crewmen and orders everyone to begin measuring atmospheric data, which they do with several tape decks and mixing boards, lol. A box is brought out, containing a lobster-like entity. "This planet will be a most excellent feeding ground for the Gargons"!, exclaims the Commander, but the good-guy Alien objects. "They will not stop at eating the vegetation. When it is gone they will consume the other life forms. We should not do this to civilised beings".
"Ahh, I see you've been reading that Book again"!, says the Commander. "It's putting bad ideas into your head. I should take it away from you".
"Even if you did, I would not forget what it has taught me. Once, we too were civilised, and kind. Long ago we lived as these beings do. Now we kill and destroy. The Book has taught me the old ways, many others know of it too".
"Well right now I am ordering you to release the Gargon"!
"No, i will not! We can take it to another planet, devoid of living creatures. There it can feed without killing. I will not release it here, not where there are life forms".
Just as the Commander is about to arrest the young pacifist - "Derek" is his name - he runs off, escaping over the hillside. Soon he is in a residential neighborhood in Hollywood. Walking down the street, he sees a sign - "room for rent". His knock is answered by "Betty" (Dawn Anderson) a pretty young girl who lives with her grandfather. "Oh, are you here about the room? Come in. That's an interesting uniform you're wearing. Do you go to military school"? Betty is straight out of a '50s Sock Hop. Her conversation is peppered with "golly"s and "gosh". She's innocence personified, and Grandpa is friendly and trusting. They take Derek in. "He can pay us after he's gotten a job", says Betty.
Derek keeps trying to tell Betty and Grandpa that he's.......not from around these parts, but he can't find the words. He doesn't want to frighten them, for one thing. But he also knows he's being hunted down. The Commander has sent Thor - the dog killer - after Derek and he doesn't want his new friends caught in the crossfire. Thor has already tracked him to the neighborhood, turning a gas station attendant into a skeleton in the process. Thor is ruthless. He locates Grandpa's house, then carjacks a motorist : "Tell me how to pilot this vehicle"! Betty has taken Derek to go swimming at her friend Alice's house, but when they get there, Derek is too nervous to swim. He finally tells Betty he's being chased, and they leave. Thor arrives at Alice's hot on their trail, having forced her address out of Grandpa. When Alice won't reveal where they've gone, Thor turns her into a skeleton as well.
Betty tells Derek they have no choice but to call the police, who are already aware of the skeletons mounting up in the neighborhood. "There appears to be a psychotic killer on the loose", the Police Chief tells Betty. "You and the young man had better come straight down to headquarters. We'll be waiting for you on the front steps". But when they get there, Thor pulls up moments later. A shootout ensues. Thor turns several cops into skeletons, before being wounded himself. But he manages to get away, using Betty as a human shield. "Take me to a Man of Surgery so that I may have these metallic pellets removed from my flesh"!, he orders her. Thor and Derek speak Precise Formal Alien (as heard in Corman's "Not Of This Earth" and "Plan 9"), which proves amusing in several instances where the sentence construction is particularly clever.
After Thor is patched up, he will try to continue the manhunt (or should I say alienhunt), but Derek and Betty have escaped while he was in surgery. Meanwhile, back at Grandpa's, a newscaster is reporting that a Giant Lobster has been seen in Bronson Canyon. "Oh no! The Gargon has been set free"!, says Derek. "It has been feeding, which explains it's tremendous size! I have to stop it, I must go there now"! Betty begs him not to go. She's fallen in love with Derek and can't bear to lose him. "I nevertheless must destroy the Gargon before it consumes your entire city. But I promise I shall return, and when I do, I'll never leave you again".
It's all very romantic at this point. Not that Thor has given up. He's gone back to get help from the Commander, who in the meantime has called back to the Home Planet to order the arrival of thousands more Gargons. But Derek has a plan to stop them all, involving the local Power Company. The final showdown will take place at dusk, with the Gargon towering over the hillside in a special effect that must been seen to be fully appreciated.
I was so impressed with "Teenagers From Outer Space" that I did some Googling afterward, and discovered that writer/director Tom Graeff had actually been in the movie himself, playing the part of "Joe", a newspaper reporter. Graeff, a graduate of UCLA Film School, was only 30 when he made this film, on a 14,000 dollar budget that he raised partially from grants. 14 grand is only a fraction of what even Corman got for his early pictures, but Graeff made the most of what he had, writing a layered plot with great dialogue and filming it with a professional look. The acting isn't bad, either. If Thor and Derek seem a little stiff, well heck, they're supposed to be : They're Aliens! Graeff had a lot going for him with this debut, but then something went wrong, either in his life or in his mind. By 1964, he'd taken out an ad in the Los Angeles Times in which he proclaimed himself "Jesus Christ II". That was enough to get him blackballed as a kook. After that, he scrounged a few cinematic side jobs here and there, but by 1971 he couldn't take it anymore and committed suicide. It's really too bad because, had he not been eccentric he could've had himself a decent career in Hollywood, based on the creativity he shows in this film. I urge you to ignore the title as I did and give "Teenagers From Outer Space" a shot. I give it Two Big Thumbs Up for originality and would like to see a restored print. Apparently, UCLA is aware of Graeff's cult status, so maybe one day they'll put up the money for it and honor their unconventional alumnus. //////
That's all for the moment. I'll see you later tonight at the Usual Time.
Tons of love! xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo :):)
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