It’s probably better to see this before Night of the Living Dead (1968) if you want to be impressed by its originality, but Invisible Invaders is a relatively brisk and at times spooky little B picture. George Romero’s zombies are quite similar in execution to the alien-possessed corpses in this movie.
Tagline: “An unearthly enemy defying modern science in a war to the death of all civilization!”
WTF Factor: **
Notable Dialogue:
Jay: “You hate my guts, don’t you?”
Phyllis: “You killed a man in cold blood this morning, I keep seeing his face.”
Jay: “So do I. I fought all the way through Korea, probably killed a lot of men… but I never saw their faces. Dropping a bomb from a plane isn’t quite so personal.”
Phyllis: “Can I make you some coffee?”
Synopsis: We start with a 1950s-style narrator and a mushroom cloud. Doctor Karol Noymann (John Carradine), a famous scientist [all scientists seem to be famous to the public in this movie, placing it firmly in the realm of science fiction], has been killed in an atomic lab explosion.
In Washington D.C., Doctor Adam Penner (Philip Tonge) wants to end the dangerous nuclear experimentation and he has some good arguments about radioactive contamination of the atmosphere. However, the government (well, one General) scoffs at ending the military experiments and Penner then resigns from the “Atom Commission.” During Noymann’s funeral, we see something with scaly legs turn invisible.
Penner [eulogy]: “We grew to manhood sharing the same goal: Science for the benefit of humanity. Somewhere our ideals were lost and Karol Noymann died because of it… From now on, my work will be devoted to the aid of humanity, not its destruction.”
Penner’s daughter Phyllis (Jean Byron) and his assistant, Dr. John Lamont (Robert Hutton), are concerned about Penner’s recent change of heart.
An invisible something with a dragging gait enters the graveyard and apparently digs up Noymann.
Noymann then shows up at Penner’s front door. We learn that the aliens inhabit corpses to move around and communicate.
Noymann delivers an ultimatum: Earth has 24 hours to surrender before the aliens start a mass invasion. The aliens have already colonized the moon and they and their spaceship are all invisible. They plan to conquer Earth now. Penner is to tell everyone about this.
Noymann: “We cannot be defeated. We have never been defeated… The dead will kill the living and the people of Earth will cease to exist.”
To prove his point, Noymann shows him a piece of spaceship material which is invisible, then uses a humming device to turn it visible. Penner warns that no one will believe him.
Penner tells Phyllis, who fetches Lamont. They are both skeptical. Penner wants Lamont to deliver the message to Washington that the Earth only has 24 hours to surrender, since they might believe him. Lamont doubts that, but he agrees to share the message.
Unfortunately the whole world laughs. Penner is not pleased. At least Phyllis believes him.
Penner insists that they go to the graveyard to try to contact the invaders. There’s a growl and the bushes part again [third time for this shot] and we see the same shuffling invisible footsteps shot coming up on Doctor Noymann’s undisturbed grave. There’s also a second alien. Penner asks the invaders for more time. The invaders agree to provide one more sign to humanity. First there is an air crash.
The dead pilot is invaded and goes to a hockey game, where he clobbers the announcers and issues a warning. There is general panic at the game.
Another corpse is created from a car crash and gives the same warning in the announcing booth at a stadium [I guess we got a two-for-one warning]. Now everyone believes the threat; once again the world chooses sporting events over scientists. However, no one surrenders, so we are treated to stock footage of explosions, buildings demolished, as well as (small) hordes of inhabited corpses. Buried in the disaster footage, the narrator throws in the side information that “Finland and Russia were blown up.”
The government sets up a series of underground bunkers. Major Bruce Jay (John Agar!) comes to pick up the others to go to a bunker. Doctor Penner is now in charge of operations and back on the Commission, and Jay will provide protection. He shoots a farmer who tries to steal their jeep.
The four are finally sealed off in a bombproof bunker. They discover that the corpses are radioactive and searching for the bunker.
Meanwhile world negotiations have stalled. The world is a mess, with explosions, fires, and infrastructure destroyed. In the bunker they realize that the invaders do not have their own weapons. They are using Earth’s weapons against us and conquering by sabotage. Meanwhile, as you would have predicted, Jay and Phyllis hit it off.
Penner wants to capture an alien for tests using acrylic spray to trap the alien inside a corpse. Jay’s first try is a failure.
Lamont is scared but goes along with Jay. They go out in the truck and Jay makes a pit of acrylic to capture an alien and bring it back for testing. Whad’ya know, it works this time.
The aliens are not pleased; they follow the truck and find the bunker door. Penner and Lamont are now going to test weapons on the alien in the bunker. Nothing works. Lamont and Jay argue, then fight. Phyllis cries. An explosion takes place and Penner realizes that sound waves are the answer for making the alien visible. They test and discover the frequency that works best at making the aliens both visible and dead. When the alien comes out of the body, it looks like a ghostly white It!
The good guys try to use the radio to let the military know about the sound weapons but the spaceship is jamming the signal. They decide to follow the jamming signal to find the spaceship. A sound gun works against the invaders individually, turning each of them into a pile of bubbles.
Jay goes out and is wounded fighting the dead. He struggles forward manfully and then finds the ship and destroys it. The earth will be saved with the sound weapons.
A grateful U.N. thanks the good guys. We end on a shot of the flags of all nations flying at the U.N. building.
Narrator: “But out of the holocaust of war, in which a dictatorship of the universe had been defeated, a lesson had been learned. The nations of the world could work and fight together side by side in a common cause.”
Thoughts: While in many ways this is a typical low budget B-feature from the ‘50s, it is one of the better ones. It’s certainly not due to the budget; the film is stretched out to 66 minutes with stock footage and repeated shots, thankfully of short duration. Of course, having an invisible alien invasion force also helped save money. This works in the movie’s favor, in that the possessed corpses are the scary element. Edward L. Cahn also directed It! The Terror From Beyond Space the previous year and he was able to use the monster suit in the very brief shots where the aliens are visible. Cahn’s direction is straightforward, which matches the material.
The acting is unusually competent for this type of movie. Philip Tonge as Dr. Penner is actually quite good. He gives believable line readings and well-modulated emotional reactions and is convincing as a man of science having a crisis of conscience. Sadly, Tonge passed away the year this movie was released.
Even John Agar does fine here. He’s appropriately square-jawed with an intonation that sounds exactly like John Wayne if you close your eyes. He’s definitely mellowed from The Brain From Planet Arous (1957). Maybe it helps that his is really a supporting role.
One striking aspect of Invisible Invaders is that it has a genuine message. Penner has convincing arguments about the dangers of radiation and the morality of atomic research for military purposes. Someone working on the script did their homework. This was an era where above-ground nuclear detonations were still a tourist attraction in Nevada and there was not a general appreciation of the dangers of radioactive fallout in the air. The philosophy of nuclear deterrence held strong in the late 1950s, so the pacifist approach to atomic research would not have been universally accepted. All-in-all, this is a rather principled stand for a 1950s B-movie.
Random thoughts:
- The occupied corpses are all male and all dressed in suits except for our token farmer. I guess the suits make sense since men probably would have been buried in them in the ‘50s. They could have thrown in a few females, though. Perhaps there weren’t any lady aliens. On the other hand, think of all the pearl necklaces that would have been required for that era. I guess they confined their budget to bad ties.
- Karol Noymann is billed as Carl in the end credits.
- If only the aliens picked up their feet, they’d really be invisible. Maybe there’s too much gravity on Earth compared to the moon.
If you are in the mood for a ’50s science fiction/horror movie, this is a relatively good choice.
Suggested double feature: Plan 9 From Outer Space (also 1959) will make the resurrection of the dead in Invisible Invaders seem like genius.
Tagline for Coming Attraction: “A living nightmare of black magic… and unspeakable evil!”
