Invisible Invaders (1959)

I'm surprised that “Invisible Invaders” hasn't gotten more attention in modern day B-movie circles. It's a competent flick with a healthy heaping of cheesy goodness. It features an original idea, above-average direction (as far as B-movies go) and great storytelling.

John Carradine tells Phillip Tonge
that the human race is doomed.

After an accident at an atomic laboratory and the death of his colleague Dr. Noymann (John Carradine), Dr. Adam Penner (Phillip Tonge) is distressed by the effects of his research. He can no longer sleep at night knowing that his work is going towards military weaponry and consequently decides to resign. Shortly after this decision, he is visited by his former colleague whose corpse is re-animated by aliens. Carradine fits this unusual role well, and it's a compelling, emotionally charged little scene. As it turns out, our aliens are a very typical B-movie-esque race dead-set on interplanetary domination. They appoint Penner to deliver the message that they intend to take over the Earth. However, his futile attempts do no more than render him the town laughingstock.

Still less of a douchebag than
Chris Broussard.

The aliens are none too patient with humanity's blatant disregard and send down one of their own to directly inform the masses of their impending doom. Of all the places for this to be done, they send the alien to a local hockey game. ...I mean, I would've went with a multinational government agency or something, but whatever. He gets into the audio booth, renders the commentators unconscious and grabs the mic. It's pretty amusing, but not ridiculous enough to throw your interest off track.

To up the ante a little, the alien's warning is followed by a destruction montage narrated by a fellow who sounds exactly like Criswell from “Plan 9 From Outer Space.” The narrator is present throughout the entire film and does a pretty good job at making “Invisible Invader”'s scenes feel epic. Stock footage is rolled out to amusing effect as the man loudly dictates the synopsis for us.

The pseudo-Criswell's narration soon leads us to Penner's laboratory out in the middle of nowhere. It is now our scientist's mission to put an end to our invisible antagonists. Via special effects that were excellent (given the low budget and time period), Penner and his colleagues perform all sorts of experiments. Naturally, a few of the scientists have conflicts of ethics over said experiments. All of the actors handle this quite well; a particular argument between an overzealous Army Major (John Agar) and an anxious, dorky scientist (Robert Hutton) is especially well-acted.

A majority of “Invisible Invaders”'s run time is spent in this cramped little laboratory and it creates quite a claustrophobic feel. This only adds to the movie's emotive drive; you really do empathize with the characters in this dire time. After a long and virulent struggle, Penner and his associates manage to capture an invisible invader. We're treated to elongated action sequences complete with charmingly silly effects.

“Invisible Invaders”'s brisk 71-minute run time is a huge plus. This movie takes its original idea and squeezes as much interesting content out of it as possible without forgetting to throw in smatterings of classic 50's/60's B-movie goodness. The acting & storytelling are notably good as far as cult films go. Definitely recommended for any old-school sci-fi nerds out there.