Teenagers from Outer Space (1959)
You'd think, after being in exile since they were five, the twin prince and princess of the Hyades empire would have more humility, yet they've been aboard the Silver Swift for ten minutes and have proven to be as spoiled and ignorant as you'd expect royal teenagers to be. And that music! What's nu wave cyber-synth post-alternative retrocore, anyway? It just sounds like a racket to Nebuleena. And now the door of the twins' cabin has mysteriously jammed, locking them both inside. Oh well. That'll have to wait until they arrive at the Hyadean Imperial Palace and Nebuleena is royally paid for transporting these brats. Nebuleena rests the fuse of the cabin door on the console and activates the stardrive.
In folded space, time and space mingle, and a journey of light years can be achieved in hours. There are signals here, too, leaked into space centuries ago and frozen in time; echoes of an Earth long lost to memory, but accessible to a spaceship's scanners. Let's see what Nebuleena finds in the abyss...
Teenagers from Outer Space begins with an improbable looking flying saucer arriving on Earth. It's greeted by a little dog, Sparky. Don't get attached to Sparky. His decision to be the first earthling to welcome the visitors to our planet gets all but his bones disintegrated by a raygun. (An alternative title of this movie is The Ray Gun Terror.) Emerging from the remarkably small saucer are a captain and his crew of teenagers. They analyse the Earth's atmosphere with a device that actually bears a legend identifying it as a sound mixer. They determine Earth is a suitable place to rear their livestock, called gargons on their world, but lobsters on Earth, except gargons are known to rapidly grow to huge sizes and be extremely aggressive. Gargon rancher must be a high risk profession. Of course, they've brought one with them, which will probably be fine. (An alternative title of this movie is The Gargon Terror.)
One of the teenagers, Derek, reasons Sparky's dog tag is evidence of the presence of intelligent life, for whom filling the world with giant, carnivorous lobsters might be more than an inconvenience. His fellow crewmen are unconcerned, because they're from the planet Squaresville, and it's not a hip scene. But the gargon appears not to thrive in Earth's stinking, nitrogen rich atmosphere, and it's decided other pastures should be sought. Unfortunately, Derek has demonstrated his rebellious nature, something these space fascists can't let slide, and they attempt to restrain Derek to take him home for a jolly good torturing and thorough excution. So Derek flees to give the bad news to Sparky's owner, and the captain decides to stow the suddenly revived gargon in a nearby cave and leave Thor, apparently his most unhinged crewmember, to track down and eliminate the deserter with his raygun, a task the psychopath relishes.
Derek finds Sparky's owner, a sweet girl named Betty who lives with her affable grandfather, and the boy from space immediately hits it off with Betty. (An alternative title of this movie is The Boy from Outer Space.) Betty and grandpa have a room for rent, which they offer to Derek, and Betty takes Derek to swim at the house of her friend, Alice. It's here Derek delivers the news about Sparky's recent weight loss, and takes Betty to see her pet's remains.
Meanwhile, Thor follows Derek's trail, leaving further skeletons in his wake like a demented terminator.
What follows is a cat-and-mouse game, with car
chases and a shootout with the police at City Hall that leaves Thor wounded. It's while getting medical attention for the undeserving Thor that Derek learns the gargon has been left on Earth and will surely be huge and dangerous by now, and many more gargons are in transit. Derek also learns that he is the son of their world's leader. Familial relationships are virtually unknown on their planet, because greeting cards were banned or something, but it seems papa has a soft spot for his nonconformist son whom he doesn't know.
Thor eventually has a car accident. To be fair, he'd learned to drive only that morning. Most of the remainder of the movie consists of Derek and Betty hunting down the gargon. I'd advise viewers not to get excited by the prospect of seeing the gargon. I won't ruin it by describing it, except to say the first reveal of the giant gargon is one of the most unintentionally hilarious things I've seen in cinema.
In spite of the movie's title, and it being released at the end of the decade that virtually invented the concept of the teenager, these teenagers never listen to a jukebox at a diner, go to see a drive-in movie, or dance at a sock hop. The fact of them being teenagers is utterly irrelevant.
Teenagers from Outer Space is primarily the work of a single man, Tom Graeff. He wrote, directed and edited the movie, in addition to playing reporter Joe Rogers, who's not a major role in the movie but is always there to move the plot along at a brisk pace. Graeff achieved the whole thing on a $14,000 budget, and I don't wish to be unkind when I say that it shows. What's extraordinary is not that a cheap movie looks cheap, but that it's still entertaining. The story and characters are fun. Graeff directs it well, and it would have been interesting to see what he could have achieved with proper financial backing. And there are thrills to be had here. One really believes Thor will do anything to hunt down Derek, and kill anyone who gets in his way. There are car chases, shootouts, and the final confrontation with the ridiculous gargon, in spite of its daftness, is tense. The actors and direction sell the whole thing.
Unfortunately, Graeff went on to find religion in the most unfortunate way, proclaiming himself to be Jesus Christ II. He has only a single credit after this as editor of 1964's The Wizard of Mars. Tragically, he took his own life in 1970, and I, for one, feel the world lost a determined and creative filmmaker. So I view Teenagers from Outer Space as a man's attempt to overcome the constraints of budget and realise his vision. Classics have been made and franchises built under such circumstances.
The actors in the movie all do a fine job. David Love, hero Derek, is a convincingly out of his element alien. Although his performance doesn't stand out, he engenders sympathy. This was Love's final credit.
The heart of the movie is Betty, played by Dawn Bender. Bender had been acting since the age of two, but for her, too, this movie was her final appearance. Her portrayal is of a girl who might seem a little airheaded at first, but proves a capable and courageous young woman, who's constantly being told what to do by men, but does her own thing anyway. Dawn gave up acting and had a long career as a teacher, and I think the fortune of the teaching profession was detrimental to motion pictures. Betty's grandfather, played by Harvey B. Dunn, is a friendly and calming presence in the chaos. He's the kindly, generous grandfather you'll wish was your own. I could have stood to see Dunn have prominent roles in many more movies, but much of his career was bit parts and in b movies. He worked with filmmaker Ed Wood a number of times.
Two performances especially stand out. Bryan Grant, in his only movie credit, shines as single-minded anger junkie Thor, utterly ruthless and totally relentless. Grant had a small number of television roles. Terribly underused is Sonia Torgeson, who plays Betty's shamelessly coquettish friend, Alice. Torgeson also had only a handful of television roles and one other movie role, in Downbeat (AKA Daddy-O) in 1958.
Making his debut as the alien captain is King Moody, who went on to have a long career in film and television. While he may be best remembered as evil henchman Starker in spy parody series Get Smart (1965-1970), his portrayal of McDonald's mascot Ronald Mcdonald in commercials for sixteen years from 1969 is notable.
This movie was made with limited resources, and you know that the moment you see the little flying saucer model land. Even the full sized spacecraft is far too small for its crew. The aliens' outfits are jumpsuits with tape on them. The gargon, when first seen in its smaller form, is a lobster in a cage. I suppose a lobster is the most alien-looking thing they could lay their hands on with minimal expense. I won't spoil how it's presented when it grows, but combined with its screech that is clearly made by a human being, it's hilarious. The alien device used to study the Earth's atmosphere is a sound mixer, and there's little attempt to hide the fact.
At one point, an alien fleet is descending, carrying numerous more gargons to Earth. Even for a reasonably well funded movie decades later, such a thing would have been an ambitious addition to a script. In this case, all you see is the characters looking aghast and commenting on how many there are and how close they're getting.
The raygun doesn't project an actual visible ray, but rather just a flash of light, apparently created with mirrors on the gun itself; quite ingenious, really. The skeletons of the raygun's victims are shown just as they begin to fall, and I always expect to see someone's hand sneaking out of shot.
The only bit of alien tech I liked was the raygun itself, the focused disintegrating ray. It has an almost steampunk look to it. Imagine my surprise to learn it was a cheap toy, Hubley's Atomic Disintegrator. Knowing that, I like it even more.
You're not going to watch Teenagers from Outer Space because of its effects, unless you want a chuckle.
Premise
Derek finds Sparky's owner, a sweet girl named Betty who lives with her affable grandfather, and the boy from space immediately hits it off with Betty. (An alternative title of this movie is The Boy from Outer Space.) Betty and grandpa have a room for rent, which they offer to Derek, and Betty takes Derek to swim at the house of her friend, Alice. It's here Derek delivers the news about Sparky's recent weight loss, and takes Betty to see her pet's remains.
Meanwhile, Thor follows Derek's trail, leaving further skeletons in his wake like a demented terminator.
chases and a shootout with the police at City Hall that leaves Thor wounded. It's while getting medical attention for the undeserving Thor that Derek learns the gargon has been left on Earth and will surely be huge and dangerous by now, and many more gargons are in transit. Derek also learns that he is the son of their world's leader. Familial relationships are virtually unknown on their planet, because greeting cards were banned or something, but it seems papa has a soft spot for his nonconformist son whom he doesn't know.
Thor eventually has a car accident. To be fair, he'd learned to drive only that morning. Most of the remainder of the movie consists of Derek and Betty hunting down the gargon. I'd advise viewers not to get excited by the prospect of seeing the gargon. I won't ruin it by describing it, except to say the first reveal of the giant gargon is one of the most unintentionally hilarious things I've seen in cinema.
In spite of the movie's title, and it being released at the end of the decade that virtually invented the concept of the teenager, these teenagers never listen to a jukebox at a diner, go to see a drive-in movie, or dance at a sock hop. The fact of them being teenagers is utterly irrelevant.
Cast and Crew
Unfortunately, Graeff went on to find religion in the most unfortunate way, proclaiming himself to be Jesus Christ II. He has only a single credit after this as editor of 1964's The Wizard of Mars. Tragically, he took his own life in 1970, and I, for one, feel the world lost a determined and creative filmmaker. So I view Teenagers from Outer Space as a man's attempt to overcome the constraints of budget and realise his vision. Classics have been made and franchises built under such circumstances.
The actors in the movie all do a fine job. David Love, hero Derek, is a convincingly out of his element alien. Although his performance doesn't stand out, he engenders sympathy. This was Love's final credit.
The heart of the movie is Betty, played by Dawn Bender. Bender had been acting since the age of two, but for her, too, this movie was her final appearance. Her portrayal is of a girl who might seem a little airheaded at first, but proves a capable and courageous young woman, who's constantly being told what to do by men, but does her own thing anyway. Dawn gave up acting and had a long career as a teacher, and I think the fortune of the teaching profession was detrimental to motion pictures. Betty's grandfather, played by Harvey B. Dunn, is a friendly and calming presence in the chaos. He's the kindly, generous grandfather you'll wish was your own. I could have stood to see Dunn have prominent roles in many more movies, but much of his career was bit parts and in b movies. He worked with filmmaker Ed Wood a number of times.
Two performances especially stand out. Bryan Grant, in his only movie credit, shines as single-minded anger junkie Thor, utterly ruthless and totally relentless. Grant had a small number of television roles. Terribly underused is Sonia Torgeson, who plays Betty's shamelessly coquettish friend, Alice. Torgeson also had only a handful of television roles and one other movie role, in Downbeat (AKA Daddy-O) in 1958.
Making his debut as the alien captain is King Moody, who went on to have a long career in film and television. While he may be best remembered as evil henchman Starker in spy parody series Get Smart (1965-1970), his portrayal of McDonald's mascot Ronald Mcdonald in commercials for sixteen years from 1969 is notable.
Design
At one point, an alien fleet is descending, carrying numerous more gargons to Earth. Even for a reasonably well funded movie decades later, such a thing would have been an ambitious addition to a script. In this case, all you see is the characters looking aghast and commenting on how many there are and how close they're getting.
The raygun doesn't project an actual visible ray, but rather just a flash of light, apparently created with mirrors on the gun itself; quite ingenious, really. The skeletons of the raygun's victims are shown just as they begin to fall, and I always expect to see someone's hand sneaking out of shot.
The only bit of alien tech I liked was the raygun itself, the focused disintegrating ray. It has an almost steampunk look to it. Imagine my surprise to learn it was a cheap toy, Hubley's Atomic Disintegrator. Knowing that, I like it even more.
You're not going to watch Teenagers from Outer Space because of its effects, unless you want a chuckle.
Conclusion
I really enjoyed this movie. Where budget lets it down, heart carries it through. The characters are fun, and the pacing brisk. The cheap effects have their own charm, and occasionally amuse.Nebuleena's Thoughts
'Couldn't the aliens have just switched to raising chickens? You can do that in your back yard, there's no need to go to another planet.'All screenshots of Teenagers from Outer Space taken by me for purposes of review. If you dispute the fair use of these images, contact me at ptbyrdie@gmail.com.
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