Invasion of the Saucer Men



Yes, there really is a 1950s B science-fiction movie titled Invasion of the Saucer Men. That said, it's not quite the cliche-ridden, narm-tacular, So Bad It's Good hoot you'd both hope it was and which its poster on the left would suggest. Whatsmore, with Wikipedia and IMDb listing it as a comedy, it doesn't quite seem to play itself for genuine seriousness either, when we all know that's what makes these sorts of movies good.

Anyways... the movie concerns a town named Hicksburg, wherein a spaceship lands in the nearby woods. Drunk opportunist Joe Gruen (Frank Gorshin) ventures out to find it. Meanwhile a teenage couple - Johnny (Steve Terrell) who works in a garage, and Joan (Gloria Castillo) who is the daughter of the city attorney - are driving down lovers lane when they run over one of the epononymous bulbous-headed aliens from the spaceship. The two go off to tell of their encounter to the police, and while they're gone, Joe comes across the alien corpse. The aliens kill via injecting people with alcohol with their retractable fingernails, and do so to Joe. They substitute his corpse for the run-down alien's. The police come with Johnny and Joan back to the site and find Joe, thereby assuming that the two were drunk and ran him over, hallucinating that he was an alien. Without the police's help, the town's teens are forced to take on the aliens themselves...

Was remade for TV in 1965 as Attack of the Eye Creatures.

The design of the character of Morbo from Futurama is based on that of the aliens from this film.

"Homer: "What are you spraying me with?"
 * Alien Invasion
 * Alcohol Is Poison: The Saucer Men can use syringes in their claws to inject alcohol into those who cross their paths. It large doses, this can be lethal, but it also makes everyone whose been around the Saucer Men smell like booze. A plot point later borrowed by The Simpsons Treehouse of Horror 7.

Kodos: "Rum! So no one will believe your story!""


 * B-Movie
 * Cassandra Truth: Because they all smell like booze.
 * Little Green Men: Whether it's played straight or for laughs is somewhat unclear.
 * My Brain Is Big
 * Police Are Useless
 * Touch of the Monster: A movie with this title simply would not be complete without a poster that bore this trope.
 * Weaksauce Weakness: