Killers from Space
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| Directed by | W. Lee Wilder |
| Produced by | W. Lee Wilder |
| Written by | William Raynor Myles Wilder |
| Starring | Peter Graves Barbara Bestar James Seay William Gerstle |
| Narrated by | Mark Scott |
| Music by | Manuel Compinsky |
| Cinematography | William H. Clothier |
| Edited by | William Faris |
| Distributed by | RKO Radio Pictures |
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Release dates
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Running time
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71 min |
| Language | English |
Killers from Space is a independently made 1954 American black-and-white science fiction feature film, produced and directed by W. Lee Wilder (brother of Billy Wilder) from an original, commissioned screenplay by his son Myles Wilder and their regular collaborator William Raynor. Killers from Space stars Peter Graves, Barbara Bestar, Frank Gerstle, James Seay, and Steve Pendleton.
Lee Wilder's independent production company, Planet Filmplays, usually producing on a financing-for-distribution basis for United Artists, made this film for RKO Radio Pictures distribution.
Contents
Plot
Dr. Douglas Martin is a nuclear scientist working on atomic bomb tests. While collecting aerial data on an Air Force atomic blast at Soledad Flats, he loses control of his airplane and crashes. He survives, unhurt, walking back to the air base with no memory of what happened. On his chest is a strange scar that wasn't there before the crash.
At the base hospital, Martin acts so strangely that the Air Force brings in the FBI to investigate, thinking he might be an impostor. He is eventually cleared but told to take some time off. He protests being excluded from his project while on leave.
When an atomic test is set off without his knowledge, Martin steals the data, then goes back to Soledad Flats and places the information under a stone. An FBI agent follows him, but Martin is able to elude him until he crashes his car. Now back at the hospital, he is given truth serum. Deep under the drug's influence, Martin tells a story about being captured by space aliens from the planet Astron Delta, with large, bulging eyes, and about being held captive in their underground base.
The aliens plan to exterminate humanity using giant insects and reptiles, grown with the radiation absorbed from our own atomic bomb tests. Martin intuits that the aliens use stolen electric grid power to control their powerful equipment. This so that the A-bomb's released energy levels can be predicted and then balanced. The aliens wiped his memory and hypnotized him into collecting the data for them.
The FBI agent and the base commander are skeptical of this incredible story and keep him confined at the hospital. Nevertheless, the attending physician says that Martin genuinely believes that what he told them is true.
With calculations made with a slide rule, Martin determines that if he shuts off the power to Soledad Flats for just ten seconds, it will create an overload in the aliens' equipment. So he escapes from the hospital and goes to the nearby electrical power plant, where he forces a technician to turn off the power. After ten minutes, the alien base is destroyed in a massive explosion, saving the Earth from conquest.
Cast
- Peter Graves as Dr. Douglas Martin
- Frank Gerstle as Dr. Curt Kruger
- James Seay as Col. Banks
- Steve Pendleton as FBI Agent Briggs
- Barbara Bestar as Ellen Martin
- Shepard Menken as Major Clift, M.D.
- John Frederick as Denab and The Tala
- Jack Daly as Powerhouse Supervisor
- Ron Kennedy as Sentry Sergeant
- Ben Welden as Tar Baby 2 Pilot
- Burt Wenland as Unspecified Sergeant
- Lester Dorr as Gas Station Attendant
- Robert Roark as Unspecified Guard
- Ruth Bennett as Miss Vincent
- Mark Scott as Narrator
- Roy Engel as 1st Police Dispatcher (uncredited)
- Coleman Francis as Power Plant Phone Operator (uncredited)
References
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External links
- Lua error in Module:WikidataCheck at line 28: attempt to index field 'wikibase' (a nil value). Killers from Space at IMDb
- Killers from Space is available for free download at the Internet Archive (without tinting)
- Killers from Space is available for free download at the Internet Archive (with green tinting)
- http://www.heavy.com/video/9301[dead link] Sarcastic Mockucommentary by Sasha Tane from Accent On Film
- Killers from Space complete film on YouTube
