‘You’ll be paralysed with fear…’
Target Earth is a 1954 science fiction film and Herman Cohen‘s first production. It was directed by Sherman A. Rose from a screenplay by Bill Raynor, AIP’s James Nicholson and Wyott Ordung (Monster from the Ocean Floor). It stars Richard Denning (The Creature from the Black Lagoon; The Black Scorpion), Kathleen Crowley (Curse of the Undead), Virginia Grey, Richard Reeves and Whit Bissell (I Was a Teenage Frankenstein). The movie was based on the 1953 short story “Deadly City” by Paul W. Fairman.
Even though a “robot army” is mentioned several times, the production crew only constructed one robot which was used for all scenes. The film’s story is based in Chicago but was actually filmed in Los Angeles. Street scenes were filmed during early mornings when the streets were empty.
Plot teaser:
Chicago is seemingly deserted. A small group of people who have been overlooked during a mass evacuation band together to face an invasion of robot like beings from the planet Venus…
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Reviews:
“What makes this film work quite well is the sense of unease and tension that is maintained throughout most of the first half of the movie followed by the character revelations in the second half. Add to this not only the imminent threat posed to the humans by the alien invaders, but also the potential threat being posed by General Wood and the military. The group in the hotel are unaware that the city could be destroyed by tactical nuclear weapons at any moment-a fact that the audience is quite well aware of.” Sci-Fi Film Fiesta
“Outside of the military scenes, the rest of the film is taken up with the survivors sitting around in a hotel room. All the alien invasion takes place off-screen and is only relayed through what the characters tell us. There is a competent cast but the dramas involving them are dull – moreover, we learn almost nothing about any of them as characters throughout.” Moria
“A tight, engaging little thriller that focuses more on character than special effects.” PopMatters
“Despite its very low budget, Target Earth is an excellent film. It achieves a real sense of menace with minimal materials. It is fast paced but slows down when it needs to. The small cast may have been dictated by the limited budget but the film makes an asset of what could have been a liability – accentuating the foursome’s isolation and peril and also letting us get to know and like them. The acting is consistently good to excellent and the characters are believable and have depth that is usually missing in SF of the era.” Common Place Book
Choice dialogue:
“I came to about noon, the only thing I had left was… a headache”
“In the meantime we gotta play hide and seek with a bunch of zombies from Mars, or wherever they come from?”
