Target Earth (1954)

Touches You

Strong and Moving!

Did you people see the same film I saw?

The best films of this genre always show a path and provide a takeaway for being a better person.

TARGET EARTH sounds like an epic sci-fi movie on paper: see! Earth attacked by an army of killer robots with death rays! Sadly, as is usually the case with these things, the real story is far more prosaic, and a dearth of money means that this is a typically cheap and plodding sci-fi pic with more in common with ROBOT MONSTER than WAR OF THE WORLDS.Cult producer Herman Cohen delivers us a tale of a quartet of survivors trapped in a deserted city and at the mercy of a robot seemingly made out of cardboard boxes. A few scenes of military speak are interspersed with the main narrative, no doubt to pad out the running time a little. Whit Bissell plays in support.Nothing much happens here. There are a few cheesy death scenes and attempts at suspense that will disappoint all but the smallest child. Needless to say there are few effects. I like 1950s B-movies but this really doesn't have much going for it, although Robert Roark is fun as the human villain of the piece, Richard Denning is the likable everyman hero, and Kathleen Crowley certainly fills out a form-fitting sweater. What more could you want?

An advance party of a robot army from Venus has invaded earth choosing as its ground zero an unnamed midwest city. The city has been evacuated but some folks have been left behind. Kathleen Crowley, Richard Denning, Richard Reeves and Virginia Grey for one reason or another missed the evacuation.Action switches back from the story of these four to the scientists and military trying desperately to find a way to defeat these seemingly invincible metal creatures.There are holes a plenty in this cheap science fiction film. But I have to say I thoroughly enjoyed the quartet of survivors. They are really what Target Earth a real treat.

***SPOILERS*** 1950's cold war hysteria movie where the bad guys are not the commies, Russian or Chinese, but robots from outer space who have taken over an unmanned US mid western city and are using it as their operational headquarters for the eventual takeover, violent takeover, of the United States. All we see of this invading force, due to budget restraints, is one bumbling robot who has trouble putting one foot in front of the other and looking like he or is it is in danger of keeling over and landing flat on it's face. Two of the people who for some reason weren't evacuated from the city, by the US Army and National Guard, traveling salesman Frank Brooks, Richard Denning, and attempted suicide victim Nora King, Kathleen Crowley, have to find a way to get back to the US Military who is surrounding the city before they get zapped by the slow moving robot with its death ray.If it wasn't for the comedic looking and acting robot, who comes across like a walking junkyard, the movie would have held our attention in how scary the situation that both Frank & Nora as well as later, the two other are are stranded in town, Vicki Harris & Jim Wilson, Virginia Grey & Richard Reeves, are in. The true tension in the film is when out of nowhere convicted murderer Davis, Robert Roark, shows up and holds the quintet hostage in him planning to use them as human shields, for "Robbie" the Robot, to zap as he makes his getaway through the city sewer system. Davis also has the hots for the cute and sexy Nora who wants her to take off, through the sewer system, with him while the robot finishes the reminding survivors off.***SPOILERS*** It's in the end that the US military and it's top nuclear scientist, Whit Bissell, who saves the day and the nation by finding out what makes the invading army of robots, we only see one in the entire film, tick and thus disable them with out blowing up the entire nation with a massive nuclear strike. As for Davis he overplays his hand by getting too confident in his ability to control the situation that he slips up badly and gets his neck rungs by a fatally wounded Wilson who by now, after he plugged Wilson's girlfriend Vicki,just about had all he could take from him.

Four people (Denning, Crowley, Grey, and Reeves) meet by accident on the streets of a city that has been emptied overnight of people, except for a few dead bodies. They learn from a newspaper that the city has been invaded and evacuated by everyone else. The cars have been disabled, so the four refugees hole up in the suite of a hotel, making do with candles, beer, and canned food. There WAS a fifth member of the group, a witless little character, but he ran out into the street and was rayed to death by a wandering robot. The invading army, as it turns out, consists entirely of these robots with their death rays. They're impervious to bullets and can destroy airplanes, presumably with the same rays. A gun-toting evil murderer invades the hotel sanctuary of the survivors and puts moves on Crowley (who has fallen in love with Denning after knowing him for only a few hours). The resulting fight sees Grey killed and Denning wounded before the burly Reeves manages to strangle the killer.The scenes of the survivors are inter cut with scenes of the requisite military and scientists trying just as hard as they can to devise a means of disabling these robots. They finally succeed -- surprise! When the robot army is exposed to sound waves of a certain frequency, it "cracks their cathode ray tubes." (Your television set is a cathode ray tube.) The army comes to the rescue at the last moment, too late, alas, to save Reeves but soon enough to whisk off Denning and Crowley.A cheap and boring movie, I found it almost impossible to watch. Well, sometimes the cheapness can't be helped. A budget will stretch only so far, as we all must know. But this thing could have been written and acted by members of the robot army, who look like they're made of Lego's or like unusually angular Gorts, although we only see one of them at a time.The dialog sucks. The plot is unoriginal. The special effects might better have been suggested than put on display. The logic of the plot is terribly flawed and the direction careless. (Carefully pruned, it might have been a decent episode of The Outer Limits.) I'll give just one example of a jarring lapse of common sense. The vicious murderer is holding the others at gunpoint and Grey suddenly remembers where she saw him before. He's the guy that murdered that hooker on Skid Row! That's right, admits the evildoer. His picture was all over the papers. They'll be looking for him on every street corner, Denning observes. Not if I slip out through the sewers and get out behind the enemy lines, the murderer sneers. The entire city has been evacuated and is now occupied by indestructible robots who kill people and repulse the military with unknown rays -- yet they'll be watching every street corner for some nobody who killed a hooker! Santa Clause could waltz past the army without interference under these conditions! Well, another example. At the very beginning, Crowley wakes up to find the city empty and she wanders the streets. She stumbles across a dead body and Richard Denning at roughly the same time. They introduce themselves and explain where they spent the previous night. Minutes of frippery go by while neither asks the question: WHAT HAPPENED? It could have been good, even with the inexpensive sets and the second-tier (but seasoned) actors. As it is, it's rather a painful experience except for those who really enjoy cheesy SF movies, and there seem to be legions of those.The producer, the late Herbert Cohen, provides an audio commentary on the DVD and he seems like a good-natured guy. He's generous with his credits and he didn't mind if people laughed at the crummy effects when the picture was released and he still doesn't mind.