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There was a time when the term “colorized movie” was so derogatory it would fetch an angry, scarlet flush to the cheeks of movie purists.
Oh, it sounded like a outstanding idea in the late 1980s… until I picked up THAT VHS tape of It’s A Wonderful Life and encountered Jimmy Stewart’s face was as green as a Roswell alien.
Stewart even wrote a letter to a 1987 U.S. Congressional panel studying the issue, saying that the movie looked like it had received ”a bath of Easter egg dye.”
And dancing diva Ginger Rogers didn’t like what she saw in the colorized version of 42nd Street, telling the same panel: ”All those lovely girls in 42nd Street abruptly had the same orange face, the same orange legs, the same green costume and the same blank look.”
Stewart and Rogers were right – those colorized versions were AWFUL. Ditto for the childlike daubings on another classic movie, the 1951 British version of A Christmas Carol starring Alistair Sim. Did they genuinely wear purple coats in Charles Dickens’ day???
My eyes assaulted by all this, I swore I’d never buy, or watch, another colorized movie.
I at last fell off the colorization wagon at Christmas 2006, when 20th Century Fox mailed me a review copy of Miracle On 34th Street in a special edition featuring the black and white introductory AND a newly colorized version.
Well slap my head if it didn’t look terrific – natural skin tones and interiors and exteriors that looked just right. I merely couldn’t tell it wasn’t filmed in color in the primary place.
I hardly had time to commence reconsidering my sentiment when it comes to colorization before famed particular effects pioneer Ray Harryhausen flat-out endorsed it in 2007. The 87-year-old sci-fi movie legend said he always prevised the movies he worked on being in color, but there just wasn’t the budget 50 years ago
A couple of years ago, the folks at Legend Films in San Diego asked Harryhausen to take a look at their computer colorization proficiencies and he was sold. In quick order, Harryhausen classics like 20 Million Miles to Earth, It Came From Beneath The Sea and Earth vs. The Flying Saucers have been given the colorization treatment and they look great in new DVD particular editions.
But the icing on the Christmas cake came just a few weeks ago when Paramount issued a newly colorized version of – you guessed it – It’s A Wonderful Life. Again, the work of Legend Films it is stunning. Jimmy Stewart’s face now looks real and Bedford Falls resembles a vintage picture postcard. Even colorization opponents have admitted in online forums how much better this looks than a) the old colorized version and b) the digitally remastered black and white original, which is also included this 2-DVD issue.
Now, I’m not saying each old black and white film ought to be colorized – and neither is Legend Films. Please leave the gorgeous shadows and grey tones of Citizen Kane, Casablanca and The Third Man alone.
But we have to be honorable sufficient to confess that for a new generation raised completely on color movies, black and white flicks look like museum pieces. When I put one on for my kids – who are now all in their 20s – I get raised eyebrows and a terse, “How OLD is this?”
OK, I’m still persevering with them, but it is a losing battle.
I’m open to colorization on these terms: The technicians do their exploration in studio archives and get the colors of costumes and sets right AND they consult with surviving managers and manufacturers if at all possible, to get their blessing.
We have the technology. Let’s use it selectively and with integrity.
Earth Flying Saucers Vintage Cigarette
Dr. Russell Marvin heads up Operation Skyhook, which is tasked with sending rockets into the upper atmosphere to probe for future space flights. Unfortunately, all the rockets are in some way disappearing. While investigating this strange occurrence, Russell and his new assistant/wife Carol Marvin are abducted by a flying saucer, where the aliens demand to meet with sure people in order to negotiate. But it was a trick; the aliens only wanted to kill them. The invasion has started out and if Russell and Carol can’t find a way to get past their defenses and stop these creatures, it may be the end of the humane race.
A textbook example of ’50s-era science fiction, Earth vs. the Flying Saucers boasts not only a solid script and capable performances, but some veritably impressive stop-motion effects courtesy of one of the industry’s uncontested masters, Ray Harryhausen. Scientist Hugh Marlowe (who faced a more benevolent invader from space five years earlier in The Day the Earth Stood Still) discovers that UFOs are responsible for the destruction of a series of exploratory space rockets launched by his space exploration project. The saucers’ helmeted pilots land on Earth and deliver an ultimatum to humanity thru Marlowe: fealty or finish annihilation.
Harryhausen’s painstakingly intricate saucers and the destruction they wreak (particularly for the duration of an assault on Washington, D.C.) are the film’s unquestionable highlights, but Marlowe and Joan Taylor (as his wife/partner) are competent leads, and veteran B conductor Fred F. Sears doesn’t let the dialog and expositional scenes fall apart in amongst the barrage of effects. Earth vs. the Flying Saucers is a fun and effective slice of sci-fi that will have to please younger audiences as well as nostalgic return viewers. Sears later reused some of the effects footage for his jaw-droppingly awful 1957 effort, The Giant Claw. –Paul Gaita
Earth Flying Saucers Vintage Cigarette Image
Earth Flying Saucers Vintage Cigarette Picture
Earth Flying Saucers Vintage Cigarette Image
Earth Flying Saucers Vintage Cigarette Picture
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123 of 135 humans found the following review helpful.
 Harryhausen versus the Sci Fi Cliches
By Thomas F. Bertonneau
Here is a list – for humans jaded by “Star Wars”-type digital particular effects and Bruce Willis-type smart-aleck dialog – of what the classic science fiction film “Earth versus the Flying Saucers” (1956) does not boast: it is not processed in Technicolor but only in (glorious) black-and-white; it does not show whole cities sprung sky-high by death-rays or fleets of numberless star cruisers nuking it out amid the nebulae; it is aliens do not look like the dripping unsought-for results of recombinant DNA experimentation, nor are they invulnerable so that stopping them depends on a hasty “deus ex machina” tacked on by the screenwriters; it is scientist hero and his wife are mature people, not teenagers or “twenty-somethings” escaped from prime-time television; they act with deliberation and do not pump air or dance a jig when their attempts prove effective; when persons die in the film, they die without bravado. People who insist on such things must know in advance that their peculiar adrenaline-addiction will not be fixed by this film. Intelligent and discriminating viewers, on the other hand, may suppose the superb model-work of Ray Harryhausen deployed economically but satisfyingly all around the film. They may also suppose thoughtful, jargon-free dialog from screenwriters George Worthington Yates and Raymond T. Marcus, working from a story by Kurt (“Donovan’s Brain”) Siodmak, and taught direction from Fred F. Sears. “EVFS” gratifyingly violates one of the formulas of 1950s sci-fi cinema: it does not make the audience wait to see the alien nemesis, continually postponing a disappointing appearance, but discloses it is basi saucer within two minutes of the opening segment. As Dr. Russell Marvin (Hugh Marlowe) and his newlywed wife (Joan Taylor) drive down a California desert highway toward the rocket test-site where Marvin directs his world satellite program, an enormous craft swoops down on them, determining the direction of travelling of around the speeding car. Both are fazed by the experience and don’t rather believe their senses. When Marvin tries to launch another one of his “artificial moons,” a saucer lands on the grounds; soldiers fire on the robot-like aliens, whereupon the craft takes to the air again and uses it is ray to blast the installation. It is while waiting to be rescued from the bunker where they have been caught that Marvin and his wife discover that their tape-recorder holds a message from aliens, beamed at them for the duration of their close encounter on the highway. The message is apparently friendly, but the aliens turn out to be intention on taking the world by force. Marvin and his scientist cronies race to formulate a weapon to neutralize the saucer-fleet, which makes it is attack on Washington D.C. in the film’s brilliant finale. Supporting performances come from the ubiquitous Morris Ankrum and from Donald Curtis. Ankrum appears in nine out of ten 1950s sci-fi “B” movies, or so it seems. (See “Flight to Mars” or “Kronos.”) Midway through the film, Marvin and his wife, in company with his wife’s father, an Air Force general played by Ankrum, board a saucer that has landed on the beach, ostensibly on the Virginia shore. The emplacement is in truth Westward Beach, in Malibu, when it comes to a thousand feet from where I lived as a teenager, looking as deserted an alien as it is possible to imagine. It is a in an outstanding manner stark scene. The interior of the saucer is sparsely and accordingly efficaciously conceived. The aliens regard themselves as supermen, classically “beyond good and evil.” In the assault on D.C., Ray Harryhausen contrives to demolish each major national monument in the city. That the alien hardware is not indestructible lends the story credibility: the significance is that humanity is equivalent to the battle, provided that it does not panic. The DVD of “EVFS” includes two featurettes, “This is Dynamation,” with regards to Harryhausen’s signature technique, and the more specialized “The Making of Earth versus the Flying Saucers.” Presentation is in wide-screen, a real boon. (The VHS was in pan-and-scan television format.) This is a marvelously agreeably diverting item from the black-and-white “alien invasion” genre. Highly recommended.
27 of 27 humans found the following review helpful.
 Chromachoice? I’d rather not.
By Howie
This is a 2 disk set. The main film is, like “20 Million Miles to Earth: 50th Anniversary Edition”, on 1 disk in both a digitally-restored black & white basi version and newly colorized version. This is made possible by a procedure Sony calls “Chromachoice”. This allows you to switch amidst the color and b/w versions of the film at any time by merely pressing the “angle” button on your remote. It’s a good idea but a great deal of would argue that it’s flawed in execution. I’m one of those. On my player the “angle” icon comes up each time there is a chapter stop and will NOT go away until I press the “clear” button. This is very annoying but at least I may get it off the screen! Based on reports on “20 Million…” other players will display this icon the entire film. There may or may not be a way of disabling this on your player. Frankly, I would rather choose from a menu which version to watch as the novelty of switching wears off after a while and the aggravation of the perpetually appearing icon does not. While this is possible you still get the icon “popup” at chapter stops.
Special features on a 2nd disk are:
Audio Commentary by Ray Harryhausen and Other Visual Effects Specialists
Featurette: Harryhausen on Earth vs. The Flying Saucers
Featurette: A Present Day Look at Stop Motion
Featurette: Tim Burton Sits Down with Ray Harryhausen
Featurette: Interview with Joan Taylor
Featurette: David Schecter on Film Music’s Unsung Hero
Featurette: The Hollywood Blacklist and Bernard Gordon
Video Photo Galleries
Advertising Artwork video montage of film’s ad materials by Producer Arnold Kunert
Sneak Peek of Digital Comic Book Flying Saucers vs. the Earth
All-in-all a good package for a classic Harryhausen film marred only by “Chromachoice” which reduces the score from 5 to 4 stars.
If you are concerned in regards to possible difficulties with “Chromachoice” on your player, I commend that you borrow/rent a copy of the newly remastered versions of “20 Million Miles to Earth” , “Earth vs. the Flying Saucers”, or “It Came from Beneath the Sea” primary to check your player for compatibility issues.
42 of 46 humans found the following review helpful.
The necessary Alien Invasion flim of the 50s. Great effects!
By Ryan Harvey
Released in 1956, “Earth vs. the Flying Saucers” was the second film visual effects talent Ray Harryhausen did with producer Charles Schneer. They had antecedently worked together on the gigantic octopus vs. San Francisco film “It Came from underneath the Sea,” and would go on to craft a long series of color fantasy movies that stay favorites with all ages today. “Earth vs. the Flying Saucers” (or “E v. FS” if you prefer) arose from Schneer’s interest in the flying saucer-sighting craze of the day. Curt Siodmak, author of a heap of of Universal’s classic monster films, hatched the original story of a full-scale invasion by alien craft, but the final script is credited to George Worthing Yates and Raymond T. Marcus. Harryhausen found himself animating not monsters, but futuristic spacecraft. Thus, the film is rather a departure from his general fare, but nevertheless Harryhausen infuses the movie with his talent and personality. “E v. FS” is the ESSENTIAL alien invasion flick of the decade, far more agreeably diverting than George Pal’s stuffy “The War of the Worlds.” Everything you want from 50s science-fiction flick is here, and with Harryhausen’s visual effects, it all looks damn cool too!
The husband and wife science team of Hugh Marlowe and Joan Taylor (both fun performances) investigate a rash of saucer sighting. The aliens have come to Earth to seek aid, but when they land the trigger-happy military opens fire and the aliens retaliate with a remorseless war of destruction. But don’t fear, our peppy scientist couple have come up with a wild invention that may stop the damaging alien visitors. It all concludes in a wild scene over Washington D.C., and not all the monuments end up in good shape.
Ironically, Harryhausen doesn’t have very positive sensations regarding the film: “It remains for me the least favourite of all our pictures. There is a dividing line amidst science fiction and fantasy, though they may at times overlap…. Fantasy has a poetic appeal radiating romance and warmth, whereas science fiction, with all it is preoccupations with machines, politics and scientific apparatus, has a tendency to reflect chilliness and indifference.”
Well, Ray is surely entitled to his own views in regards to his work and his preferece for fantasy, but I think “E v. FS” works amazingly. There’s a usual giddiness with regards to it, and a sense of invention, that speaks directly to modern viewers tired of the overblown and grim action and science fiction films of today. Harryhausen’s flying saucers astonish, moving with jittery speed and very animated motions. The aliens themselves wield astounding technology, like death rays, brain probing beams, and vibrating shields that protect their ships (stunning effects, all of them). The budget limitations resulted in alien suits that are bit simplistic, but they still work. And the finale in Washington is a humdinger. Harryhausen’s models and the intricate portrayal of the destruction still look astonishing. He even manages to make originative use of stock footage, rather of merely relying on it for a cheap shortcut as so a good deal of other 50s science fiction pictures did.
This splendid DVD presents the film in it is original 1.85:1 format (I’ll bet you didn’t recognise it was a widescreen film) heightened for widescreen TVs. Also included is “The Harryhausen Chronicles,” a feature-length documentary on Harryhausen’s work; it appears on all of Columbia’s Harryhausen DVDs, so you might have seen it before. New for this DVD is an consultation among Harryhausen and conductor Joe Dante (“Gremlins”). It’s short, but you learn galore great mysteries when it comes to the film straight from it is creator’s mouth, and you likewise and get to see the introductory saucer models. Dante also shares his personal memories in regards to seeing the film as a child.
This is a must for any Harryhausen fan or anybody who loves the 1950s Golden Age of alien invaders.
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