Target Earth (1954)

Another classic from the vault of the Million Dollar Movie in New York. Watched it over and over again. Nora King (Kathleen Crowley) wakes up to an empty boarding house. Walks outside and realizes there's no people around. Sees a dead woman with her eyes wide open screams and a chain smoking Richard Denning catches up with her. Next they meet up with two alcoholics Virginia Grey and Richard Reeves who are celebrating like it's 1999. Anyway next they find this paranoid yammer Charles Otis (Mort Marshall) who was scouring the city and also came to the same conclusion that their city is invaded by Robots hence lack of people around. Otis has no patience and runs out only to get the death ray sprayed on him. The others look in horror and make their way to a high rise apartment away from the deadly cathode ray tubed robots. After being settled in their high perch above the city another straggler finds his way upstairs and breaks in on our foursome survivors.Enter actor Robert Roark portrayed as Davis a two bit crook with a pistil who quite frankly is annoying and plays his role as a scoundrel to the max. Now there's trouble upstairs and trouble below for our vicarious foursome. Meanwhile the movie cuts away to a lab miles from the city. Chief scientist Whit Bissel and his staff work diligently for a way to destroy the mechanical menaces buy using ultra sound to destroy their face tubes. Can the army get to our feared foursome in time? Will Davis use his gun on the four at bay? I had some issues. You never see more than one robot at a time. Secondly how did our alcoholic friend sober up so expeditiously? Thirdly I would have loved to see a mass evacuation at the beginning of the movie . That would have been something to behold but the budget was low AND WE'LL HAVE TO LEAVE IT TO THE IMAGINATION!! The Diary Of Ann Frank would be much more suitable viewing hiding for Nazi turmoil than these four hiding from clumsy robots which at the right angle you could probably tip over. Hard to watch this sci-fi schlock movie more than once.

Some people wake up in a city like Chicago and miss a mass evacuation that took place. One is a woman who tried to take her own life. Another was a victim of a mugging who was passed out. What is interesting is that in a city of this size, with hospitals and other facilities that would have been difficult to evacuate, a handful of people are left and virtually no sign of anyone. Well, robots from Venus have arrived and are annihilating the populace. Two party people are having a great time drinking champaign at hotels and bars that are left behind. There are two other figures that show up, including a cowardly man and a gangster. Of course, both of these create issues for the main characters. Meanwhile, the army is trying to figure a way to kill these robots which have a death ray. A very typical fifties sci fi movie. The robots are pretty ridiculous in appearance--just guys in robot suits.

I'm probably one of the biggest admirers of 1950's Sci-Fi cinema that is still walking around today, and I've loved practically every single movie that fits into this category from the moment I laid eyes on it. There's just something unique about the mixture of the genre and the decade that has never again been equaled before or after the fifties. The almost standard atmosphere of paranoia and mass hysteria is mesmerizing, the long and intellectual scientific speeches/dialogs are dazzling and the black and white photography creates an unbearable tension. I'm personally convinced that milestones such as "The Day the Earth Stood Still", "War of the Worlds" and "This Island Earth" define and emphasize the essence of science fiction cinema. With "Target Earth" I was hoping to have come across another obscure gem to add to my long list of favorites, but unfortunately it became a bit of a disappointment. The opening sequences are still pure Sci-Fi gold, however. Heroine Nora King awakes in her disorderly apartment and, having narrowly survived an act of desperation, slowly realizes that she's left all alone in the giant metropolis of Chicago. The sight of the empty city streets and the disturbing sounds of silence raise the impression that "Target Earth" is a predecessor of apocalyptic masterpieces like "Last Man on Earth", "Night of the Living Dead" or "The Omega Man", and therefore the first twenty minutes of the film are sublime and absorbing. Nora then bumps into Frank Brooks, an equally confused lone ranger, and together they find out that the entire city has been evacuated while they were sleeping, apparently because they're under the attack of large robotic creatures from outer space. What follows – sadly enough – isn't an intense fight for survival against the alien opponents, but a tedious and dull portrait of a handful of people hiding in an abandoned hotel room and waiting, occasionally interfered with scenes of military men discussing their defense strategies. There are only two (!) notable robot moments throughout the entire film and the biggest menace actually comes from a human villain during the climax. That's just a wasted opportunity, regardless of how little budgetary means the cast and crew had available. Needless to say that "Target Earth" is overly talkative and overlong in spite of its barely 75 minutes running time. The robots look cheap and boorish, but still typically fifties and charming and I would have loved seeing them in action a bit more. They parade around the streets like they're on a sightseeing trip

Considering that this film was made on a tiny budget that wouldn't even allow the creation of more than one robot costume for the film (as well as the robot looking awfully silly), this is an amazingly successful film. That's because despite the budget, the writing was awfully good and the lesser-known actor (Richard Denning) who played lead was very good as well. Denning is best known for playing the recurring role of the Governor in "Hawaii 5-0 but here in a much earlier role he's more than up to the task.The film begins with a lady awakening to find that the city is deserted. What few people she does find are dead. Eventually, she finds Richard Denning alive and well. It seems both had been unconscious during the night when some evacuation was ordered--but why was the city evacuated and how did the people who were left behind die? Later, they meet several more stragglers who are left and they find a newspaper that announced that the city was being invaded! By whom is discovered quickly when they see a killer robot walking the streets--the invasion was not from our planet! So how are they able to make this idea work? Well, the writing was very good and excelled when the film investigates human nature--the sign of a good sci-fi film. How the people react (some good, some bad) and how the humans are able to eventually defeat the robots is pretty exciting stuff.