Killers from Space

Director: W. Lee Wilder W. Lee Wilder

Overview

The Killers from Space in this low-budget sci-fier are a group of aliens bent on conquering the earth. To this end, they overtake the mind and body of atomic scientist Peter Graves, using the poor man as a combination spy and saboteur. When Graves realizes this, he tries to warn mankind, but no one believes him. Marching defiantly back to the aliens' Bronson Canyon headquarters, where the slimy villains are busily syphoning off electrical power from a nearby generator, Graves vows to stop the extraterrestrials at any cost...including his own life (or what there's left of it). The makeup used for the aliens is laughable, but the film works so long as it concentrates on Graves' plight. Produced and directed by W. Lee Wilder, the brother of the more celebrated Billy Wilder, Killers from Space was distributed in the US by RKO Radio.

Product Details

Release Date:	07/15/2015
UPC:	0644827262823
Original Release:	1954
Source:	Reel Vault
Language:	English
Sales rank:	37,039

Cast & Crew

Performance Credits

Peter Graves	Dr. Doug Paul Martin
Barbara Bestar	Ellen Martin
James Seay	Colonel Banks
Steve Pendleton	Briggs,Briggs
Frank Gerstle	Dr. Curt Kruger
John Frederick	Denab/The Tala
Shepard Menken	Major Clift
Jack Daly	Generator Room Supervisor
Ron Kennedy	Sentry
Ben Welden	Pilot
Burt Wenland	Sergeant
Lester Dorr	Gas Station Attendant
Robert Roark	Guard
Ruth Bennett	Secretary
Mark Scott	Narrator
Ron Gans	Sentry - Sgt. Powers
Roy Engel	First Police Dispatcher
Coleman Francis	Guy in Power Plant Who Answers Phone
John Merrick	Deneb-Tala
Manuel Compinsky	Composer

Technical Credits

W. Lee Wilder

William Raynor

Bill Raynor

W. Lee Wilder	Producer,Director,Screenwriter
William Raynor	Screenwriter
Bill Raynor	Screenwriter

Editorial Reviews

The very title Killers from Space is so low-brow trashy that one can be excused for assuming that the film that accompanies it is a sci-fi hoot. Indeed, the plot -- aliens possess body of dead scientist and use him as their pawn to conquer the world -- also holds a great deal of "camp" promise. And when one discovers that the aliens look like nothing so much as overweight men dressed in jumpsuits and wearing ping pong balls for eyes, it seems inconceivable that Killers isn't a laugh riot from start to finish. Unfortunately, somehow director W. Lee Wilder manages to take all the fun out of what should be a crazy misfire of a movie, making a film that is so tedious and dull that all the fun drains out of it within the first 15 minutes. Clearly, Wilder was attempting to treat this material with seriousness, which is not a crime. But his work here is so lacking in any skill, so lacking in any sense of pacing or structure or ability to build suspense, that he makes Killers a chore to sit through. True devotees of 1950s sci-fi may want to watch Killers in order to see links between it and better films such as Invaders from Mars or The Day the Earth Stood Still, but others should just give it a miss.

All Movie Guide - Craig Butler