Writer and amateur astronomer John Putnam (Carlson) has moved from the city to the the small desert town of Sand Rock, Arizona to pursue both activities. His girlfriend Ellen Fields (Rush), a local schoolteacher, is visiting one evening when they both witness a meteor fly across the sky and blast a deep crater in the desert floor near the abandoned Excelsior Mine. Going in to investigate, Putnam realizes there's a space ship at the bottom of the crater, but a rock slide buries it from view and everybody but Ellen assumes he's a publicity-seeking crackpot.
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People start disappearing from town, briefly, then reappearing in stiff, slow-talking form. Putnam knows what's up, but nobody will believe him. Things get just strange enough that Sheriff Matt Warren (Drake) is willing to go along with Putnam for a while. Eventually, the aliens reveal their horrible true shape and their plans to Putnam, but can he hold off the angry, frightened, and armed mob of humans long enough to let them do what they need to do?
This 1953 science fiction film, based on a story by Ray Bradbury, was originally released in 3-D but works reasonably well on flat screen. Despite some hokey effects, its portrayal of humans and aliens afraid of each other, and a certain literateness to the dialogue, along with fine desert photography, make it a cut above the average 1950s space aliens movie.
The review of this Movie prepared by David Loftus
