Invasion of the Animal People

More of a re-edit than a new film, Invasion of the Animal People (IAP) was built upon the 1959 Swedish-American production Rymdinvasion i Lappland (Space Invasion of Lappland). The American title was Terror in the Midnight Sun. Producer Jerry Warren inserted some newly shot footage into the original and released it (again) in 1962. At its heart, it remains a pretty basic monster story with hints of Frankenstein. The overall original story of a "meteor" landing in Lappland, which turns out to be an alien spacecraft remains. The title is a misnomer, as only one "animal person" ever appears and it's not clear if it is invading or not.

Quick Plot Synopsis
A young woman awakens to a piercing sound only she can hear. It causes her to need hospitalization. This coincides with sightings of a UFO over Lappland. She gets better and goes to live with her uncle. He is called to investigate a meteor landing in Lappland. Many dead and mangled reindeer are found near the site. Diane tags along. Diane is smitten with handsome Eric, one of the team's scientists. Eric is smitten with her too. The team flies to the landing site. While they are discovering that the meteor is really a spherical space ship, a 30' tall yeti-thing smashes their plane. Diane and Eric ski off for help. They rest in a remote cabin. The monster attacks. Diane runs. Eric is hurt but found by the other scientists. The beast finds Diane in the snow after a raging storm. It carries her off to a suddenly abandoned Lapp hunting camp and leaves her there. It trundles down to the village where it is greeted with more bullets. It rages around smashing things, including a second airplane, some cabins and Saami teepees. Meanwhile, Diane wakes up near the campfire, but three tall-headed aliens block her escape. She passes out again. The creature comes up later and carries her away. A mob of angry Sami chase the beast with torches. They trap it at a cliff edge. The beast sets down Diane and the Sami let fly their torches. the creature catches fire and tumbles over the cliff. The aliens leave. What they wanted, no one will know. The End.

Why is this movie fun?
There is much about IAP that is comfortably familiar, but the snowy arctic environment provides some novelty. Barbara Wilson is fine as eye candy.

Cold War Angle
IAP is more of a cryptic monster story with a lot of skiing and only a dash of aliens. Political parallels are notably absent.

Notes
They're After Our Women -- One of those traditional tropes is that aliens and monsters cannot resist a pretty earth woman. King Kong, Ro-Man, Gill Man, etc: even though they were all non-human, they fall victim to an all too human weakness (for men, anyhow). The big creature destroys herds of reindeer, airplanes, cabins and Saami villages, but tenderly carries Diane around. Even the tall-head humanoid aliens come out of their ship to surround Diane. Since the trope has become almost cliche by this point, it may not have any symbolic significance. That's just what monsters and aliens do -- fixate on our pretty girls.

Mash-up Mania -- Terry Morse did a mash-up with Ishiro Honda's original Godzilla ('54). He shot some new footage with Raymond Burr as the star, and rearranged the original japanese footage. The goal was to make a film more palatable to American audiences. Warren followed this model. He added the introduction shots with John Carridine blathering about mankind and science. Carridine's voice also provides narration where Warren must have thought audiences would not "get it." He also inserted several small-room scenes with more people talking about what's happening elsewhere. He also created the odd opening scene with Diane running down the street in her pajamas, fleeing the maddening sound. His efforts did not really improve the story. This mash-up tradition will continue in the early 60s as Roger Corman and others do exactly this same hack-n-mash process to other foreign sci-fi movies in order to make some quick, cheap American release features.

Yeti or Wookie? -- In neither the original or IAP, is the monster's existence explained. Was he an alien beast, like an über-Wookie, or an earthly yeti? The poster for "Terror" suggests that the aliens brought him. The poster for IAP suggests that the aliens were trying to use mind control on earth yeti -- a sort of snowy Plan 9. Did the aliens leave because their "army of one" was killed? Or, was the experiment already going badly because the lure of a pretty girl was a stronger influence than their advanced alien brains? We may never know.

Teasing Shadows -- As a sop to the young males in the audience, Director Vogel included a scene in which shapely Diane undresses so her wet clothes can be dried by the fire. While this is done off camera for modesty's sake, Vogel provides a bright spotlight so her "naked" silhouette can be oogled on the wall behind Erik. It's a cheap thrill for the pubescent, but it also speaks to an earlier era's boundary lines of "decency".

Bottom line? IAP is a poor reworking of what was already a marginal B film. If you can watch Terror in the Midnight Sun first, you'll get a better (though still weak) story. Watching IAP afterward can provide some laughs at Warren's lame additions. IAP does provide a curious example a hybridized foreign film.

The Underwater City

For a somewhat refreshing change, Columbia's Underwater City (UC) is set in inner space instead of the ubiquitous outer space. It is the tale of a self-sustaining colony on the sea floor -- a blend of Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea and Project Moon Base. It combines several traditional B-sci-fi elements, but in a less-common aquatic twist. A visionary scientist sees his dream of an undersea city come true.

Quick Plot Synopsis
Dr. Junius Halstead and other scientists are surveying the sea floor for a site to build Amphibia City. Their geologist, Dr Wentz, is killed by a giant moray eel. Undaunted, Halstead gets funding. Bob Gage is retained as engineer. Gage does his job, but is regularly dismissive of the project's goals. The rest of the team includes Halstead's niece Dr. Monica Parker, a navy buddy of Bob's named Chuck and a dietician named Phyllis. With much industriousness, the city is built. The crew, including a newlywed couple, live in Amphibia City to prove its viability. Bob continues to be a chauvinist jerk to Monica. Chuck is obsessed with getting drunk, Phyllis cooks up seaweed, and fish are rounded up like cattle, etc, etc. Chuck finds whiskey in a sunken ship. He and Bob rescue Monica from a sudden hole in the sea floor, which is beginning to collapse. The city had been built on a fault line because Wenz died before discovering it. The leaders ignore advice to evacuate the city. Naturally, disaster strikes. The sea floor quakes and the city begins to fall into sink holes. Halstead dies when his office window breaks . Most are evacuated via the special mini-sub before near-total ruin. The final six shelter in the last surviving dome until a navy sub rescues them. Romances blossom. Those involved vow to continue Halstead's dream for the future. The End.

Why is this movie fun?
Many of the usual B movie sci-fi tropes and scenes are given a fresher look by being done "under water" than in space. There is a palpable "Popular Science" gee-whiz attitude throughout the film.

Cold War Angle
This is plainly stated. Underwater cities were to be the new bomb shelter. If there was a nuclear war, mankind could live beneath the sea until the surface was habitable again. Then man would emerge and repopulate the earth. UC provides a glimpse of the bunker mentality so common during the Cold War.

Notes
Late Bloomers -- To modern eyes, the budding romances between the pair of middle-aged professionals seems odd. Julie Adams (of Creature From The Black Lagoon ('54) ) was visibly in her mid-30s, though still had great legs. William Lundigan (as her eventual romantic interest) was in his mid-40s at filming. Over the decades since UC was made, on-screen "love" has become the almost-exclusive purview of teens or twenty-somethings. Love isn't for the middle-aged (or old) anymore. This makes the eventual pairings of Bob and Monica (and Chuck and Phyllis) seem a bit peculiar. How did they all get to middle age with no "significant others"?

Happy Drunk -- Another odd thing to modern eyes, is how lightly the rest of the crew take Chuck's obsession with getting sloppy drunk. In the movie, it's all cute and funny. After decades of Mothers Against Drunk Driving and other awareness programs, UC's glib acceptance of drunkenness looks peculiar.

Naive Colonialism -- UC gives an interesting glimpse of the pre-environmentalist view of the world. The ocean is seen as a virgin country to colonize, farm, and extract its mineral wealth -- just as the colonists viewed the vast prairies and forests of The West. Nature is seen as inexhaustible. This is just the sort of attitude that led to the overpopulation and lack of food that Phyllis lectures Bob about, yet she's part of the problem too.

Tiny Bubbles -- A fun little visual effect are the scuba bubbles. Filmed on a dry sound stage, the actors moved in slow motion (no swimming). Bubbles (soap bubbles in air) were added in post-production. The effect isn't entirely convincing, but is clever.

Aqua Remakes -- Several familar sci-fi scenes are repeated in UC, but with the novelty of being "under water." One, is the shot of characters descending a ladder from the rocket ship, beside a large rocket fin. In UC, they descend a ladder beside big curved leg of the dome. A second common scene is the actors cowering in the foreground while "giant" monsters fight in the background. In UC, instead of fake dinosaurs or giant insects, it is an octopus and moray eel.

Bottom line? UC is a somewhat predictable remake of space colony stories, but with a Jaques Cousteau twist. The effect is pleasant enough, though not all that remarkable. For fans of the 50s sci-fi, UC will be mildly entertaining. For friends who are tired of watching 50s saucer and alien fare, it could be a welcome change.

Creation of the Humanoids

This independent film (Genie Productions) is surprisingly deep for a low-budget movie. It has the usual hallmarks of B-grade films: simple sets, marginal acting and stock footage. The writing is above average. The Creation of the Humanoids (CotH) is a very thoughtful science fiction drama. It is not an action film. It is not a special effects showcase. Set in earth's post-nuclear future, it is a tale of mankind's dependence upon, yet fear of, the robot servants they created.

Quick Plot Synopsis
After a destructive nuclear war, earth's population is too small to rebuild. They develop robots to do the work. These robots are improved intellectually and refined physically to eventually look and move like humans. This upsets a vocal minority who call themselves The Order of Flesh and Blood. The Order wants to suppress robot advancements and keep people in charge. A high-ranking member of The Order (Craigis) uncovers a plot by the robots to improve one of their kind to be almost indistinguishable from a human. This is illegal. The lab of Dr. Raven (a human who is aiding the robots) is raided. Raven fears what the authorities will do to him. Unable to commit suicide, he orders the improved robot to kill him. The robot complies. This crime should embolden The Order's anti-robot rhetoric, but a new problem derails things. Craigis' sister is "in rapport" with a robot. While trying to talk his sister out of this scandalous platonic relationship, a co-worker drops by. Craigis and Maxine almost instantly fall for each other. While out late smooching, they are summoned to The Temple. There, they are interrogated by three leader robots. This reveals that Craigis and Maxine are themselves a couple of the improved humanoid robots. A young Dr. Raven enters. A robot body of himself as a younger man was built and his memories implanted into it. Dr. Raven tells Cragis that he's a robot. Craigis has trouble with this revelation, but copes. Mankind will eventually die out due to a low birth rate. The robot central committee is trying to preserve mankind by producing robots that look and think they're human. Craigis and Maxine reaffirm their love for each other, even though robots. Success. Mankind can be saved. The End.

Why is this movie fun?
There are so many deep thoughts and intriguing background stories within CotH, that many could be movies unto themselves.

Cold War Angle
This is unmistakable, as the film opens with several stock footage clips of nuclear test blasts and the narrator talking about an atomic war which wiped out 92% of mankind.

Notes
Story Roots -- Screenwriter Jay Stills blended elements from two prior robot stories. The namesake came from Jack Williamson's 1947 novel "Humanoids". From Williamson's story, Stills drew the trope of a population of mechanical servant robots who are programmed for mankind's "good" and mankind atrophying into uselessness. From Kavel Capek's 1921 play "R.U.R. (Rossum's Universal Robots)" he drew several basic plot elements, including a robot "Adam and Eve" to start a new creation.

Racial Commentary -- The oppression and subjugation of "the Clickers" is a shifting social critique. At times, is sounds like a civil rights / racism analogy, with a (slave) labor class having few rights and the ruling minority worrying about them gaining power. Then too, there was the tension over the "interracial" relationship of Craigis' sister Esme, and the robot Pax. Yet, there is more depth to the Clickler/Human issue than fits the (then) contemporary black-white tensions.

Feminist Commentary -- There is a hint of feminism too. At one point, Esme tells Maxine (who is a robot, though even she doesn't know this yet), jokes that her brother, Cragis, considers women to be an inferior design copy of men. On a certain level, the Order of Flesh and Blood sounds like chauvinist men worrying over women taking over the workplace. Yet, this doesn't fit the Clicker plight exactly either.

Death by Leisure -- Both Capek's play and Williamson's novels featured mankind's doom coming from leisure, not nukes. The robots simply did too much for man, so he atrophied into uselessness. Craigis hints at this problem a few times in the script (per the book themes), though good ol' fashioned radiation gets the primary blame. This gives CotH a very 50s feel.

Biblical Undertones -- Unusual for a sci-fi, a fair amount of dialogue is devoted to discussing the nature of the soul, and the role of a creator. At one point,e robot Ultima Dr. Raven expounds on some very biblical themes near the end. He talks of physical death not being frightening when the prospect of eternal life is there. He talks of the joy of a new, immortal body over his old fleshly one.

Bottom line? CotH is a surprisingly deep story for a low budget production. The pace can be slow at times, and the scenes a bit talky. But, the many topics and issues it raises can be food for thought long afterward. For those who like their sci-fi cerebral, it is worth the search to obtain a copy.

The Most Dangerous Man Alive

We must digress a bit. This is a 1961 film -- one of those marginally-sci-fi pictures -- which escaped review with the rest of '61's films. If you didn't see the copyright date of 1960 for The Most Dangerous Man Alive (MDMA) you could swear it was a 50s B sci-fi. In a way, it is. It was shot in 1959, but not released until 1961. The story line is also very 50s: nuclear radiation alters a lone man who then becomes something of a monster to the world. More on the similar movies in the notes below. MDMA is, in large part, a mobster drama with a dash of sci-fi to stir things up.

Quick Plot Synopsis
Reports of the escape of Eddie Candell has members of a mobster gang nervous. They had tried to muscle him out for threatening to blow the whistle on them. Eddie shot one of them. During Eddie's trial, they all perjured themselves to send him to the gas chamber. Then, he escaped. Wandering alone in the desert, he happened across an odd water tower which was actually a nuclear bomb test. It detonated. Eddie was not killed, however. Instead, the radiation altered his cells so that they absorbed metals (like the handcuffs) giving his body the invincibility of steel. Eddie eventually catches up with the mobsters. They try to shoot him, but the bullets do no harm. Most of them escape. Through a series of plot threads, the mobsters want Eddie dead, and the police want him stopped. A Dr.Meeker wants him alive for study, but worries that the radiation will have affected his brain, making him a hating, killing monster. Only Eddie's girlfriend, Carla, is good to him. The mobsters try to kill him again, but fail. Eddie takes two of them out to a gravel pit so they can announce to the assembled cops that he is innocent and they are guilty. This goes poorly and both mob boss and his mol are killed. Carla clings to Eddie, so the cops can't fire their flame throwers at him. In a last show of compassion, Eddie pushes Carla away. The flame throwers torch him. He falls dead. His body turns to ash. People say poignant words. The End.

Why is this movie fun?
The basic trope is not new, but it is a somewhat different spin on it. The visual flavor is very much 1950s B movie, which has a charm of its own. The acting is reasonably good for a low budget production. It's always fun to see Morris Ankrum, here as tough a police captain.

Cold War Angle
This could be a reach, but Eddie can be seen as the dark side of humanity (the communists) made almost invincible by nuclear weapons. The contemporary angst was that if the commies did not feel vulnerable (because of our nukes), they would surely cause trouble.

Notes
Indestructible II -- The 1956 film Indestructible Man also featured a criminal who becomes immune to bullets, etc. In his case, it was a mad scientist experimenting with electricity on dead bodies. That film was a lesser remade of the 1941 horror film, Man-Made Monster which also featured electricity. For Eddie, it was the more trendy nuclear radiation that does the trick. Once indestructible, the same revenge motive drives the plot. Interestingly, flame throwers were also conspicuous.

Manning & The Beast -- Eddie wanders into a nuclear test site. He survives, but is mutated. This happened to Colonel Manning in The Amazing Colossal Man ('57). Manning became a giant. It happens to Josef Javorski in Beast of Yucca Flats ('61). Javorsky became a brutish hulk. Similarly, the Japanese fishermen become the liquid "H-Men" when exposed to a Pacific test. Each become a monster in their own way. They all fit the analogy of nukes making men into monsters (dangerous political brinksmanship).

Power Corrupts -- MDMA features the recurring literary theme: man (with his fallen nature) cannot handle immunity. Make him unstoppable and he'll go bad. H.G. Wells featured this in The Invisible Man back in 1897. Less stellar examples from the 50s include, The Amazing Transparent Man ('60), and The 4D Man ('59). Give the average man an unstoppable advantage, and he'll eventually use it for evil. They form a sort of dark-side antithesis of Superman who used his invincibility for good.

Monsters With Heart -- Hollywood liked to soften up their monsters. They might be bad, but show some glimmer of compassion at their ends. Colossal Manning ('57) sets Carol down, allowing the army to blast him. Beast Manning ('58) sets down the bus full of kids before he dies. Transparent Joey blows up the evil Krenner (and himself). Yucca Beast kisses the bunny. In this softie tradition, Eddie pushes Carla away from himself so she doesn't get hurt when the army blasts him.

Bottom line? MDMA may appeal to fans of old mobster movies, as that comprises the bulk of it. Fans of saucers, aliens and special effects will find little to like. Yet, as an installment in the unkillable-man trope, it's above average.

Journey to the Seventh Planet

Searching for new ways to produce B movies as cheaply as possible, AIP outsourced Journey to the Seventh Planet (JSP) to Denmark. JSP is not a Danish movie dubbed into english, but an American movie produced in Denmark. It is partly a traditional low-budget 50s rocket mission film, but has elements which look to the next generation of sci-fi. The 1950s was obsessed with the moon and Mars. The 60s began to look farther out into the solar system.

Quick Plot Synopsis
A utopian post-nuclear Earth is exploring the solar system. Strange radiation signals are detected coming from Uranus, the seventh planet. A five-man mission is sent to investigate. When they arrive, strange things begin to happen. They land on the supposedly frozen surface, but find a lush evergreen forest, exactly as Sven recalled from childhood. Eric reminisces about his childhood village, and it magically appears behind him. In the village is Ingrid, whom he was keen on. Don (Agar) the highly libidinous, remembers past girlfriends, and they magically appear. They don space suits and explore outside the energy barrier to see who is behind all the recreations. They find something deep in a cave. Via voice-overs and overlaid light effects, we learn that an alien lives in the cave, and can read minds and make them see or experience whatever it wants. It is, at first, intrigued with the newcomers, eventually planning to travel to earth for greater fun and comfort. The earth men plot to kill the creature, and it fights back with nightmare beasts. The men devise a torch gun, but the brain-thing sabotages it. With the liquid oxygen, the men freeze part of the brain, such that their laser rifles cause damage. Thus distracted, the brain-thing cannot prevent their take-off. Erik decides to bring Ingrid with him, though when they're far away from the planet, she fades away to nothing. Sad Erik. The End.

Why is this movie fun?
The plot is so quirky that it is hard not to be entertained. The idealized dream-babes make for fine eye-candy. The whole film has a very 50s feel to it.

Cold War Angle
This more of a psycho-drama than Cold War analogy. Only the prologue offers the customary moral overtones. The narrator intones about how "Now in the year 2001,the world is no longer threatened by wars of annihilation. Man has conquered space. Man has learned to live with himself."

Notes
Agar's Brains -- An amusing co-incidence in JSP, is that the evil alien turns out to be a giant brain with one large eye. John Agar had to battle a giant brain alien a few years earlier in The Brain from Planet Arous (1957). Fate?

Space Jerk -- Agar plays the role of a womanizing playboy astronaut who, handily enough, has fond memories of many prime babes for the brain-thing to conjure up. Agar plays the role with his usual smug smile. With this, he does not come across as suave or a ladies man (as Dean Martin or James Bond could). Instead, he comes across as a total jerk. He is so bent on his own gratification, that it really didn't matter to him if the babes were actual women or only illusions.

Trek Fodder -- The key trope in JSP (using men's thoughts to create a 'reality') was reused in a first season episode entitled "Shore Leave." In the Star Trek adaptation, the dream builder was benign.

Babes In Space -- As shallow as it is, JSP carries on the traditional trope that outer space is populated with beautiful women. Ever since Flight To Mars in 1951, sci-fi movies have usually pictured other planets to be well stocked with lovely twenty-somethings in very short skirts.

Spiders In Space -- A careful observer will notice recycled footage of a tarantula in a cave, (now tinted blue) from Earth vs. The Spider ('58). These bits of footage are said to have been included when the American producers disliked (and discarded) the Danish special effects for the spider attack. A quick eye will note that what comes out of the alien's eye is a thing with more of a skull with crab legs. It is hard not to wonder what that deleted scene looked like.

Lights Ahead -- Note the 'psychedelic' lighting effect (double exposure) to indicate when the brain-thing was "speaking" to the men's minds. This has more of a 60s feel to it, foreshadowing the orgy of colored lighting effects in 2001.

Bottom line? JSP has the usual shortcomings of a low-budget film, but with an unusual story line. It is just right for a fan of 50s B sci-fi.

Planets Against Us

"I Pianeti Contro Noi" was an Italian sci-fi in the 50s style that was released in Europe in 1962. A French-dubbed version was also released, entitled "Le monstre aux yeux verts" (Monster with Green Eyes). Walter Manley Enterprises, apparently dubbed the French copy into English and titled it Planets Against Us (PAU). The story fits neatly into the 50s idiom of deadly invading alien stories. It also carries on the invasion-angst tradition. Aliens sabotage earth's space programs and attempt to prepare earth for conquest, with a 5th column of cyborgs all patterned after one dead man. A pretty earth woman softens the steely heart of one of the cyborgs.

Quick Plot Synopsis
A plane crashes in the Sahara, killing all aboard, but one of the bodies is missing. Earth's various aerospace projects begin to fail. Rockets blow up. Security cameras catch sight of the same man at each disaster. It is the missing dead passenger. Authorities deduce that it must be an alien sabotaging earth's space flight efforts. A global manhunt begins. The mystery man, now named Bronco, is seeking the (adult) daughter of Dr. Borri, who is perfecting a temporary-paralysis gas. Bronco finds Marina and much alien-on-earth social play ensues. Bronco is clueless, but Bronco is attractive to the ladies, etc. Things turn dark when Bronco touches the hand of a policeman who stopped him. The man dies instantly. One of the ladies after Bronco, dies similarly, reduced to skeletal dust. Bronco is part of the vanguard, a group of cyborgs, identical copies of the dead passenger. Their job is to get earth ready for an alien invasion. Dr. Borri's paralysis gas is their key. Bronco, however, develops a soft spot the lovely Marina and becomes conflicted. Bronco is damaged by a policeman. He drives to rendezvous with the other cyborgs aboard the saucer, but turns back (to go see Marina?). The saucer zaps him with a ball of light. All that remains are metal bits and the souvenir Marina bought for him. Professor Miller warns the audience that secret invaders could be anywhere. The End.

Why is this movie fun?
The traditional hidden alien invasion line is nostalgic. Being an Italian production makes the acting (often odd) more fun to watch. The first cyborg army in movies is of historical interest.

Cold War Angle
In PAU, the invading aliens assume their traditional role as surrogates for the communists. The closing epilogue by Miller leaves no doubt that the intent of the movie is to play to spy fears. "(The invader's agents are) cleverly hidden in the throngs of various cities. They powerful, ruthless, maniacal. Yes, it is a dreadful, menacing, but silent invasion. Even at this moment, this very second, there may be one of these monsters right next to you (as he looks right into the camera) Watching, watching, about to destroy you NOW (he points a finger at the camera).

Notes
Cyber First? -- PAU appears to be the first "modern" film to feature cyborgs -- humanoid shaped robots -- if you don't count evil Maria from Metropolis (1927). Aliens inhabiting, taking-over or duplicating humans was pretty common. They remained organic, however. "Bronco" and his duplicates were mechanical copies of a Professor Landerson's dead son Robert.

Deadly Midas -- An interesting trope is that Bronco, the cyborg, kills with a touch of his hand. They said the touch imparts lethal radiation. Bronco's hands can kill in seconds, even a touch on this cold lips causes a non-lethal radiation sickness. This trope appeared in the 1936 sci-fi film, The Invisible Ray, in which a scientist (played by Boris Karloff) is exposed to "Radium X". Thus "poisoned", his touch kills by radiation overdose.

The Alien Speaks -- Cyborg Bronco delivers the somewhat muddled messages of the story. One the one hand, it is the usual superior alien talk. "You people of this puny world move swiftly towards your own destruction." On the other hand, he lapses into a reverie over how precious life is, how foolish man is, and how science is dangerous. These are probably the personal observations by the softening "heart" of an invader cyborg than the collective voice of the invaders who sent him.

Tin Man's Heart -- A curious subplot is the cyborg "Bronco" developing a fondness for pretty (human) Marina. Bronco had no qualms about killing people and setting up the earth for conquest by his masters. But like Ro-Man, feels the awakening spark of love and wants to keep the earth girl for himself. He tells her she has "a beautiful shape," and that, "With you I could bring a fresh spirit to the earth. And restore the world to a new state." Quite the pick-up line.

Glimpse of Old Europe? -- Bronco could have sought out Dr. Borri directly, in his quest for the paralysis gas, but curiously, he does not. He seeks out Borri's daughter, Marina. Bronco somehow needs her to make the introduction to her father. To modern American eyes, this seems pointless. It may, however, be a vestige of Old World etiquette. Even an invading alien should not simply barge into a highly respected person's office. Proper introductions are necessary.

Bottom line? PAU is a convoluted invasion story burdened with a few too many messages. Sorting them out takes some concentration, so PAU is not a good choice for an impatient viewer. For the patient and forgiving 50s fan, it does carry on the traditional invading aliens tradition.