Target Earth (1954)

[Scott]

TARGET EARTH - Low budget Sci-Fi film from the 50's that has a neat story, but the low budget puts a hurting on this one. It's so low budget that the alien robot invasion consist of showing us only one pathetic robot. The dialogue and acting is horrible even for 50's Sci-Fi. They shot the film on deserted Los Angeles streets and towards the end they show three army jeeps enter the city. The DVD that I was saw had a good extra feature that was actually more interesting than the movie about the Producer Herman Cohen who went on to produce some of my favorite childhood horror films from the 50's like I WAS A TEENAGE WEREWOLF and I WAS A TEENAGE FRANKENSTEIN. He also wrote HORRORS OF THE BLACK MUSEUM. I'm a big fan of 50's Horror and Sci-Fi, but this one didn't work for me. It could have been much better.

[Gerry]

Scott wrote:

> TARGET EARTH - Low budget Sci-Fi film from the 50's that
> has a neat story, but the low budget puts a hurting on this
> one.

It's true about the low budget hurting this one, but it's still pretty amazing for a dollar and a quarter.  I have a ton of stuff on this over at my Herman Cohen site, including the trailer, lobby cards, posters, stills, and Herman Cohen talking about the movie (in an interview with Tom Weaver).  Yes this is a shameless plug and here is the URL if you're interested:

<http://www.hermancohen.com/targetearth/index.html>

I love this movie!

[Scott]

Out of all the films he did I liked I WAS A TEENAGE FRANKENSTEIN the best. It was a very memorable film. THE HORRORS OF THE BLACK MUSEUM also left quite an impression on me with the binoculars.

[Gerry]

Scott wrote:

> Out of all the films he did I liked I WAS A TEENAGE
> FRANKENSTEIN the best. It was a very memorable film. THE
> HORRORS OF THE BLACK MUSEUM also left quite an impression on me
> with the binoculars.

The binoculars scene is one of the all time greats!  As a publicity stunt for the film, they let leak a rumor that Cohen had brought the binoculars back to New York and "lost" them at the airport.  It created all kinds of headlines and helped the opening immensely.  Ah the good old days when producers could still get away with crap like that!  Those binoculars still exist BTW and are just as lethal as ever.

[Scott]

That's a nice web tribute page Gerry. Also I like the gimmick of Hypnovista for HORRORS OF THE BLACK MUSEUM. Would like to see it again as I don't remember the rest of the story.

I really like I WAS A TEENAGE FRANKENSTEIN with the accident and muscle bound teenager lifting weights with the disfigured face and that alligator pit in the basement were they would dispose of extra body parts. Then you also have that shocking ending.



Post Edited (12-14-04 15:50)

[Gerry]

Scott wrote:

> That's a nice web tribute page Gerry. Also I like the gimmick
> of Hypnovista for HORRORS OF THE BLACK MUSEUM. Would like to
> see it again as I don't remember the rest of the story.

Thanks, Scott.  One of these days, i'll get the Hypnovista opening video captured and put up on the site as well.

> I really like I WAS A TEENAGE FRANKENSTEIN would the accident
> and muscle bound teenager lifting weights with the disfigured
> face and that alligator pit in the basement were they would
> dispose of extra body parts.

Yeah, the alligator pit was a pretty cool idea.  That alligator was a maneater in real life.  When you get some time, check out that part of Tom Weaver's Herman Cohen interview.  He talks about the alligator there--interesting and (real-life) creepy stuff.