Teenagers from Outer Space
Encyclopedia
Teenagers from Outer Space is a 1959 science-fiction
film about an extraterrestrial
space ship landing on Earth to use it as a farm
for its food
supply. The crew of the ship includes teenagers, two of whom oppose each other in their activities. The independent film was originally distributed by Warner Brothers
. The film was later featured in an episode of Mystery Science Theater 3000
.
The gargon seems unable to thrive in Earth's atmosphere. During this distraction, Derek flees, before the gargon revives and flourishes. When the Captain reports Derek's antics, he is connected to the Leader (Gene Sterling) himself. It turns out that Derek is the son of their Leader, though Derek is not aware of this. Thor is sent to retrieve Derek, with orders to kill if necessary to protect the mission. They return to their base, leaving the gargon behind, hoping to judge its growth rate by the time they return.
Meanwhile, Derek follows the address on the dog tag to a private home that belongs to Betty Morgan (Dawn Anderson) and her Grandpa Joe (Harvey B. Dunn). They have a room to rent, and Derek inadvertently becomes a boarder. When Betty's boyfriend, reporter Joe Rogers (Tom Graeff
), can't make their afternoon plans, Derek goes along to visit Alice (Sonia Torgeson). He shows the tag to Betty, who recognizes it immediately. Derek takes her to the place where the ship landed, and shows her Sparky's remains. She doesn't believe him, so he describes Thor's "focusing disintegrator ray" that strips flesh from bone. Betty takes this well, and vows to help Derek stop the bad guys.
During the course of the day Betty and Derek have more than one run-in with Thor and his ray gun, and Joe grapples with news stories of skeletons popping up all over town, including in Alice's swimming pool. Eventually Thor is wounded, and when he kidnaps Betty and Derek in order to seek medical attention, he reveals Derek's true parentage. Two car chases and a gunfight ensue, and Thor is finally captured by authorities after plummeting off a cliff in a stolen car.
But there are bigger problems than Thor: the gargon has grown immensely, killing a policeman with whom Joe was investigating the landing site, and attacking numerous people. Derek and Betty immediately head out to the car wreck to look for the gun. Derek and Betty share a kiss, and he vows to make Earth his home and never leave. When the gargon ruins their romantic moment, Derek finds the gun just in time for them to escape. Unfortunately the gun has been damaged in the crash, and the monster is coming toward the town. They head out once again to confront it, using power lines to fuel the disintegrator. They kill the gargon, but it's too late as enemy ships have appeared overhead.
The whole gang, including Joe and Grandpa, hurries out to the landing site. Derek reunites with his father, and makes the ultimate sacrifice to save the Earth by leading the fleet directly into the hillside and causing a massive explosion. Derek does not survive, but is remembered to have said, "I shall make the Earth my home. And I shall never, never leave it."
in Griffith Park
and Hollywood High School
giving away the film's hazy locale. One notable aspect of the film is that it was largely the work of a single person, Tom Graeff
, who, in addition to playing the role of reporter Joe Rogers, wrote, directed, edited, and produced the film, on which he also provided cinematography, special effects, and music coordination. Producers Bryan and Ursula Pearson
("Thor" and "Hilda") and Gene Sterling ("The Leader") provided the film's $14,000 budget, which was less than shoestring by the standards of the time.
Graeff shot in many nearby locations — mostly in the vicinity of Sunset Boulevard
and Highland Avenue — to double as more important city landmarks. Graeff's steady hand and framing kept most of the real locations under wraps, creating a great low-budget illusion of a small town.
Other cost-cutting ideas didn't pay off as well: the space costumes were simple flight suits clearly decorated with masking tape, dress shoes covered in socks, and surplus Air Force helmets. The use of stock footage in lieu of special effects and Spielbergian
"looking" shots replacing actual visuals of the invading enemy spaceships seriously undercut the urgency of the ending. Props included a single-bolted-joint skeleton re-used for every dead body, a multichannel mixer that the producers made no attempt to camouflage (even clearly bearing the label "Multichannel Mixer MCM-2") as a piece of alien equipment, and the infamous dime-store Hubley's "Atomic Disintegrator" as the aliens' focusing disintegrator ray.
. Incidentally the same stock score has been recycled in countless B-movies, such as Red Zone Cuba
, The Killer Shrews
, and most notably Night of the Living Dead
.
The film failed to perform at the box office, placing further stress on an already-burdened Graeff, and in the fall of 1959, he suffered a breakdown, proclaimed himself the second coming of Christ.
After a number of public appearances followed by a subsequent arrest for disrupting a church service, Graeff disappeared from Hollywood until 1964 and committed suicide in 1970.
review of the movie stated "what a curious little film this is [...] there are flashes of astonishing sensitivity half buried in the mass of tritisms." And of the director, Tom Graeff, "when he stops spreading himself so incredibly thin, I think his work will bear watching."
in the United States and has since received numerous "bargain bin
" DVD releases. The MST3K version of the film was released by Rhino Home Video
as part of the 'Collection, Volume 6' box set.
Science fiction
Science fiction is a genre of fiction dealing with imaginary but more or less plausible content such as future settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, aliens, and paranormal abilities...
film about an extraterrestrial
Extraterrestrial life
Extraterrestrial life is defined as life that does not originate from Earth...
space ship landing on Earth to use it as a farm
Farm
A farm is an area of land, or, for aquaculture, lake, river or sea, including various structures, devoted primarily to the practice of producing and managing food , fibres and, increasingly, fuel. It is the basic production facility in food production. Farms may be owned and operated by a single...
for its food
Food
Food is any substance consumed to provide nutritional support for the body. It is usually of plant or animal origin, and contains essential nutrients, such as carbohydrates, fats, proteins, vitamins, or minerals...
supply. The crew of the ship includes teenagers, two of whom oppose each other in their activities. The independent film was originally distributed by Warner Brothers
Warner Bros.
Warner Bros. Entertainment, Inc., also known as Warner Bros. Pictures or simply Warner Bros. , is an American producer of film and television entertainment.One of the major film studios, it is a subsidiary of Time Warner, with its headquarters in Burbank,...
. The film was later featured in an episode of Mystery Science Theater 3000
Mystery Science Theater 3000
Mystery Science Theater 3000 is an American cult television comedy series created by Joel Hodgson and produced by Best Brains, Inc., that ran from 1988 to 1999....
.
Plot
A team of spacemen arrive on Earth in a space ship. They have been searching the galaxy for a planet suitable to raise their herd of "gargons," a lobster-like (but air-breathing) creature which is a food staple on their homeworld. Thor (Bryan Grant), the first spaceman to emerge, shows his contempt for other-worldly creatures by using his vaporization weapon on a dog, Sparky. Derek (David Love), upon discovering an inscription upon Sparky's dog tag, voices his fear that the herd of gargon might destroy Earth's local inhabitants. The other spacemen scoff. As members of the "supreme race", they are disdainful of "foreign beings," no matter how intelligent, and pride themselves on the fact that families and friendships are forbidden on their world. Derek reveals himself to be a member of an underground which commemorates earlier, more humane periods of his home world's history.The gargon seems unable to thrive in Earth's atmosphere. During this distraction, Derek flees, before the gargon revives and flourishes. When the Captain reports Derek's antics, he is connected to the Leader (Gene Sterling) himself. It turns out that Derek is the son of their Leader, though Derek is not aware of this. Thor is sent to retrieve Derek, with orders to kill if necessary to protect the mission. They return to their base, leaving the gargon behind, hoping to judge its growth rate by the time they return.
Meanwhile, Derek follows the address on the dog tag to a private home that belongs to Betty Morgan (Dawn Anderson) and her Grandpa Joe (Harvey B. Dunn). They have a room to rent, and Derek inadvertently becomes a boarder. When Betty's boyfriend, reporter Joe Rogers (Tom Graeff
Tom Graeff
Thomas Lockyear "Tom" Graeff was an American screenwriter, director and actor. He is known for the 1959 b-movie Teenagers from Outer Space.-Early life:...
), can't make their afternoon plans, Derek goes along to visit Alice (Sonia Torgeson). He shows the tag to Betty, who recognizes it immediately. Derek takes her to the place where the ship landed, and shows her Sparky's remains. She doesn't believe him, so he describes Thor's "focusing disintegrator ray" that strips flesh from bone. Betty takes this well, and vows to help Derek stop the bad guys.
During the course of the day Betty and Derek have more than one run-in with Thor and his ray gun, and Joe grapples with news stories of skeletons popping up all over town, including in Alice's swimming pool. Eventually Thor is wounded, and when he kidnaps Betty and Derek in order to seek medical attention, he reveals Derek's true parentage. Two car chases and a gunfight ensue, and Thor is finally captured by authorities after plummeting off a cliff in a stolen car.
But there are bigger problems than Thor: the gargon has grown immensely, killing a policeman with whom Joe was investigating the landing site, and attacking numerous people. Derek and Betty immediately head out to the car wreck to look for the gun. Derek and Betty share a kiss, and he vows to make Earth his home and never leave. When the gargon ruins their romantic moment, Derek finds the gun just in time for them to escape. Unfortunately the gun has been damaged in the crash, and the monster is coming toward the town. They head out once again to confront it, using power lines to fuel the disintegrator. They kill the gargon, but it's too late as enemy ships have appeared overhead.
The whole gang, including Joe and Grandpa, hurries out to the landing site. Derek reunites with his father, and makes the ultimate sacrifice to save the Earth by leading the fleet directly into the hillside and causing a massive explosion. Derek does not survive, but is remembered to have said, "I shall make the Earth my home. And I shall never, never leave it."
Cast
- David Love as Derek
- Dawn BenderDawn BenderDawn Bender is an American film, stage, and radio actress, most famous for the role of Margaret on the radio drama One Man's Family and Betty Morgan in Teenagers from Outer Space.-Early life and career:...
as Betty Morgan - Bryan Grant as Thor
- Harvey B. DunnHarvey B. DunnHarvey B. Dunn was an American television and film actor. Dunn was best known for his appearances in several 1950s B movies including three Ed Wood films, Bride of the Monster , Night of the Ghouls , and The Sinister Urge .-Filmography:-External links:...
as Gramps Morgan - Tom GraeffTom GraeffThomas Lockyear "Tom" Graeff was an American screenwriter, director and actor. He is known for the 1959 b-movie Teenagers from Outer Space.-Early life:...
as Joe Rogers - King MoodyKing MoodyRobert "King" Moody was an American actor, best known for playing Ronald McDonald in commercials in the 1970s and 1980s...
as Spacecraft Captain - Helen Sage as Nurse Morse
- Frederick Welch as Dr. C.R. Brandt, MD
- Carl Dickensen as Gas Station Attendant
- Sonia Torgeson as Alice Woodward
- Billy Bridges as Driver picking up Thor
- James Conklin as Professor Simpson
- Gene Sterling as The Alien Leader
- Ralph Lowe as Moreal, Spaceship Crew
- Bill DeLand as Saul, Spaceship Crew
Production
Teenagers from Outer Space was filmed on location in and around Hollywood, California, with a number of tell-tale landmarks like Bronson CanyonBronson Canyon
Bronson Canyon, or Bronson Caves, is a section of Griffith Park in Los Angeles, California that has become famous as a filming location for a very large number of movies and TV shows, especially westerns and science fiction, from the early days of motion pictures to the present...
in Griffith Park
Griffith Park
Griffith Park is a large municipal park at the eastern end of the Santa Monica Mountains in the Los Feliz neighborhood of Los Angeles, California. The park covers of land, making it one of the largest urban parks in North America...
and Hollywood High School
Hollywood High School
Hollywood High School is a Los Angeles Unified School District high school located at the intersection of North Highland Avenue and West Sunset Boulevard in the Hollywood district of Los Angeles, California.-History:...
giving away the film's hazy locale. One notable aspect of the film is that it was largely the work of a single person, Tom Graeff
Tom Graeff
Thomas Lockyear "Tom" Graeff was an American screenwriter, director and actor. He is known for the 1959 b-movie Teenagers from Outer Space.-Early life:...
, who, in addition to playing the role of reporter Joe Rogers, wrote, directed, edited, and produced the film, on which he also provided cinematography, special effects, and music coordination. Producers Bryan and Ursula Pearson
Ursula Pearson
Ursula Pearson Bellah was a German-born, American actress, author, and businesswoman, most famous for her role of Hilda in Teenagers From Outer Space and her autobiographical perspective on Nazi Germany Surviving the Judas Factor: A Childhood Entombed in Nazi Germany.-Life in Nazi Germany:Born...
("Thor" and "Hilda") and Gene Sterling ("The Leader") provided the film's $14,000 budget, which was less than shoestring by the standards of the time.
Cost-effective measures
According to Bryan Pearson, the crew employed many guerrilla tactics in order to cut costs. Director Tom Graeff secured the location for Betty Morgan's house for free by posing as a UCLA student (while Graeff had attended the school, he had graduated 5 years earlier). The older woman who owned the house even let the crew use her electricity to power equipment.Graeff shot in many nearby locations — mostly in the vicinity of Sunset Boulevard
Sunset Boulevard
Sunset Boulevard is a street in the western part of Los Angeles County, California, that stretches from Figueroa Street in downtown Los Angeles to the Pacific Coast Highway at the Pacific Ocean in the Pacific Palisades...
and Highland Avenue — to double as more important city landmarks. Graeff's steady hand and framing kept most of the real locations under wraps, creating a great low-budget illusion of a small town.
Other cost-cutting ideas didn't pay off as well: the space costumes were simple flight suits clearly decorated with masking tape, dress shoes covered in socks, and surplus Air Force helmets. The use of stock footage in lieu of special effects and Spielbergian
Steven Spielberg
Steven Allan Spielberg KBE is an American film director, screenwriter, producer, video game designer, and studio entrepreneur. In a career of more than four decades, Spielberg's films have covered many themes and genres. Spielberg's early science-fiction and adventure films were seen as an...
"looking" shots replacing actual visuals of the invading enemy spaceships seriously undercut the urgency of the ending. Props included a single-bolted-joint skeleton re-used for every dead body, a multichannel mixer that the producers made no attempt to camouflage (even clearly bearing the label "Multichannel Mixer MCM-2") as a piece of alien equipment, and the infamous dime-store Hubley's "Atomic Disintegrator" as the aliens' focusing disintegrator ray.
Sound design and score
In an unusual practice of the era, Graeff also pre-recorded some of the film's dialogue for several scenes, and had the actors learn to synchronize their actions with the sound. The score of the film came from stock, composed by William Loose and Fred SteinerFred Steiner
Fred Steiner was an American composer, conductor, orchestrator, film historian and arranger for television, radio and film. Steiner wrote the theme music for The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show, Perry Mason and The Bullwinkle Show...
. Incidentally the same stock score has been recycled in countless B-movies, such as Red Zone Cuba
Red Zone Cuba
Red Zone Cuba, also known as Night Train to Mundo Fine, is a 1966 American drama film directed by Coleman Francis, who also wrote, produced, and played the starring role...
, The Killer Shrews
The Killer Shrews
The Killer Shrews is a 1959 science fiction film directed by Ray Kellogg. It has been released on DVD and is considered a cult classic. It was featured in the fourth season of Mystery Science Theater 3000, as well as the first season of the similar show This Movie Sucks!.-Plot:Thorne Sherman and...
, and most notably Night of the Living Dead
Night of the Living Dead
Night of the Living Dead is a 1968 American independent black-and-white zombie film and cult film directed by George A. Romero, starring Duane Jones, Judith O'Dea and Karl Hardman. It premiered on October 1, 1968, and was completed on a USD$114,000 budget. After decades of cinematic re-releases, it...
.
Release and aftermath
In June 1958, Bryan Pearson, who invested $5,000 in the production with his wife Ursula, took Graeff to court in order to gain back the original investment and a percentage of any profits. The Pearsons had learned that Graeff had allegedly sold the film (which was not true until early 1959), but heard nothing of their investment or the percentage of profits they were entitled to. The legal dispute dragged on for a year, and once it was settled (Pearson got his $5000 investment back but the judge ruled there was no profit for him to share in), Tom and the Pearsons, who had been good friends during the production of Teenagers, never spoke to each other again.The film failed to perform at the box office, placing further stress on an already-burdened Graeff, and in the fall of 1959, he suffered a breakdown, proclaimed himself the second coming of Christ.
After a number of public appearances followed by a subsequent arrest for disrupting a church service, Graeff disappeared from Hollywood until 1964 and committed suicide in 1970.
Critical Reception
The film opened on June 3, 1959 to negative but not crippling reviews. The Los Angeles TimesLos Angeles Times
The Los Angeles Times is a daily newspaper published in Los Angeles, California, since 1881. It was the second-largest metropolitan newspaper in circulation in the United States in 2008 and the fourth most widely distributed newspaper in the country....
review of the movie stated "what a curious little film this is [...] there are flashes of astonishing sensitivity half buried in the mass of tritisms." And of the director, Tom Graeff, "when he stops spreading himself so incredibly thin, I think his work will bear watching."
DVD releases
Since its release, the film has fallen into public domainPublic domain
Works are in the public domain if the intellectual property rights have expired, if the intellectual property rights are forfeited, or if they are not covered by intellectual property rights at all...
in the United States and has since received numerous "bargain bin
Bargain bin
A bargain bin refers to an unsorted selection of merchandise, particularly softwares, tools and CDs, which have been discounted in price. Reasons for the discount can range from the closure of a production company to a steep decline in an item's popularity in the aftermath of a fad or scandal....
" DVD releases. The MST3K version of the film was released by Rhino Home Video
Rhino Entertainment
Rhino Entertainment Company is an American specialty record label and production company. It is owned by Warner Music Group.-History:Rhino was originally a novelty song and reissue company during the 1970s and 1980s, releasing compilation albums of pop, rock & roll, and rhythm & blues successes...
as part of the 'Collection, Volume 6' box set.
External links
- Teenagers from Outer Space entire film on You Tube