Teenagers from Outer Space (1959) on Netflix
Approved19591h 26mHorrorSci-FiThriller
A flying saucer lands on Earth to test Gargons, lobster-like monsters raised as food on the crew's home world. Derek refuses to let an inhabited planet be used, flees to Betty Morgan's.
- Netflix2.0/5
- IMDb3.9/104,220 votes
- Rotten TomatoesNot available
Trailer
Plot summary
A flying saucer sets down on Earth, its crew scouting grounds to raise Gargons, air-breathing lobster-like monsters that serve as a food reserve on their planet. Thor shoots a dog with his raygun, and the dog's tag carries a name and address. Derek, another crew member, reads it and concludes that the planet is inhabited by intelligent beings, so the mission should search elsewhere, since full-grown Gargons are dangerous. The others disagree; families and friendships are forbidden where they come from. The Captain and Thor disarm Derek and plan to have him tried and executed. The Gargon sickens in Earth's air, and while the crew is distracted Derek slips away on foot toward the address on the tag, where Betty Morgan and her grandfather have a room to rent.
Cast
- Bryan Grantas Thor
- Tom Graeffas Joe Rogers(Tom Lockyear)
- Helen Sageas Nurse Morse
- Frederick Welchas Dr. C.R. Brandt(Frederic Welch)
- Carl Dickensenas Gas Station Attendant
- Sonia Torgesonas Alice Woodward
- Billy Bridgesas Driver Picking Up Thor
- James Conklinas Prof. Simpson
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Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Teenagers from Outer Space (1959)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- Producer Bryan Pearson and his wife Ursula, who had put $5,000 into the film, took Tom Graeff to court in June 1958 to recover their investment and a share of any profits, after learning he had allegedly sold the film; the dispute dragged on for a year.
- The score was stock music by William Loose and Fred Steiner that had been used in countless B-movies, and it later turned up in Red Zone Cuba, The Killer Shrews and, most notably, Night of the Living Dead.
- Director Tom Graeff got the house used as Betty Morgan's home for free by posing as a UCLA student, a school he had graduated from five years earlier, and its owner even let the crew power their equipment with her electricity.
- Special effects technician Paul Blaisdell made the alien ray guns look as if they fired by attaching small slivers of mirror. Graeff also paid Blaisdell to design the poster but could not afford his fee for the Gargon monsters, so he did those effects himself by superimposing silhouettes of animals.
- After the film failed at the box office, director Tom Graeff suffered a breakdown in the fall of 1959 and proclaimed himself the second coming of Christ; he was arrested for disrupting a church service, vanished from Hollywood until 1964 and committed suicide in 1970.
- Because Warner Bros. did not renew the copyright registration in the film's 28th year, Teenagers from Outer Space entered the public domain in 1987, which led to numerous bargain-bin DVD releases.
- The aliens' costumes were simple flight suits decorated with masking tape, dress shoes covered in socks and surplus Air Force helmets; props included one bolted-joint skeleton re-used for every dead body and a dime-store Hubley's "Atomic Disintegrator" toy as the disintegrator ray gun.
- The film became a cult classic among sci-fi fans and was later shown on Mystery Science Theater 3000, Elvira's Movie Macabre, Off Beat Cinema and Svengoolie; it also appears as an extra in the video game Destroy All Humans!, unlocked after the player beats the game.
