KILLERS FROM SPACE

Peter Graves and John Frederick (Merrick)

KILLERS FROM SPACE (1954). Produced and directed by W. Lee Wilder. Colorized.

 After disappearing in the desert after a plane crash, atomic scientist Dr. Doug Martin (Peter Graves of Beginning of the End), suffering memory loss, is viewed with suspicion by his colleagues. Under the ministration of sodium pentothal, Doug remembers being held prisoner by aliens from Astron-Delta with ping pong eyeballs. The claim they brought him back from death, and need his help in their plans to take over the earth, which they need after their own sun expired. Deneb (John Frederick) and his buddies plan to unleash monstrously enlarged animals and insects upon earth's helpless inhabitants. Will Doug's desperate plans be enough to save the world and destroy the creatures and would-be invaders? 

Man meets Lizard!

Killers from Space is about on the level of one of those sci-fi serials from Republic that played in theaters during this period, if not quite as much fun. Graves gives as little extra as possible to his performance in this, but the supporting cast is a bit more enthusiastic: James Seay of Heartaches as Colonel Banks, Steve Pendleton as Investigator Briggs, Frank Gerstle as Dr. Kruger, Shepard Menken as Major Clift, the base doctor, and Barbara Bestar as Doug's wife. The best scene in the movie has Doug trying to escape via huge caverns and encountering gigantic spiders, grasshoppers, horned toads, lizards, roaches, beetles, and the like, all via back projection. (As usual the unnerving sound FX make this sequence work.) The notion that the aliens want to use outsized carnivorous beasties to devour all of mankind is a trifle unsettling. 

Verdict: Passable comic book sci fi. **1/2.