Our film opens with a slow, cosmic pan of our particular solar system. Things soon speed up, though, as we quickly zoom in on the third planet from the sun, through the atmosphere, and come upon a city. (I think it's Chicago, but it's never verified by the film.) We continue to focus in closer; to a street; to a building; and finally stop on a single room. Once inside, the pan continues, revealing a woman, sprawled out on the bed. We sweep by the alarm clock -- that reads 1:30 pm. And while pondering if the woman is a lazy late sleeper, we then slide down a little more to find an empty bottle of sleeping pills -- right by her prone hand.

The woman, Nora King (Kathleen Crowley), wakes up, groggy and disoriented, with an enormous headache. (It was an attempted suicide, but there weren't enough pills.) She tries to pull herself together and goes to wash her face, but no water comes out of the spigot. The lights don't work either -- there's no electricity. She looks out her window; the city streets are deserted, and abnormally quiet. Nora gets dressed and checks on her neighbors. But no one is home, and there are signs and evidence that they all left in a hurry. She heads outside but there still is no traffic, no noise, and no other people. It's quiet. Too quiet (he said ominously) and thinking maybe she did die and this is hell, panic starts to overwhelm poor Nora.

As her frantic search continues, she rounds a corner and trips over something. She recovers, then realizes she tripped over the body of a dead woman! Slowly, Nora backs away from it, right into another man. Thinking the man is a killer, Nora runs away. He gives chase and calls after her, promising not to harm her. The man finally corners Nora in an alley and she becomes hysterical. He manhandles her (rather roughly) and finally has to slap her to calm her down. He then asks her why she ran away. Nora says because he killed that woman. He rationalizes with her until he wins her confidence. (If not, I guess you could just slap her silly again -- ya big bully.) Introducing himself as Frank Brooks (Richard Denning), he tells his tale of woe: 

Seems while waiting out a layover, he mistakenly flashed a large money roll in a bar. A couple of thugs robbed him, knocked him out and dumped him in alley, and he didn't wake up until after noon. Nora says she woke up late, too (but doesn't mention the pills.) Somehow, in the last ten hours, while they were both out of it, the entire city has been evacuated without them. But the bigger question is, Why was the town evacuated in the first place? Frank feels it must be some kind of natural catastrophe, while Nora fears an H-Bomb attack, or worse -- some kind of germ warfare. Frank doesn't think that's likely; an enemy wouldn't give enough advance notice to evacuate a half million people. Regardless, he feels they face certain death unless they get out of town. 

So they head downtown. (Hey, Magellan! You're going the wrong way.) When they come across an electronics store, Frank breaks in, hoping to find a portable radio and find out what's going on. Nora finds a phone but they aren't working either. They only find one portable radio but, of course, there are no batteries to be found. Before they can get too frustrated, though, the sound of music filters into the store. (No, not Julie Andrews and the Von Traps. Although I wouldn't mind seeing them all get melted by death-ray. That'd be cool...)

Following the sound to a bar, they find a woman inside playing the piano. The couple hangs back and watch her suspiciously until the lady finishes the song, and her drink, and calls to the bartender for a refill. Another man pops up from behind the bar with more champagne. Despite the drunken couple's heated bickering, Frank and Nora risk talking to them, hoping to find out what's going on. No luck. The couple have been on a bender since the night before and remember nothing. (My kind of people.) Jim Wilson (Richard Reeves) introduces himself and his long time girlfriend, Vicki Harris (Virginia Grey). Frank suggests that they all head outside the city to safety, but the frazzled couple are more than content to drink their way through the apocalypse. (It worked for me during the whole Y2K fiasco, even though nothing happened -- except one helluva hangover.) Nora conspires and Frank catches on as she suggests they hit the infamous Club Royal. Jim scoffs, saying it's five miles out of town. Frank then offers there are plenty of places for 'pit stops' along the way, and Jim and Vicki agree to make the party mobile. 

Outside they spot an abandoned car. But it's not quite abandoned because they find the owner inside it -- dead, just like the woman in the alley. Vicki becomes ill at the sight. The keys are in the ignition but it won't start. Under the hood, they find the distributor cap is missing. Another man pops up and warns that all the cars have been sabotaged. Frank remembers a similar tactic used during the war, so the enemy couldn't use abandoned vehicles. Otis (Mort Marshall) says he came from the south part of town -- and it looks like a war zone, with more dead bodies and destroyed buildings. Suddenly, Vicki screams and points to a strange and menacing shadow on the wall. Whatever is causing the silhouette is on the roof of a nearby building, and it most definitely isn't human!

As they all scramble off the street to get out of sight, Frank thinks they should hide in a nearby hotel, so he waves the others over. In the hotel lobby, they find a bunch of newspapers with headlines screaming of an INVASION! by unknown forces that landed outside the city, and that the military ordered the strategic evacuation. The new man doesn't think they're safe and should move on, but the others want to stay, regroup, and plan. But Otis would rather take his chances, and when he runs outside, the little man doesn't get very far before a metallic (and more than a little goofy looking) robot clunks its way outside the opposite building. As the others watch out the window, Otis runs away, but the robot fires a death-ray from it's large, single eye and it strikes Otis who quickly falls dead.

Frank orders everyone upstairs, where they can hide in one of the hotels many rooms. Picking a large suite, complete with kitchen and bath, their plan is to wait until dark and then try to sneak out. Nora is worried, but Frank assures her the army must be doing something.

Well, they are, but without much luck. Who are they? Where did they come from? The general consensus is that they're extraterrestrial in origin -- and probably Venusians. (Curse you, Beaulah!) As General Wood (Arthur Space), who's in charge of this fiasco, complains that the enemy defies all logic, and how they sent in an entire crack division of airborne troops to fight the automatons, but were wiped out completely, he decides to switch tactics and calls in an air strike. (Cue stock footage!)

Back in the hotel, the noise of the jets draws everyone's attention outside. Jim hopes they aren't sitting on ground zero, but before a single bomb can be dropped, the alien death-ray sweeps the sky clean, detonating all the airplanes in fiery explosions. 

Holing up for the night, our stalwart group tries to deduce where the invaders came from. Frank's old college buddy was an avid sci-fi geek and turned him onto the pulp magazines, so he feels the invaders are from Venus, too. They also realize since they came from the north part of town, and Otis came from the west, and the aliens landed to the east, and the Air Force just got obliterated heading south, they're completely surrounded by the enemy. Nora finds this ironic. Yesterday, she wouldn't have cared about dying. When Frank asks her to explain, she confesses that the reason she slept through the evacuation was a failed suicide attempt. Frank was suspicious but didn't want to pry. He asks if she's changed her mind about not having any reason to live. She says yes. (Yep, she's fallen for the big lug -- and I don't mean the robot.)

Back at army HQ, General Wood receives word that the atomic artillery pieces have arrived, along with the guided missiles, but it will take some time to get them operational. The Brass doesn't like using atomic weapons on American soil -- but he has little choice, because nothing else is working. His lines can't hold much longer, and the enemy is threatening to break out of the city. He is about to sign the order to fire-when-ready, when word comes that they've finally captured one of the invaders.

General Wood is surprised that his prisoner is in the science lab until informed that the prisoner -- and all the invaders -- are just robots and not aliens in body-armor. The head scientist (Whit Bissel) concludes that the only reason they caught this one is because it malfunctioned somehow, but the only visible damage is a cracked faceplate. They've only started to tear the robot apart but know, already, that it's far beyond our own terrestrial technology, deducing that the robots are remote controlled by electromagnetic impulses to the cathode-ray tube socked away inside the robot's head piece. Trying to determine how far away the aliens are, hoping to triangulate the source signal, Wood asks how big are the robot's antennae. But the robot has no antennae. The scientists theorize the whole chassis is probably used to pick up the signals, so who knows where it's coming from -- meaning there is no chance of jamming the frequency.

In the hotel, the women are starting to panic. The men went out to find some food and candles and aren't back yet. Luckily, they do make it back unscathed. They eat quietly, wondering how long they'll have to stay holed up. When Frank says it's up to the army, Nora asks which army: Ours or theirs? Frank has no answer. On that sour note, they split up into different rooms to bed down. Jim and Vicki start bickering again and it gets so heated that Frank is about to intervene when it appears that Jim is about to smack his girlfriend, but leaves them alone when they kiss instead. He returns to Nora, confessing he can't figure those two out: Always fighting, but still deeply in love. Nora says it was the same with her husband. They would argue -- like the time they were driving home. It got so heated that he didn't see the car that hit them. Nora woke in the hospital and was told her husband died. That was six months ago, and the survivor's guilt finally caught up with her last night. Assuring her that it wasn't her fault, Frank encourages her to get some rest. And since this is the 1950's, Vicki and Nora will take the beds while Frank and Jim will sleep out in the living room.

Later that night, while they try to sleep, Nora hears someone trying to break into the room and screams. Frank and Jim try to hold the door shut but two gunshots convinces them to open up -- revealing a very greasy-looking figure. Assuming he's a looter, they tell him they have nothing of value, but the assailant says that's not what he's after...

Further study of the captured robot reveals that the cathode ray tube that processed the alien signals somehow broke, rendering it useless. (Cheap Venusian crap!) The General takes that as good sign; the seemingly invincible invaders can be stopped. But the scientist demonstrates that the robots are bullet proof, so an attack would still be fruitless. They'll have to find out another way to destroy the invaders. And General Wood reminds them they're desperately short on time...

Vicki rides Davis (Robert Roark), the intruder, for paying so much attention to his gun. He threatens her with it, so Jim comes to her defense. The crook backs off; Davis knows he has no chance of getting out of the city by himself, so they're all stuck with each other. He reminds them he's in charge, because he has the gun, as the girls retire back to the bedroom , and everyone tries to sleep.

Early the next morning, Vicki swears she's seen Davis somewhere before and thinks his gun looks like a police revolver. Nora thinks Vicki's just suffering from a hangover and offers to get her another beer. Then Davis follows Nora into the kitchen and tries to get a little too friendly. After she slaps him, he warns that she can be safe with him, or be dead like all the others. Seems Davis plans to use them all as decoys, bait, to lure the robots away, and then sneak into the sewers and walk under the enemy to safety. Nora says he's crazy, and she'll never go with him, but Davis shrugs the rejection off and herds everyone down to the lobby.

Back at army HQ, out of time, Wood tells the scientist that this is their last chance to give him a non-nuclear solution. With about five minutes left before the missiles are fired, the scientist starts cranking up an oscillator, bombarding the robot's head with sonic waves. The metal casing does vibrate, but stubbornly refuses to break. Desperate, they turn up the juice...

Davis gets everyone in the lobby and threatens to shoot Jim if Vicki won't check outside. She does, and spots a robot down the street, heading away from the hotel. Then, Vicki finally recognizes Davis as a convicted killer. The creep cops to killing a guard and stealing his gun during the evacuation, and then reveals his plan of using them as bait. Jim refuses to be his pigeon, and Vicki concurs, saying there are four of us, and one of them is bound to get him -- and the whole thing is moot, anyway, because she doesn't think he has the guts to shoot them. (I pause to remind you, m'dear, that he has killed someone already!) So he shoots Vicki, twice (I told ya!); Frank lunges at him, and takes a bullet in the arm, giving Jim the opening he needs to get a hold of Davis and proceeds to strangle him to death. 

They have no time to mourn for Vicki, though; the robot heard the commotion, circled back, and crashes through the hotel lobby window. Jim empties the revolver with no effect so they retreat up the stairs, with the robot hot on their heals. (Well, he's coming, give him some time to catch up. He's having a little trouble with the steps.) Chasing them all the way to the roof, Jim tries to hold it off at the door while the others try to find another way down. No go; they're stuck. And as the robot bursts through the door, sending Jim sprawling, it closes in on Frank and Nora. Jim recovers and chucks the empty revolver at it. The robot then turns and blasts him with its death-ray. Trapped, Frank embraces Nora and they wait for the end, together, when the air is pierced with a strange, high-pitched shriek. Then, the robot starts to falter as the noise gets closer. Frank looks over the side and spots a convoy of army jeeps, mounted with loudspeakers. After the robot keels over and lies motionless, Frank signals the convoy and they stop. 

Asking if the civilians know they're in a combat zone, Frank tells the Captain they found out too late to be evacuated, and then asks what that noise was. The Captain explains it's an oscillator, and the sound vibrations are disrupting the inner workings of the robots, knocking them out. Nora asks if it's over, then. The captain replies, that yes, we stopped them; this time! And we were lucky: if the cathode-ray tubes were made out of metal, instead of glass, then all the oscillators in the world would be useless. (I wouldn't say that very loud ya idiot.) He assures Nora not to worry, though, because our scientist are working on how to counteract that variable even as we speak. He then tells them to pile in and they'll get Frank to a medic. As the oscillator cranks back up, they head for home. 

The end

Wohoo! Our 100th review!

It's unfortunate, and a lot of people missed this, but long time schlock producer, Herman Cohen, passed away in early June after a lengthy battle with throat cancer.

Cohen got into showbiz working at a local theater in Detroit. And after a stint in the Marines, he got a job working for Colombia Pictures, first in sales, and later in the publicity department. Then, he struck out on his own to produce, and showed his obsession with gorillas early with two films he did for Jack Broder's RealArt Pictures: Bride of the Gorilla, and the horribly -- make that painfully -- unfunny antics of Martin & Lewis knock-offs, Duke Mitchell and Sammy Petrillo, in Bela Lugosi Meets the Brooklyn Gorilla.

Of course, Cohen went on to B-Movie infamy with the teen angst inspired hits for American International Pictures with I Was a Teenage Werewolf, Teenage Frankenstein, and Blood of Dracula. After leaving AIP, Cohen moved his operations to England where he produced Konga and Horrors of the Black Museum. Then later on in the '70s, he produced a couple of Joan Crawford's staples, Berserk and Trog. Cohen stayed in the business, still producing, until his death in June of 2002.

Target Earth was shot for United Artists, in seven days, for around $75,000 -- and it shows. You save a lot of money when you're cast consists of about ten people. A lot of the shots of empty streets are just still-pictures. It was Jim Nicholson, while working at RealArt (before he met Sam Arkoff), who gave Herman a copy of Paul Fairman's The Deadly City, which Target Earth is based on. In the book, the invaders are really aliens instead of robots. But the characters and actions remain fairly faithful to the book -- except the aliens just drop dead at the end, just like in War of the Worlds.

Upon first glance, the robots will have giggling. The story breaks down a little here, too. The aliens have the technology to build these robots, and control them all the way from Venus, but the technology is still based on tubes and transistors. Their boxy frames and square heads are laughable, and the air-duct origins of the legs are hard to overlook. But if you can manage to get past all that and notice the squat robot's odd body proportions, you realize it doesn't scream "look, there's a guy in a bad robot suit." The biggest budgetary hurdle the film couldn't quite jump was the fact that there was only one (1) robot costume available, so we never do get a look at this invading army of killer robots. Just the advanced scouts.

However, despite a few technical stumbles, the film overcompensates it's a meager budget with a no-nonsense approach that results in a creepy atmosphere, filled with paranoia and dread.

And again, at first glance, this appears to be another, typical, entry in the alien invasion/red scare-paranoia genre of the '50s. The invaders are described as inhuman, and indestructible, with no fear or sense of feeling. (Sounds like a godless heathen communist to me!) The Captain's warning at the end resonates because we we're lucky to stop them this time. And we must always be prepared, and vigilant, because the commies -- excuse me, the aliens will be back. (The film assures us that we'll be ready for them, though.)

Yet it is atypical also: The heroine tries to commit suicide; the hero doesn't have all the answers, and in fact, leads them into danger, instead of out it; and the other protagonists are raging alcoholics. The late entry of the killer seems a little forced, but I guess they had to get them out of the hotel room somehow. (And the actor playing the creep was the son of one of the financiers.)

That's probably the main reason why I like this movie; it wasn't afraid to try something different. It starts strong, with it's sense of isolation -- so much so, that it borders on desolation -- despite the fact that everything is still standing. Admittedly, it falls apart in the third act, a little, but it still works for me.

Why? Easy. I like movies with big clunky robots in my sci-fi as opposed to those more, streamlined models that look like us (or replace us? Creepy.) I like death-rays blowing things up, square-jawed heroes, pretty heroines who can handle themselves, and the military coming to the rescue and kicking a little alien butt before the closing credits.. 

I hesitate to call Target Earth a classic, but I like it. A lot. 

And with the passing of Herman Cohen, we've lost another member from the B-Movie's golden age. And what's really depressing is, is there aren't that many of them left. Luckily for us, we still have their films, like this one, to look at, laugh at, love, and enjoy.

Posted: 06/23/02. Copy and paste at your own legal risk.

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