Tuesday, November 17, 2015

OVERLOOKED FILM: TEENAGERS FROM OUTER SPACE (1959)

From IMDb:  "A young alien (David Love) falls for a pretty teenage Earth girl (Dawn Anderson)  and they team up to try to stop the plans of his invading cohorts, who intend to use Earth as a food-breeding ground for giant lobsters from their planet.  The invaders, who arrive in a flying saucer, carry deadly ray guns that turn Earth-people into skeletons."

Do you really need to know more than that?

David Love, who has the lead in this cinematic mish-mash, has only one other credit on IMDb -- a short released five years earlier.  He does, however, have a credit as a production assistant on Teenagers from Outer Space under the name C. R. Kaltenthaler.  This teenage alien was 25 when the film was released.

Dawn Anderson (also known as Dawn Bender) strained her acting chops playing the teenage ingenue; she also was 25 when the film was released.  This was also her last film role.  Of her seven other film appearances (starting when she was two), five were uncredited while a sixth was edited out.

The writer/producer/director/composer/editor/cinematographer/special effects wizard/miscellaneous crew member of this turkey was Tom Graeff, who was modest enough to cast himself as Betty's (Dawn Anderson) boy friend.  He probably did not want everyone to think this flick was a one-man rodeo so he cast himself under the name "Tom Lockyear."  This was the last (and in some cases, only) film where he served as either director, producer, composer, actor, cinematographer, special effects maven, or miscellaneous crewman.  He did edit one other movie, 1965's execrable The Wizard of Mars. To cheap his way out while producing Teenagers from Outer Space, he cons his way into shooting at an elderly lady's home (rather than paying for studio time) by pretending to be a UCLA student shooting a student film.  Despite playing a teenager, Graeff was 30 when the film was released.

Playing Thor, one of the invading aliens, was Bryan Grant, one of the film's "production assistants" -- code word for investor -- as "Bryan G. Peterson."  When the film (duh) bombed, he sued Graeff for damages.  Other "production assistants" in the cast were Graeff, Love (as "C. R. Kalenthaler"), Ursula Hanson, who played the uncredited Hilda and in real life was Grant's wife, as "Ursula Pearson," and Gene Sterling who had a cameo role as "The Leader."

The film was distributed by Warner Brothers, who needed a cheapo to pair with another of their films for a drive-in double header.  Evidently Teenagers from Outer Space the cheapest movie that Warner Brothers ever released.  Surprised?  You shouldn't be.

So, sit back and revel in the cheese that is Teenagers from Outer Space.

https://archive.org/details/teenagers_from_outerspace

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