Gefahr aus dem Weltall

Sehr gelungenes Debüt von Jack Arnold, bekannt vor allem durch spätere Sci-Fi-Klassiker wie Tarantula und Der unglaubliche schrumpfende Mann. Schon von Anfang an, als wir eine Feuerkugel zu den Klängen der sehr einprägsamen Melodie fallen sehen, ist zu erkennen, dass der Film wie geschaffen für Fans von Sci-Fi-Filmen der fünfziger Jahre ist. Warum habe ich trotzdem nur drei Sterne vergeben? Das liegt wohl an dem zwei Jahre älteren Der Tag, an dem die Erde stillstand, der das Thema viel sympathischer vermittelt. Aber ich möchte keineswegs Schmutz auf diesen guten Film werfen. Ich selbst habe mich gut amüsiert und die Wüstenumgebung, in der der Besuch aus dem All stattfindet, hat mit sehr gut gefallen. Ich mag Wüstenfilme. Ich empfehle den Film, er ist nahe an vier Sternen dran. (14.04.2012)

Poster tagline: SPECTACULAR! REACHING FROM THE SCREEN TO SEIZE YOU IN ITS GRASP! Rather than good sci-fi, I think of it as a perfect relic of an era. With this, Jack Arnold perfectly tapped into the era of McCarthyism, when American society was gripped by the fear of creeping communism, with aliens playing that role here. At first it doesn't really work, it’s haphazardly proportioned (an explosion with a crater like this would wipe out half of California), but after a monologue about the fear of being bugged, the film takes on a proper paranoid air, with concerns about infiltration by alien forces, and the fact that the aliens here are actually good characters who just want time to fix their spaceship, giving it an unusual paradoxical flair. The film was also ahead of its time in being the first to show the possibility of aliens taking on the bodies of ordinary citizens (which was used successfully several times in the years that followed). There are also some nice visual effects sequences (the laser gun), but above all I am grateful to this film for launching Jack Arnold's successful career in the 1950s, after his great success in the cinema, and cementing him as one of the best ever science fiction directors of the Golden Age. (19.10.2023)

Another fine example of what was great filmmaking in the 1950s. This was simply the golden period of science fiction that wasn't yet high budget, but just wanted to show us a threat. Personally, I couldn't care less about Cold War metaphors because these films work great just as they are. Stories full of fantasy and paranoia, with beautiful, old-fashioned, yet irreplaceable tricks and effects. (06.02.2015)