Teenagers from Outer Space (1959) d. Tom Graeff (USA)
When a film is ready to fry a cute little yapping dog into a pile of bones within the first two minutes, you know you’re in for a treat.
Huge name-above-the-title David Love (in his only credited feature film appearance) stars as the oh-so-sensitive alien invader sent to find suitable grazing pastures for his people’s main source of food, the Gargan Herd (realized as giant, rear-projected shadowy lobster monsters, or monster, since we only ever see one).
Fleeing from his heartless, pooch-zapping compatriots, Love takes refuge by posing as a prospective boarder at odd-duck heroine Dawn Bender's (billed here as Dawn Anderson) house in Small Town, USA. Baddie crewmate Bryan Grant gives pursuit, focusing his furrowed scowl and de-molecularizing ray gun on anyone and everyone that crosses his path. (Seriously, this flick has an amazingly high body count, and the numerous shots of flesh-free skeletons crumbling to the ground never fail to please.)
Pretty standard, low budget late 50s sci-fi fare that moves quickly and is enthusiastically performed by its cast, although I kept expecting Love to burst into song at any point, serenading his new found lady fair Bender about the wonders of earthly love. Directed-produced-edited-written-scored by Tom Graeff, who also plays eager beaver reporter Joe as “Tom Lockyear.” (It’s too bad he never learned to delegate.)
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