ironhorse_iv
Originally titled, 'The Ray Gun Terror' and rereleased in the UK as 'The Gargon Terror'. This film original played on double-bill with 1955's 'Godzilla Raids Again' during its theatrical run. Directed, produced, & written, by Tom Graeff, the movie tells the story of humanoid alien named Derek (David Love), who abandons his crew, after he made a moral objection, to the idea of terraforming a planet of intelligent life to cultivate herds of lobster-like creatures. Having escape, Derek must make his way to the nearest town, to let the people know, of the oncoming threat. Without spoiling the movie, too much, while it's an alien invasion movie, it sadly doesn't have the funds, to portray that epic of a scale. Shot only with $14,000, a lot of cost-effective measures had to take place for this film to be made. According to some members of the filming crew, they had to employed many guerrilla tactics in order to cut costs. Some of them, kinda does works. Director Graeff's steady hand and framing kept most of the real locations of LA subdued, creating a convincing low-budget illusion of a small town. Yet, some numbers of tell-tale landmarks were a bit noticeable, gives away the film's otherwise realistic location. Other cost-cutting measures didn't work as well. About half of the film is supposed to take place at night, but instead film in the day. The reasons for this, was because filming in the dark, was a little too expensive. Another problem with the production is how the aliens' costumes were simple flight suits clearly decorated with masking tape, dress shoes covered in socks, and surplus Air Force flight helmets. Also, the use of stock footage, in lieu of real special effects and "looking" shots that replaced actual visuals of the invading alien spaceships, seriously undercut the film's ending. Props included a single-bolted-joint suspended medical dummy skeleton re-used for every dead body seen on screen, a multi-channel sound mixer that was not camouflaged as a piece of alien equipment, and a dime store Hubley's "Atomic Disintegrator" toy as the aliens' disintegrator ray gun, were some of the film's biggest faults. However, the worst prop and effect, for me, has to be, how the film could not afford to construct a giant lobster, so they film, a normal-sized lobster and double its shadow size on screen. Other mistakes, this movie does, is how Graeff used pre-recorded dialogue for several scenes and had the actors lip-synchronize their dialogue with their scene actions. It made for an awkward watch, when the lips don't match up with the words that they are saying. The film score is also hard to listen to. The film used a lot stock music that been recycled in countless B-Movies. Because of the limited budget, this movie looks really, really cheap. Since most of the budget, was supplied, by mediocre actors in exchanged for roles in the film. A lot of the performances in here, seem underwhelming. Main lead, David Love AKA Chuck Roberts was boring and dull. His on-screen lover interest, Christina Ricci look-alike, Dawn Anderson/Bender was just as emotionless as Betty Morgan. It is funny how, well, Betty takes the death of her dog. Bryan Grant, AKA Bryan Pearson was horrible as the villainous Thor with his dry Vincent Prince impression. Another jarring thing about the movie, is how none of the main actors, seem to be teenagers. So, I don't get, why this movie has that titled. Anyways, the other supporting cast was alright for the most part. By far, better than the three leads. Still, it's weird to see original Ronald McDonald actor, Robert Moody as the Ship Captain & Harvey B. Dunn act so dumbfounded as Betty's grandpa. Others problems, this film has is the pacing. There is so much padding and awkward repetitive scenes. Movie also has way too much plot holes to count, like how Betty's dog got to the quarry or how you can hot-wire telephone wires, with getting electrocuted. Also, how in the 50's, even the least qualified were allowed to drive and how Derek is a popular alien named. Plus, the tone is all over the place. Extraordinarily high body count and bittersweet ending does not mixed with good natured teen movie. No wonder, why this film failed to perform at the box office. It indeed, placed further stress on the burdened director who was already getting sued by investors, and in the fall of 1959, he suffered a breakdown, proclaiming himself as the second coming of Christ & forced into residency at a mental institution. He was released in 1964, to start a mail order business. Sadly, this didn't last long, as on December 19, 1970, Graeff was found dead, having committed suicide by carbon monoxide poisoning. The reasons for this tragic turn, is often disputed, but many people believe, it was caused by forced heterosexuality on homosexuals by society at the time. He was buried, without receiving so much as an obituary. Despite that, his movie lives on. In 1987, 'Teenagers from Outer Space' entered the public domain due to a failure to renew the film's copyright registration. As a result, anyone could duplicate and sell a copy of this film. However, since many of them, come from extremely poor quality, having been duped from second- or third-generation copies. Don't be surprised, that the copies available on the market are either severely or badly edited. While, in 1992 the film was featured on an episode of Mystery Science Theater 3000, not to mention, a 2010's episode of Elvira's Movie Macabre were fun to watch. They were somewhat cut, to fit with the hourly run-time of the show. Don't be surprised, if you can't find, a full made version of this film. Overall: If you like cheesy 1950 low budget sci-fi movies. Then, you'll definitely want to add this one to your collection. Full of unintended laughs and 1950 camp. It's a good bad movie that is worthy of the watch.
