A semi-comedic sci-fi, Invasion of the Saucer Men must have had some influence over the extraterrestrials from Mars Attacks. Here, the mischievous, diminutive Martians, complete with bulbous heads and bulging eyes, land their spacecraft on the outskirts of a small American town called Hicksburg, where they cause all manner of trouble for the locals, and for the army who are trying to cover up any evidence of the aliens' existence to avoid panic.The heroes of the film are teen lovers Johnny Carter (Steve Terrell) and Joan Hayden (Gloria Castillo), who accidentally drive over one of the little green men after a quick smooch at Lovers' Point before eloping. While Johnny and Joan go to call the authorities (who naturally don't believe a word of their outlandish story), opportunist Joe Gruen (Frank Gorshin) discovers the dead alien and thinks it is his ticket to fame and fortune.With incredibly poor production values, very few genuine laughs, and zero scares, the film is pretty much a failure on most levels. The design of the saucer men themselves is fairly iconic, but too little is seen of them to make up for the film's other shortcomings (and when we see the creatures in long shots, they're quite clearly little kids in bad costumes). The film's most ingenious moments revolve around the dead alien's hand, which has detached itself from the body and, with one of the creature's eyes connected, crawls around the place continuing to cause havoc (the aliens kill using needle-like protrusions from their fingertips that administer an overdose of alcohol!).

This is one of those sci-fi movies of the 50s that obviously did not take itself too seriously. Sure, the typical invasion from outer space was the theme of the film, but the bug-eyed aliens are so gosh-darn cute and the costumes so cool you can't help but smile instead of becoming afraid. And, the script also takes a less than serious look at the invasion. Sure, it is a dopey martian invasion movie but it makes no attempt to be otherwise and that is why I liked the movie so much--for what it was, it was sure fun. So, if you do watch the film, view it more as comedy and don't be too hard on this old film! If you do, you'll find it's a delightful little time passer.

This guy is one of the all time great producers. Just take a look at the list of all his movies, and you'll probably find they have one thing on common - you've never heard of any of them! But don't let that worry you. Roger Corman and B movie fans will tell you he truly is a legend. His movies provide hours of low budget entertainment, and this film is no different. It has comedy throughout, and I'm willing to bet that the aliens were supposed to be funny too. This film is almost like a spoof of the other teenage drive-in horrors that were around at the time, and it does it well. If you're looking for a serious treatise on the possibilities of life on other planets and man's place in the Universe, see Kubrick's 2001. If you want to laugh at paper mache aliens and an alcoholic bull, watch this movie!

If you like the "Drive-In" films of the 1950s, you certainly wont be disappointed with this venture. It has everything - fun, creepy little creatures, chills and laughs. It has a narrative form to it which I find I liked, but you couldn't tell if the narrator was talking about an incident, a comic book or an inebriated nightmare that he'd had! I give this film ten stars!