schneiderdick This movie is far better than some of the reviews indicate. One reviewer rightly said that good films like The Thing or The Man from Planet X were made at the same time, but the comparison is faulty. The Flying Saucer was a one-off by Mikel Conrad who starred in it, wrote the storyline, directed and produced; it seems to be his only writer-director-producer credit. TMFPX was extremely low budget but used far superior actors. And Thing was a Howard Hawks production with a top-notch cast and crew; many of the scenes, judging by dialogue and action alone, seemed to have been directed by Hawks even though he is not credited. Compare The Flying Saucer to the many other sci-fi flicks of the early fifties and it holds up a little better. Except for interiors, the entire film was shot on location in Alaska – so you get a great look at the 1949 Alaska environment around Juneau, Spring Lake, and Taku Glacier. And a number of boats, docks, cabins, and float planes from that era. I found the storyline interesting – a scientist builds a saucer (From alien plans? This question is left to the viewer's imagination) that both the U.S. and the U.S.S.R. want to get a hold of. The saucer was a good MacGuffin. Acting was stiff at times, but this was a pro- sumer production. Still, it was worth watching.

kapelusznik18 ***SPOILERS*** One of if not the very first movie about the advent of "Flying Saucers" or "Flying Disks"" to come out of Hollywood has them to be of earth not out of space origin. With flying saucers seen flying all over the USA at speeds of 2,000 MPH or more the US government gets undercover playboy and recovering alcoholic Mike Trent, Mikel Conrad, an Alasken native to go up north to Alaska to check out the story. It's from Alaska where it's believed the mysterious flying disks originate from.Making believe that he's on sick leave from the bar scene in NYC Mike, on a secret mission for the government, is provided with a fellow government agent undercover nurse Vee Langley, Pat Garrison, straight out of CIA headquarters in Langely Virgina to look after his needs and provide him with medication for his so-called drinking problem. Spending his time at Vee's secretly rented by the CIA cabin in the woods it later turns out that her local houseboy the dark and sinister looking Hans, Hantz Von Teuffen, is really a Soviet spy trying to get all the information about this flying saucer mystery and deliver it back, by carrier pigeon, to the Soviet Union.***SPOILERS*** It soon comes out that this Dr. Lawton, Roy Engel, is the inventor of the flying saucer and is trying, feeling it's his patriotic duty, to reveal the secret behind it's propulsion system to the USA. That after Dr. Lawton was offered a cool one million dollars by the Soviet Union to hand it over to them or else! And worst of all it's Dr. Lawton assistant Turner, Denver Pyle, who's secretly working as a spy for the USSR. Explosive final in the wilds of Northern Alaska as the Commies, or Russians, try to grab the flying saucer in Dr. Lawton's secret cabin basement where they all end up getting killed in a massive snow and ice avalanche due to the Commies shooting off their guns. In a desperate attempt to escape justice Turner takes off with him behind the wheel of the flying saucer on his way to the Soviet Union. He doesn't go too far with a bomb planted in it by Mike going off and sending both the saucer and Turner to the bottom of a frozen nearby glacier lake.

daniel-charles2 The Flying Saucer started life as a documentary on Alaska -and indeed some of the B&W photography and scenery are not only spectacular, they are beautiful. Then, according to Hans de Meiss-Teuffen "the Big Brains in Hollywood re-wrote the story and made me, without the loss of a single foot already shot, into a villainous Russian spy". As an aside, Hans de Meiss-Teuffen was one of the great adventurers of the XXth cy, singlehanded-sailor, mining engineer, hotel owner, lion hunter, double-spy... (his "Winds of Adventure", 1953, is a wonderful read) As a grade-B movie of minimal budget, The Flying Saucer is much better than most. Continuity, that some have criticized her, is actually decent for its period (and immensely better than in the famed "Flash Gordon"); and it is much less incredible than John Wayne's "Jet Pilot". Definitely worth seeing.

BaronBl00d A scientist in the wilds of Alaska has created a flying saucer and both the CIA and KGB are interested in the new technology. Such is the premise of The Flying Saucer, and if you were looking for aliens, a creative spaceship, or anything which might resemble good film-making - sorry you lose! This is one abysmal film. Mikel Conrad wears the hats of producer, screenwriter, director, and leading man; none fit too well - or at all. It seems that the CIA and the United States government is so hard up for help that they must enlist the aid of a "two-fisted" drinking playboy in New York who just happens to have roots in Alaska. So off goes Mike Trent with his "nurse" Vera Langley. Vera is played by the very forgettable Pat Garrison whose acting range is no range at all. She looks so disinterested through much of the film playing matron to tough guy Trent. Tough guy, yeah right! Mikel Conrad looks like he just left his barcolounger and got another piece of pie as he stumbles through this dreck. I have to be pretty harsh on Conrad here, because he is responsible for so much of the film. How he ever got backing for this project God only knows. Conrad's inept, stoic stumbling on camera is his worst fault in The Flying Saucer, but closely following its heels are his "abilities" as a director. His choice of music to accompany all the action in the movie just about put me to sleep. It sounds like something you might hear in one of those 50s movies made about putting out forest fires or how to avoid catching venereal diseases. Not to be outdone are some of the special effects as well. How about that glacier blow-up and what happens to one man screaming as he falls or the Russians who look like old veterans from the black and white version of Northern Exposure. And let's not forget that spaceship. All you see is it bounce across a very dark sky a few times and then rest in the ground looking like the smallest cast member from Willow MIGHT be able to get in. The acting is just horrible as previously stated with Conrad showing a range of no emotion flying a plane across the Alaskan wilderness with at least three possible engine failures looming. Now, that takes guts to just sit and look like you are waiting in a deli line for your sandwich to be made. After Conrad and Garrison, Hantz von Teuffen stars as - Hans, the mysterious caretaker of the lodge who looks like he wants to kill our two protagonists but waits to do so for the worst possible moment. Yes, Denver Pyle is in this and he is not able to rise above this material. This is a truly bad film that promises some kind of science fiction and delivers nothing. In that regard it is a disappointment. But if you like bad movies that are funny because they are bad, then The Flying Saucer is just up your avenue. It will deliver the goods with gut-wrenching laughs as the incompetence ensues. That is if you are able to stay awake through it.