Flying Disc Man From Mars (1950)
A team of ex-air force members attempt to stop a Scientist working for a Martian visitor from acquiring nuclear weapons.
Not so much a movie as an episodic TV show mashed together as a movie, this was like the granddaddy of modern day Netflix or Disney+ TV shows with the whole movie consisting of about 12 episodes.
Because of this, and after about every 20 minutes, the scene ends on a cliffhanger usually teasing the central character: Kent Fowler's death. And there's one part that's pretty funny; Kent gets dropped out of a plane leaving the audience to believe he's dead for real this time as he plunges to the ground, although this is about the 5th time that it's been teased at this point... only for the next episode to start with Fowler landing on a massive pile of conviently placed hay. This same trope of Fowler narrowly escaping death is repeated about 11 times...
Also owing to the episodic TV show format, there's a proper punch-up scene roughly every 10-15 minutes. Because, for some reason, Kent expects the criminals he's pursuing to just surrender and go quietly every time... which they almost always never do... and he never learns. And this is fine maybe like every now and again, but it happens inside every 20 minute slot. And to be honest, by like the 6th or 7th time, it just got boring.
Those points aside, despite not being a science fiction movie; with the eponymous Flying Disc Man from Mars having little to no bearing on the actual plot, and the movie instead being more of a crime drama or action movie, the storyline was mostly fine if not a bit formulaic. Each episode did build a little bit more on the developing story until it reached a conclusion but again, could have been rewritten to completely remove the alien visitor from Mars and it wouldn't have significantly altered the whole movie.
Another factor affected by the episodic TV show format was that the pacing was slightly off, with each 20 minute slot quite brisk and rushed in order to conclude that plot point and begin to build on the next one. Nothing is really left to marinade before your whisked on to the next point in the timeline.
Still, this wasn't a bad movie, it was fine. Acting was decent, the practical and special effects good for the time, and the storyline did keep me engaged enough to stick it out to the end. It probably worked better as a TV show, experienced across days / weeks as opposed to all in one go. But if nothing else it was an interesting watch and something a little bit different. Not really something if you're more into the spacey, aliens, and monsters side of 50's science fiction movies but if you like 50's TV and movies in general then yeah it was perfectly OK.
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