As flying saucers are shown buzzing the world, our industrial film narrator sets the stage: “Today, from the skies of California, the fields of Kansas, the rice patties of the Orient, the airlanes of the world, come persistent reports of UFOs. Unidentified Flying Objects, which we have come to know as … flying saucers.”

Two hours after their wedding, Dr. Marvin (Hugh Marlowe) and his former secretary and now wife Carol (Joan Taylor) are returning to a base somewhere in New Mexico. They work for Operation Skyhook, a government operation that has launched satellites into orbit (at a time when there still where none) to study the atmosphere in preparation for manned space flight.

Alerted by a loud whirring noise, the newlyweds are buzzed by a flying saucer. Though no one initially believes their story, Dr. Marvin considers that the saucers might have something to do with the mysterious failure of Skyhook’s satellites. Before another can be launched, a saucer lands on the base and three robotic looking alien figures emerge. Though protected by a magnetic field, the Army opens fire on them with artillery. Annoyed, the aliens destroy the base.

Taken to their ship with his wife, the aliens speak through a universal translator, informing Dr. Marvin that their home planet is dead and they intend to conquer Earth, but need him to arrange a meeting with the world’s leaders in Washington so they can make the transition as smooth as possible. Generously giving him 56 days to arrange a peaceful surrender, Dr. Marvin develops a “magnetic disruptor” he believes will knock the saucers out of the sky.

Directed by Fred Sears from a screenplay Curt Siodmak and George Worthing Yates and Bernard Gordon adapted from retired U.S. Marine Corps Maj. Donald Keyhoe’s book Flying Saucers From Outer Space, Earth vs. the Flying Saucers is best known for Ray Harryhausen’s fantastic stop-motion effects, particularly the iconic scenes where saucers blow up the Lincoln Memorial, or crash into the Capitol Building and the Washington Monument as civilians flee in terror.

Even for the time it was released, the movie is fairly average, with Harryhausen reporting in his biography that it is actually the least favorite of his films. While it is superior to the decade’s bargain basement schlock, it’s ridiculously inferior to classics like The Day The Earth Stood Still, The Thing From Another World and Them!.

Originally released as the top half of the bill with The Werewolf, the dialogue and acting here are mediocre, at best. Here is the aliens’ first message to the human race: “People of Earth, attention! This is a voice speaking to you from thousands of miles beyond your planet!” As for the cast, Marlowe tries a little too hard, but Joan Taylor is very easy on the eyes and has some good moments, including the obligatory “scream at the monster” shot in ’50s sci-fi.

Overall, the movie is a fun kind of dumb, but does actually have some good material, tapping into much of the day’s UFO lore, such as “foo fighters,” the unexplained spots in the sky attributed to St. Elmo’s Fire, which we learn later are the aliens’ way of watching us.

The ETs themselves are clunky and hilariously cheesy, but Harryhausen’s saucers are front and center throughout and are wonderfully rendered. Unlike the saucer in The Day The Earth Stood Still, where the filmmakers seemed almost embarrassed by the special effects, the saucers here spin, hover and circle at multiple angles and never get tiring.