What a waste of my time!!!

Great visuals, story delivers no surprises

A Major Disappointment

I cannot think of one single thing that I would change about this film. The acting is incomparable, the directing deft, and the writing poignantly brilliant.

I didn't see this as a kid, but in my 50s,when it appeared as some Saturday afternoon movie.A combination of an alien creature with atomic bombs, multi-staged rockets and communist threats kind of threw everything into one basket so this was probably a stretch even when it was made. Add to that making the main protagonists a group of children muddied it up even further.The acting was pretty good. Since I knew Russell Johnson only as the Professor, it was fascinating to see him playing the ugly, tough guy role he was known for. Michel Ray was too dreamy-eyed and hammy, even for a kid. Jackie Coogan was fun and Peggy Webber adorable. The science, on the other hand, was pretty bad but that's to be expected. As others have noted, it was way too preachy and pie-in-the-sky. The alien was interesting but not particularly compelling.Overall not a bad way to spend 90 minutes on a slow day, but if it's sunny outside, let it go.

A movie came out in 1951, it was during a longer period that became to be known as the cold war. It was a fictional movie, but also a cautionary message for all of us on Earth, not to keep developing weapons of greater destruction. It was "The Day The earth Stood Still."This movie, "Space Children", borrows its themes from the earlier movie. Here the USA has a base on the coast of California, and are prepared to launch "The Thunderer", a missle that will put a very powerful weapon in orbit 1000 miles up, and it will be able to destroy any target on Earth, if we decided it was a grave threat.In this story an alien from space is discovered in a cave on the beach by a band of children roughly ages 14 to 6. It reminded me of a small octopus head, with barnacles, and somewhat pulsating. It made no noise, but it communicated by telepathy with the older boy, whose dad was a scientist just assigned to the base. Its mission turned out similar to that of the aliens in "Earth Stood Still", to protect us from ourselves, and to prevent the new weapon from being launched into space.This is definitely a "B" movie, but a good example of the 1950s black and white Sci-Fi movies. The dialog is very bland, the acting serviceable, and the climax anti-climactic. Much of the filming has the band of children running around the beach, going back and forth, sometimes with adults.In modern times, with more interesting cinematography, acting, color, and special effects, this movie is not much else but nostalgia. Now that we know so much about space exploration, it is fun to see how they depicted these fictional stories just when space exploration was about to begin.

This was director Arnold’s penultimate of seven horror/sci-fi outings from the same decade and, in retrospect, the least of them. Its focus on children (the title itself is ambiguous – since the kids don’t come from space but rather are ‘possessed’ by aliens into sabotaging a rocket-launching station!) draws parallels to later genre classics such as VILLAGE OF THE DAMNED (1960) and the unrelated THESE ARE THE DAMNED (1963): like the former, the children here are able to influence the actions of their elders and, as in the latter, much of it takes place against a backdrop of remote cavernous surroundings. As for the alien itself, it’s nothing more substantial (or imaginative) than a growing, glowing glob! Being just 68 minutes long, this undeniably earnest film can’t hope to fulfill its aspiration of being a profound anti-nuclear parable; for one thing, the characters are mere stereotypes – an average American couple with their modest dreams and dilemmas, a bubbly yet cagey neighbor (played by Jackie Coogan, of Chaplin’s THE KID [1921] and TV’s THE ADDAMS FAMILY fame!), another’s a drunken boor who mistreats one of the boys and his mother, plus the requisite number of dedicated but callous scientists and military personnel. Actually, I was wondering all through the picture why the alien didn’t simply possess one of the parents or scientists – surely his attempts at persuading colleagues to halt the missile project would have had greater chance of success, since the children’s clandestine activities merely irritate the hell out of the people at the base engaged in such a secretive operation! That said, unexplained events that occur – such as the driver of a fuel truck losing control of his vehicle or nominal hero Adam Williams losing his voice and the faculty to write when trying to divulge the presence of the alien to his superiors! – come across as creepier when caused by innocent-looking children and, besides, their presence near the test site is more likely to be overlooked than rouse suspicion of any foul play.In the end, the film is tolerable (the print, then, seemed to be culled from a TV screening – since the picture fades in and out every once in a while, sometimes even in mid-sequence, where the publicity spots may have been inserted – with a good deal of hiss on the soundtrack!) but rather uninspired and, what’s more, is defeated by the low-budget. Though genre expert Arnold had proved time and again what he was capable of doing, it suffers especially in comparison with the two DAMNED films mentioned above or even a third such title, CHILDREN OF THE DAMNED (1964)…which I actually need to re-evaluate myself, but recall being an underrated achievement on my sole viewing of it so far.

The children of some US rocket scientists come under the spell of a strange alien being that seems to want them to sabotage the nations defense!Another B thriller from director Jack Arnold (who directed the classic Creature from the Black Lagoon in 1954), this one is a bit more intelligent than the average drive-in sci-fi fodder. The Space Children is actually an anti-war film kind of in the tradition of The Twilight Zone, the story does indeed resemble a story that one would see on the classic TV series. Arnold lends some steady direction, creating an occasionally eerie atmosphere (who could ever forget that spooky final image of an ill-fated Russell Johnson?) and a decent alien creation. Kudos go to a chilling music score.The cast isn't half bad, the youths of the film being especially good.A worth-wild watch for those who like the films of this era.** 1/2 out of ****