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U.F.O: The True Story of Flying Saucers (1956)
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Bud Brewster
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PostPosted: Tue Apr 07, 2015 9:21 pm    Post subject: U.F.O: The True Story of Flying Saucers (1956) Reply with quote

_____


Trivia question for sci-fi fans: name the 1956 film that featured the talents of Les Tremayne ("War of the Worlds", opening narrator in "Forbidden Planet"), Marvin Miller (voice of "Robby the Robot"), Olan Soule ("The Day the Earth Stood Still", "Captain Midnight"), and Harry Morgan ("M.A.S.H.").

Here's a hint: Morgan plays an Air Force pilot whose plane is surrounded by six flying saucers above Washington DC.

If all this sounds too good to be true, take a peek at this drama-documentary based on the experiences of Al Chop, a reporter who served as press liaison for the Pentagon during its investigation of UFOs from 1947 to the early 1950s.

Miller, Soule, and Tremayne provide the voices for the narrated portions of the film. Athough the movie contains only two brief film clips to serve as photographic evidence of UFOs, the producers build a good case based on the credibility of certain UFO witnesses (airline pilots, military personnel, radar operators, etc.).

On a more subtle level, director Winston Jones pulls off a clever trick; he begins the film as a pure documentary, but he gradually modifies this approach and focuses on reporter Al Chop's personal involvement in the UFO investigation. Chop slowly changes from UFO skeptic to UFO believer (and so will you).

The climax is a gripping reenactment of a true incident which occurred in 1950 when a group of UFOs cruised above Washington DC for several hours. The voice of Harry Morgan is heard over the radio as an Air Force pilot whose plane is literally surrounded by UFOs, during which Al Chop and a group of bewildered military men cluster around a radar scope, watching in wide-eyed wonder.

Dramatically speaking, this scene is far superior to its counterpart in "Close Encounters of the Third Kind".

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Bud Brewster
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PostPosted: Mon Aug 01, 2016 10:19 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

__________________________________

Enjoy this science fact movie (not just a trailer), which offers several interesting connections to the sci-fi movies we love. Very Happy


__________________________________

___ UFO: The True Story of Flying Saucers (1956)



_________

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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
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Bud Brewster
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PostPosted: Wed Apr 19, 2017 3:55 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

________________________________

IMDB has a few nice trivia items about this movie, which I've watched back-to-back with Earth vs the Flying Saucers because it does a great job of convincing me that there are definitely a large number of UFO incidents that defy explanation. Shocked
________________________________

The character of Al Chop was based on the real Albert M. Chop who was with the Department of Defense, Office of Public Information, in Washington, D.C.

Tom Towers, who plays Al Chop, was not an actor. He was the Aviation Editor of the Los Angeles Examiner. He took a leave of absence to appear in this film. The producer hired him to add authenticity to this semi-documentary.

An apparent typographical error led to many sources listing veteran actor Tom Powers (instead of Tom Towers) as appearing in this film. Tom Powers passed away in Nov 1955, about the time this film went into production.

Al Chop refers to his son as "Chip." This would make his son Chip Chop.


Note from me: That's just plain funny! When the kid grows up and gets married I can just hear him introducing himself.

"Hi, I'm Chip Chop, and this is my wife, Judy. But her friends call her Judo, just because it's funny!" Laughing

And this last item is something I noticed in Leonard Maltin's 1994 Movie guide. Mr. Maltin mistakenly listed the man who played Al Chop as the actor Tom Powers from Destination Moon (as General Thayer, on the left).

In that case, it was not just a misspelling of Tom Towers' name, since Leonard mentioned Destination Moon.

I think it was corrected in the very next edition.




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Robert (Butch) Day
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PostPosted: Mon Sep 10, 2018 11:01 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

If anyone goes to IMDb and look for the title UFO: The True Story of Flying Saucers (1956) they won't find it! Despite the posters and picture, st al, its proper title is Unidentified Flying Objects: The True Story of Flying Saucers (1956).
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Bud Brewster
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PostPosted: Mon Sep 10, 2018 6:38 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Robert (Butch) Day wrote:
If anyone goes to IMDb and look for the title UFO: The True Story of Flying Saucers (1956) they won't find it! Despite the posters and picture, st al, its proper title is Unidentified Flying Objects: The True Story of Flying Saucers (1956).

Butch is right. The title of the movie which appears on screen is shown in the screen shot below.



And that has always been the most reliable source of a movie's title, in my opinion.

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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
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alltare
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PostPosted: Tue Sep 11, 2018 2:56 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

If you enjoyed this documentary style movie, you might also like "Farewell Good Brothers" (1992).

Preview:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D-GQnM_fSSU

Unfortunately, the VHS and DVD are both out of print.
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Bud Brewster
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PostPosted: Tue Sep 11, 2018 11:22 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

_____________________________

I noticed that the scenes of the saucer from Earth vs the Flying Saucers didn't seem to be a clip from that movie. I've seen that film dozens of times over the last 62 years, and I'm fairly sure this shot of a saucer high above the clouds, maneuvering around and then zooming over the camera, is not one that was in the movie..



It may have been test shot by Harryhausen that wasn't used.

And the screen shot below also doesn't look like quite anything I remember from the movie. I suspect it's an unused take from the scene of the stranded alien who kills the scientists with his death ray and then is shot by Donald Curtis.



The frequently used of clips from The Day the Earth Stood Still and Earth vs the Flying Saucers make me suspect that this documentary would have a very different feel from UFO: The True Story of Flying Saucers, which presented its evidence in a very dry and factual manner.

Ironically, that's what I like about it. It doesn't try to convince me that UFOs exist by using a flashy presentation, it just presents the evidence for the viewers consideration.

Thanks for making us aware of this other documentary, alltare. It's a shame the video is no longer available.

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Gord Green
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PostPosted: Tue Sep 11, 2018 2:10 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote



I have an old VHS copy of this floating around somewhere. At one time it was on YouTube, but was removed.

Here's a blurb about it from the original website of the producers :

"Farewell Good Brothers is an off-beat, irreverent and often hilarious portrait of a few people who, back in the 1950′s, claimed to have been contacted friendly visitors from the planet Venus.

Theirs is a world of mysterious government conspiracies, strange religious rites and unbelievable close encounters; a world inhabited by an assortment of charlatans, true believers, Christian fundamentalists, and messianic cults.

Through contemporary interviews and a wide assortment of unusual archival imagery, the film examines the role of these so-called ‘Contactees’ in pioneering much of contemporary Flying Saucer mythology.

With it’s emphasis on the political and religious motivations of these people and it’s visual depiction of their beliefs, FAREWELL, GOOD BROTHERS is unique in both style and content."

Review on IMDb by "Ubik"

21 November 2002 | by ubik-11 –

"I'm glad someone did this before it was too late. In some ways it really *was* too late, as some of the old-timers were already gone by the time this was filmed. This is an objective, even sympathetic, document of pre-abduction contactees.

The Aetherians, including George King (aka "Aetherius") are here. There's some great B&W footage of King channeling the Space Brothers, and some more recent footage of his followers in Hollywood charging the psychic battery. Watch for King in his regalia, talking about Jesus. It doesn't get any better!



Howard and Connie Metzger are here, talking about the good old days of contacteeism (including Giant Rock), plunking on the piano, telling jokes, ridiculing more recent abductees. He shows us the model in his garage, too. She really loves him. You tell 'em, Howard!



The Giant Rock footage includes film of the great George Adamski himself. He died long before this film was made. I'm glad some old footage of him made it into the film.



Dan Fry is here. He doesn't say much... just sits on the nursing home porch, rocking and laughing to himself at something unseen. At the joke he pulled on all of us, perhaps?



There are others: Rev. Frank Stranges, the Unarians, the Blue Rose Ministries, and others who I've forgotten for the moment. All are worth the price of admission.

If you have *any* interest in what the early UFO movement was like, pick up a copy of this one-of-a-kind film. You'll be glad you did."


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alltare
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PostPosted: Tue Sep 11, 2018 5:05 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I don't have the official DVD release of Farewell, but I do have the VHS, which I was able to transfer to DVD.

The tapes turn up on ebay, but the studio-released DVD is pretty rare. If I could get my hands on the disc, which was apparently remastered and in wide screen, I could probably make copies.

BUD-
I noticed the Earth vs Flying Saucers scenes too. I agree that it's probably footage that was edited-out of the movie. I have also noticed that we don't have a Farewell Good Brothers thread on ASF.

GORD-
I remember that the Youtube offering, when it existed, had been edited to replace the original lead-in song, "Angel Baby", with a bland instrumental tune.
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Bud Brewster
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PostPosted: Tue Sep 11, 2018 5:52 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

alltare wrote:
I have also noticed that we don't have a Farewell Good Brothers thread on ASF.

Well, to be fair, it isn't a science fiction movie, and isn't actually available anymore, so I doubt it will generate very many more comments than we've seen already.

That said, I suspect this thread will provide a good place for any additional comments our members might want to make about it.

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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
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orzel-w
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PostPosted: Tue Sep 11, 2018 6:15 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Bud Brewster wrote:
Well, to be fair, it isn't a science fiction movie...

Yeah, that's the ticket! Rolling Eyes

http://www.allsci-fi.com/viewforum.php?f=80

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orzel-w
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PostPosted: Tue Sep 11, 2018 8:28 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Bud Brewster wrote:
I noticed that the scenes of the saucer from Earth vs the Flying Saucers didn't seem to be a clip from that movie. I've seen that film dozens of times over the last 62 years, and I'm fairly sure this shot of a saucer high above the clouds, maneuvering around and then zooming over the camera, is not one that was in the movie..



Sure it was. It just had an airplane in front of it.


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alltare
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PostPosted: Tue Sep 11, 2018 11:17 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

OK, Orzel- I'm convinced. Thanks for the comparison pictures.
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Bud Brewster
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PostPosted: Wed Sep 12, 2018 12:27 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

_____________________________

Wayne, you are literally a steely-eyed missile man!

Your identification of the footage as something that was used in a rear-screen projection shot raises an interesting question. How did the producers of Farewell Good Brothers get their hands on a piece of film Ray Harryhausen created for that shot behind the plane?

All the scenes from The Day the Earth Stood Still are just clips from the theatrical release prints. But the Earth vs the Flying Saucers scene (and the walking alien shot) are not taken from standard prints.

I'm sure Harryhausen saved his animation test footage and the shot of the saucer he used in the rear projection scene. I'm just curious as to whether or not Ray provided the copies of those shots, or if Columbia pictures sold them to the producers of Farewell Good Brothers.

On a similar note, I remember a UFO documentary from the 70s or 80s that included a few test shots of the C-57-D in space that weren't used in Forbidden Planet. One of them was actually turned upside down so that the smaller "spinning dome" was on the top! Shocked

By the way, alltare, I was wrong to say that Farewell Good Brothers didn't have a thread on All Sci-Fi because it wasn't science fiction.

That wasn't fair. Here's why.

I'm fond of the documentary called UFO: The True Story of Flying Saucers, so I started a thread for it. I justified it by pointing out that the three narrators were sci-fi alumni — Olan Soule from Captain Midnight etc., Les Tremayne from War of the Worlds etc., and Marvin Miller from Forbidden Planet (as the voice of Robby) etc.

On a similar note, Farewell Good Brothers seems to contain quite a few clips from beloved sci-fi movies, so it has the same sort of connection as UFO: The True Story . . .. Therefore, if you want to start a thread for Farewell Good Brothers that would be just fine. Very Happy

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Gord Green
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PostPosted: Wed Sep 12, 2018 2:20 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Bud, I found my dvd copy of FAREWELL, GOOD BROTHERS so I'll make a DVD- copy for you and send it to you. My copy has the original ANGEL BABY theme.



Anyone wanting a copy, PM me.



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