SUPERSONIC SAUCER (1956)

SUPERSONIC SAUCER (1956) – In honor of the Thanksgiving holiday Balladeer’s Blog presents a look at another harmless, all-ages sci-fi turkey, this one from England. Supersonic Saucer was produced by our old friends in Great Britain’s Children’s Film Foundation, the same group behind the previously reviewed serial Masters of Venus.   

Believe it or not, Frank Wells, son of H.G. Wells himself, penned the story for this So Bad It’s Good flick. At an English boarding school, a few students whose families are too poor to be able to pay for their travel expenses wind up having to spend the holiday break at the school. They are looked after by the Headmaster and his tween son Rodney (Fella Edmonds), a science nerd who resents having to babysit.

Top-billed actress Marcia Manolescue, an English actress of Asian descent, plays Sumac, one of the students whose family could not pay travel fare home and back. Another such student is Greta (Gillian Harrison) and rounding things out is Adolphus (Andrew Mette-Harrison), the tubby youngest character. 

While killing time over the holiday break our youngsters visit an observatory, where they are allowed to use the telescope for a time. They spot what seems to be a spaceship headed for Earth from Venus, but none of the adults on hand believe them.

We viewers know the kids are in the right, and the spaceship/ flying saucer is really a Venusian youngster. That alien entity used its race’s ability to morph from Muppet-like form to amoeboid form to flying saucer form fit for interplanetary travel.

The alien visits our lead characters upon arrival on Earth, drawn to them by the telepathic “fix” it got on them when they spotted it through the telescope. Because of the Venusian’s transitionary form that resembles an oversized amoeba the youngsters name the alien “Meba.”

The goofy looking Venusian resembles a thick, tall worm in a white hijab in its “normal” form but is hilariously rendered as a cartoon flying saucer with eyes for its airborne and spacefaring form. The “special” effect is as laughable as the cartoon spaceships in American movies like Invaders from Mars.

Meba communicates telepathically with the children and explains its origin. It is exhausted following its long flight from Venus and needs to rest before returning home, so the kids enjoy having this extraterrestrial visitor around to liven up their ruined holiday break.

Hijinks ensue when Meba proves overeager to please its Earthling friends. When they express a hankering for sweets, the Venusian flies off and robs a bakery for them so they can satisfy their sweet tooths. When they regard an empty fireplace and wish for the warmth of a fire, Meba sets some of the curtains ablaze.

The kids admonish the alien in both instances, making it clear to Meba that stealing and arson are wrong. The Venusian feels that Earth values are messed up and when the financially strapped kids wish for a million pounds to be able to afford things like a trip home and back over the holidays, Meba flies off and robs a bank for them.

Our main characters chew out Meba thoroughly for this and insist it return the money like they made it return the stolen sweets earlier. They worry about the alien getting shot during its attempt to return the loot, so decide to wait for a bit. Meanwhile, Rodney and the others secure the money in the school’s safe.   

A janitorial employee at the school overhears the tale of the million pounds and, since he’s secretly a criminal on the side, he contacts Number One, the leader of his gang, all of whom go by numerical designations.

From there you can guess the rest. The gangsters try to rob the safe of the million pounds but must settle for the (not insubstantial) amount they can get by stealing the school’s trophies made of precious metals.

Before long, the crooks succeed at capturing Meba in order to force the alien to pull off robberies for them. Meba eventually leads our youthful main characters to the hideout where it is being held captive.

Rodney, Sumac, Greta and Adolphus combine their youthful energy with Meba’s powers – which include the ability to reverse time for a few moments – to defeat the criminals. All ends well and Meba gets rested enough to return to Venus before its parents come looking for it.

Obviously, Supersonic Saucer was aimed primarily at children, which dulls the Bad Movie fun a little bit. It’s still watchable, however with its mere 50-minute runtime and the light, fun story.

The combined goofiness, holiday setting and science fiction elements lend the production a quasi-Twonky feel, if you’ve ever seen that 1953 effort. 

FOR MORE BAD MOVIES CLICK HERE.