The Earth Dies Screaming (1964)

Country of Origin: UK
Year of Production: 1964
Running Times: 62 mins
Format: black and white     35mm
Ratio: 1.37:1
Sound: mono

PRODUCTION
Production Company: Lippert Films
Executive Producer: Robert L. Lippert
Producer: Jack Parsons
Production Manager: Clifton Brandon

SCRIPT
Script: Henry Cass? Henry Cross? (real name: Harry Spalding)
Story: Harry Spalding

DIRECTION
Director: Terence Fisher
Assistant Director: Gordon Gilbert

PHOTOGRAPHY
Director of Photography: Arthur Lavis
Camera Operator: Len Harris

EDITING AND POST PRODUCTION
Supervising Editor: Robert Winter
Editor: Robert Winter

MUSIC
Music Director: Phillip Martell
Music: Elisabeth Lutyens

SOUND
Sound: Spencer Reeve
Sound Recording: Buster Ambler
Assistant Sound Editor: Colin Miller

MAKE UP AND COSTUMES
Make Up: Harold Fletcher
Hair: Joyce James

DESIGN AND SET CONSTRUCTION
Art Director: George Provis

CAST
Willard Parker (Jeff Nolan)
Virginia Field (Peggy)
Dennis Price (Taggett)
Thorley Walters (Otis)
Vanda Godsell (Violet)
David Spencer (Mel)
Anna Palk (Lorna)

An astronaut returns to Earth in England to find that the world has been invaded by alien-controlled robots that have swept civilisation aside. The astronaut and a few survivors band together to fight off the zombies resurrected by the robots.

...and the audience dies of boredom. Even at just over an hour this seems interminable. US producer Robert Lippert had funded very early Hammer SF films and came back into the arena with this story of this alien invasion effort mainly featuring a group of characters sitting in a small room discussing whats going on outside. The effect of an alien being run down by a speeding car is one of the worst in cinema history. Director Terence Fisher, away from Hammer as they had a film back log, can do little with a dull script and small budget. Lippert's next two films, the horrors Witchcraft (1964) and Curse of the Fly (1965), are minor gems.

USA
Theatrical Distributor: Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation
Video Distributor: Shock Video

SEE ALSO
Invisible Invaders (1959)
Night of the Living Dead (1969)
Plan 9 From Outer Space (1956)

MAGAZINES

Box Office 16 November 1964 (USA)
review

The Dark Side 51 (November 1995) p.15 (UK)
review

Monthly Film Bulletin October 1965 p.150 (UK)
credits, synopsis, review

BOOKS

Reference Guide to Fantastic Films p.118
credits

alien invasion, aliens, end of the world, post apocalypse, robots, zombies

Last Updated: 15 October, 2008