Turner Classic Movies marks the 75th anniversary of the Roswell incident with a triple feature of flying saucer movies on Friday, July 8, 2022.
TCM is showing these films on July 8:
8:00 PM Earth vs. the Flying Saucers (‘56)
9:45 PM The Thing (‘82)
11:45 PM Invasion of the Body Snatchers (‘78)
- The first film, “Earth vs. the Flying Saucers” (‘56), features special effects from stop-motion master Ray Harryhausen. The film is noted for its climax with flying saucers attacking Washington, D.C. and nearly destroying the Capitol Dome, the Treasury Building and the Washington Monument. “Earth vs. the Flying Saucers” has a 6.3 rating on IMDB.
- Next is “The Thing,” released in 1982. The film teamed director John Carpenter with star Kurt Russell plus incredible visual effects to create a chilling version of the classic The Thing. Set in the winter of 1982 at a research station in Antarctica, a twelve-man research team finds an alien being that has fallen from the sky and has remained buried in the snow for over 100,000 years. Soon it is unfrozen and unleashed, creating havoc and terror as it changes forms and becomes one of them. This was a remake of the 1951 film, “The Thing From Another World.” The Thing has an 8.2 rating on IMDB.
- The final movie in the triple feature is “Invasion of the Body Snatchers,” a 1978 remake of the classic 1956 shocker. Mysterious pods begin to grow and invade San Francisco, replicating the residents one body at a time. The film stars Donald Sutherland, Leonard Nimoy, Jeff Goldblum and Brooke Adams. Invasion of the Body Snatchers has a 7.4 rating on IMDB.
Below are previews.
Read more at: TCM Presents Roswell Crash 75th Anniversary
Related: TCM Tribute to Dana Andrews in July
For TCM schedules and more information see the links below.
TCM Schedules
TCM Now Playing Newsletter for July
TCM Alphabetical List of July Films
The Roswell Incident
The Roswell incident began with the July 8, 1947 recovery of balloon debris from a ranch near Corona, New Mexico by U.S. Army Air Forces officers from Roswell Army Air Field. Conspiracy theories, continuing even today, claim that the debris involved a flying saucer and that the truth had been covered up by the government.
On July 8, 1947, Roswell Army Air Field issued a press release stating that they had recovered a “flying disc”. The Army quickly retracted the statement and said instead that the crashed object was a conventional weather balloon.
Read more at Wikipedia.
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