Earth Vs. The Flying Saucers - Visual Effects

Visual Effects

Special effects expert Ray Harryhausen animated the flying saucers in this movie. Harryhausen also animated the falling stones when saucers crashed into buildings, in order to make the action appear more realistic. Some figure animation was used to show the aliens emerging from the saucers. A considerable amount of stock footage was also used, notably scenes during the invasion that showed batteries of U.S. 90 mm M3 guns and an early rocket launch, presumably standing in for the recently introduced Nike Ajax missile. Stock footage of the explosion of the warship HMS Barham during World War II was used to fill in for a U.S. Navy destroyer that is destroyed by a flying saucer. Satellite launch depictions made use of film of a Viking rocket and a launch failure of a German V-2.

The voice of the aliens was produced from a recording of Paul Frees reading the lines by jiggling the speed control of an analog reel-to-reel tape recorder, so that it continually wavered from a slow bass voice to one high and fast.

During a question-and-answer period at a tribute to Harryhausen and a screening of Jason and the Argonauts held in Sydney, Australia, Harryhausen said he sought advice from noted 1950s UFO "contactee" George Adamski on the depiction of the flying saucers in the film, but he thought that Adamski grew increasingly paranoid as time went by. The iconic saucer design, a static central cabin with an outer rotating ring with slotted vanes, matches descriptions given to Donald Keyhoe of flying disc sightings.