418 - ATTACK OF THE THE EYE CREATURES
(title per opening credits; 1965; TV-movie; NR; 80m)

a.k.a. ATTACK OF THE EYE CREATURES
a.k.a. THE EYE CREATURES (original)

verbatim remake of INVASION OF THE SAUCERMEN (1957)

Plot: The police ignore the pleas of make-out teens who've seen multi-optical aliens in the woods.

Prod/Dir: Larry Buchanan*
Scr: Robert Gurney Jr.
(807-Terror from the Year 5000; Invasion of the Saucer Men)
Scr: Al Martin (Blondie Knows Best; The Devil with Hitler)
Sto: Paul Fairman (Invasion of the Saucer Men; Target Earth)
Cin: Ralph K. Johnson (Free, White and 21)
Ed: S.F. Brownrigg (dir/Don't Look in the Basement)
PDes: James Sullivan (602-Invasion USA)
Score: Ronald Stein (H01-The Day the World Ended;
311-It Conquered the World; 806-The Undead;
509-The Girl in Lovers Lane; 511-Gunslinger; 808-The She-Creature)

Stan Kenyon / John Ashley*
Susan Rogers / Cynthia Hull (Young Runaways; The Sterile Cuckoo)
Lt. Robertson / Warren Hammack
(*202-The Side Hackers; 209-The Hellcats; Mars Needs Women)
peeping Corporal Culver / Jonathan Ledford
(623-The Amazing Transparent Man; Free, White and 21)
narrator / Peter Graves (*311; 517-Beginning of the End;
K13-SST Death Flight; 811-Parts: The Clonus Horror)
with Tony Houston (Mars Needs Women; scr/202; scr/209)
Chet Davis (Mars Needs Women; Yes, Sir, Mr. Bones)
Bill Peck (Under Age)
Ethan Allen (A Bullet for Pretty Boy; Taming of the West)
Bob Cowan (Unstrap Me)
Shirley McLine (Curse of the Swamp Creature)
Donna Lindberg (Mars Needs Women)
Larry Tanner (Mars Need Women)
Jody Daniels (1002-Girl in Gold Boots; Operation Bikini)
George Edgely (Mars Need Women; Free, White and 21)
Bill Thurman (Mars Need Women; It's Alive; Night Fright)
Gordon Bulow (Mars Need Women)
Charles McLine (Curse of the Swamp Creature)
Nathan Wyle
Travis Wayne

Classic Line: "Well, I'm loaded for action tonight!"

Trivia: Note the double THE in the movie title. This error occurred when the movie was re-released. Somebody put ATTACK OF THE in front of THE EYE CREATURES...and voila! THE THE!

Born in 1923, future director LARRY BUCHANAN spent most of his childhood in a strict Baptist orphanage. Once in Hollywood, he graduated from handling props to stunts to bit parts to directing. For cinematographer of his first film, 1952's Apache Gold, he hired pal Stanley Kubrick (2001: A Space Odyssey; Spartacus, etc), but the two parted ways with hard feelings soon thereafter. In 1965, Sam Arkoff hired Buchanan to remake films for American-International Television (AIP-TV). Arkoff and Corman's 311-IT CONQUERED THE WORLD was remade as Zontar, The Thing from Venus; Invasion of the Saucermen remade as 418-THE EYE CREATURES a.k.a. ATTACK OF THE THE EYE CREATURES; H01-THE DAY THE WORLD ENDED remade as In the Year 2889 (with Paul Peterson); 808-THE SHE-CREATURE remade as Creature of Destruction. Buchanan was near the end of his contract with AIP-TV when he made 1966's Mars Needs Women (a Tommy Kirk-starring serious remake of Pajama Party); and 1968's It's Alive (again with Kirk) and Hell Raiders (with John Agar). He was fired because he went over budget filming 1970's A Bullet for Pretty Boy (starring former teen heartthrob Fabian). Many of Buchanan's other films dealt with conspiracy theories and mysterious deaths, like those of Lee Harvey Osward, Marilyn Monroe, Janis Joplin, and Jim Morrison of the Doors. At the age of 73, he still is looking for movies to produce and direct.

JOHN ASHLEY got his start making teen films in the late 1950's and early 1960's, and was relegated to B-pictures (including the best of the memorable Frankie Avalon-Annette Funicello "Beach Party" movies). Ones of interest are: 1956-High School Caesar; 1957-Dragstrip Girl; Motorcyle Gang; 1958-Frankenstein's Daughter; How to Make A Monster; 1963-Beach Party; 1964-Muscle Beach Party; 1965-Beach Blanket Bingo; 1967-Hell on Wheels; 1968-Brides of the Beast; 1969-Mad Doctor of Blood Island; 1970-Beast of the Yellow Night; 1972-Twilight People; Woman Hunt; 1973-Beyond Atlantis; 1981-Revenge of Dr. X.

Last Updated: 6/23/1999