This film starts extremely well as its cast gradually assembles on the deserted streets of Los Angeles (filmed on Sunday mornings) standing in for Chicago and at first resembles Lippert's 'The Earth Dies Screaming' (1964), made ten years later in Britain.
Unfortunately, in the case of 'Target Earth' it's when the robot first appears (Chicago is supposed to be full of them roaming the streets, but we only ever see the one) that things go rapidly downhill as they spend most of the rest of the film indoors cowering from 'them' (the robots in 'The Earth Dies Screaming' were much scarier, and they had two of them).
Considering that director Sherman Rose had several years as an editor behind (and ahead of) him, 'Target Earth' is surprisingly slackly paced, with very few close ups, and doesn't employ even a modicum of creative cutting back and forth to suggest that there is indeed more than one invader.
Hero Richard Denning curiously persists right until the end in thinking that 'they' are some sort of human life form rather than robots - or at least wearing spacesuits - which renders somewhat redundant his theory that 'they' come from Venus, since "as far as I know it's the only planet that might be capable of supporting human (sic) life. It's covered by a heavy layer of clouds, that means plenty of water, oxygen and hydrogen in its atmosphere." (Actually we now know that Venus has a constantly churning atmosphere composed mostly of carbon dioxide and nitrogen, has a surface temperature of 872 °F and air pressure of 9.3 MPa, roughly equivalent to the pressure found at a depth on Earth of 3,000 ft underwater.)
It's always good to see Virginia Grey and Whit Bissell, although Grey is largely wasted until she shows that she's the one with the cajones at the end; and the cutaways to Bissell, Arthur Space and other military top brass - like his role in 'Invasion of the Body Snatchers' - seem like an afterthought that doesn't really mesh with the main narrative.
Unfortunately, in the case of 'Target Earth' it's when the robot first appears (Chicago is supposed to be full of them roaming the streets, but we only ever see the one) that things go rapidly downhill as they spend most of the rest of the film indoors cowering from 'them' (the robots in 'The Earth Dies Screaming' were much scarier, and they had two of them).
Considering that director Sherman Rose had several years as an editor behind (and ahead of) him, 'Target Earth' is surprisingly slackly paced, with very few close ups, and doesn't employ even a modicum of creative cutting back and forth to suggest that there is indeed more than one invader.
Hero Richard Denning curiously persists right until the end in thinking that 'they' are some sort of human life form rather than robots - or at least wearing spacesuits - which renders somewhat redundant his theory that 'they' come from Venus, since "as far as I know it's the only planet that might be capable of supporting human (sic) life. It's covered by a heavy layer of clouds, that means plenty of water, oxygen and hydrogen in its atmosphere." (Actually we now know that Venus has a constantly churning atmosphere composed mostly of carbon dioxide and nitrogen, has a surface temperature of 872 °F and air pressure of 9.3 MPa, roughly equivalent to the pressure found at a depth on Earth of 3,000 ft underwater.)
It's always good to see Virginia Grey and Whit Bissell, although Grey is largely wasted until she shows that she's the one with the cajones at the end; and the cutaways to Bissell, Arthur Space and other military top brass - like his role in 'Invasion of the Body Snatchers' - seem like an afterthought that doesn't really mesh with the main narrative.