This is a very early documentary about UFOs. Filmed just three years after the first UFO sightings and the famed "Roswell Incident", it's made up mostly of unrelated stock footage and screams "cheap". And, whether or not you enjoy this is dependent completely on whether you think UFOs are real. I have always felt that if aliens were looking for intelligent life, why would they travels all the way across the galaxy to see us?!?! If you think they're real, you probably will like the film despite its many, many deficiencies. If you are unsure or are convinced it's all a hoax, nothing in this film will change your opinion in the least. It just doesn't offer anything for proof and its silly "scientific" explanation is laughable. You can do much better than watching this.
5 Reviews
Decent For What It Is
Michael_Elliott5 October 2015
The Flying Saucer Mystery (1952)
** 1/2 (out of 4)
This 10 minute short gets credited for being one of the first documentaries on UFOs. This was released shortly after the events of Roswell so obviously it probably got a lot of attention from people back in the day who were wondering if they were being visited at night. This documentary interviews several witnesses who saw spaceships flying in the sky including some Air Force members.
If you're looking for anything ground-breaking then you're certainly not going to find it here. This will mainly appeal to UFO die-hards who want to watch one of the first documents out there and I must admit that I enjoyed this for what it was. The film did offer up some footage and photographs that I hadn't seen before and I thought for the most part it was entertaining. The one major bad thing is that everyone interviewed are obviously reading off cue cards and they don't even try to hide it or have them tell their stories without looking to the side of the screen.
** 1/2 (out of 4)
This 10 minute short gets credited for being one of the first documentaries on UFOs. This was released shortly after the events of Roswell so obviously it probably got a lot of attention from people back in the day who were wondering if they were being visited at night. This documentary interviews several witnesses who saw spaceships flying in the sky including some Air Force members.
If you're looking for anything ground-breaking then you're certainly not going to find it here. This will mainly appeal to UFO die-hards who want to watch one of the first documents out there and I must admit that I enjoyed this for what it was. The film did offer up some footage and photographs that I hadn't seen before and I thought for the most part it was entertaining. The one major bad thing is that everyone interviewed are obviously reading off cue cards and they don't even try to hide it or have them tell their stories without looking to the side of the screen.
Waste of time
sergioluis7 August 2000
I wish I had not gotten this film, sounds like a good subject but the film falls short and is just a trailer of many U.F.O films. I had a hard time finding the film and when I did find it I overpaid. There are many good U.F.O films but sadly this is not one.
Interesting early speculative UFO documentary
Woodyanders12 July 2010
Warning: Spoilers
One of the first docs made about UFO sightings, this regrettably brief (it's only 12 minutes long), but still pretty engrossing film establishes all the basic precedents of the genre: we've got interviews with various scientists, military folks, and people who claim to have seen UFOs, fuzzy photos of flying saucers, a melodramatic score, a stern narrator, and stock footage of old planes and rockets. Moreover, there's also a couple of lame scientific explanations given for UFOs: they're either weather balloons or rays of light. While this doc fails to provide any hard evidence that either proves or disproves the existence of flying saucers, it nonetheless warrant praise for its overall sincerity. Worth a look for fans of this stuff.
Wrong release year!
mauverga28 November 2008
I guess the release year printed here is wrong.
It cannot be shot in 1950, since there is an interview with Oscar Linke.
Linke was the witness of a close encounter in 1952! Actually other sources report this documentary as released in 1952.
As far as I know this should be the very first documentary about flying saucers.
Of course some newsreels before 1950 could have covered the saucer news, possibly during the 1947 wave.
Is there any movie expert able to confirm this?
It cannot be shot in 1950, since there is an interview with Oscar Linke.
Linke was the witness of a close encounter in 1952! Actually other sources report this documentary as released in 1952.
As far as I know this should be the very first documentary about flying saucers.
Of course some newsreels before 1950 could have covered the saucer news, possibly during the 1947 wave.
Is there any movie expert able to confirm this?
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