The Space Children

Plot synopsis:
We open with a background of space nebulae and stars, the title sequence, credits, and the actors who portray the space children. A station wagon appears on a lonely road approaching the beach along the California coast. Inside we meet Dave Brewster (Adam Williams), his wife Anne (Peggy Webber) and their two sons. In the back seat is the oldest Bud (Michel Ray) and his younger brother Ken (Johnny Crawford). They've been driving for hours from San Francisco. Their destination: a military base. Dave was transferred to complete his company's work on The Thunderer--a six stage intercontinental missile at the Eagle Point Missile Project.Anne is apprehensive about the move, but Dave and the kids are excited to live on the beach. The kids hear a strange sound, but the parents hear nothing. The kids then see a strange light in the sky as their car stalls out. The car starts back up and they check in at the guard shack. They are directed to their new home Unit 3, a trailer. All the contractor families live in trailers. Dave and Anne move their few belongings into their new home while the kids explore the beach and meet the other children.Anne continues to voice her dissatisfaction with the surroundings and leaving friends and family in San Francisco. Dave chalks it up to their being tired from the long trip. She asks him about the project. They go outside to find the children, but the security officer, Mr. James (Peter Baldwin) arrives and asks Dave to join him at a briefing for the newly arrived on the Project. Anne heads back to the trailer and is greeted by her new next door neighbor who introduces herself as Frieda Johnson (Vera Marshe). They chat and exchange information about their kids and their new home. Frieda invites Anne to a little get together planned for that evening.Bud and Ken are running along the cliffs playing ball. They head down to the beach where they discover a cave. They explore it and discuss the light they saw in the sky earlier. Bud explores a little further inside, but tells Ken to stay behind. Eadie Johnson (Sandy Descher) introduces herself to Ken, as the other space children appear. Eadie introduces the other children to Bud and Ken. First is the youngest, Buster (uncredited), the oldest Tim (Johnny Washbrook), George (uncredited) and Helen (Gloria Anne Halper). The children invite Bud and Ken to see The Thunderer, but a guard chases them away.Lt. Col. Alan Manley (Richard Shannon) is giving a briefing on the project--to send a satellite equipped with a hydrogen warhead into space. Meanwhile, the kids head back to the beach to play when they see the same strange light in the sky, but this time a strange object descends on the light beam and enters the cave. Back at the briefing the light and power go off. The object is communicating with Bud and the power resumes at Col. Manley's briefing.Later that day, Dr. Wahrman (Raymond Bailey) strolls along the beach and runs into Col. Manley who is fishing. They talk about tomorrow's test of the missile. Their children, the Colonel's daughter Phyllis (Eilene Janssen) and Dr. Wahrman's son, Saul (David Bair), return to shore from their swim.That evening Frieda exits her trailer to supply more food for the weenie roast. We meet her husband, Hank Johnson (Jackie Coogan). The Johnsons and Brewsters talk about the project and national defense. Frieda prefers not to discuss controversial subjects. Hank and Dave invite the kids to go swimming, and they initially express excitement. But the voice they hear tells them to decline and they make their excuses and head off on their own for the beach. As Dave and Hank head off for a swim we are introduced to Peg Gamble (Jean Engstrom) and her alcoholic second husband Joe Gamble (Russell Johnson) who is tipsy, as usual, and complaining about his stepson, Tim.The children are attracted to the siren-like call of the entity and discover a football-sized and shaped blob pulsating in the sand. It communicates with Bud and selects him as the leader. Tim panics and tries to destroy the blob with a rock, but is paralyzed as the rock he holds overhead explodes into small pieces. Ken restores his ability to move and admonishes him to follow instructions in future. He agrees, and the rest of the children agree to follow Bud's directives.Back in the trailer Anne and Dave are frantically trying to find Bud and Ken. It is quite late when Bud and Ken arrive back to the trailer, and Mom and Dad lay into them. They try to explain their encounter on the beach but their parents don't believe them. When Dave grabs Bud's arm to administer a little discipline, his arm becomes paralyzed. The boys take Dave back to the beach, accompanied by Eadie Johnson. Tim tries to sneak out of the trailer to join the group, but he is intercepted by a very drunk Joe. Tim manages his escape, with Joe in hot pursuit. He eventually catches Tim, but before he can administer a beating is struck down by the power of the blob. Joe recovers and returns to the trailer. Dave picks up the blob, hides it inside his jacket and returns to the trailer park. Tim reaches his trailer first and enters, only to discover Joe, sitting in a chair and dead. Peg enters the trailer and sees Joe. Hank confronts Dave, Eadie and the boys and demands an explanation. Peg arrives asking for help. She tells Hank that Joe is dead.Anne welcomes her family back into the trailer, but is horrified by what they brought with them. The ambulance for Joe arrives. Bud explains that the blob must spend the night in the trailer. The next morning Anne and Dave demand answers from the boys about the blob, but get no satisfactory answers. The phone rings and Dave is told The Thunderer will launch tonight. Dave follows the boys back to the cave. They are carrying the blob. He tells them about the launch and confirms the boys knew all along--the blob told them.Major Thomas (Larry Pennell) interrupts a meeting between Dr. Wahrman and Col. Manley. He tells them Dave Brewster insists on meeting, it's an emergency. Dave enters and tells them the project is in danger, but before he can go into details, Bud appears, and he is struck unable to speak. When he tries to write out his warning his hand is paralyzed and he collapses. He recovers in the infirmary. His wife and children come to see him.The children begin the sabotage of the project. Bud causes a fuel delivery truck to malfunction. Buster and Helen disrupt communications at a guard shack, while innocently eating ice cream.Hank heads off for the beach to find his daughter, Eadie. He finds some of her clothes outside the cave. Eadie comes out of the cave. Hank insists upon examining the cave, over Eadie's objections. He enters and sees the blob which attacks him with a beam of light. He exits the cave and collapses on the sand. The blob has grown considerably. Dazed and unresponsive, Hank heads back to his trailer.That evening the children get out of bed and head down to the beach to see the blob, which by now is huge, and get final instructions. Wahrman and Manley meet and try to make sense of the days strange events. Wahrman notices that children are involved. He decides to go see Dave in the infirmary. The children open a locked gate and enter the base, unseen by the guard. Dr. Wahrman does see them, and confronts the guard for his lack of attention. Wahrman meets with Dave and tells him of his suspicions. Dave is surprised nothing happens when he realizes Wahrman knows the truth about the children, including their strange powers. But when Wahrman tries to call someone, the phone malfunctions. Wahrman demands to know where it is and what it looks like. Wahrman and Dave go to the cave and confront the now boulder sized blob. Wahrman makes his appeal, gets no response, but is allowed to leave.Preparations for the launch continue on schedule. They are unaware of the sabotage the children have caused. The children exit the base and head back to the cave. The site is cleared for launch as Dave and Wahrman race back to the base. They arrive just in time for the launch. But when the missile is launched, the warhead on the top explodes on the pad as the children watch from the beach.The children have won. The military heads for the cave to destroy the blob, followed by the children's parents. The children block the cave entrance, as their parents plead for them to abandon the blob. The blob exits the cave with the children still blocking fire, until it ascends back up into the sky on its beam of light. The children explain to the military and their parents that other children, like themselves, sabotaged similar projects all around the world. We close with a passage from St. Matthew, Ch.18, v.3, over the nebulae and star background.

Tags: anti war

Review:
While not Arnold's best film, IMHO (I find it a bit preachy and badly hampered by the rubbery silliness of the Big Alien Brain), this is still a memorable film.
The children, alienated from their preoccupied and overworked parents, are almost adopted by the space creature, which takes them under its protection (a drunken and abusive father is disposed of soon after the brain's arrival) even as it enlists them in its pacifist mission.
The film's title is perfect: the kids do become Space Children, more in tune with alien than human thought..
I've seen a lot of weird things on IMDb, but the rating for The Space Children is as puzzling to me as any I've run across.
The Space Children may not be the best movie I've ever seen, but it doesn't deserve a 2.1.
Take a look at the reviews on IMDb. You can split them into two wildly divergent groups - those users who appear to only know The Space Children because of MST3K and those who have seen it on its own.
The Space Children is a nice little cautionary 50s sci-fi film that speaks to the dangers of nuclear proliferation.
Too often, low-budget sci-fi films from this period look ridiculous because of the desire for elaborate special effects (i.e. monster and aliens) that outstripped the funding it would require.
Even the kids, who can be annoying at times in this kind of movie, come off looking pretty good.
The children of some US rocket scientists come under the spell of a strange alien being that seems to want them to sabotage the nations defense!Another B thriller from director Jack Arnold (who directed the classic Creature from the Black Lagoon in 1954), this one is a bit more intelligent than the average drive-in sci-fi fodder.
The Space Children is actually an anti-war film kind of in the tradition of The Twilight Zone, the story does indeed resemble a story that one would see on the classic TV series.
Kudos go to a chilling music score.The cast isn't half bad, the youths of the film being especially good.A worth-wild watch for those who like the films of this era.** 1/2 out of ****.
CHILDREN concerns a brain-like alien blob that teleports to Earth with the purpose of stopping the American military from launching a nuclear weapon into orbit.
The movie has good nostalgia value and that is probably the real reason I like it..
It is supposed that other nations are preparing similar satellites and weapons....Unbeknownst to the powers that be, other minds have reason to want to see the project fail, and utilize an unsuspected resource to carry out their plans...This small but effective little sci-fi tale is long on atmosphere, novel in viewpoint and execution, and well worth a couple of viewings for fans of the '50's sci-fi genre.More than a few familiar cast members, and an impressive band of juvenile performers, under Jack Arnold's sure and spare directorial hand, give this a fresh and simple feel, and don't spend a lot of time hammering home its message (rare for the immediate post-Sputnik years)..
Such unforgettables as: Citizen Kane The Devil and Daniel Webster It Came from Outer Space (one of my favorites) Creature from the Black Lagoon This Island Earth Tarantula The Deadly MantisAnd many more.This one is a toughie to find.There is a nice spooky movie credits however it's missing the obligatory sci-fi introduction narrative.The U.S. is about to launch a hydrogen bomb satellite to protect up from the other side.
In my opinion there are only two types of people in this world those who saw the space children as kids and those who wish they had..
This film has an abysmal 2.7 rating on IMDb. It's not really that bad, but it is a pretty big disappointment coming from a director who made The Incredible Shrinking Man the year before.
A meteor lands in a cave on a beach and its alien essence possesses a bunch of children (I think - it's kind of vague what kind of influence the thing has on the children) who then help it stop their fathers from launching a nuclear warhead into space.
While the story is slow moving and a tad on the weak side as far as Sci-Fi goes, watching some of these actors outside of their famous TV character roles makes this film enjoyable.
An alien intelligence aborts the launching of a rocket with the help of a bunch of children.Coming from Jack Arnold and Paramount Pictures, you might think this film has a lot of potential.
The truth is somewhere between there, of course.Interestingly, a Miami newspaper called the film's star Adam Williams "one of the industry's fastest-rising actors" when this movie was released.
"The Space Children" is a completely obscure Sci-Fi movie that only has a rating 2.2 out of 10 on this famous movie website.
More than enough reasons to have a little chat with the director, if you ask me (Coventry): "What exactly went wrong with "The Space Children", Mr. Arnold?
A great director like yourself should know a good script when he sees one or at least have the talent to turn a mediocre plot in a worthwhile movie?
Arnold) Ha well  (mumbling) I personally saw some good potential in the story of an extraterrestrial stone crashing on earth and "hypnotizing" the children.
Arnold) Oh, and another thing, "The Space Children" does undeniably contain a handful of highly effective sequences!
Arnold): It's true that are long periods of boredom in the film, I admit, and that some of the overly talkative scenes could easily have been cut on the editing table, but there just weren't any opportunities to put spectacle or suspense in a movie that constantly features children!
Arnold): Well, in all honesty and I know I'm speaking against my own financial interest here, there are many 50's movies that you should see before "The Space Children".
THE SPACE CHILDREN (Jack Arnold, 1958) **1/2.
THE SPACE CHILDREN (Jack Arnold, 1958) **1/2.
Its focus on children (the title itself is ambiguous – since the kids don’t come from space but rather are ‘possessed’ by aliens into sabotaging a rocket-launching station!) draws parallels to later genre classics such as VILLAGE OF THE DAMNED (1960) and the unrelated THESE ARE THE DAMNED (1963): like the former, the children here are able to influence the actions of their elders and, as in the latter, much of it takes place against a backdrop of remote cavernous surroundings.
Being just 68 minutes long, this undeniably earnest film can’t hope to fulfill its aspiration of being a profound anti-nuclear parable; for one thing, the characters are mere stereotypes – an average American couple with their modest dreams and dilemmas, a bubbly yet cagey neighbor (played by Jackie Coogan, of Chaplin’s THE KID [1921] and TV’s THE ADDAMS FAMILY fame!), another’s a drunken boor who mistreats one of the boys and his mother, plus the requisite number of dedicated but callous scientists and military personnel.
Actually, I was wondering all through the picture why the alien didn’t simply possess one of the parents or scientists – surely his attempts at persuading colleagues to halt the missile project would have had greater chance of success, since the children’s clandestine activities merely irritate the hell out of the people at the base engaged in such a secretive operation!
– come across as creepier when caused by innocent-looking children and, besides, their presence near the test site is more likely to be overlooked than rouse suspicion of any foul play.In the end, the film is tolerable (the print, then, seemed to be culled from a TV screening – since the picture fades in and out every once in a while, sometimes even in mid-sequence, where the publicity spots may have been inserted – with a good deal of hiss on the soundtrack!) but rather uninspired and, what’s more, is defeated by the low-budget.
Though genre expert Arnold had proved time and again what he was capable of doing, it suffers especially in comparison with the two DAMNED films mentioned above or even a third such title, CHILDREN OF THE DAMNED (1964)…which I actually need to re-evaluate myself, but recall being an underrated achievement on my sole viewing of it so far..
This movie is about the many adventures of a group of brats (one who looks a lot like a young Peter Graves), a disgusting-looking blob that resembles Oliver Reed's liver, a balding scientist named Warhman (Woman?), commie-hating troops, a  tight-assed mother (Peggy Webber from "The Screaming Skull"), the drunk guy who played the Professor from "Gilligan's Island", and last but not least, Jackie Coogan's really tight swim trunks!
It is way to small to be the highly specialized missile capable of knocking out any country you desire for you need a satellite to have something with that means and this weapon looks like a stick.
Of course along with these families there is also a family with an out of work dad and his wife and step child, why they are on this top secret base is beyond me, I highly doubt a woman would be working in such a facility in the 50's but then what do I know I think this movie sucks and that means I am an idiot.
From the heavens comes a blob, which for no reason gets bigger and helps the kids disarm said nuclear device through magical means of unlocking a gate.
Wow, isn't that exciting, apparently kids from the 50's thought watching a blob get bigger and gates unlocking made for the best movie ever (well to the one disturbed fan it does).
What looks like a really promising sci-fi feature in black andwhite ends up being one of the worst excuses for a movie I'veever seen!
Take seven annoying, totally inept little kids, aworried, pinched-faced old lady, a drunk step-father, a big,booger-like blob, a balding, psycho-babbling scientist, andJackie Coogan in skin-tight swim trunks!!
The Space Children has engineer Adam Williams arriving with wife Peggy Webber and sons Michel Ray and Johnny Crawford to work and live at a government rocket facility.
Johnny Washbrook, Sandy Descher and others join in some kind of collective consciousness, a lot like the Village Of The Damned and strange things start happening around the base, including the death of Russell Johnson who is far from the wise professor of Gilligan's Island.
Space Children, The (1958) * 1/2 (out of 4) This minor sci-fi flick has pretty much been forgotten by everyone, which might not be too shocking on its own but director Jack Arnold has a very big following for his other films in the genre like THE INCREDIBLE SHRINKING MAN and CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON so it says something when one of them is pretty much forgotten.
The "alien" here actually looks like a glowing brain that continues to get bigger as the film goes along.
"The Space Children" is a rather obscure sci-fi film--and after seeing it, I can understand why.
***SPOILERS*** Despite its very low ratings from the movie critics the movie "The Space Children" is one of the most thought-provoking motion pictures to come out of Hollywood in the 1950's in its addressing the dangers of nuclear proliferation and the cause for nuclear disarmament.
"The Space Children" ranks right up there with "The Day the Earth Stood Still", which was released seven years earlier in 1951, in making that very important point crystal clear to the movie going public.With their dad David Brewster, Dave Williams, working as an electrical technician at the Eagle Point Project young Bud & Ken, Michael Rey & Johnny Crawford, are somehow contacted through mental telepathy by this "Brain" from outer space.
The Eagle Point Project is being fined tuned to send a missile into space that will, after going into orbit around the earth, be able to launch a nuclear weapon anywhere on the planet in case a war breaks out between the US and the Soviet Block including Red China.The children are instructed to convince their parents working on the project to stop the launch of that missile called "The Thunderer".
Seeing with his own eyes the kids involved in a number of strange and unexplained incidents leading up to the missile launch Dr. Wahrman came to the conclusion that their being guided from something from outer space with powers beyond his imagination!The film has a bittersweet ending with Bud and his brother Ken as well as the rest of the children proving, by the "Brain" revealing itself to those in charge of Project Eagle Point, that their right about the dangers of testing Thunderer and the dangers of nuclear testing for strictly military purposes.
What leaves the audience and the "Space Children" a bit concerned is will they-the adults running the world-now learn from what they've seen and stop nuclear testing.
One of the most interesting lines for me comes at the admittedly heavy-handed preachy ending (what 50's sci-fi film would be complete without a pedantic lecture about the dangers of man and science going too far?).
Russell Johnson (aka, The Professor) is a great physical actor here, and Jackie Coogan (Uncle Fester) is good too.
This is a smart, well made movie, much better than Invaders from Mars (which has a rating on IMDb exactly twice as high as The Space Children).
When the screenplays were good he turned in some of the best SF movies of the decade: It Came from Outer Space; Creature from the Black Lagoon; Incredible Shrinking Man and, to a lesser extent, Tarantula.
When they were poor (Revenge of the Creature; Monster on Campus) all he could do was make the pictures watchable: he couldn't make them good.Apparently, Space Children was his personal favourite amongst his SF movies and the one on which he lavished most care, but it definitely falls in to that second category.
The mysterious (usually alien) stranger who uses almost magical powers to save us from our own follies is an idea that has had many outings over the years: Things to Come; The Day the Earth Stood Still; Stranger from Venus; The Cosmic Man; Strange World of Planet X and even Plan 9 from Outer Space.
Space Children adds nothing new to this somewhat self-righteous, preachy sub-genre.The SF content is completely haphazard, so we never really know what is going on.
For example, when the alien lands it causes power cuts that extend as far as the rocket launch site, so it not clear why the alien needs to enlist the aid of the children in the first place (anyway, why not work through adults?).
ABC's Summer TV Series "The Whispers" is adapted from Ray Bradbury's short story "Zero Hour" and also a 1958 Movie entitled "The Space Children".
"The Whispers" is adapted from Ray Bradbury's short story "Zero Hour" and also a 1958 Movie entitled "The Space Children" Directed by Jack Arnold Writers: Tom Filer (story), Bernard C.
In fact, many, many years ago Steven Spielberg mentioned that he liked this movie ("The Space Children").
They should have condensed this summer series into a two hour TV movie and give proper credits were credits are due to "Zero Hour" and "The Space Children".
Space Children is a campy fun science fiction movie from a great year for movies 1958.The beginning credits of the movie was a real hoot with the children all posing like they are looking around and they are supposedly puzzled.Then comes the bizarre organ music.I personally think the beginning of the movie was the best part.The man and his wife and the children are in the family station wagon driving down the beach towards their destination.The wife is uneasy and she does not know why.Then they arrive at the little trailer park for the government workers and she is still not happy.Heck I would have loved to live on the beach.Space Children has a terrific cast and a totally strange story.Check out the actor Johnny Crawford who played the son of Lucas boy on The Rifleman and Jackie Coogan who played Uncle Festus in the original series on TV back in the day called The Addams Family.Check this movie out..
The parents do not see this strand of something moving through the air, so when the boy disappears to go exploring in beach-front caves, he encounters a strange group of children and a little tiny blob of something that somehow gives them directions to sabotage the launching of this missile.
A mysterious 'rock' lands and gradually takes control of the children with dire results to our nation's defensive atomic rocket race.*Special Stars- Michel Ray, Adam Williams, Jackie Coogan, Russel Johnson, Raymond Bailey, Johnny Crawford, Sandy Descher, Ty Hardin.
DIR: Jack Arnold.*Theme- Nuclear war is not good for children or other living things on Earth.*Trivia/location/goofs- B & W.
It is good or bad, depending on your expectation for a 1950s Sci-Fi "B" movie..
It was "The Day The earth Stood Still."This movie, "Space Children", borrows its themes from the earlier movie.
Here the USA has a base on the coast of California, and are prepared to launch "The Thunderer", a missle that will put a very powerful weapon in orbit 1000 miles up, and it will be able to destroy any target on Earth, if we decided it was a grave threat.In this story an alien from space is discovered in a cave on the beach by a band of children roughly ages 14 to 6.
Its mission turned out similar to that of the aliens in "Earth Stood Still", to protect us from ourselves, and to prevent the new weapon from being launched into space.This is definitely a "B" movie, but a good example of the 1950s black and white Sci-Fi movies.
Much of the filming has the band of children running around the beach, going back and forth, sometimes with adults.In modern times, with more interesting cinematography, acting, color, and special effects, this movie is not much else but nostalgia.