Build a movie plot around this: Who calls the telegraph office? The senator
Answer:
We open at night on the deserted streets of a small town. The narrator tells us, "A few weeks ago Riverdale, Illinois was just another quiet, small town. Then on that Saturday, shortly after midnight a living nightmare began." A man (an uncredited Hampton Fancher) carrying a lighted basketball sized glass container bumps into a pedestrian and the container is broken. A fight ensues and a hissing sound is heard. Title and credits follow.A car, a 1956 Thunderbird, approaches. The narrator continues his story, "On Sunday, about an hour before nightfall, my fiancee and I were returning from a trip to her family's home in the country. Our wedding date was set. Everything was right with the world. We were on the way back to town to tell the good news to my father." The driver, Glenn Cameron (Alan Jay Factor as Alan Frost) and passenger, Elaine Cameron (Jody Fair) are distracted by the flash of a bright light. They stop to investigate in the nearby woods. They find three animals, "All of them, dead." They continue to walk and to their shock spot a large, cone shaped metal structure.Two days later in Washington, D.C. a UFO committee reviews classified Army footage of the object. Senator Walter K. Powers (Cornelius Keefe as Jack Hill) and his assistant Dan Walker (Robert Ball) arrive late for the briefing. We learn that the object stands fifty feet high with a base diameter of fifty feet. The nature and origin of the cone is unknown. Dr. Paul Kettering (Ed Nelson as Edwin Nelson) is the chief investigator. Also noted is the coincidental slaying of several people in the nearby town. The Senator and his assistant fly to Riverdale to investigate first hand. They are met by Glenn who explains that his father, the Mayor, is missing. The three dive out to the site of the object. Alice Summers (Joanna Lee) is introduced. She is the Mayor's secretary, but she is assisting Dr. Kettering by recording test results on the object. The Senator climbs the scaffolding to question Kettering and his assistant, Dr. Wyler (David Hughes)...