Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #20861 in VHS
• Released on: 1998-03-17
• Rating: NR (Not Rated)
• Formats: Color, NTSC
• Number of tapes: 1
• Running time: 90 minutes

Customer Reviews

UFO contactees tell their stories, for better or worse
The 1950s flying saucer scares gave us the first generation of UFO contactees, people who claimed to be in communication with aliens, to act as interplanetary liaisons, and even to have ridden in spaceships. This 1998 Discovery Channel release is built around interviews with prominent surviving contactees, interspersed with film and newsreel footage from the 1950s.

It is a fascinating film as we try to decide if these people are charlatans, dupes of some cosmic trickster, or victims of an as yet unnamed psychological disorder in which the child's belief in his own imaginary world persists into adulthood. Almost without exception, these contactees come across as articulate, intelligent, charismatic, idealistic, and - sad to say - ridiculous. It is a hard combination to digest.


So we see an aging and embittered Howard Menger, still nursing his dream of getting a government grant to build a 40-foot flying saucer, of which we are shown a two-foot model, replete with toy men to show us the scale. Things get a bit spooky when Menger brandishes a .45 caliber revolver, and boasts of the day when he allegedly scared off "the mob," who were intent on stealing the plans for his inventions. His attractive wife Connie provides some of the more articulate presentations of the contactee worldview.

Then there is Robert Short, founder of Blue Rose Ministries, an engaging raconteur who "channels" pompous messages from an alleged space entity.

We are also taken inside The Aetherius Society in Los Angeles, founded by Englishment George King, where a UFO-based religion incorporates elements of Christianity, Buddhism, and Hinduism. The various interviews with King reveal a man who is both charming and delusional about his role in the universe.

The most normal of the contactees is UFO researcher William Hamilton. Utterly sincere, intelligent, and articulate, Hamilton has nonetheless been sucked into the strange world of the contactees (to my knowledge, his claims of personal contact are very modest, involving no more than lights-in-the-sky sightings). He is a protegee of Daniel Fry, who claimed to have ridden in a flying saucer back in 1950.

The segments involving Fry probably should have been left out, in the name of charity. Aging and infirm, Fry mutters a few disjointed sentences before lapsing into a reverie where he begins whistling an old tune. He seems on the verge of dying on the spot. This is a moment filmmaker Robert Stone shouldn't be proud of.

Other contactees include Frank Stranges and the late George Adamsky, shown in old news clips. Several of the contactees have invented dubious contraptions for communicating with space entities, and play embarrassing alien pronouncements recorded on primitive tape recorders.

The common thread uniting these contactees is their belief that the "space brothers" are offering a message of salvation for humanity, ultimately a religious message. Several of the contactees - King, Stranges, and Short - indeed present themselves as ministers of their own UFO cults. It is a fascinating mix of theology, philosophy, mysticism, science, pseudo-science and mythology.

There is an understated thread of mockery running through the film. Stone uses the classic film techniques to make people look bad - unnatural close-ups, holding the camera on the subject long after he has finished speaking, keeping embarrassing moments in the film rather than editing them out, and so forth. There is no commentary, so Stone uses the camera to interject his editorial opinion.

This is an intriguing look into the dying generation of contactees. It is getting hard to come by, so get it while you can. Every UFO buff should have a copy.

A Loving Tribute to the UFO scare of the 1950s
Relive the hysteria of the 1950s over UFO sightings. Some wonderful vintage footage mixed with contemporary, updated interviews. Highly recommended.

Wierd Stuff
...this is an off-beat documentary that explores the facts, fabrications and psychology of UFOlogy. Part sci-fi, part religion, part hoax; makes for a real American kind of mythology/folklore. Wierd stuff...but I like it!