This could have been a serious disaster/war production but with the very low budget on the scale of a minor Republic serial, it falls to grade C propaganda and paranoia. It is not that the effort is bad, per se, there was just not much to work with at any level. Forget about any kind of realistic war scenario here but then again, it is no more nonsensical than Red Dawn was and Red Dawn DID have a substantial budget. In fact, given the realities and psyche of the time, this is at least insightful into that, whereas Red Dawn was a nonsensical fantasy that no one could take seriously even at the time it came out. We do get stock footage from WW2 and Korea with glimpses of almost everything that flew from 1944 through 52 along with ships and heavy AA. Look for Dan O'Herlihy and his first class voice in a smallish but significant role.

I originally saw this years ago as a MST3000 episode, and thought it wasn't too bad for an obvious propaganda film - certainly no worse than, say, "Rocket Attack USA". Then this movie came up as part of an informal project where a group of science fiction film fans tried to retrace the history of SF films by watching every film listed in the amazing book "Keep Watching The Skies" in chronological order. I wouldn't have voluntarily watched Invasion USA again, but I figured,"How bad could it be?"Pretty bad, as it turned out.Even making allowances for the original 50's culture this movie was aimed at, and for the fact that's obviously a "red scare" movie, this little nugget is pretty hard to swallow. The movie relies heavily on stock footage to carry the action. The problem is, that the live scenes and story the director tries to relate to all this canned film is about as convincing as Monty Python's skit about "The Townsford Women's Guild Recreation of the Battle Of Pearl Harbor". The movie tries to turn endless scenes of American WW II battle footage and shots of US airplanes and US Army training film into a story about an alien invasion. And it simply doesn't work. The result is a storyline almost totally lacking in logic, coherence and believability ("unidentified" enemy aircraft that are clearly P-38s, A Bombs being dropped from "enemy planes" onto tranquil scenes of airfields with all their planes sitting placidly on the ground, rather than scrambling to meet the attack they know is coming...in fact A Bombs being dropped all over the place - including New York! -without a single consequence to the environment - or a retaliatory missile launch). The initial framing sequence is so badly contrived and played out - not that I blame the actors, Dustin Hoffman couldn't make these scenes work) that you almost root for the 2-D cardboard characters to meet the dooms they all rush off to once war is declared. The film was barely 75 minutes, but it seemed much longer. My brain screamed for credible dialog and a plot that made sense and better acting and, well, almost anything that this movie was missing in spades. And did I mention, "It was allllll a DREAM!" The ultimate cop out for a movie plot, and the final insult to my sensiblities. One bright spot: both of the actresses who played "Lois Lane" in the "Superman" TV series had walk-on parts - it was nice to see them getting other work. And that's about it.

To begin with, I had expected to be more engaged by this one – which I also was under the wrong impression would be a talk-fest: instead, about sixty per cent of its trim 74-minute duration is compiled of wartime stock footage (representing the potential decimation of the U.S. by invading Communist forces) – scenes of the London blitz from the celebrated Humphrey Jennings documentary FIRES WERE STARTED (1943) are supposed to stand in for the burning of New York! I wonder how Americans look at the film nowadays vis-a'-vis the events of 9/11 – which is perhaps the only reason why it ever saw the light of day on DVD in the first place!As it stands, INVASION USA is both hysterical and unintentionally hilarious – never more so than when a car is caught in the flooding of Hoover Dam (hit by a nuclear bomb!) and a cowboy hat is seen floating on a branch as the sole remnant of its Texan owner!; Also worth mentioning are the fact that when the U.S. Senate is besieged, it's seen to be peopled merely by doddering statesmen, while the intermittent 'appearances' by the American President addressing the nation are taken from a vague solitary angle! Equally queasy is the fact that handsome leads Gerard Mohr (a cynical TV reporter) and Peggie Castle are drawn together at such a precarious time, while the middle-aged bartender keeps mixing drinks as if his life depended on it – apparently oblivious to the ongoing calamities! Needless to say, the unnamed Soviets are depicted throughout as unemotional slogan-spouting caricatures.The best thing about the film is the brief but typically riveting performance by Dan O'Herlihy (incidentally, years later he'd appear in a genuine Cold War classic i.e FAIL SAFE [1964]) – not least in view of the twist ending brought about by his particular line of work. In the DVD supplements, much is made of the fact that the film features the two actresses who played "Superman"'s Lois Lane on TV – Noel Neill and Phyllis Coates – but their contribution is, at best, negligible!; also on hand as a newscaster is character actor William Schallert, who's said to have made more Atomic-related titles than anyone else (the top 100 such efforts compiled by "Conelrad" are listed, with a brief synopsis for each one, on the Synapse DVD itself); in an interview included on the disc, Schallert speaks of his brush with Orson Welles' TOUCH OF EVIL (1958) where he was proposed for the role later played by Maltese actor Joseph Calleia – whom Schallert mistakenly thinks was an Italian! Oh, well, it's near enough I suppose…As can be gathered, therefore, the extras are quite nice, being pretty comprehensive about the whole Cold War aura which pervaded the first two decades or so of the post-war era (though I've only very briefly sampled the two radio programs which play back-to-back as an Audio Commentary to the film). One of the most telling comments in the extras comes from O'Herlihy himself – when he went to Russia in the late 1960s to film WATERLOO (1970), he was met by such an inefficient people that he couldn't fathom how their threat was ever taken seriously!; Noel Neill, then, overhypes the film's impact – I mean saying it blows PEARL HARBOR (2001) out of the water is not much of a feat, is it? In the end, I have to admit that when the Communist ideology (or critique thereof) was presented as a sci-fi allegory, the results were generally that much more fun

I saw this movie twice on late night TV between 1965 and 1980. As a jingoistic "message" film, its anachronistic views are almost solely of an 'historic' interest. But they are quite accurate. As a grade-school student in the 1950's, I can attest to the very real concerns of the time : air raid drills, military brinkmanship, and uncertainty about the very future of civilization. This movie was the "Dr. Strangelove" of it's time and shows what 'might' have happened if Russians heated up the Cold War! Of course, the 'invaders' are never actually called Russkies - that's just obvious. And their overwhelming superiority lets them succeed, hence the message of the movie. We all know the Reds never got that kind of edge.The story and characters are often compelling even if not brilliantly acted. The romantic interlude, however, is too 'Hollywood' -- it was years until war movies treated the subject with more realism. Likewise the special effects and military footage are mostly the standard stock of the era. The movie does have one casting coup : both Lois Lanes from TV's Superman! I enjoy the movie as a whole, probably because it shows what we avoided in the Fifties. It's a relief that this particular fear is no longer a threat. But perhaps we need a better update than the Chuck Norris film : a film that shows us how we can act as citizens TODAY to ward off the very real current threats to our country's future. If Gerald Mohr did it, so can we!Addendum : I made sure that the version I bought had some bonus short features from the Red Scare era, one by Jack Webb. They are funny in a way...*now*...