EDITOR’S NOTE: Target Earth was on Chiller Theater on Saturday, February 29 and Saturday, August 8, 1964 at 4:00 p.m. and Saturday, September 14, 1968 at 11:20 p.m.

An army of alien soldiers has landed on Earth, and a small group of humans, including Nora King (Kathleen Crowley), who just attempted suicide, is all that’s left in a city. She trips over a dead body and meets Frank Brooks (Richard Denning), a man who has just survived a robbery. They join up with two partiers, Jim Wilson (Richard Reeves) and Vicki Harris (Virginia Grey), as well as Charles Otis (Mort Marshall), who tells them that all power has been stopped, and even cars won’t stop. Charles freaks out after learning of the aliens and runs into the street, getting blasted by some kind of death ray.

Just when it seems like all hope is lost, a twist in the plot unfolds. The human race, it turns out, is its own worst enemy. A killer named Davis, played by Robert Roark, whose dentist father was a producer on this, ends up murdering Vicky before Jim takes him down. As the aliens launch their final attack, a Shaun of the Dead-style moment occurs. The army arrives at the last minute with a sonic weapon. American firepower to the rescue.

A one-week wonder shot with no permits on the streets of Los Angeles in the early morning, this was based on “Deadly City” by Paul W. Fairman. We hear about a robot army but only see one, which was played by bartender Steve Calvert, the gorilla from Bela Lugosi Meets a Brooklyn Gorilla and Bride of the Gorilla. 

Director Sherman A. Rose was mainly an editor. The film was written by William Raynor (whose career stretches back to the 1950s, from Snow Dog to Dukes of Hazzard), and by American-International Pictures’ James H. Nicholson and Wyott Ordung, who also wrote Robot Monster. 

You can watch this on Tubi.