Free Movie Friday: TEENAGERS FROM OUTER SPACE

Maybe I should be looking for these things outside the Sci-Fi/Horror arena, but God help me, I love the genres so. Looking for a free movie that is both free in the sense that you don't have to give someone money for it AND you can do anything you want with it because the rights have lapsed? Check out Teenagers From Outer Space.

Released in 1959, TFOS is low-budget in a big way, from the careless black and white cinematography to the depiction of the mutant that escapes from the alien spacecraft - it looks remarkably like the shadow of a lobster, held up and wiggled before a spotlight. The project is the brainchild of one Tom Graef, who wrote/directed/produced/acted/sewed costumes/cooked lunch/wiggled the lobster. From the Wikipedia entry:

The film failed to perform at the box office, placing further stress on an already-burdened Graeff, and in the fall of 1959, he suffered a breakdown, proclaimed himself the second coming of Christ. After a number of public appearances followed by a subsequent arrest for disrupting a church service, Graeff disappeared from Hollywood until 1964 and later committed suicide in 1970.

Don't let that last bit spoil your fun; the movie is still pretty entertaining. It shouldn't go without note that the lead teenage alien, played by David Love, is perhaps the most sensitive (yes, I mean gay) romantic lead in any movie I've ever seen. Also fascinating - the acting and bleak locations suggest the thing was shot somewhere in the great plains, but this movie was made in and around good ol' Hollywood. It takes a kind of genius to build an asymetical go-kart in Detroit, if you know what I mean.

Anyway, download it, burn it to a DVD if you want (here's your best link for the footage) and even recut it if you think you can improve it. It's free!