FOIA: Analysis/Review of Hollywood film: "Unidentified Flying Objects"

UFOMovie.pdf
Review/analysis of Hollywood UFO Movie
What appears to be several drafts of an internal air force review of the move "UNIDENTIFIED FLYING OBJECTS"
Document date: 1956-06-01
Department: Air Technical Intelligence Center Wright Patterson AFB - Project Monitor
Author: Captain George Gregory USAF
Document type: internal memo
pages: 30


Archivist's Notes: This PDF includes several drafts of an analysis and memoranda regarding the move "Unidentified Flying Objects" released through United Artists in 1956.

Aside from the internal memo there are also adverts and articles from newspapers and ufo magazines regarding the movie and aspects of it and those involved.

The movie itself purports to show proof of alien craft/UFO's on film. Hand written notes in some parts are impossible to read due to either poor quality, horrible penmanship and sometimes a combination of both.

It seem Captain Gregory took his job seriously though he seems both amused and frustrated at different points of his investigation/analysis of the film.

Experts and outside labs were called in to independently to look at the clips from the film and the film itself was screened by some big brass.

Dr. J. Allen Hynek was also called in to help and it seems he and Captain Gregory spent a bit of time together going over things discussed in the film.

Most of the cases in the memo are debunked as mis-identifications. Cases discussed in the memo include the kenneth arnold sighting and the mantell case.

Only one sighting called the chiles-whitted case is considered by captain gregory to be classified as "unknown" in the memo. Even though there were no film or photos of these sightings, the fact that the witnesses were commercial airline pilots holds much weight with both hyneck and gregory.

Gregory was not impressed with the movie and considered it amateurish and intentionally stilted to spur controversy.

Ruppelts book is also mentioned a few times through out the document.

There's a lot of interesting stuff in this document when it comes to looking at things from the Air Forces point of view as it relates to hollywood, ufos, film and public perception.

Gregory again seems to take this very seriously, one very interesting thing that popped out at me on page 20 was in regards to the Sperry Case Washington DC:
"This office does not have this case on file. UFO project files were reorganized and records disposition action was undoubtedly taken many times since 1947". Out of everything in this batch thats the statement that jumped out at me.

Included in this packet is a draft of a letter from Brigadier General Harold Watson to Mr. A.M. Rochlen of Douglas Aircraft thanking them for their help analyzing a case from the film and about having no problem releasing the report to green-rouse studios, the producers of the film "Unidentified Flying Objects"

Also if the Dayton Herald is to be believed and you happen to find yourself in Dayton Ohio in 1956 make sure you stop on by Barney's Restaurant and Lounge for the best private dining in town featuring Lord Louis at the Organ.

reply to post by AboveTopSecret.com

One must wonder from the beginning why the Air Force would have any interest in a Hollywood movie on UFO's anyway. (Images of "Plan 9 from Outer Space" and other ridiculous 50's era sci-fi movies come to mind).

But once I opened the PDF file and began reading it became obvious what must have piqued the Air Force's interest. The advertisments for the movie claim "The truth about flying saucers", "You will see them with your own eyes" and the clincher, "Actual color film of the Unidentified Flying Objects that have been kept Top Secret until now!"

Also, no doubt of interest to the Air Force was the claim by the movie producers that Douglas Aviation a defense contractor at the time, had apparently written a report on UFO's that was covered in the movie "Unidentified Flying Objects".

One additional claim by the film was that radar screen images shown were top secret images depicting UFO's over Washington, but it was determined that the images and claim were a total fabrication by the movie makers.

All of this prompted the Air Force's final analysis that the movie was overly dramatic, an amateurish attempt at a Hollywood movie production which overtly tries to portray the entire UFO phenomenon as a menacing, super intelligent, other worldly alien presence.

Such subjective expressions of viewpoint really have no place in a claimed factual documentary; making the movie more of a sensational work of fiction rather than an expose' of the UFO phenomenon.

After reading the PDF - with a grin on my face I am again reminded of "Plan 9 from Outer Space" with it's flying saucers hanging on visible strings as if it were a comedy instead of a serious attempt at Sci-Fi entertainment.

I agree, especially when Captain Gregory made special note of the phrase "secretly declassified" which he seemed amused about.

I also think it's possible they wanted to look at the films to make sure classified - yet completely terrestrial - but misidentifed aircraft might be exposed to the public.

IMO of course and as always.

spiderj