While the movie, "U.F.O." enjoyed only a brief, but determined, moment of national publicity, its details peppering newspapers from coast to coast, various photographs emerged, not all from the standard press kit. These photos were obviously issued for newspaper publication by publicity departments, but I don't know the specifics. With thanks to Barry Greenwood for these, I've extracted three photos from various articles for display here. One is a routine picture of Tom Towers, two (one normal and the other enhanced by me) actually show Tom Towers, Al Chop and former USAF Capt. Edward J. Ruppelt together in an apparently very rare photo, and the third (two versions) shows Towers and actor William Solomon in a scene from the movie.
In general, it may be said that most of the motion picture reviews and editorials gracing the country's newspapers were kind, if not at least lukewarm, to Clarence Greene's film. R. H. Gardner's column entitled, "Of Stage and Screen," from the Baltimore, Maryland Sun of June 22, 1956, proved remarkably insightful about the movie's substance and things that should have been. Gardner, admitting a familiarity and respect for the UFO writings of Maj. Donald Keyhoe, confessed his belief that the movie was "repetitious" and "dull" at times. "But," he added, "due to the importance of the subject matter, the film -- which traces the investigations of Albert Chop, as Pentagon press chief -- may in time be regarded as the most dramatic ever produced." Yes, it should be.
