‘The Flying Saucer’, The First Film About Flying Saucers

Release date: January 5, 1950

IMDB Description: Both the CIA and KGB investigate UFOs in Alaska: friend or foe? (ref: IMDB)

Actor, director, and film producer Mikel Conrad was in Alaska filming for his upcoming film The Flying Saucer, often touted as the first UFO film.  He claimed that while filming he actually caught sight of a real flying saucer when he was filming around Juneau.  He even claimed to have a bit of film footage of a flying saucer in Alaska when he had filmed Arctic Manhunt in 1947.  The government found it easy to dismiss this sighting as a hoax.  Any footage that Mikel Conrad had was never released to the public and the newspapers wrote about it as a publicity stunt.

Parsons, Louella. Keeping Up With Hollywood. The Cumberland News. (September 21, 1949). . Newspapers.com. Retrieved August 1, 2025, from https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-cumberland-news/177957792/

The Roanoke Times. (September 14, 1949). . Newspapers.com. Retrieved August 1, 2025, from https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-roanoke-times/177958740/

Diving deeper into the story, the footage of a flying saucer that Conrad shot in 1947 was 900 feet (film footage length), roughly 8 minutes of film, which Conrad took to be developed at Lookout Mountain Air Force Station in Los Angeles, CA by the 4201st Motion Picture Squadron. Conrad claims that they never returned his footage.

The Air Force denied ever having the film or being in possession of the film, calling Mikel Conrad a "publicity seeker".

Alaska Space wants to tip our hat to this first of its genre film. You can stream this b-movie or find the full version online easily. For your viewing pleasure, we have the trailer at the bottom of this article.

Any UFO sightings that you have should be reported to MUFON or NUFORC.

Further Reading:

• The Flying Saucer–The Case of Mikel Conrad’s Fake-Not-Fake UFO Footage

• Three Strange UFO Stories: Hollywood, Dead Aliens and Flying Saucers

• The Flying Saucer, Notes from TCM

• The Flying Saucer (1950)

• Nick Redfern's Interesting Article on an Air Force Cover Up, But Not the Kind You Think

• Graham, R. (2011). A History of Government Management of UFO Perceptions through Film and Television.

• Edwards, Jake. July 2021. Unidentified Flying Objects, Photographic Aesthetics, and Moving Images. University of Warwick. Thesis.

• Graham, R. (2011). A History of Government Management of UFO Perceptions through Film and Television.