The Bamboo Saucer (1968)

Starring Dan Duryea, John Ericson, Lois Nettleton, Bob Hastings, Vincent Beck
Directed by Frank Telford

(actor & director credits courtesy IMDB.com)

A team of U.S. agents head into Red China to retrieve a flying saucer and meet up with a Russian group after the same objective.

Cold-war dramatics and science fiction meet in an interesting picture co-written by familiar special-effects artist John P. Fulton, who provided startling visuals for many a Universal picture in the 1930s and 1940s.  Fulton also teams with Glen Robinson to provide the effects for this picture in the form of a luminescent spaceship that menaces the airways.  Duryea, a familiar leading man from a number of noir pictures in the 40s, stars as the gruff leader of the U.S. expedition, but the focus is more on test pilot Ericsson, and the beautiful Russian translator he falls for from the other group.  Although there are some dated attitudes in the film, the story is rather clever, as the Americans and the Russians work together to determine how the ship flies, while tensions between them jeopardize their mission.