Great Falls Montana Film 1950

On August 15, 1950, Nicholas Mariana, general manager of the Great Falls Selectrics baseball team, filmed two bright metallic objects moving over Great Falls, Montana. Mariana captured approximately 16 seconds of 16mm footage. The objects were too bright and too defined to be conventional aircraft. The USAF collected the film and analyzed it at the Air Technical Intelligence Center, finding it 'unexplained.' However, Mariana reported that the original first frames — which he claimed showed the objects in sharper detail rotating in flight — were missing when the film was returned. The Condon Committee subsequently analyzed the film in the 1960s. Astronomer William Hartmann, conducting the Condon study's photographic analysis, concluded the objects were 'probably' the result of light reflection from two F-94 jets in the area, but acknowledged the explanation was not definitive. The Great Falls film, along with the Tremonton Utah film, became the most analyzed UAP motion pictures of the early project Blue Book era, and the controversy over the missing frames became emblematic of researcher concerns about evidence integrity.