The saucers in Mars Attacks! were an homage to Harryhausen’s spinning saucers in Earth vs The Flying Saucers, but instead the top spun one way and the bottom spun the opposite way.
**This Island Earth ** was a non-spinning type, as was Forbidden Planet.
But the best saucer of all is in Devil Girl from Mars. The main body is stationary, but the rim spins, and it makes a heckuva sound, too. The movie as a whole is talky and slow, but the saucer and the robot are marvels of late-Deco design. (The Devil Girl herself is a marvel of early Fetishistic leatherwear design–hubba hubba!)
Well, in both Forbidden Planet and This Island Earth the passengers were protected by clear plastic tubes or forcefields or something during the dangerous parts of the trip. But those were non-spinning types, so I guess I haven’t really responded to your concern. (sigh) Heaven knows motion sickness would be, ahem, undesirable while encased in a plastic tube…
It further occurs to me that this is where the Devil girl from Mars design really excels: From the spinning rim, you get the undoubted performance advantages of spinny-ness, while enjoying the rider comfort benefits of the main body’s stationary-ism.