The Man from Planet X

A much better movie than I remember. The basic plot, copied so many times. An alien comes to Earth, as his planet is dying and this is the only place they can go to where they can have any hope to survive. They send down a forward scout, who is going to give them a landing beacon on a remote Scottish Isle. Are his intents hostile or benign? Well, we don't really know, because he is left in the hands of the evil Dr. Mears, who did something during WWII they should have given him 20 years for. (They never really tell us what.) So why is it a great movie? Because it got there first. Or at least one of the first. And it isn't morally two-dimensional. The alien isn't explicitly evil and the humans aren't clearly good. It should be pointed out that this movie was one of the ones that lead to the subsequent "UFO" hysteria of 1952. Co-incidence? I think not.

This film certainly WON'T rank up there with the great sci-fi films of the 1950s. And, while it isn't a bad film (like PLAN 9 FROM OUTER SPACE), it certainly doesn't have a whole lot to offer or to set it apart. Planet X apparently has somehow left its orbit and is heading towards Earth. At the same time, a space craft from this planet lands in Britain and is piloted by a guy dressed up in a space suit with a huge papier mache head! He's supposed to be an alien, but his head shows no movement at all and looks pretty silly. And, oddly, by the time the film is over, you really have no idea whether or not his intentions were hostile! The acting was okay, though oddly, aside from the locals, the major characters in the film who were Brits sounded exactly like Americans! They didn't even try to approximate the correct accent. This combined with only adequate production values and a pretty turgid script mean this film is very skip-able unless you are a big fan of 1950s sci-fi.

Margaret Field, who died a month ago, appeared in some movies in the '40s and '50s, but then decided to concentrate on raising her family. Her daughter later became famous as a surfer girl, a flying nun, and a two-time Oscar-winning actress. One of the elder Field's movies was this quirky sci-fi outing from the early '50s. "The Man from Planet X" focuses on an alien who lands on a Scottish island while his planet is passing ours. While some of the scientists want to communicate with this new guest, one has less than noble intentions. Ridiculous though it may be, the movie is very enjoyable in every way. It's just fun to see an alien who looks like something from an Eastern European stop-motion cartoon. So, it shall go down in history that Sally Field's mother had an encounter with an extraterrestrial. Pretty neat. As for Planet X, I recall that Daffy Duck and Porky Pig tried to colonize it but had to contend with Marvin the Martian.

A shoestring budgetter directed by Edgar Ulmer. One of the first (if not the first) alien invasion films. The little alien, a child-like being with a big, solemn face, is known to Scottish villagers as 'the bogey' and strikes mortal terror into their hearts with his HypnoRay, a laserlike beam which reduces them to easily programmable zomboids. His motives are unclear throughout the film until a hypnoidal Dr. Mears 'spills the beans' near its end. Strong points: eerie atmosphere, production design; moody 'film noir' photography, engaging music score and interesting story. Weak points: muddled script(more plotholes than a Stephen King cemetry); stilted dialogue and wooden acting. Recommended only for diehard 1950s sci-fi fans(like myself)- this film is both a joy and a disappointment.

One of the five sci-fi's I remember every single detail of from my earliest days as a fan. For the genre, I think it's considerably above average. The moor is nicely atmospheric. There's one of every character in the book: the good guy, the bad guy, the local sheriff, the lovely damsel, her father the old professor, etc. The scene where we're looking for the first time through the window of the ship and the visitor peeks out from the other side is easily as good as the three-fingered-hand-on-the-shoulder in War of the Worlds. Nice "character" to the visitor, for whom, like Karloff's Frankenstein, we end up feeling some empathy .