Movie Review: The Man from Planet X (1951)
Synopsis: American newspaperman John Lawrence travels to a remote village in Scotland where Professor Elliott and his assistant, Dr. Mears, are using a telescope to study the newly discovered Planet X. When the professor's daughter, Enid, discovers an alien from the planet has landed in the moors, the men attempt to communicate with the creature. However, it instead uses a ray to take of control Prof. Elliott, Mears, Enid and several villagers and forces them to help it prepare for an invasion.
Who's in it? The movie stars Robert Clarke, Margaret Field, Raymond Bond, William Schallert and David Ormont.
Review: I've had The Man from Planet X in my movie library for some time now but, every time I planned on watching it, I always ended up picking a different movie instead. I finally changed that this morning. Overall, I thought it was an entertaining film despite falling short in some areas.
As far as the premise is concerned, I thought it was a good one. This was mostly because there were a number of mysteries surrounding both Planet X and the inhabitant that arrived on Earth. The alien's motives were unclear until later in the film (and it is still a bit unclear if it was an actual invasion or more of a refugee thing) and there were also a lot of questions surrounding Planet X itself and its peculiar orbit.
The fact the creature could mentally control humans added an additional element because it made it all that much more difficult to potentially defeat it. Without knowing the full extent of that power, it was very possible an army could show up to fight it only to be put under its control as well.
I thought the movie's special effects were OK. Obviously, a film made in the early 1950s was going to have some limitations in that regard, especially since it was a low-budget film, but the spacecraft looked reasonably realistic, I especially liked how John (Clarke) compared it to a sea vessel, and that alien was something I think could give some people nightmares. The alien's appearance also added to its mystique - was it actually menacing or did it just look menacing?
As I mentioned, the movie does fall a bit short in some categories. For one, it was a little dull at times and probably could have used a little more action earlier on. Let's put it this way, the majority of the movie is the alien walking, standing and looking scary. I'm still not even sure why there was an assumption it would be hard to kill, especially since it could be temporarily immobilized by turning off its breathing apparatus.
It also seemed as though there was supposed to be a more complex story surrounding Dr. Mears (Schallert) that was either edited out or dropped entirely. The movie goes out of its way to portray Mears as someone with a criminal record who can't be trusted but ultimately doesn't have much impact on the film, especially since the movie doesn't bother to clarify if his attempt to torture the alien influenced the creature's later actions.
I was also left wondering why Mears, even after being enslaved by the creature, seemed determined to save its life. Were his motivations greed-related or did he have information about the alien nobody else had and was trying to save the human race? In other words, why did he think the rest of the humans were "fools?"
Final Opinion: The movie does have some flaws but despite that and the low budget special effects, is an entertaining science fiction flick. I'm glad I finally got around to watching it.
My Grade: B
_____________________________________________________________________
Here are some reviews of other alien invasion movies:
Movie Review: The Thing From Another World (1951)
Comments
Post a Comment