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"Movie Review: Not of This Earth (1957)" Topic


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©1994-2024 Bill Armintrout
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Personal logo Editor in Chief Bill The Editor of TMP Fezian16 Aug 2019 9:54 p.m. PST

This is one of the better early, low budget Roger Corman films, not to be confused with the 1980 remake. Black and white.

As the movie begins, we see a young lady coming home from a date… being stalked by a sinister man wearing a suit, with dark glasses, carrying a briefcase. She runs but he catches her, and when he raises his dark glasses, his strangely radiating eyes kill her… and then tubing from the briefcase device harvests her blood.

Yes, it's a sci-fi vampire movie.

But it's got a certain amount of class. The sinister man is Paul Johnson, he lives in a nice home in southern California with a personal servant/driver, and he's seeing a doctor for a blood condition. He's also got a closet in his house that doubles as some kind of intergalactic communication device and teleporter, allowing him to talk to a 'floating head' that is his distant boss. And we learn that he's an alien from a civilization dying after interstellar nuclear war, and he's on Earth looking for a cure. So he's kind of a sympathetic murderous alien.

Jonathan Haze plays the alien's human servant, a flawed human being easily controlled by the alien's mental powers. Very characterful performance.

Along the way, he hires a nurse played by icy Beverly Garland (she was dating Corman at the time). Her character's boyfriend happens to be on the police force, so when she gets suspicious…

Also memorable is long-time Corman regular Dick Miller, who has the comedic role of the door-to-door salesman who knocks on the wrong door! (He ad-libbed his role from actual experience as a vacuum cleaner salesman!)

There's a scene where Beverly Garland's character takes a dip in the backyard pool, wearing a not-very-revealing swimsuit. This was considered very daring in a movie in 1957, but completely unremarkable today!

One amusing tidbit is that the actor who plays the alien got mad and stormed off the movie set one day. Some say the special-effect eye lenses were too painful for him, others say he had a drinking problem. So another actor filmed the rest of his shots, but you won't notice unless you look for it…

This is one of the more likeable of the early Corman sci-fi films, and it's still fun to watch.

Can you game it? You could make a pretty decent sci-fi RPG campaign based on this, but not a wargame, I would think. But I'm tempted to try a Hordes of the Things themed army:

* alien vampire (guy in suit with dark glasses and briefcase)
* female alien vampire (women with dark glasses)
* doctor and nurses
* car and driver
* hypnotized zombies
* weird flying assassin creature

The army design needs work but it has potential… grin

IMDB: imdb.com/title/tt0050778

Personal logo Wolfshanza Supporting Member of TMP16 Aug 2019 11:06 p.m. PST

Good lord…actually remember seeing that movie in me youth :O

15th Hussar17 Aug 2019 6:04 a.m. PST

It still can't top "Teenager's from Outer Space!"…space, space, spa…

Ragbones17 Aug 2019 9:41 a.m. PST

Reminds me of another great old sc-fi flick with a catchy tune and lyrics by Burt Bacharach and Hal David:

Beware of The Blob, it creeps
And leaps and glides and slides
Across the floor
Right through the door
And all around the wall
A splotch, a blotch
Be careful of The Blob…

YouTube link

Stryderg17 Aug 2019 6:11 p.m. PST

hmmm…
Could be a solo game. Put some random female 'targets' on the table, a few police teams, the alien vampire and his driver. It will need lots of cover. Maybe have random arrivals of cars from off table. The car drivers may be looking to do some "business" with the female targets. Victory condition for the alien vampire, attack/subdue X targets. Victory condition for the police, prevent the alien from leaving the board after he strikes and protect the targets. Cars and targets move randomly each turn.

Dynaman878918 Aug 2019 10:26 a.m. PST

Teenagers from Outer Space!

"Dog Gone"
"Stay!"
(bonus points knowing where they are from).

For the pool bit – Forbidden Planet had Altera swimming in the nude. You don't actually see anything but her back getting out of the water…

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