The Man From Planet X

The Man From Planet X
by Edgar G. Ulmer

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DVD Reviews of The Man From Planet X

DVD Review: The WEIRDEST Visitor the Earth has ever seen!
Summary: 3 Stars

Robert Clarke stars as John Lawrence, a newspaper reporter called to a Scottish moor by his friend, Professor Elliot, to cover what will be the story of his lifetime. A seemingly stray planet is headed in the general direction of Earth, and the moor is the location that it will pass closest to Earth. Prior to this event, they find a strange, alien object on the moors, followed by actual alien spaceship fashioned in classic 50's sci-fi fashion. Not only that, but the alien spacecraft is inhabited by a pretty funky looking humanoid creature. If you've ever seen the Honeymooners episode where Ralph dresses up as a spaceman, then you will have a pretty good idea of what this alien looks like.

Anyway, they try to communicate with it, with the help of another scientist, Dr. Mears, played by William Schallert, the only actor I recognized as he's been on like a bazillion TV shows, probably most famous being The Patty Duke Show, and a whole mess of movies. Seems he has rather a dubious past, and his intentions are less than admirable when dealing with this advanced creature from another world.

When Mears starts throttling the alien for his space secrets, the alien takes off, and things start to get a little hairy as the alien begins to set his plans into action. What is this alien's connection to planet X? What are his intentions on our planet? Wait until the end of the movie to find out, because while throughout most of the movie the plot slides along at the pacing somewhat akin to a snail, we see the pace quicken like a jackrabbit in the last ten minutes or so, including a huge, steaming pile of rather clunky exposition to fill the viewers in to what's going on...and a really unintentional question asked at the end by the female lead that made me wonder if she had even experienced the events in the movie because the question really contradicted everything that happened, at least in my opinion.

My only real gripe with the movie is Robert Clarke. Quite a handsome man at the time, looking sort of like Errol Flynn, he just didn't seem to fit in well in this genre. He seemed a little too sophisticated, a little to debonair, with his pencil thin mustache, to play the part he was given. I envisioned sci-fi veteran Richard Carlson playing the part much better.

This is a really good-looking print, but don't expect any extras other than a trailer. I do appreciate MGM releasing these Midnight Movies at a reasonable price, and I know they've started doing double bills for the same price, but not here, as this DVD was released prior to that worthwhile change. Are there better sci-fi movies of that time period out there? Sure, The Thing, and War of the Worlds to mention two, but this one ain't so bad, if you got 71 minutes to kill and an interest in classic science fiction movies.

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