ALL SCI-FI

[Bud Brewster]

Attention members! If you've forgotten your password, just email me at Brucecook1@yahoo.com.
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Long-time All Sci-Fi member Phantom has some fond boyhood recollections of this movie, and I envy him. Those kind of memories are very special.
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Not of This Earth (1957)

Roger Corman's only truly frightening science fiction/horror movie played on a double bill with his most infamous title Attack of the Crab Monsters.

What is amazing about the film is the monster, Paul Birch in business attire and dark glasses, who would not look out of place sitting next to Gregory Peck in The Man In The Gray Flannel Suit, except for the fact that Birch is from outer space, needs blood to survive and has opaque eyes. Got to say, those blank eyes scared the jujubes out of me in '57.

As mentioned, the best scene in the movie (well, the one that almost made me book out of the theatre) was the one in which the umbrella creature floated through the window and wrapped itself around the doctor's head. That was some pretty nasty stuff for kids of that era.

Dick Miller shows up as a door to door salesman in a brief black comedy scene that had everyone in the theatre laughing until Birch removed those glasses. The laughter died pretty quickly.

Birch and Corman came to a disagreement that led to the actor walking out of the film. Corman shot the last several scenes with a double. Not sure what sparked the argument, but it may have had something to do with those opaque lens Birch had to wear. He was in great agony for much of the picture.

Bud, you mentioned that the movie begins with a scene in which Birch talks to an alien in a "closet," which turns out to be a teleportation device. The same scene is repeated about half way into the movie, which is where it was intended in the theatrical release. When Corman sold the syndication rights to television, it was decided that the running time of 67m was either too short or too awkward and Corman, rather than shoot more footage (which is what the television producers wanted), simply repeated the scene to bring it up to their specification. If you are watching the film and it starts with the one you described, it is the television version. On the dvd, it begins as it was originally conceived (the murder of the young girl).

This creepy little opus is one of my favorite b-films of the fifties. I waited for years for a studio release and was pleasantly suprised when it showed up in a nice set along with Attack of the Crab Monsters and War of the Satellites.
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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)