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Not of This Earth (1957)
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Bud Brewster
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PostPosted: Fri Jan 02, 2015 1:47 am    Post subject: Not of This Earth (1957) Reply with quote

Another oldie-but-goodie from Jimbo Berkey's website, Free Classic Movies. You can't call yourself a true sci-fi fan if you haven't seen Not of This Earth.

So, here's your chance.
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Not of this Earth is a classic Roger Corman production with a great Science Fiction thriller plot that probably frightened many young people in 1957, and may frighten some of us even today. It opens with some text, ending with:

Sit Back, Relax and Believe . . .So that YOU may cross the brink of time and space . . . into that land you sometimes visit in your dreams!

A strange man wearing dark glasses is terrorizing the neighborhood. In the opening scene, we see a man sitting in a chair talking to the picture of a man in a closet that opens to reveal a man that is on another planet.

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They talk by telepathy for a minute, letting us know that people on a distant planet are in desperate need for blood, and the man fades away and the closet door closes. It seems that this closet is a transporter, and someone from another planet transports down to Earth to talk with the stranger.

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Next, a young girl and boy are necking in his car, talking 1950's slang, and when he drives away and she starts walking home, a man approaches her. After she says, 'Hello', he removes his dark glasses, and she screams and falls to the ground. Then we see the man open a suitcase with tubes and stuff in it, and we see her blood surging through the tubes. It turns out that when he takes his dark glasses off, he can stare at a person and push their eyes into the back of their head, killing them.

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He then drains all of their blood so he can have it to survive.

The stranger is from another planet, and on his planet all of the people are dying because their blood is 'evaporating.' This man is here to discover whether human blood would keep them alive. The stranger puts a strange hypnotic trance on a doctor he meets, and convinces the doctor to provide him with a couple of pints of blood every day.

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Then he hires the doctor's nurse, 1950's B-movie blonde bombshell Beverly Garland, to be his private nurse and infuse his daily blood.

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He also hired a young fellow to be his driver and aide in the house that he has acquired. In one of his telepathic conversations with his boss on the other planet, he is given 6 directives:

1. Study humans and their blood, to find out if it is suitable for infusion into the aliens.

2. Increase the amount of blood that he is sending back to the alien planet.

3. Find a live human specimen to put into the transporter closet and send it back to the alien planet.

4. Infuse human blood into yourself to see if it will save you or kill you.

5. If the human blood saves your life, arrange for the conquest of earth and the subjection and pasturing of humans to provide blood supplies to the aliens.

6. If human blood does not keep him alive, and is not suitable for the aliens, obliterate the planet earth.
This is one of the best 1950's science fiction tales, blending just the right amount of science with good fiction. You'll want to watch it more than once.

One nice touch in the movie that I'm sure no one knew is the identity of the man who plays the bum that is enticed to bring his buddies to dinner at the stranger's home. His real name is Hank Mann, and he was 70 years old when he played this part.

Not so unusual, except that he was a famous silent screen actor in the 1920's in many of the Charlie Chaplin comedy reels. I have some of them already here, and many more to come. If you want to see a few, just click on his name to go to the list of movies he is in that have been uploaded so far: Hank-Mann

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Can humans discover and conquer this stranger from another planet? Will human blood save the alien? Will the strangers from another planet drain all of the blood from humans before Nadine (Beverly Garland) and the others discover that he is from another planet? Will the stranger kill Nadine in the transportation closet before she can escape? Will the movie end with a clear victory over the stranger, or will there be an ominous peek at a possible 'next stranger' for a sequel, or just to scare the be-jeebers out of us, so that we suspect everyone wearing dark glasses when we leave the theater?

And most importantly: Have you popped enough corn so that you don't run out during the final suspenseful minutes?


____Jimbo Berkey
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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)


Last edited by Bud Brewster on Sun Jul 05, 2020 1:55 pm; edited 4 times in total
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Krel
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PostPosted: Fri Jan 02, 2015 1:10 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Aww, he didn't mention the flying killer umbrella (if you've seen the movie, then you know what I'm talking about). That monster scared the heck out of me when I was a kid. Come to think of it, I haven't seen the movie since the 1960s.

David.
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Bud Brewster
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PostPosted: Fri Jan 02, 2015 2:50 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

________________________________________

I deliberately didn't include pictures of the alien umbrella because Jimbo hadn't mentioned it. Here's the dreaded flying lampshade from space.





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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)


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orzel-w
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PostPosted: Fri Jan 02, 2015 3:26 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

This thread started me thinking, I wonder how many movies depict extraterrestrial races and species that depend on the blood of homo sapiens to survive. And how did they ever get along without us?
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Krel
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PostPosted: Fri Jan 02, 2015 5:38 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Bud Brewster wrote:
I deliberately didn't include pictures of the alien umbrella because Jimbo hadn't mentioned it.

Well, you have to admit, that the killer umbrella is pretty much the most memorable thing about the movie. That and what happens to the poor Doctor. Real nightmare fuel to a little kid.

David.
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Phantom
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PostPosted: Sat Sep 12, 2015 4:32 pm    Post subject: Not Of This Earth Reply with quote

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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Bud Brewster
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PostPosted: Wed Sep 23, 2015 4:37 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

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I didn't see any of the movies on that triple-feature DVD as a kid, and ironically enough I bought the DVD set for Attack of the Crab Monsters, which I didn't see until a few years ago and liked enough to want to own it.

The synopsis of the movie that talks about the film's opening was actually written by Jimbo Berkey, rather than me. I copied that synopsis (and about thirty others that Jimbo wrote) directly from Jimbo's website, with his permission, along with the all the pictures in that first post that starts the thread.

Turning Jimbo's reviews in All Sci-Fi threads was a quick and enjoyable way add to new material to All Sci-Fi back in January of this year.

Unfortunately, Jimbo decided to shut down his website several years ago. Prior to that, I awarded him an All Sci-Fi T-shirt to thank for all the hard work he put into h is site,

He emailed me this picture of a young lady wearing it! Very Happy




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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)


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Bud Brewster
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PostPosted: Mon May 02, 2016 10:15 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

________________________________

There are several versions of the trailer for this movie on Youtube which look absolutely dreadful, but this one is not only crystal clear, it's a double feature trailer for Attack of the Crab Monsters, followed by an equally beautiful trailer for Not of this Earth! Very Happy

If this doesn't put you in the mood for both movies, nothing else will!


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______Roger Corman Double Feature (Trailer 1957)


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~ The Space Children (1958)
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Pye-Rate
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PostPosted: Tue May 03, 2016 10:27 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Face hugger versus umbrella monster. Who wins?
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alltare
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PostPosted: Sun Jun 12, 2016 11:48 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Corman had some unique concepts for many of his movies. That would include the 2 mentioned here (NOT OF THIS EARTH and CRAB MONSTERS), and also IT CONQUERED THE WORLD and BRAIN EATERS, and lots more. The trouble is that they were so cheaply produced that they became boring. If he'd had more money, I think many of his 50s flicks would be considered classics today instead of "camp".

For what it's worth, I think the 1988 version of NOT OF THIS EARTH, directed by Jim Wynorski, is superior to the original. The script is essentially the same, but production values are better. The cheesecake doesn't hurt, either.
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bulldogtrekker
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PostPosted: Mon Jun 13, 2016 5:31 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Quote:
For what it's worth, I think the 1988 version of NOT OF THIS EARTH, directed by Jim Wynorski, is superior to the original. The script is essentially the same, but production values are better. The cheesecake doesn't hurt, either.

Hey, you are the only other person I know who likes NOT OF THIS EARTH 1988. I can't even get Bud to watch it with me.



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Bud Brewster
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PostPosted: Mon Jun 13, 2016 6:10 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

________________________________

I think I watched some of it once. It didn't grab me, but if I didn't watch it all, I didn't give it a fair chance. So . . . Very Happy

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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)
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orzel-w
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PostPosted: Mon Jun 13, 2016 10:59 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

bulldogtrekker wrote:
I can't even get Bud to watch it with me.

Tell him there's a babe in the remake.
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alltare
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PostPosted: Mon Jun 13, 2016 11:42 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

orzel-w wrote:
Tell him there's a babe in the remake.

Oh, yeah! There's a babe in it alright.

I have the Shout Factory DVD. From my non-expert's point of view, the image quality is very good.
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Robert (Butch) Day
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PostPosted: Tue Jun 14, 2016 2:27 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Agreed. I liked the remake better, also.
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