Watch The Man from Planet X For Free

It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

It's a good bad... and worth a popcorn matinée. While it's easy to lament what could have been...

Great example of an old-fashioned, pure-at-heart escapist event movie that doesn't pretend to be anything that it's not and has boat loads of fun being its own ludicrous self.

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

The reporter John Lawrence (Robert Clarke) visits Dr. Robert Blane (Gilbert Fallman) and learns that his friend, Prof. Elliot (Raymond Bond) has discovered a new planet that is in route toward Earth and has moved to an observatory on the Burry Island to observe from a closer location. John heads to the Scottish island and is welcomed by Prof. Elliot's daughter Enid Elliot (Margaret Field), who is now a beautiful young woman. They go to the observatory to meet Prof. Elliot and John finds Dr. Mears (William Schallert), who is his disaffection. When Enid returns home after driving John to an inn in the town, she has a flat tire and finds a spacecraft landed on the island with a weird alien inside that follows her home. While Prof. Elliot and John want to investigate the reason why the alien landed on Earth, Dr. Mears has second thoughts. What are the true intentions of the extraterrestrial being?"The Man from Planet X" is a campy and lame sci-fi in black and white, but also a cult for fans (like me) of sci-fi from the 50's. The story of a close encounter with an alien is from the same year of "The Day the Earth Stood Still" that is a classic. The open end, where the true intention of the extraterrestrial being is not disclosed, is excellent. My vote is six.Title (Brazil): Not available on Blu-Ray or DVD

THE MAN FROM PLANET X has a lot going for it, not the least of which is an interesting premise: an alien from a dying world arrives on Earth (just ahead of the aforementioned dying world itself, which has been steered toward Earth), ostensibly to colonize this planet. His intentions may have been peaceful, but William Schallert as the greedy businessman "Mears" undermines any such peaceful intentions by capturing and torturing the alien. (Two years later, IT CAME FROM OUTER SPACE would use basically the same premise, although it would forego the Bush-Cheney-Rumsfeld approach.) Writer-director Ulmer makes the most of what little he has, shrouding the action and miniatures in mist and setting scenes at night (the old double-whammy of low-budget filmmaking). The alien himself isn't half bad, either (he definitely doesn't look Human), but his little ship is truly outstanding for such an obviously low-rent venture. At one point, a constable complains to reporter Lawrence: "You take the taste of the tea right out of my mouth." But it's Lawrence who delivers the best line of the movie when he tells his woman that it's best not to tell the world about the attempted invasion: "Knowledge would only bring more fear in a world already filled with it." Don't we know it...

As a mysterious planet hurls itself toward earth, an enigmatic extraterrestrial scout arrives on a remote Scottish island with unknown intentions.Edgar Ulmer is not a well-known director. Horror fans may know his "Black Cat", and science fiction fans may know him for this film. But, largely, I think he has been forgotten. And that is a shame because these two films alone make for a solid legacy.Ulmer did set design for Max Reinhardt's theater, served his apprenticeship with F. W. Murnau, and worked with directors including Robert Siodmak, Billy Wilder, Fred Zinnemann and cinematographer Eugen Schüfftan. His work is forgotten but he was a crucial piece of the early German-American film.Sure, "Planet X" is cheesy. Yes, the camera likes to sit behind trees, and it is odd how Dr. Mears is able to walk five feet behind others without being noticed. And sure, they barely spent a penny by re0using the sets of other films. And yes, yes, the Scottish constable is a silly ethnic stereotype. All these things are true. But that is the charm.This film excels because it embraces its cheese and runs with it. Could planets really come that close to earth? Obviously not. And no film would attempt that stunt today. But this was an era when science did not need to be in science fiction to be good. The world was less cynical and more relaxed. Enjoy!

What can you say about a movie that pays its male lead (Clarke) all of $210, total, or its director (Ulmer) $300, total. Or whose Scottish town consists of a painting hung on a wall. Actually, you can say a lot because moviemaker Ulmer is the Orson Welles of poverty row. So, almost by magic, he turns the two or three spare sets, foggy moors, and skimpy special effects into an atmospheric little thriller worth remembering. I still recall the audience shrieks from 60 years ago when the alien lunges, face first, at the window pane and us. I'll bet there wasn't a dry seat in the house.And what a strange alien he is. The only one I've seen who's so weak, he couldn't win a wrestling match with a jelly fish. No wonder he just wants to make friends. But with a mug like an Aztecan death mask, it's difficult. Then too, where did they get the design for the space ship. That too is like nothing I've seen, looking more like a Xmas tree ornament than anything else (as another reviewer points out). However, there is Sally Field's perky mom, Margaret, with a design I can really get into. Too bad our leading man is too busy saving the world to notice.Anyhow, 60-years later, it's still a good creepy film with an energized cast that don't seem to mind the poverty row paycheck.