Watch Unearthly Stranger For Free

How sad is this?

Good concept, poorly executed.

Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

Wonderful little British science fiction thriller. Unearthly Stranger features John Neville as a recently married rocket scientist who discovers that many things in his life are not what they appear to be. Neville's wife is played by Gabriella Licudi and she gives her character a very exotic and surreal persona.Phillip Stone in his film debut plays Nevilles superior. Patrick Newell plays the head of security who is immediately suspicious of Neville's wife.Neville's character has been part of a scientific team that has been researching the possibility of space travel by the power of thought.Members of the team seem to be dying as a result of unexplained accidents and Neville has become terrified that he too will come meet with an accidental death because of his association with the project.Stone and Newell both point out to Neville his wife's many strange living habits and certain powers she seems to have that just are not human. They both meet with strange unexplained deaths Neville also notices that Licudi seems to be getting more and more depressed and anxious. She finally tells him the reason for his and this leads them both to an eerie climax that the viewer will never forget. Unearthly Stranger kind of slipped under the radar when it was first released but it has gained an almost cult like status as the years have gone by. It's not easy to find but it is worth seeking out.

One of the most entertaining films to come out of British studios in the Sixties which sadly has never been given the plaudits it richly deserved. Both Neville and Stone (who played an excellent part in "The Shining"), demonstrated total commitment and kept the pace and excitement of the plot going right to the end. And we shouldn't neglect to mention Patrick Newell, who played the 'sweet-toothed' security bod, with precision-like reality. I too was surprised by the similarity to the plot of William Sloane's "TO WALK THE NIGHT", an eerie and thought-provoking story I first read in 1959 and have read a dozen times since. The similarity is just too close to be coincidence and it is nothing short of criminal not to have Sloane's name on the credits. The film was excellent; the novel is superb, both deserve a place in any SF collection.

There are a handful of fine films that have never been released on tape or disk. Sometimes they show up on the few independent TV stations around the country that still have access to the old collections of movies that used to circulate in the days before cable. Nearly lost films, except in the memories of people who saw them at drive-ins or on TV before the current age of homogenous viewing. Unearthly Stranger is a perfect example of this kind of film. Not the masterpiece that Invasion of the Body Snatchers is, Unearthly Stranger is still a wonderful science fiction story with trappings of the paranoia that characterizes Body Snatchers, I Married a Monster, and other, earlier, SF films. Stranger was a throwback when it was new, and that may be why it was pretty much ignored when it was released. With DVD releases of an awful lot of true garbage, there really is no excuse for the continued neglect of this stylish, almost lost movie.

To call this modest British film low budget is the worst kind of misrepresentation: the budget on creativity and skill at work here surpasses that found in most multi-million dollar productions.Filmed in stark black-and-white with virtually no visual effects, "Unearthly Stranger" relies on sheer dramatic power to tell its story of an alien plan to sabotage Earth's developing ability for space travel. The film is written and directed with care and performed with a conviction that brings across the suspense and humanity of this story in a way rarely seen in the genre.Many of the filmmakers would soon be working on TV's "The Avengers", including producer Albert Fennell and director John Krish. Fans of that series will also recognize many familiar faces among the cast. The strongest performances come from John Neville, distinguished stage actor and teacher, and the almost-unknown and very beautiful Gabriella Licudi who, in the title role, brings the concept of interplanetary communications to an entirely new level.The odd man out in this production is certainly scenarist Rex Carlton. On the basis of this film, it is almost inconceivable that he is the same man responsible for the lurid "Brain That Wouldn't Die" and "Blood of Dracula's Castle", among others. One is tempted to give credit to Jeffrey Stone, who penned the original screen story. But this is a claim that's impossible to support, because Stone was involved as a writer on no other films. So, one can only say that none of Carlton's other screen work would ever approach the level of this, his most subtle and affecting accomplishment.It is well worth tracking down for any fan of fine science fiction or, indeed, any fan of quality filmmaking.