"Man from space? What clapperclaw is this?"
Told in flashback “The Man from Planet X” is about a rogue planet hurtling toward the Earth. It is expected to pass by us. Professor Elliott (Raymond Bond) is in a castle on an isolated island off the coast of Scotland. This is where it is reported the planet will pass the closest to Earth. A reporter named John Lawrence (Robert Clarke) goes there to talk to him. At the castle the reporter finds the professor’s daughter Enid Elliot (Margaret Field) and a slimy guy named Dr. Mears (William Schallert).
A scout from planet X lands on earth. The man from planet X is short. John saves its life when the valve on the alien’s pressurized suit gets stuck. The alien follows them back to the castle. The professor and the doctor want to try to communicate with it. When Dr. Mears is left alone with the alien he tortures it to gain secrets from it. The alien escapes and takes Enid with him. It then kidnaps the professor. The alien also takes over some town’s people and hypnotizes them using a ray. The aliens are planning to invade and take over the Earth. John must save Enid and the Professor before it is too late.
"The Man From Planet X" was released in 1951 and was directed by Edgar G. Ulmer. What we don’t know is if the aliens had intended on invading from the beginning or if it was a decision they made after their scout was tortured by Dr. Mears. One person saved its life and another tortured it.
The look of the movie is dark and mysterious. The setting of the moors emphasizes that with fog and dead trees as a background. Shadows are eerie and distorted. The movie had a budget of $50,000 and was completed in 6 days. To save money the producers used the same sets that were created for Ingrid Bergman’s “Joan of Arc”. Add a fog machine and you’re good to go. Incidentally it grossed over 1.2 million at the box office. Not bad for a low budget “B” movie.
“Planet X” is credited with being the first alien invasion movie. It beat out “The Thing from Another World” by one month. The alien communicates by the use of modular music tones. The same communication form used by Stephen Spielberg in “Close Encounters of the Third Kind”. With all these interesting tidbits it makes a decent addition to your collection.