Devil Girl from Mars

No one drawn by the title will be disappointed with tall, amazonian Patricia Laffan in the title role of this nonsense in which Oscar-winning wartime documentarist David MacDonald shows the same respect for matriarchal aspirations he later did in 'Petticoat Pirates'. The title is misleading, though, since dressed in leather by Ronald Cobb to resemble a particularly ferocious principal boy, Martian warrior Nyah is plainly all woman.

The Danzigers seem to have read about 'The Day the Earth Stood Still' rather than actually seen it since Nyah is plainly Klaatu and Gort rolled into one; and her pet robot merely an afterthought.

Enlivened by a dramatic percussive score by Edwin Astley and a cast of familiar faces (too bad Nyah was seeking men, since Hazel Court & Adrienne Corri are by far the most impressive specimens). It also marks an interesting overlap of careers on the set of veteran cameraman Jack Cox - who shot 'The Lady Vanishes' - and child actor Anthony Richmond, who later shot 'Don't Look Now'.

At first you may think this is another fifties low budget sci-fi saga, the type Hollywood churned out by the truckloads(and still do.) The big difference here is the fact that its actually a brit production and that makes it rather rare. The English take their movie making seriously(sometimes to seriously) so the production values, writing, lighting, etc. are a notch above that of the typical Hollywood production.

The wildest thing about the movie is the alien babe who is pretty darn sexy in that freaky outfit she wears. The biggest negative is probably the robot who must have been made out of an old refrigerator. However, to the robots credit he has a cool disintegration ray. First his head lights up , a beam of light shoots out and anything it hits glows then disappears leaving only a bit of smoke. This is by far the best special effect and this technique showed up later on many American sci-fi shows including THE INVADERS and STAR TREK. As i recall from my childhood, the aliens glowing and disappearing after being killed was the coolest thing about THE INVADERS. The robot appears to be really huge also and that alone might have scared the bejesus out of its audience back in the day.

I can imagine that back in the fifties most people who put down their change to see THE DEVIL GIRL FROM MARS left feeling they got their money's worth and then some. Its still pretty entertaining. Better than most from that era no doubt!!!

An odd little cinematic gift from England -- but don't take it too seriously. The story is set in an isolated English inn where a flying saucer lands and surrounds the area in an invisible force field. From the spacecraft emerges a fifteen-foot-tall robot and an evil Martian woman who announces that the matriarchal Martian society has sent her to select Earth men for breeding purposes. The Martian men have been subjugated ever since they lost a war with the women, and during the intervening centuries the males have grown weak and useless. (American men take note: this could happen to you, too!)

All this is played absolutely straight by the cast. No cutesy sex jokes.

On the negative side: bogus scientific terms saturate Miss Laffan's dialogue. The robot looks too much like a refrigerator with a police light for a head. The entire films is shot on an indoor set, causing it to resemble the original stage production on which it was based (yes, a British sci-fi PLAY!)

On the positive side: The concepts described by the bogus scientific dialogue are key elements in the plot -- which means the viewer has to pay attention to keep up with what's going on. The Scenes of the woman and the robot coming out of the huge spacecraft are flawlessly matted and very impressive -- and so is the robot's demonstration of its death ray. Patricia Laffan (the Martian women) overacts outrageously, but her performance is still enjoyable. Her shiny black outfit is comprised of black boots, short skirt, long cape, and black skullcap. The supporting players do a fine job, including the lovely Hazel Court. Praiseworthy music score by Edwin Astely. The story contains some good concepts. For example, the spacecraft is made of `organic metal' that repairs its own damage. Unfortunately, we don't get any special effects depicting this marvel.

In some ways, this one is more fun to watch than a few of the more well-regarded sci-fi entries. It's available on pre-recorded VHS, and worth the few bucks it costs -- IF your expectations have been properly adjusted. I hope I succeeded in doing this. Let me know if I've succeeded.

A couple things upon which we can all agree: At the time of this production, Patricia Laffan had an absolutely wonderful set of gams, and those gams were very nicely displayed by her Martian costume. Another thing we can all agree upon is that within the parameters of this very genteel English 'Invasion Literature' flick, there is a window into some of the kinky thoughts lurking within the very genteel English writer who penned this yarn.

Certainly, this is the one of the quietest and perhaps dullest of the Alien Invader films of the 1950's...the opening credits telegraph this when they tell the audience that this film was based upon the PLAY of the same name. That fact alone, that somewhere upon the British Stage in the early 1950's, someone produced a play titled 'Devil Girl From Mars', is a thing very amusing to contemplate.

So yes, this film is quite talkative, and filled with recognizable stage play types as our cast of characters, and containing a prominent subplot involving a romantic and perhaps redeemable escaped murderer...these are the elements that keep this extra-terrestrial tale unduly Earth-bound. Worse, there appears to be a kind of gentlemen's agreement in effect between the eponymous Devil Girl and her earthly opponents to avoid any serious attempts to overcome the other, until the last moments of the film. And after about the first 20 minutes of the story, it is impossible to stop one's mind from repeating the question: Why doesn't the Devil Girl simply liquidate these annoying people since they are of no use to her?

But weaknesses aside, it is impossible to hate a 1954 British B-movie about an outer-space dominatrix with fabulous gams wearing shiny black leather and visiting Earth in search of male breeding stock. And besides giving her credit for great gams, I should also credit Ms. Laffan for giving what is actually a very good performance, radiating intelligence and menace, and seeming to be both simultaneously prim and lusty.

Also of interest to scifi fans would be the flying saucer design, which is interesting, and the robot, which is not bad. Additionally, Gerry Anderson worked on this pic, as a sound editor, thus beginning his long career in British celluloid scifi.

As I said previously, this opus began it's life as a stage play. The same thing is true of the 'Rocky Horror Picture Show,' which also featured a black clad quasi-dominatrix from outer space, stuck in the English countryside. I have to think that the Devil Girl helped pave the way for Dr. Frankenfurter.

It's chock full of clichés and is a bit stagy at times, but Devil girl from Mars still manages to entertain. The story concerns a group of guests at a remote Scottish inn who witness the landing of a strange unearthly craft and are subsequently held captive by its occupant, the comely Nyah, who is here to take back eligible men to repopulate Mars. Yikes! Needless to say the eligible men want nothing to do with this and plot to prevent her from carrying out her mission. Devil girl from Mars suffers from a number of problems, prime among them the absolutely inept acting of Hugh Mcdermott, who plays the newspaper reporter. He has a key role in the film, which really weakens it dramatically. The other actors can't quite make up for this, although Patricia Laffin is really quite menacing as Nyah. The film has a stagy feel to it, not surprising since it was based, believe it or not on a play. I can just imagine a local theater group trying to mount this! The movie's special effects are the real stars. The spacecraft is really pretty cool, and the robot Chani is a typical 50s conception of an automaton, even if he does resemble a refrigerator. This film belies its bargain basement budget much of the time and can be quite atmospheric with the sound of the wind and the shots of the studio bound Scottish moors. The scene of Nyah entering the drawing room of the inn for the first time still makes me jump.