Gesandter des Grauens

Having caught most of horror legend Corman’s more respectable early genre efforts – THE UNDEAD (1957), A BUCKET OF BLOOD (1959) and THE LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS (1960) – I had been aching to check this one out being, by all accounts, the most elusive of the bunch. Having now watched the film on the very same day I acquired it says a lot about my love of fantasy films – when many a renowned mainstream (and, for all intents and purposes, desirable) title still languishes in my collection and which, sometimes, I’ve owned for a good many years already...

Anyway, going back to that opening statement about Corman’s pre-color/Edgar Allan Poe output, NOT OF THE THIS EARTH emerges to be fully deserving of its considerable reputation; indeed, I’d say it’s probably the most satisfying of the four films mentioned above: the others had a tongue-in-cheek, even campy approach – present here only in some amusingly dated jive talk from the youngsters and a goofy mushroom-like floating object used at one point to dispatch a prominent character – whereas this is quite straightforward, and as stark and unrelenting as they come! Besides, the typical alien invasion theme here is ingeniously augmented by the topical concern of paranoia found in Charles B. Griffith and Mark Hanna’s intelligent script, via its allusions to Nuclear War (the fictional world from which the alien emanates, Davana, is succumbing to interplanetary war a' la THIS ISLAND EARTH [1955]’s Metaluna) and The Red Menace (hypnotized by the extraterrestrial creature, the human victims’ subsequent devotion to his cause is comparable to the emotionless doppelgangers from INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS [1956]); apart from this, the alien’s modus operandi – draining Earthlings of their blood – presents the film with a nice twist on the vampire myth! Incidentally, he uses the closet of his bedroom as a teleportation/communication machine between the two worlds, requires to wear sunglasses at all times (because one look into his creepy blank eyes can kill), but is himself vulnerable to loud noises (which proves to be his undoing in the climactic chase). Eventually, a second (female) visitor from outer-space arrives on the scene – but dies shortly thereafter, having unwittingly received a transfusion of infected blood! The film concludes, then, on a satisfactorily ironic note.

Despite the obviously modest budget at hand, the director has assembled a more than adequate cast to fill the main roles: Paul Birch is impressive and memorable as the ‘unearthly stranger’; Beverly Garland makes for one of the most engaging heroines in this type of film; Jonathan Haze’s character as Birch’s lackey is miles removed from his signature role of the geeky florist in THE LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS; Corman stalwart and cult favorite Dick Miller has a delightful bit as a hip but ill-fated vacuum-cleaner salesman. By the way, the atmospheric cinematography (evident even in the poor-quality 16mm print I watched) is by John Mescall – who, years before, had been responsible for nothing less than BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN (1935)! Finally, it’s worth noting that NOT OF THIS EARTH was twice remade to much lesser effect – first in 1988 and again in 1995; curiously enough, on both of these, Corman himself would serve as executive producer!

I first saw this film in 1959 as a 7 year old while on holiday in Ireland. I remember feeling very scared watching it. It was part of a double bill with "The Attack of the Crab Monsters", another equally scary film for a child of such tender years. Both were rated "X certificate" by the UK censor.

The reason for my review is that I've just watched a doc on TV which deals with censorship in Ireland from 1923 to 1980 and one of the films discussed was "Casablanca", which in my opinion is the greatest film ever made. Though released in 1942, it was not shown until 1945. In those days, Ireland only had one certification, and any film that had content that was deemed "offensive", had to be cut, or was denied a certificate. The offending bit in this case was the portrayal of the Germans, quite rightly, as the villains.

At that time, they were treading a path of strict neutrality and they did not want to show the film in case it led to an anti-German backlash. To give some idea of how rigidly they stuck to this policy, when Hitler committed suicide, the then Irish Prime Minister, Eamonn De Valera, signed the book of condolence at the Germany Embassy in Dublin after Hitler's death

But I digress. Thinking about Irish censorship compared to the UK version and remembering how scared I was watching this X cert double bill, I wonder how scary the uncensored version must have been?

In case anyone is unaware, the film is considered a "Cold War allegory" with the invaders from Davanna representing an attempt by the Russians to take over the world.

One of Corman's most unusual and entertaining features from the 50s. Rubber monsters are totally extraneous to the menace of (the excellent) Paul Birch as the sunglass-wearing alien from Davana who puts a scare in sexy nurse Beverly Garland! Bev hams it up in a slick one-piece for John Haze's amusement and Dick Miller drops by in an excellent bit as a VERY annoying vacuum salesman. The audience mightn't have minded when he died, and here is one of the earliest examples of Corman's very influential use of comedy/horror. Very good script was adapted almost word for word in some scenes for the 80s version -- a tribute to Griffith's skill as a writer of such glib dialogue. A bit more effective production would have helped, but we all know how Corman likes to pinch a penny.

This is a truly great, almost unknown B-movie -- why doesn't someone get their hands on a print and put it out on DVD and video again? I had to go to the best video store in San Francisco to find it anywhere in the whole bay area. I don't think it's currently in circulation, and it's very hard to find a copy. Thus, not many people know about the original version of this great flick (which features vampire blood fetishism in the context of alien invaders! I mean, how could you go wrong?). The remake was good, but not as good as the original. I think Allied distributed this for Corman, so there should be prints floating around somewhere, so let's hope a nice one pops up on DVD soon.

You have to hand it to Roger Corman, he could not only stretch a dollar but our imaginations as well. In this one he put character actor Paul Birch in a black suit, stark white contact lenses and sunglasses. He's playing a blind man, right? Wrong! He's playing a space alien and if you look at his pupil-less eyes your brain burns right in your skull (could this be where David Cronenberg got the idea for SCANNERS?). Anyway, Birch has come to our world looking for blood. His own planet is worn out due to years of atomic war and only the uncontaminated blood of Earth people can save what is left of his race. Birch's superior intellect has made him extremely arrogant (he refers to Earthlings as "subhuman") yet his unfamiliarity with the simplest things on this world continually attracts attention to himself. He makes no attempt to cover his many killings, leaving bodies where they can easily be discovered. His contempt for Earth and its people mirrors that of THE THING FROM ANOTHER WORLD who brutally knocked Dr. Carrington aside when he dared to compare his feeble Earth brain to that of the alien. Also in the cast are Beverly Garland as the nurse who knows her patient is unusual but does not realise how much. Jonathan Haze as the former petty crook who is his chauffeur (Haze's last line is a classic!). Morgan Jones, the former "Green Hornet" in the 1940 Universal serial, is the cop in love with Garland who labels Birch "a creep"; and Dick Miller is a vacuum cleaner salesman who deserves some sort of award for using the word "purchase" the most times in a single sentence. Oh yes, there is a monster too, sort of. A briefly seen what-is-it designed by Paul Blaisdell that looks like an inverted umbrella. It kills the one person on Earth who knows who and what Birch really is and then (apparently) dies. Talk about thrifty, that isn't blood at the end of that scene, the actor who appears to have his head crushed by the monster just had a mouth full of grape juice and spit it out at the right moment. Roger has remade this film twice (what, will he keep doing it until he gets it right?) but the original is still the most fun.

Evil, blood-sucking alien (like there's another kind in Corman's universe?) Paul Birch is draining the citizenry of L.A. to save not only himself but the dying planet Davanna in this creepy Corman classic. When nurse Bev Garland and her not-too-imaginative cop boyfriend discover what Birch is up to, the fun really gets going: foot chases, car chases, fiery crashes - in short, the works. Even though there's something for almost everybody in this little gem (except spaceships; sorry, all you hardware freaks), "Not of this Earth" remains one of the very few Corman films that has never been released on either VHS or DVD. Supposedly, the reason for this is that Corman himself wasn't satisfied with the finished product; hence, at least two remakes, or, three if you count the stupendously awful "Star Portal." As is typical in Corman films, the budget was very tiny; so tiny, in fact, that the only piece of the original, lavish "dimensional warp chamber" to survive fiscal reality was the multi-orbed thingamajig at the very top of the otherwise spartan black chamber. Too bad. The word is that the original design by Paul Blaisdell was pretty impressive. Well, for a low-budget B/W 1957 thriller, anyway. So, while a lot of money does not necessarily a hit film make (witness "Alexander"), it doesn't really hurt, either. Bottom line: don't pay too much attention to the, er, lean FX, such as the deadly lampshade bug. The story isn't bad, the acting is, for the most part, okay (although the three bums are laughable), and you actually feel some pity toward the end for Birch and his ilk. If you can find this one, go for it. Believe us, there's A LOT worse out there