The Night Caller

Almost intelligent British sci-fi with a Mod theme. The black and white cinematography is stylish and some of the sets and clothes have a nice Mod feel, but it never turns into a full style fest. There is one quite odd scene with two distraught parents doing a sort of Stiller and Meara routine for the police and scientist. John Saxon is as hot as can be, but alas, never gets around to removing his shirt or even unbuttoning his collar. What a waste of his greatest talent. The one thing that makes this worth watching is the gay character. Aubrey Morris, best known as the long-suffering but sadistic quasi-pedophile caseworker from "A Clockwork Orange", plays Mr. Thorburn, a purveyor of used books, and, I suspect, naughty magazines, perhaps even male physique pictorials. When the police superintendent comes to question him, he gives the cop hell. The subtext makes it obvious that he has been harassed and probably jailed for his proclivities, but he doesn't let that stop him. Commenting on the unearthly green eyes of the alien, he says "I love men with fine eyes, don't you superintendent?" then blows him a kiss when he leaves. Four years before Stonewall, he's still getting busted, but he's very much in control of his interaction with the cop. The ending of the movie is utterly cheesy but what did you expect from a movie called Night Caller from Outer Space?

Low-key but intriguing and generally effective variation on the alien invasion theme (though the script is far inferior to the Quatermass archetype); as a matter of fact, the police procedural tends to be more engaging than the high-falutin' scientific theorizing! Unfortunately, too, some of the dialogue is unintelligible due to the heavy British accents (but, then, the version I watched was accompanied by subtitles in Italian!).

The cast features several familiar British faces (Maurice Denham, John Carson, Jack Watson, etc.); still, as with many low-budget horror films of its era, the lead role was given to an American actor: in this case, John Saxon - who's pretty adequate under the circumstances, with a blonde Patricia Haines (whom I recently saw in the awful VIRGIN WITCH [1972]) as his female co-star. Aubrey Morris, however, is memorable as the scurrilous editor of a 'girlie' magazine - which is used as bait for the alien's female victims (who, as is often the case, has descended to Earth because his own planet has reached saturation point). This element gives way to some typically dry British humor (especially the awkward interrogation of one of the missing girl's simple but cantankerous parents)...but Ballard Berkeley's belated introduction as the Commander steering the operations engaged in the alien's capture can't be taken seriously - in view of his regular appearance as the befuddled Major in the classic TV comedy series FAWLTY TOWERS (1975-79), devised by and starring Monty Python's John Cleese!!

With the imposing figure of the alien generally shown lurking in the shadows or hidden behind heavy clothing and a mask (shades of the giallo subgenre?), its menace is evoked through the creature's adoption of a mellifluous yet sinister 'human' voice; that said, the make-up effects shown intermittently are surprisingly subtle. Even so, the best thing about the film is certainly Stephen Dade's chiaroscuro photography - utilizing some odd angles, particularly during the alien manhunt, obviously inspired by THE THIRD MAN (1949)! The rather uneventful cautionary finale, then, is reminiscent of THE DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL (1951).

THE NIGHT CALLER is a very uneven movie in that it's sometimes excellent and sometimes awful . For the most part it's very atmospheric and downbeat sci-fi film noir where most of the scenes are filmed during night and resembles the classic QUATERMASS BBC serials of the 1950s where scientists team up with the military and Scotland Yard to deal with an extraterrestrial menace

Unfortunately it becomes clear that the script wasn't written by someone as intellectually or dramatically gifted as the legendary Nigel Kneale and it's the plot and dialogue that's the problem with audience being subjected to some quite laughable techno babble that anyone with any type of basic scientific knowledge will roll their eyes at . Once the alien masterplan is revealed people will be falling out of their seats asking " Is that it ? " and let's not mention some very ludicrous plot holes like how does an alien from another planet learn to drive a car or acquire money to rent an office

This is a movie containing a strange mixture of good and bad aspects and it's by no means an ordeal to sit through especially like me you're a fan of QUATERMASS , the original series of THE OUTER LIMITS and early 1970s DOCTOR WHO but it's a movie that should have been a lot better and shows like 28 DAYS LATER that if a film is good it's down to the director and if it's bad it's down to the screenwriter

Both the colourised UK version and the US version (still in black & white) can been found on YouTube. There are some minor differences between them of which I am aware. One of these is the theme tune. One of these is the scene in Thorntons bookshop, parts of which were re-shot for an American and/or overseas audience. These re-shot scenes replaced the topless pictures that were on display.

My own opinion on the film is that it is a good standard British 60's UK Sci-Fi.

I don't know why they had to have John Saxon play the leading role in this movie; the Production Team could have chosen one of several dozen British actors who would have done a better job and better fitted the role. But then perhaps the film had American backers and they were calling the tune. Speaking of tune, the introductory song/music on the DVD version of the film is pathetic and totally incomparable to the original brilliant 60s pop instrumental "Image" with its Telstar-type organ backing. All that aside the movie is one that joins many other British SF films in the ranks of fame and is not totally unfaithful to Frank Crisp's 1963 novel "The Night Callers" on which it was based. It has moments which are slightly unnerving, particularly when the proposed candidates for shipping back to Ganymede are being interviewed by the man (monster) behind the shadows. Generally speaking there were very few dull moments and the pace of the plot was just right. Perhaps the ending could have been extended and more seen of the hideous alien with the claw-like appendages. Denham shines out above anyone else in the male cast leaving Saxon looking on from the sidelines as if he were a last minute, and not totally comfortable sub. A must see gem of a movie and despite the absence of the original introductory music the DVD will make a good addition to any SF Movie Buff's collection.