The Cosmic Man

"The Cosmic Man" is a charming attempt to make a $5.00 version of "The Day the Earth Stood Still". It's an extremely low-budgeted Sci-Fi movie from the late fifties, so this generally means there are stern scientists talking a lot of pseudo-philosophical gibberish and asking themselves way too many rhetorical questions, villainous looking military men fantasizing about weapons of mass destruction and mysterious alien forces with minds that are immeasurably superior to ours. When a spherical UFO – a gigantic golf ball actually – is discovered in a small Californian canyon community, the army wants to nuke it and a local scientist wants to study it. Meanwhile, the alien passenger sneaks out of his interstellar golf ball and begins exploring the earthly habits, rites and inhabitants. This is where our cute and cheap little B-movie rips off "The Day the Earth Stood Still", in fact, as the alien witnesses the imbecility and self-destructive nature of the human race. How come aliens get such a kick out of observing how stupid we are? Like in a few hundred of the films he starred in, John Carradine receives top-billing even though he appears all together perhaps for a whole five minutes. "The Cosmic Man" is often rather dull and doesn't contain any real action, but it certainly has good intentions and an earnest supportive cast.

An unidentified object is tracked going at extreme speeds around the globe. A mysterious object is found in Bronson Canyon (a real location used in the filming of "Robot Monster" 1953). Naturally, the military is antsy and requests a top scientist Dr. Karl Sorenson (Bruce Bennett) investigate.

All the elements are there with the three-way love interest between the widowed mother Kathy Grant (Angela Greene) of a crippled kid Ken (Scotty Morrow), scientist Dr. Sorenson and military Col. Matthews (Paul Langton.) They must speculate on the good bad and ugly of their mysterious invader (John Carradine).

An added plus is the fun of seeing the technology of the time this film was made. And a vintage look at the Griffith Park Observatory. Too bad they did not show the inside as there is a nifty pendulum that swings with the rotation of the earth.

We are in luck as we get two space speeches before the conclusion. Will we heed the warning or is this the end?

Cosmic Man, The (1959)

** (out of 4)

An alien (John Carradine) lands on Earth in what appears to be a large ping pong ball and tells us Americans how stupid we are and how the world will come to an end due to our dumbness. This is clearly a rip off of The Day the Earth Stood Still and it's poorly made but this leads to a few decent laughs. Carradine sleepwalks through his role, which isn't good considering this was a man who could make Billy the Kid vs. Dracula entertaining. The supporting cast are all rather bland and corny. This is far from a classic but it's enjoyable enough if you have 70-minutes to kill.

In THE COSMIC MAN, a UFO crash-lands on Earth, causing great concern for the military. When a scientist is called in to examine the craft, he discovers a floating orb, hoverin about six feet off the ground. Not surprisingly, the military views it as a weapon.

Meanwhile, unbeknownst to anyone, the orb's occupant (John Carradine) is silently creeping about, causing panic. At first, he spends his time as a shadow figure (aka: a superimposed negative image), eventually taking on a human appearance.

Uh oh!

The military can't leave well enough alone, and decides to take control of the spaceship. This causes the mysterious visitor to reveal his agenda.

This is another movie, like STRANGER FROM VENUS, that owes much of its existence to THE DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL. The same, basic idea runs through all three films. The biggest difference here is that COSMIC MAN just isn't as interesting or exciting...

Although the idea for the story is completely ripped off from The Day The Earth Stood Still and the production values are practically opaque in this film, The Cosmic Man has a nice story to tell with a good cast of sincere competent players. Seeing John Carradine heading the cast I know the man was not to discriminate in those science fiction films he starred in I was expecting the worst. I was pleasantly surprised at how good it was.

Instead of Washington, DC for a landing, a small spherical spaceship travels and lands in a mountainous of the USA. It is plain that a man not like any we know has emerged and is in the area. Played by John Carradine The Cosmic Man is human like in general appearance, but he's not threatened by any of our more conventional like weapons. He takes refuge in a resort lodge owned by Angela Greene and he bonds with her son Scotty Morrow who is crippled and terminal.

The debate between scientist Bruce Bennett and military man Paul Langton as to what to do with this alien invader takes up a lot of the film. If you remember in The Thing the same debate takes place between Air Force Colonel Kenneth Tobey and scientist Robert Cornthwaite. Here we have a different winner.

I can't go further about the plot, but The Cosmic Man is a sincere plea for peace not just on earth. In the end Carradine The Cosmic Man leaves a legacy of love that there is no mistake about.

This is not The Day The Earth Stood Still, but this particular science fiction film from The Fifties while not great is unjustly neglected.