Devil Girl from Mars (1955)

In a Scotish inn, the owners, employees and guests are reunited in the bar. Our of the blue, a flying saucer lands nearby and a woman dressed in black leather like a dominatrix with cape arrives in the bar armed with a ray-gun. She explains that she is Nyah (Patricia Laffan), from Mars, and she was heading to London. However her spacecraft collided with an airplane and was damaged; therefore she had to land to repair the saucer. She also explains that she is looking for men to breed her female race since the male population is dying after warfare between males and females and they need offspring. Nyah has the robot Chani to help her to capture men, but she wants that one of the men volunteers to go with her to Mars. Who might be the volunteer? "Devil Girl from Mars" is an awful campy film, but also a cult-movie. The main reason is the character Nyah, the alien from Mars, who dresses like a dominatrix. The storyline is funny since the Martians have high technology but are unable to develop artificial insemination. The romantic subplots are boring and the sacrifice of Robert Justin, alias Albert Simpson, is simply forgotten by the ungrateful survivors. My vote is three.Title (Brazil): Not Available

It's no use reviewing films like these if you're going to compare them with modern day releases. They are what they are - cheap perhaps but made to make money out of 'less expecting' 1950's film goers.In a world where we can do almost anything with CGI - features like this had to rely on good old model work and actual mechanical effects.There are some real howlers in the script - but that's all part of the charm.The actual flying saucer is a real hoot -"It's like something from another planet!"It's landing is very noisy - so not surprising to find that the sound editor is one Gerry 'Thunderbirds' Anderson (Credited here as Gerald Anderson)In some ways there is a connection with Forbidden Planet. In Forbidden Planet a Starship crew come across a naive sheltered beauty who doesn't quite understand what the Men are really looking for and what she wants.Well here the Devil Girl knows exactly what she wants - and has come to get it!

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.

This was actually a stage play first. Can you imagine? And I'm sorry Joel & the 'bots never got a chance to pick this one apart. The potential for near-off-color jokes is amazing. Nyah smirks, struts, shows Mr. Spock what the eyebrow is really for, prepares a sperm bank for Mars, shows little Tommy "wonders of the universe you've never dreamed of," all while her giant refrigerator robot is in tow, disintegrating trees. If she had only made it to London, she'd have ruled the discotheques without all the fuss. I should hope there's no such thing as reincarnation, as I might not love this camp classic in the next life. Anakin Skywalker, you're a wuss.