The Man from Planet X (1951)

And in this case, it's a normal good guy, William Schallert, playing the villain. As earthlings Robert Clarke, Raymond Bond, Margaret Clarke and Schallert discover an unknown planet heading into the direction of earth, they prepare for the best or the worst. When a lone creature from the earth man named planet X does show up, all but Schallert treat the visiting and nonspeaking being with sensitivity. Schallert, obviously a suspicious type, takes drastic measures to get into the visitor's mind, even going as far as physically attacking it.This is 1950's sci-fi without the camp, without ridiculous subplots that really don't belong, and without a ridiculous looking creature. There's nothing but the story of conflicts in humanity over what's the best way to deal with the unknown, and a theory that we shouldn't shoot first and wonder about the alternative later. It's moody and deliberately slow, subtly fascinating, and more intelligent than most audiences going into expected. That makes this slow going at times, certainly having a conflict yet never fully grabbing you past feeling sorry for the poor visitor who seems to be there with good intentions. An interesting moment in the career of cult director Edgar G. Ullmer.

In my mind, this film has two major distinctions. The first is veteran character actor William Schallert playing, possibly for the only time in his career, a weaseling villain. After all, to us Boomers he was Patty Duke's father in "The Patty Duke Show," or the humble, self-effacing-yet-professional Air Corps pilot that planned and led the interception of Japansese Admiral Yamamto in "The Gallant Hours." The second distinction is that this is the first movie that scared the crap out of me. I was 7 years old and after seeing this movie couldn't sleep with the lights off for a week. Even into adulthood, driving past the salt marshes of Eastern Long Island on a foggy night caused my imagination to go a bit bonkers.While it certainly scared a bunch of kids, the cult appeal that other horror or B-movie flicks enjoyed doesn't carry over into adulthood. The dialogue appears to have been written by adolescent comic book authors. Enid, the heroine, upon getting a flat tire, actually says "Confound the luck!" And the egghead Professor Elliot seems to like the word "singularity," as he inserts it all over his speech at random and without any meaning. Plot devices used to connect to the next scene seem to have been made up on the set at the last minute. All the clothing, especially hero John's Air Force bomber jacket and his trenchcoat, appear to have been rented cheap provided they don't get wrinkled or dirty.But, in the end, it needs to be enjoyed for what it is: A Cheesy Rainy Saturday Afternoon B-Flick. Get some of the frat brothers together, tap a mini-keg, and laugh at the dialogue, the cheap sets, the just-off-the-rack look of all the clothes, the plot devices, and the special effects.

Margaret Field, who died a month ago, appeared in some movies in the '40s and '50s, but then decided to concentrate on raising her family. Her daughter later became famous as a surfer girl, a flying nun, and a two-time Oscar-winning actress.One of the elder Field's movies was this quirky sci-fi outing from the early '50s. "The Man from Planet X" focuses on an alien who lands on a Scottish island while his planet is passing ours. While some of the scientists want to communicate with this new guest, one has less than noble intentions. Ridiculous though it may be, the movie is very enjoyable in every way. It's just fun to see an alien who looks like something from an Eastern European stop-motion cartoon.So, it shall go down in history that Sally Field's mother had an encounter with an extraterrestrial. Pretty neat. As for Planet X, I recall that Daffy Duck and Porky Pig tried to colonize it but had to contend with Marvin the Martian.

I remember this movie from when I was a kid. Well, not the entire story, only the scene in which no one is able to communicate with the alien from Planet X until William Schallet begins to show him geometry and mathematics, "the universal language of science," and the boxy looking alien begins to whir with electronic interest.Seeing it again, the scene wasn't so impressive. We've been through it so many times since, if we know anything about what Carl Sagan was up to.The rest of the movie is embarrassingly cheaply done and formulaic. I understand that Edgar G. Ulmer is practically a cult figure when it comes to inexpensive movies and, to be sure, "Detour" has its diverting moments.But "Detour" was about one dumb guy and one real bitch -- two characters with unforgettable primary traits. "The Man From Planet X" isn't a story about character or Weltanschauung. It purports to be a thrilling and spooky story about unknown forces, mind-capturing rays, and the colonization of the earth. You can do a lot on a modest budget if you only have two characters making snotty wisecracks, but telling a story is a different order of animal.It just doesn't work for me. The story isn't particularly exciting and the characters are mostly uninteresting stereotypes. The rocks are made of papier mache and the strange alien is wearing an obviously false head whose features are frozen in one position.I said the characters are stereotypes, and they are, in a way that the two losers of "Detour" never were. Examples: The hero is handsome. The elderly scientist has a beautiful daughter who is his assistant. Do I have to mention "The Beast From 20,000 Fathoms" and "Them"? Well, I won't. I refuse to mention them.The stereotype that is most irritating is Schallert's evil assistant scientist. The movies can do without them simply by turning the alien into a monster sufficient unto its own evil intent. But, okay, "The Creature From the Black Lagoon" had Richard Denning who wanted to kill the creature and become famous. "The Revenge of the Creature" had John Bromfield as a zoo keeper jealous of Lori Nelson, which is at least understandable. "The Thing From Another World" had a misguided egghead who thought the man-eating monster only needed a few sessions of Gestalt therapy to be cured.In "The Man From Planet X," William Schallert is given no motivation for his desire to commandeer the mind-control rays and other super duper weapons of the alien. Out of nowhere he turns greedy and villainous, the poor man's Fu Manchu. Not that there's anything intrinsically wrong with wanting to lay your hands on all the wealth in the world, nor is it an uncommon impulse. The 19th-century was full of robber barons who cared about nothing else. Take a look at the giant meteor crater in northern Arizona sometime. At the very bottom of this unimaginably vast bowl of earth, there are a couple of tiny shacks and old pipes. When the crater was discovered, the first thing Homo sapiens thought of was the possibility that a meteor made of gold or diamonds or solid iron might be buried in it, and an attempt was made to dig it up. Nope. Schallert may be a stereotype but stereotypes exist for a reason.