The Man From Planet X

Cult director Edgar G. Ulmer (BLUEBEARD) shot THE MAN FROM PLANET X in just six days, and it had its premiere in San Francisco barely two months later. Screenwriters Aubrey Wisberg and Jack Pollexfen (THE NEANDERTHAL MAN) also produced it for their new company, and considering its $41,000 budget, THE MAN FROM PLANET X turned a profit rather quickly. It’s a decent science fiction film with interesting ideas let down by a subpar cast and slight production values.

Robert Clarke (THE HIDEOUS SUN DEMON) stars as an American reporter who travels to Scotland to investigate a new planet whose orbit will bring it dangerously close to Earth. He meets up with astronomer Raymond Bond (FLIGHT TO MARS), an old friend, as well as Bond’s daughter (Margaret Field) and morally dubious scientist William Schallert (THE PATTY DUKE SHOW), who wears an evil beard. Setting the film on a remote island allows Ulmer to keep the cast light, and these four characters encounter the titular creature.

Played by five-foot actor Pat Goldin (Dugan in the JIGGS AND MAGGIE series), the Man from Planet X has a long, immobile face, wears a bubble helmet that contains his air supply, and appears friendly and eager to make contact. Unfortunately, Schallert ruins First Contact for everyone, abusing the Man and spurring it to zombify the locals and use them as slave labor for an invasion of Earth. Nice job, dickweed.

Ulmer’s small budget was both a plus and a minus. On the positive side, in using his imagination to obscure the set-bound exteriors and miniatures with fog, Ulmer creates a moody Gothic atmosphere that occasionally makes the film look more expensive, not less. On the other hand, the paucity of supporting actors and extras — not to mention a town we never see — distracts from the alleged danger the Man from Planet X represents.