Not of the Earth
(1957), dir. Roger Cormen, Los Altos Productions
Going back to the B-Movie circuit, Roger Cormen had
directed/produced eight films in 1957 alone. This was one of them.
On the alien planet Davanna, the people are suffering.
Decades of nuclear war has damaged the people and the land so much that it is
not a matter of if the people die out, but when. An agent is sent to the planet
Earth, as it seems Earthlings share enough similar DNA that our blood could be
used to revitalize the Davanna populace.
The agent, taking the name Paul Johnson (Paul Birch), looks
exactly like a normal human, save for his need to wear dark sunglasses at all
times and his overly sensitive ears. He sets up shop in a quaint American town
and hires nurse Nadine Storey (Beverly Garland) as his aide. Nadine finds her
new boss strange, as does her old boss, Dr. Rochelle (William Roerick). The
elder doctor is unlucky enough to find himself under mental domination by
Johnson when he becomes too curious. Nadine’s boyfriend, highway patrolman
Harry Sherbourne (Morgan Jones), is also curious.
So far, Johnson’s mission is going according to schedule.
His early work shows that Earth blood can be given to a Davannian without fear
of rejection, but his experiments are still in the early stages. Pity then when
a fellow countryman; or woman (Anna Lee Carroll) in this case, shows up and
looks worse for wear. Feeling pity, Johnson breaks into Dr. Rochelle’s office
and steals the first vial of blood he can find. Shame that he didn’t bother to
read the fine print, as the blood belonged to a rabid dog; the strange woman
doesn’t handle the new transfusion very well and leaves a rather grisly clue to
Johnson’s origin for the police to find.
Murdering the doctor, Johnson decides to close up shop and
take his findings home. Will he succeed and what does this mean for the Earth?
Honestly, not a bad little film. Corman takes a tight script
and wrings every last bit of drama out of it. Johnson is alien, but his motives
are good, but does that justify his actions? Be sure to keep an eye out for
Dick Miller as the vacuum salesman.
No comments:
Post a Comment