kevinolzak Review of Not of This Earth

Not of This Earth (1957)

Seen on Pittsburgh's Chiller Theater in 1964

[7/10 · 31 March 2019]

It's a safe assumption that "Not of This Earth" was Roger Corman's most profitable release for Allied Artists, as all his best remembered coworkers are present and accounted for: screenwriter Charles B. Griffith, and actors Paul Birch, Beverly Garland ("The Neanderthal Man," "Curucu Beast of the Amazon," "It Conquered the World"), Jonathan Haze, and Dick Miller. Paul Birch typically played authority figures, cast against type to some extent as the villain of the piece, his Mr. Johnson a recent arrival to Earth from the dying planet of Davanna, constant exposure to radiation resulting in the inhabitants' blood literally evaporating in their veins. His mission is to send back blood samples as well as living specimens to see if his species can survive on ours, and when the movie begins he claims his 13th victim, removing his dark sunglasses to reveal no pupils, only eerie whites, burning through a person's eyes to engulf the brain (shades of Peter Cushing's "Horror Express"), always carrying a suitcase full of glass tubes to store blood. Coupled with the corpses that pile up over the course of an hour, nearly two dozen people fall to his earth conquering scheme, including the life of a female Davannan (Anne Carroll), perishing from an accidental transfusion of rabid dog's blood. Jonathan Hayes, as Johnson's caretaker/chauffer, a two bit crook willing to reform for a generous salary, was one of the first to join Corman's stock company right from his sci-fi debut, 1953's "Monster from the Ocean Floor," but not to be outdone was Dick Miller, only present for one hilarious bit as a vacuum cleaner salesman whose hipster pitch earns him his death warrant. All of these early Cormans served notice that his talent for fast shooting was unsurpassed, and the often surprisingly effective results made certain that audiences would come back for more. Even with not one but two lousy remakes this is a seminal title from that period, packed with many telling details that few other filmmakers would touch on (cofeature "Attack of the Crab Monsters" again uses telepathic communication between monster and victims), and one sequence where a batlike creature (not unlike those seen flying in "It Conquered the World," the work of Paul Blaisdell) performs an unseen and undoubtedly hideous act on a defenseless doctor, encompassing the entire head with only his blood oozing from beneath.