Adding to our string of old science fiction films, we recently viewed The Man from Planet X (1951), which tells the story of the approach of another planet, somewhat in the vein of When Worlds Collide (also 1951, reviewed here), but in this case the population of the approaching planet has plans to come to Earth, rather than we fleeing Earth. To this eventuality they have sent a scout …
… and to the credit of the movie makers, they keep the story strictly to the human viewpoint, as two astrophysicists, the beautiful and intelligent, even proactive daughter of one of them, and the war-time friend of one of the astrophysicists, now a journalist, find themselves deep in the marshes of a Scottish island, the part of Earth which will be facing the new planet on closest approach, located in a convenient stone building. During a bit of gallumphing about by the daughter and the journalist, an alien probe, made of an incredible metal, is found, thus awakening the avarice of one of the astrophysicists, an unfortunate story-telling device which telegraphs substantial portions of the plot.
The the scout is found, and, in an interesting twist, the poor fellow’s spacesuit is not functioning properly; the journalist fixes it, and while the fix is a little silly, it advances the plot in an engaging manner. The scout is brought back to the castle, where the astrophysicists try to communicate with them, and come up with the approach of using geometry – a sort of visual logic, if you will. I was surprised at the logic displayed by the movie makers.
And at what is a promising juncture, the movie falls apart.
The greedy scientist betrays the conveniently ill senior astrophysicist by concealing the success of the communication while physically controlling the scout, yet in some never revealed manner, the scout breaks free and takes the daughter captive. The astrophysicists disappear, and a desperate signal for help is sent from the Scottish island to a passing freighter (in itself a lovely bit of overcoming an obstacle), and the local Scottish village begins to depopulate as the scout takes more captives. Help arrives from the mainland in the form of Scotland Yard, and eventually a rescue and destroy mission is formulated and carried out (during which the scout is disabled, and yet mysteriously recovers, a serious lapse of story-telling logic). The captives, who somehow learned (telepathy?) the plans of the alien, reveal that the scout must setup a homing beacon for the invading forces, and so the spaceship must be destroyed (and, to much hilarity, suffers total annihilation). All is wrapped up, with nothing more than potential losses. We watch as the alien planet goes flying by, raising questions about just how that entire population was going to transfer to Earth in the blink of an eye…
There was a lot of good going on in this movie. The actors are professionals and not even the Scottish villagers chewed the scenery. The scout plays his role effectively, displaying good will and vulnerability, as well as the necessary aggressiveness, despite being stuck behind a space helmet and a huge mask. The makeup is particularly good for the 1950s – not quite convincing, but then again, if Doctor Who didn’t have to be convincing to be effective, why should this? The special effects are, however, mediocre at best, laughable at worst.
The characters are believable and empathetic. Even the scout, our invader, is at least an ambiguous antagonist, believable in the actions and reactions in which the plot takes him. Collectively, they were a good population for the story.
But the problem is the last half of the plot. The avarice of one of the scientists has been mentioned, and it doesn’t really fit into the general popular temperament of a scientist; the early reveal means we are unsurprised by many elements of the plot. The promising start of the daughter character is wasted as she disappears into the clutches of the scout. And, finally, there’s no real element of insight gained – they ran the characters through the plot, things happened, the good guys win at virtually no cost – maybe a touch of PTSD, we might speculate. No real change happens. And perhaps that’s the worst of it – a good story shows how human – or intelligent entities – actions and emotions cause change to themselves and those around them. In this movie, there’s a little bit. But not enough.
Postscript: I do have to say good things for a movie that has provided my Arts Editor with inspiration. The result?
In case you were wondering, yes, that’s myself and my Arts Editor. The original may be found here.
