Movie Info
Movie Name: Not of This Earth
Studio: Allied Artists
Genre(s): Horror/Sci-Fi/Fantasy/B-Movie
Release Date(s): February 10, 1957
MPAA Rating: Not Rated
Oh yeah, I’m giving you the evil eye
A strange man named Paul Johnson (Paul Birch) comes to a blood researcher Dr. F. W. Rochelle (William Roerick) for a transfusion. Hypnotizing him, he gets him to give up his nurse Nadine Storey (Bevery Garland) to help him with his research. With a police officer named Harry Sherbourne (Morgan Jones), Nadine is out to find the secret of Paul Johnson. Johnson is an alien that’s trying examine Earth for the effects of human blood on his dying race…will he get the samples he needs and if he does is Earth doomed?
Directed by Roger Corman, Not of This Earth is rather typical ’50s Sci-Fi, though when compared to some of his other films, it was rather well received by critics. The movie was released as a double-feature with Attack of the Crab Monsters and has been released in a special edition DVD three film collection with Attack of the Crab Monsters and War of the Satellites.
Can’t wait for the George Lucas re-release where all this is computer generated
I love cheesy sci-fi horror from this period. Even a bad film can be enjoyable and this one doesn’t really classify as a bad film. The movie has everything you’d expect from a sci-fi film at the time including the styles, generic stock characters, and a cool looking alien that is actually cooler than the non-human alien.
Johnson is rather creepy. With his white-out contact eyes, the character is given a rather distinctive look. While the contacts aren’t perfect, they give a creepy dead eye look. With his slow serial killer walk, Johnson feels like a pre-slasher slasher…minus the slashing. I did find him a sufficiently eerie despite his lame voice over “attack” method (which just involved staring at a person and destroying them from the inside-out).
Oh no! The squidy crab thing has killed him…um yeah…
The real killer alien is quite stupid. It is a flying creature from a string that just moves around the screen and eventually latches onto Shellbourne’s head…killing him. I wish that either this had been left out or developed, but Corman probably wanted a real monster and this was as good as it gets.
Not of This Earth has some charm to it and that is in its simplicity and cheapness. As a villain, Johnson’s creepiness is kind of sidelined by the voiceover “mental” narration, but physically he is kind of creepy. The movie was remade in 1988 starring Traci Lords in the Nadine role (and no it isn’t a porn).
