The Man From Planet X was another one of those early (1951)
SF movies that caught the theatergoers unawares. Even with its, at times, poor
stage props, and diving bell shaped spacecraft, the movie had content. Was the
alien good or bad? Was it truly an invasion, or were the aliens in desperate
search of a new home world. The alien shows a side of friendliness until the
evil scientist, played by William Schallart, attacks him and tries to obtain scientific
secrets, and then he turns evil and makes zombies out of them. Schallart would
go on to better things in the following years, but this was still a good movie
for him, even as the bad guy. Of course, we have Sally Field’s mother as the
star (in my opinion). Margaret Field was excellent in the movie. And whoever
played the alien did an outstanding job also. Plus, I loved the make up of the
glass-helmeted creature (he wore the globe even in the space ship, but that was
cool, too). The moors may have been the actual stars of the movie, as it
presented a frightening and mysterious mood for the setting, not to mention the
rolling fog and chilly dark nights for most of the scenes. It may not have
reached the popularity of The Day The Earth Stood Still or The Thing From
Another World, but in my opinion, it was right up there with the rest. I
watched it originally at the State Theater in Wichita Falls when I was ten or
eleven years old, liked it then, and still like it today.
