Devil Girl from Mars (1955)

Women of Earth, beware! This cosmic vixen has come for your husbands, boyfriends and brothers. Her mission is to bring men back to Mars to mate with a planetful of sex-starved she-devils who need fresh breeding stock to repopulate the red planet. And men, if you don't perform, you might just be incinerated by Chani the Robot or heaved into the atomic pile that powers their ship. A beautifully crafted production, unique special effects, inspired production design, and classy international beauty Hazel Court make this

a true gem of Atomic Age entertainment. Hugh McDermott, Patricia Laffan, Peter Reynolds, Joseph Tomelty, Adrienne Corri, Hazel Court.

Good adaptation from the play by John C. Mather and James Eastwood

A lonely inn Scottish highland is visited by a meteor. Also the usual collection of personalities. After we get all the introductions and drinks on the house, an unexpected visitor appears from the sky.

Yep looks like a neighboring planet is deficient of a certain commodity. Yep it is Nyah (Patricia Laffan) an aloof min-skirted man less female alien. To satisfy the sci-fi in all of us the mention antimatter (in so many words) and the nest dimension. Does the space vehicle look like a prototype of the familiar Spielberg vehicles?

Will Ellen Prestwick (Hazel Court) suddenly switch from tomato juice to whisky?
Will Robert Justin (Peter Reynolds) kill or make time?
Will Nyah get what she came for or more than she bargained for?

See Patricia Laffan in a more dangerous role as Miss Alice MacDonald in "23 Paces to Baker Street" (1956) adapted from the book "Warrant for X"

Warrant For X April 13, 2008

POPPAEA on the Cheap !

Anyone entranced with Patricia Laffan's terrifcly wicked - hands on her hips, sardonic performance in QUO VADIS, will have an "out of body experience" while watching Pattie slink around in a tight rubber jump-suit, eyebrows arched, searching for sperm. After the lavish QUO VADIS, to sink to this foolishness, Pattie must have been VERY hungry - All the better for us. My dog was upset as I laughed myself silly watching this absurd movie - It is a gem. The quality is "watchable" - crummy - and it is just fine to be crummy - Pattie's the show, and what a show! No one has eyebrows like hers! Get it! This is what cheesy is all about - This ain't no Laff'an matter! It's a ridicules dream - day don't make em like dis no mo! February 10, 2008

Nice British 1950's SciFi Flick

Watch Video Here: http://www.amazon.com/review/R2SA53QQ5AYTXB This video contains several clips from the 1954 British movie to show the quality of the dialogue, story, direction, and special effects. The film features characters with a bit more depth than usual for a 1950s alien invasion movie. December 8, 2007

Smoke 'em if ya got 'em before viewing.

This one is England's answer to Ed Wood, the worst director of the worst movies ever made. Mind you, the Devil Girl herself is the main draw here, looking like she has that costume poured onto her. But the plot?

Well, let's see ... Alien ship breaks down and lands in some utterly remote part of the British Isles. Evil Babe spends her time wandering back and forth between the broken ship, and the only pub in town, with its three inhabitants. Her fiendish plan? To take virile men back to Mars for mating purposes, as their own race is, well, dried up.

Ooookay ... and, who's resisting this plan? Rather than long lines of volunteers forming to the right, we have the buffoons from the pub daring to go up against Evil Babe's giant robot, which looks like a mail box, and likes to sadistically fry the opposition, and finally manage to blow up the space-ship that looks rather like a tea kettle, in a blaze of sparklers or something, as it takes off. End of story.

This is one of those flicks that's So Bad It's Good, especially if the weed supply holds out, and quite frankly, suggests a really cool adult film, to my twisted way of thinking. Any producers out there? Honest, I can make a really bad movie... August 18, 2007

Nyah, you ditz! Your mistake was landing in Great Britain!

Devil Girl from Mars is actually an interesting 50's sci-fi movie that, for the sparse special effects, works well. The movie was based on a stage play and it shows because the only sets that are prominent in the story are the pub inside a Scotish inn and the exterior of Nyah's (said Devil Girl) spaceship.

I won't go into all of the characters since others have done so in their reviews so well. The premise of the story, though, could only work for a British film. If most of the Martian women looked like Nyah and had their dominatrix bitchy 'tudes on full and proud display, Nyah would have found plenty of male recruits if she'd landed in the good ole US of A! Landing in Great Britain, though, was a big mistake. I've seen babes walk into British pubs looking for action and not even get a nibble from the guys. Apparently, they were too busy playing darts and tipping back an ale to bother to notice the ladies. In the U.S., though, Nyah wouldn't have looked out of place in a lot of bars or clubs in some parts of the country! So the idea that she couldn't find some men who wouldn't be willing to be well-treated and serve Martian babes between the sheets seems far-fetched.

I thought Patricia Laffan does a great job as Nyah. She comes off as very haughty and confident, which makes sense, considering she's a lone explorer who bucked the system of her world to come in an experimental spacecraft to a strange world where she's a lone alien and must convince the populace that she's nigh invincible and they are powerless to stop her. To do all that, she's got to have stones, so her attempts to browbeat the humans into recognizing her superiority makes sense.

Hazel Court is quite lovely and definitely is a head-turner. It is also interesting to ponder how the movie would have been if she had been chosen to play the role of Nyah.

The biggest disappointment, though, in the whole thing is Hugh McDermott. What a tool this guy turned out to be (the character)! He tries to off the Martian babe several times, doesn't think things through considering she just showed him how her robot could have vaporized them all, gets into fist-fights with the British escaped convict when they have bigger fish to fry, and attempts to rush her only to be held back by two (very skinny) women when she draws her ray gun on him. I suppose the Brits had to make the American out to be such a weenie because its their film and the British guy into the hero, and I don't mind that, but they could have made Hugh's character a little less annoying.

So, on the whole, a nice flick for an hour or so of entertainment if you're into scifi stuff from the 50's. June 4, 2007

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