Yes. it came out of the skies; a mysterious spaceship, being watched by Professor Elliot (Raymond Bond), lands in the moors of Scotland. An American reporter John Lawrence (Robert Clark) joins the professor in the investigation of the craft that resembles a diving bell. A distressed humanoid that piloted the craft tries to communicate that he is from a dying planet that desperately needs aid. Very low budget and the lack of lighting actually helps the atmosphere. And the alien is one of the weirdest looking visitors to step on our planet. There is more curiosity than fear generated. This film is directed by Edgar G. Ulmer and independently made and actually distributed by United Artists, no stranger to the genre. Who can't enjoy Black and White sci-fi?Also in the cast: Margaret Field, William Schallert, David Ormont, Gilbert Fallman and Roy Engel. You may recognize Harold Gould as a frightened villager.

The Man From Planet X (1951) ** (out of 4) Early invasion film from director Edgar G. Ulmer is somewhat better than it probably should be but it's certainly no classic. A Scottish community is shaken when a UFO lands and a weird looking alien is found. It seems the alien comes in peace but no one is certain why he's there and things take a turn when one scientist goes to abuse him for knowledge. THE MAN FROM PLANET X suffers from a very low-budget that doesn't allow it to do much but as is usually the case, the director manages to add a little more style thanks to some creativity. I think the best thing about the film is the actual look of the picture. The setting is a very small town and I thought Ulmer managed to build up a nice atmosphere. The fog machine he bought was obviously extremely good as there's all sorts of thick fog running throughout the film. I thought this helped give it a pretty good look but of course it also covers up some of the limitations of the budget. The actual alien is hotly debated among sci-fi fans but I personally liked it. Yes, it looks cheap but at the same time the motion-less face was actually quite creepy and there's no question that it's original looking. I also enjoyed the cast with Robert Clarke doing a nice job in the lead. He was in several of these low budget movies and I've always enjoyed him as an actor. Margaret Field, Raymond Bond and William Schallert are good as well. The biggest problem is that there's really not too much that happens. The majority of the film is taken up with dialogue with people talking about everything that's happening instead of the viewer actually seeing very much of it. This was often the case with films like this and thankfully this here only runs 70-minutes. THE MAN FROM PLANET X isn't a classic by any stretch of the imagination but fans of the genre should get a few kicks out of it.

What can you say about a movie that pays its male lead (Clarke) all of $210, total, or its director (Ulmer) $300, total. Or whose Scottish town consists of a painting hung on a wall. Actually, you can say a lot because moviemaker Ulmer is the Orson Welles of poverty row. So, almost by magic, he turns the two or three spare sets, foggy moors, and skimpy special effects into an atmospheric little thriller worth remembering. I still recall the audience shrieks from 60 years ago when the alien lunges, face first, at the window pane and us. I'll bet there wasn't a dry seat in the house.And what a strange alien he is. The only one I've seen who's so weak, he couldn't win a wrestling match with a jelly fish. No wonder he just wants to make friends. But with a mug like an Aztecan death mask, it's difficult. Then too, where did they get the design for the space ship. That too is like nothing I've seen, looking more like a Xmas tree ornament than anything else (as another reviewer points out). However, there is Sally Field's perky mom, Margaret, with a design I can really get into. Too bad our leading man is too busy saving the world to notice.Anyhow, 60-years later, it's still a good creepy film with an energized cast that don't seem to mind the poverty row paycheck.

I remember this movie from when I was a kid. Well, not the entire story, only the scene in which no one is able to communicate with the alien from Planet X until William Schallet begins to show him geometry and mathematics, "the universal language of science," and the boxy looking alien begins to whir with electronic interest.Seeing it again, the scene wasn't so impressive. We've been through it so many times since, if we know anything about what Carl Sagan was up to.The rest of the movie is embarrassingly cheaply done and formulaic. I understand that Edgar G. Ulmer is practically a cult figure when it comes to inexpensive movies and, to be sure, "Detour" has its diverting moments.But "Detour" was about one dumb guy and one real bitch -- two characters with unforgettable primary traits. "The Man From Planet X" isn't a story about character or Weltanschauung. It purports to be a thrilling and spooky story about unknown forces, mind-capturing rays, and the colonization of the earth. You can do a lot on a modest budget if you only have two characters making snotty wisecracks, but telling a story is a different order of animal.It just doesn't work for me. The story isn't particularly exciting and the characters are mostly uninteresting stereotypes. The rocks are made of papier mache and the strange alien is wearing an obviously false head whose features are frozen in one position.I said the characters are stereotypes, and they are, in a way that the two losers of "Detour" never were. Examples: The hero is handsome. The elderly scientist has a beautiful daughter who is his assistant. Do I have to mention "The Beast From 20,000 Fathoms" and "Them"? Well, I won't. I refuse to mention them.The stereotype that is most irritating is Schallert's evil assistant scientist. The movies can do without them simply by turning the alien into a monster sufficient unto its own evil intent. But, okay, "The Creature From the Black Lagoon" had Richard Denning who wanted to kill the creature and become famous. "The Revenge of the Creature" had John Bromfield as a zoo keeper jealous of Lori Nelson, which is at least understandable. "The Thing From Another World" had a misguided egghead who thought the man-eating monster only needed a few sessions of Gestalt therapy to be cured.In "The Man From Planet X," William Schallert is given no motivation for his desire to commandeer the mind-control rays and other super duper weapons of the alien. Out of nowhere he turns greedy and villainous, the poor man's Fu Manchu. Not that there's anything intrinsically wrong with wanting to lay your hands on all the wealth in the world, nor is it an uncommon impulse. The 19th-century was full of robber barons who cared about nothing else. Take a look at the giant meteor crater in northern Arizona sometime. At the very bottom of this unimaginably vast bowl of earth, there are a couple of tiny shacks and old pipes. When the crater was discovered, the first thing Homo sapiens thought of was the possibility that a meteor made of gold or diamonds or solid iron might be buried in it, and an attempt was made to dig it up. Nope. Schallert may be a stereotype but stereotypes exist for a reason.