Came across this rarely shown gem on talking pictures tv channel. A must see for sci if b movie fans.

PHANTOM FROM SPACE is one of those fun and campy science fiction features of the 1950s. This one has a low budget but doesn't let that get in the way of the storyline, which is a revamp of THE INVISIBLE MAN albeit with a science fiction twist. An ambiguous alien visits the Earth and is completely invisible; only a dog has the power to sense his presence. A bunch of scientists and heroic types eventually figure out what's going on and it all leads to a big climax. This film has cheesy but fun special effects sequences, a repetitive storyline, and some wooden line delivery, but it's all good fun.

Although I grew up watching old sci-fi and horror films on TV in the 60's, this is one I don't remember seeing. Not until I got it in a Mill Creek collection of 100 Sci- Fi Classics. What appealed to me immediately was that it was reminiscent of my many favorites from the 50's; pure nostalgia.The story of an alien from another planet, crash landing off the coast of L.A. and simply trying to escape capture to survive, killing as necessary, is serviceable yet certainly could have been portrayed more compellingly. The acting is typical 'B' melodrama, the effects are fairly good for the era, and the story is just OK. Staging much of it as a police procedural, which was very popular at the time, is an effective budget device. I don't think it's a stretch to suppose that the budget and shooting schedule were insufficient to do much more with the film. That and it's seventy-two minute run time don't allow for additional story details, action sequences, nor engaging characterization. Not that Billy Wilder's little brother, W. Lee Wilder had what it took to make more out of such meager resources, anyway.Be that as it may, Wilder did a decent job, as he did with several other lesser 'B' classics including, "Killers From Space," "The Man Without a Body," and "Once a Thief," which just might be his masterpiece.Nonetheless, this modest piece of nostalgia has an effective soundtrack featuring theremin and an eerie choir. I usually half-watch it when I'm busy doing something else. Far from great, but I still like it.

This sci-fi wasn't bad & could have been much better without the unrestrained barking dog & blatant stupidity of the characters. When told to keep the dog away from the invisible spaceman... the characters blunder into the room allowing the dog to freely enter & run wild creating all kinds of mayhem & irritating noise.These same characters... supposedly respectable experts, allow a newspaper reporter to wander into sensitive situations & PO the spaceman with a flash camera while they are trying to communicate, resulting in disastrous results.Then they tell the creature they mean no harm but chase it with guns, cameras & a dog running wild. They make feeble little effort to communicate or help it to breathe or find out why it is here.Then we have the tobacco company funding where the actors all offer & light up cigarettes in every scene. The worst being at the end where they all light up for a smoke as they stand staring at the vaporizing body with an "Oh, well" attitude.The tobacco companies monetary controls over movies between the 40's and 60's were the cause of deaths for so many fine actors. Yul Brynner, John Wayne, Lee Remick, Rod Serling, Michael Landon, Susan Hayward, Patrick Swayze... just to name a few. Filming near the radioactive Nevada test site didn't help. The smoking was a distressing fact of the movie business requiring the celebrities to hawk their tobacco products to get funding for their films.Who really cares if the phantom wore boxers or not. They couldn't have him running naked or exposing his package in tights on the highly censored 50's films. It was quite daring they managed to get away with a naked death shot as it was.I liked this movie in general but it saddens me to see the exaggerated smoking in excess of other films at the time. I also don't care for scenes with utter stupidity of the characters going our of their way to not listen & do just the opposite of what they are told... in any film. This is the fault of the screenwriter. They seem to be oblivious that character stupidity is a gross irritant & point of disgust for the audience. Stupidity ruins movies.If not for the absurd smoke fest, the unrestrained barking dog & the character displays of stupidity I could have really enjoyed this movie.I still recommend it with those notable exceptions.