NOT OF THIS EARTH (1957)

Director: Roger Corman

Writers: Charles B. Griffith, Mark Hanna

Producer: Roger Corman

Cast: Beverly Garland, Paul Birch, Jonathan Haze, Morgan Jones, William Roerick, Anna Lee Carroll, Dick Miller, Roy Engel, Gail Ganley, Ralph Reed, Harold Fong, Tamar Cooper, Pat Flynn, Barbara Bohrer, Lyle Latell, (and uncredited cast members) Jan Boleslavsky, Tom Graeff, John Clark, Hank Mann, Charles B. Griffith 

Nadine Storey (Beverly Garland) accepts a position as a live-in nurse at the Los Angeles, California home of the stoic and impersonal Mr. Johnson (Paul Birch). Nadine is to administer blood transfusions to Johnson who claims that he is dying from a rare blood disease. Johnson is actually an agent from the planet Davanna and is responsible for a series of murders. The blood that he drains from his victims is sent back to his home planet for analysis. Should the earthling blood prove beneficial to Johnson’s dying race, Davanna will invade Earth and enslave mankind to be cattle for the aliens to feed upon. 

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Not of This Earth is another stellar example of how the right mix of script, pace, performance, and wit make for a very entertaining film, regardless of its low budget and short shooting schedule. I think it is with this film that director Roger Corman really began to hit his stride. While production efficiency and economy were always foremost in Corman’s mind when directing his films, it is no accident that this and many other Corman productions turned out to be fresh and satisfying. Some very savvy preproduction planning allowed him to get things done quickly and properly. Corman also has the taste to be sure that a script has the offbeat elements to distinguish a story while delivering the gimmicks to meet the genre’s audience expectations. 

Scriptwriter Charles B. Griffith was one of director Corman’s greatest assets. From a brief story suggestion or genre gimmick, Griffith could develop an interesting story full of snappy dialogue with as much humor as the project required. Griffith, along with co-writer Mark Hanna, provide Not of This Earth with the novel science fiction concepts, wit, and surprises that make all the difference. 

Truly using a less-is-more approach, the story employs an interesting sci-fi variation on vampires. This gives us a humanoid menace that is easier to achieve for the filmmakers and more interesting for the audience. Just a pair of milky white eyes capable of frying one’s brain is every bit as startling and probably more effective than the menace of some sort of inhuman monster prop. 

This space vampire is also an interesting personality. Always dressed in a business suit and tie, wearing dark glasses to conceal his blank alien eyes, and speaking in a stilted and formal manner, actor Paul Birch still manages to make us believe in his Mr. Johnson as an actual alien being rather than just a stiff caricature. As Mr. Johnson, Paul Birch is both menacing and amusing. However, his character is never played for campy humor. This feels a lot smarter than the in-our-face attempts at postmodern hipness many later films would strive for to compensate for the lack of any originality. Birch’s character is funny when a bit off in his interactions with the “Earth subhumans” and almost earns our sympathy when confounded by traffic laws or a pushy door-to-door salesman. It is light touches like these that make a simple film lively and involving while validating a strange character. 

A frequent star in Corman’s ’50s films, Beverly Garland is the heroine. As nurse Nadine Storey, she may end up as a damsel in distress, yet she is intelligent and confident. She provides the film a bit of sex appeal while never being the least bit intimidated by the initial sexual harassment of Mr. Johnson’s ex-con chauffeur Jeremy Perrin (Jonathan Haze). 

 

Jeremy is another example of the cleverness in the screenplay’s character development. At first we assume that he will be just an obnoxious thug deserving punishment. Despite his introductory lechery of Nadine, he actually becomes something of a confidant of hers as they compare notes about their mysterious employer. This is probably Jonathan Haze’s best role. He plays someone that we actually learn to like who also keeps things lively and amusing. Of course, Haze is best known as the dim-witted protagonist Seymour Krelboin of the Corman-directed/Griffith-written 1960 cult comedy The Little Shop of Horrors. 

Dick Miller’s brief appearance is always fondly remembered. In one of the film’s best scenes, Miller portrays the persistent door-to-door vacuum cleaner salesman offering a free demonstration of his product. Ironically, Mr. Johnson decides to demonstrate his blood suction device instead. 

There are other quirky bits of business in the film that make it truly distinctive: teleportation instead of spaceships used to travel through space, telepathy, a floating umbrella-shaped monster assassin, and rabies-infected blood. 

The grimmest aspect in the film is the Nazi-like attitude about the aliens’ plans. No doubt considering themselves a master race, they refer to earthlings as subhumans as if to justify their intent of turning mankind into an enslaved food source. In another unpleasant reminder of World War II atrocities, Mr. Johnson uses his large basement furnace as a body-disposing oven. That all of this takes place in a mundane suburban setting makes the situation relatable while also creating a bizarre and unsettling contrast. 

For many years Not of This Earth was the Roger Corman film that I had most anticipated. When I finally got the chance to see it, I found it well worth the wait. Like many of my film favorites, it does not just pacify me; it amuses, surprises, and involves me. That is why this Earth subhuman can’t stop looking at it.

THE SKULL (1965)

Director: Freddie Francis

Writers: Milton Subotsky, based on Robert Bloch’s story “The Skull of the Marquis de Sade”

Producers: Max J. Rosenberg, Milton Subotsky

Cast: Peter Cushing, Christopher Lee, Patrick Wymark, Peter Woodthorpe, Jill Bennett, April Olrich, Maurice Good, Nigel Green, Patrick Magee, Michael Gough, George Coulouris, Frank Forsyth, Anna Palk, Paul Stockman, George Hilsdon, Jack Silk 

In London, England, author Christopher Maitland (Peter Cushing) collects strange artifacts used for research in his writings about the occult. Anthony Marco (Peter Wymark), the rather shady procurer of many of Maitland’s curios, presents the writer with the opportunity to own something really special: the skull of the notorious 19th century French author and nobleman the Marquis de Sade. Maitland soon falls under the skull’s frightening influence. 

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The Skull is not only a change of pace from the anthology horror films that Britain’s Amicus Productions are best known for, it remains a unique tale of possession. The story is simple and the main cast is small. A lot of time is spent in the head game that the skull is playing with Peter Cushing’s character Christopher Maitland. This results in many dialogue-free stretches of surreal and eerie events that confuse and terrify Maitland as he is being brought under the skull’s evil control.

This was the first of the Amicus Productions fright flicks based on the writings of Robert Bloch. Of course, Bloch will always be best known as the writer of the novel Psycho that was adapted into Alfred Hitchcock’s classic 1960 film. Bloch would adapt many of his short horror stories for the scripts of three later Amicus anthology films. This time around, one of his tales is the basis for an entire film. Oddly, he did not write the script himself. 

Perhaps the lack of Robert Bloch’s further involvement resulted in a rather troubled production. It seems that the original short story‘s adaptation did not provide enough incidents for a feature-length film. Director Freddie Francis is supposed to have reworked co-producer Milton Subotsky’s script. Then there had been a lot of rearranging of scenes in the editing room as Subotsky was second-guessing just how to put the final narrative together. 

Fortunately, the final product resulted in a stylized descent into possession told almost entirely from the perspective of Christopher Maitland. This is almost a one-man show with the great Peter Cushing. Although he may have an ethical lapse ignoring Marco’s means of providing occult artifacts, Cushing’s Maitland appears to be a decent person, so his fate seems undeservedly tragic and that makes the skull all the more diabolical. 

Joining Cushing is Christopher Lee in a featured role as fellow artifact collector Sir Matthew Phillips. He tries to warn Maitland about the evil threat the skull of the Marquis de Sade poses. The often aloof and commanding Lee seems rather vulnerable here and earns our sympathy while always appearing dignified. 

The Skull is a casting delight for fans of British horror films. Beyond the teaming of Cushing and Lee, there are many other familiar faces from the genre such as Michael Gough, Nigel Green, Patrick Magee, Patrick Wymark, and George Coulouris. Of special notice is Peter Woodthorpe as the seedy landlord Bert Travers. Besides Peter Cushing, he is my favorite performer in the film. He is immediately unlikable and seems almost as disreputable as his sleazy hypnotist Zoltan in The Evil of Frankenstein (1964), another Freddie Francis-directed/Peter Cushing-starring production. 

Director Freddie Francis dealt with horror quite a bit for both Amicus and their rival Hammer Films. He brings a lot of inventive visual style to the intimate terror experienced by Cushing’s character. Francis manages to make the skull as much of a personality as the characters portrayed by the flesh-and-blood actors.

As in “The Man Who Collected Poe,” another of Robert Bloch’s stories featured in the later Amicus anthology film Torture Garden (1967), the message here seems to be a warning about the dangers of collecting mania. Although I am a devil-may-care chap, I am certain that my film fetishism is perfectly harmless. I only acquire evermore movies and memorabilia to rouse my cinema enthusiasm and share it with others. Now, what’s the harm in that? However, I will admit that I would kill to get a print of The Man Who Could Cheat Death (1959) with the long-missing topless Hazel Court footage.

THE UNSEEN (1980)

Director: Danny Steinmann (as Peter Foleg)

Writers: Kim Henkel, Nancy Rifkin, Michael R. Grace, Danny Steinmann (as Peter Foleg), Michael Viner (uncredited), Thomas R. Burman (uncredited)

Producer: Anthony B. Unger

Cast: Barbara Bach, Sidney Lassick, Lelia Goldoni, Stephen Furst, Douglas Barr (as Doug Barr), Karen Lamm, Lois Young, Maida Severn 

During a breakup with her boyfriend Tony Ross (Douglas Barr), television news reporter Jennifer Fast (Barbara Bach) and her camera crew of sister Karen Fast (Karen Lamm) and Vicki Thompson (Lois Young) drive to the small town of Solvang, California to cover the annual Danish festival. When they discover that all of the local hotels are filled, they are offered lodging at the remote country home of museum proprietor Ernest Keller (Sydney Lassick). While Ernest seems very cordial, his wife Virginia (Lelia Goldoni) is meek and distraught. The middle-aged couple is sharing a secret about their relationship and the presence hidden in the basement of the Keller home. 

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With a small cast and an intimate setting, The Unseen is a film that keeps things simple and is all the more effective for it. Some may feel that it is not busy enough or that its title menace is not as malevolent as they would like, but the story is still full of evil intensity and the situation is always believable.

While this production was trying to sate the horror hunger that recent hits like Halloween (1978) and Phantasm (1979) whetted, it is unique and should not be dismissed as just another Friday the 13th (1980) clone. Many horror films at this time were very distinct from one another, as the slasher formula had not yet been thoroughly established. Although probably influenced by Psycho (1960), The Unseen’s theme of relationship roles and consequences really sets it apart. The dichotomy of the film is between two very different, dysfunctional couples that are both dealing with control in a relationship. 

The couple of Jennifer and Tony that we first see in the film would seem to be ideal. They are young, attractive, and live comfortably. However, it is immediately apparent that they are not communicating due to some unresolved conflicts. Tony can’t accept that his knee injury has ended his professional football career. He is just as upset that Jennifer’s career ambitions in television news won’t wait for marriage and family. She is pregnant and resolved to have an abortion in the new year. This couple is splitting apart because neither one will compromise or relinquish control of their relationship to the other. 

The couple of Ernest and Virginia Keller is odd and leaves us feeling even more uncomfortable. They have long been settled into their roles, yet this has not made them compatible. The seemingly pleasant Ernest tyrannizes his mate. Virginia is always stressed and subservient. They are harboring secrets that lead to the deadly conflicts throughout the story. The control in this relationship has been completely assumed by Ernest. This couple may be committed, yet they are together for the wrong reasons and are never truly happy. 

As things play out, the strange, committed couple is the source of all sorts of terrible consequences, but the more ideal yet uncommitted couple appears to be quite helpless. The Unseen is ultimately a film about humility. Normalcy and success don’t always empower people or make them happy. 

Barbara Bach was fresh off of her success as a Bond girl in 1977’s The Spy Who Loved Me. Due to her poised demeanor, her character of Jennifer Fast seems rather distant and it is small wonder that she doesn’t seem moved by her lover’s desire to have their child. Later in the film, Bach’s performance rises to the occasion when she is menaced and thoroughly miserable. 

As Jennifer’s lover Tony Ross, Douglas Barr has the rather thankless task of being a completely ineffectual character that drives home this story’s humility theme. In the very first scene of the film, we see that his ability and influence are impaired. Our expectations for what part Tony may serve in the story are repeatedly confounded. This seems to underscore the point that the “perfect people” don’t always have the answers and their actions may be futile. 

Jennifer’s sister Karen (Karen Lamm) and Vicky (Lois Young) join Jennifer to complete the trio of beautiful guests to be menaced in the Keller household. Karen is actually the most vivacious personality in the film while Vicky is the wide-eyed innocent that provides Ernest Keller and the audience an R-rated eyeful. 

It is the unhappy circumstances of the Keller family that result in all the misery and horror to be found in The Unseen. We can lay most of that blame at the feet of Sydney Lassick’s character of Ernest. He is seemingly nice and accommodating, a bit silly, and ultimately vile. He is central to all the evil in the story. In my favorite sequence, we see him reminiscing about his old sins and being haunted by the voice of his tyrannical father. This scene gets us up to speed with just how twisted the Keller family situation has become with a nice horror payoff. Old man Keller sounds like such an ogre that we can almost understand why Ernest has gone off the deep end. 

Lelia Goldoni is so stressed as Virginia that we can’t have too much sympathy with Ernest, no matter how he was raised. She always seems to be on the verge of emotional collapse from Ernest’s domination. 

Last, but certainly not least, Stephen Furst portrays the title character. He is grotesque, dangerous, and pitiful. Once you find out just what he is all about, you realize just how commitment in relationships is not always a virtue. As writer Kim Henkel had already demonstrated in The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974), family values can get people killed.