MovieChat Forums > The Man from Planet X (1951) Discussion > Beware a bad new bootleg DVD!

Beware a bad new bootleg DVD!

posted 17 years ago by hobnob53
4 replies | jump to latest

Unfortunately, THE MAN FROM PLANET X has been out of print for a couple of years, but yesterday I discovered by chance that a new DVD version was apparently released in Oct. 2007. However, when I checked it on Amazon, I saw two reviews by people who had gotten it. They gave it the lowest rating possible, and said that the DVD was of terrible quality, with stops and freezes, a very poor picture apparently burned from a VHS, even bad packaging, released by some no-name outfit. I never remember seeing worse reviews for any DVD anywhere in terms of its quality. Thought I'd pass it on.

When is the Midnite Movies collection going to reprise TMFPX and bring it back out on their high-quality label? The franchise got a second life when MGM kept its separate releases going (via Fox) after Sony bought out MGM studios, and they've been releasing or re-releasing titles for the MM series in bunches. It'd be great to have them bring this great little film back, perhaps (as they usually do now) in tandem with another thematically-related title on a dual-film disc. My hope is to see this paired with the never-released (on DVD) Midnite feature THE QUATERMASS XPERIMENT. Similar stories (an alien invasion), locales (Britain), and a big X in both titles. Perfect double feature.

[–] misbegotten 17 years ago

A movie that I think would make a great double feature with THE MAN FROM PLANET X is the British movie DEVIL GIRL FROM MARS (1954). It's also set in the Scottish highlands, with a small group of people staying at a remote public house having an encounter with a female alien. Similar to PLANET X, two of the characters are a scientist and an American journalist, who have come to investigate reports of a meteorite crashing to earth nearby (in reality, the alien's spaceship).

[–] hobnob53 17 years ago

Interesting idea, though DEVIL GIRL FROM MARS is in public domain and I doubt MGM/Fox would bother with it. The best print of it came from Image's DVD from the so-called Wade Williams Collection, but it's recently gone out of print, though still available from third-party sellers. Apparently it was a stage play before it became a film. But I think THE MAN FROM PLANET X was a much better film. DEVIL GIRL in part reminded me of another British sci-fi flick, STRANGER FROM VENUS -- similar kind of hotel setting, Earth delegation meeting an extraterrestrial, but different thematically.

[–] misbegotten 17 years ago

Have you heard of another British sci-fi movie of the period, THE STRANGE WORLD OF PLANET X (1958)? Despite the title, there's no connection to THE MAN FROM PLANET X - instead it's about a human scientist carrying out dangerous (potentially world-ending) experiments, and an alien arrives to stop him. It's supposedly based on a television series, but apparently the movie version took it's title from the series and not much else.

[–] hobnob53 17 years ago

Oh, I certainly do know THE STRANGE WORLD OF PLANET X! In the US its title was changed to COSMIC MONSTERS (or THE COSMIC MONSTER -- both titles seem to have been used), probably to avoid confusion with 1951's TMFPX.

It made quite an impression on me when I saw it as a kid, especially one really gruesome scene when one of the giant insects (I think a grasshopper) created by the cosmic rays now penetrating the area thanks to the obsessive prof's experiments, attacks a soldier firing on it in the woods and is seen in close-up sucking the flesh off the man's face, leaving only a desiccated corpse. Amazingly vivid for a British film of the period.

But it wasn't based on an earlier TV series; it came from a novel, of all things, written by the actress Rene Ray, of all people, though you're right, I don't think much of the novel made it into the screenplay. The film released that same year (1958) that did come from television was THE TROLLENBERG TERROR (US: THE CRAWLING EYE), based on a six-part series written by a man named Peter Key and broadcast by the BBC in 1956. Both movies starred the American actor Forrest Tucker, which may lead to a bit of confusion.

I thought TROLLENBERG was the better film but STRANGE WORLD/COSMIC MONSTER was definitely the more graphic, with an interesting mix of sci-fi elements -- mad scientist, alien visitor (played by Martin Benson, still alive at almost 90), and giant insects -- in fact, it ranks as Britain's only "big bug" film, whereas Hollywood made several. It was available on VHS from two companies in the 90s, but though the boxes both read COSMIC MONSTERS one print was of the original UK title, STRANGE WORLD. So far it hasn't been released on a major DVD label in the US, but is available from Sinister Cinema in a not great but acceptable print. The one good thing about it is that while both VHS versions edited out the face-sucking scene, the Sinister print has it intact in all its glorious hideousness!

What are some other of your 50s favorites?