Tuesday, February 11, 2014

Movie review - "Unearthly Stranger" (1964) **

A British attempt at Cold War paranoia sci fi - the world of Invasion of the Body Snatchers and so on. Noted stage actor John Neville plays a scientist who takes over a top secret project on which his predecessors have died. He gradually finds out that its because aliens are trying to take over the world - indeed they've taken over his wife.

That's not a bad idea for a movie, if hardly original - it was used in Body Snatchers and It Conquered the World... it offers good opportunity for a story infused with creepiness and paranoia, as well as the emotion that comes with seeing a loved one turn out to be an alien.

But this is mainly uninspired in part because you never really care about Neville and his wife; there is little chemistry or heat between them and I never believed she fell in love with him.

 There's also an ugly misogynist strand through this - the wife is an alien, the head alien is a woman, all the other aliens are women, the real hero is bald self righteous middle aged man. Also the script isn't that awesome - Dr Who soon did this sort of stuff a lot better; the stuff about recognising the wife is an alien because she doesn't blink feels silly.

There are some effective moments like when the wife (Gabriella Lucidi) walks through a school and all the kids take off, the performance of the creepy fat security officer, and a few spooky bits.

No comments: