(1953)
Overall: MEH
Schlock director W. Lee Wilder's first of several D-grade genre cheapies for he and son Myles' production company Planet Filmplays, Phantom from Space is typically shoddy. Nothing but interchangeable white people with no personalities stand in rooms talking, only to cut to another scene where a different combination of them are standing in a different room talking some more. This is only rarely interrupted by stock footage and some invisible alien antics that do not arrive until the halfway point. On that note, the extraterrestrial visitor here wears a helmet with a tiny window in it to see out of and even though he hectically runs around, numerous people still claim with full conviction that they were able to tell that there was no head inside of said helmet. This is a nitpick, but it is just one of many plot points that seemed to be devised without a second thought given to them since who cares about logical specifics when it is clearly way more important to get back to more scenes of boring Caucasians talking in rooms? These are the jokes folks. To be fair, the invisibility special effects hold up as good as anything from the period and the busy theremin score is annoyingly fun, but otherwise, this is a minimal effort dud.
(1954)
Overall: MEH
Literal bug-eyed aliens eventually show up a half hour into W. Lee Wilder's Killers from Space, (The Man Who Saved the Earth); the director's second low-budgeted sci-fi yarn for his Planet Filmplays company. Distributed by RKO, it has one of the earliest top-billed performances from Peter Graves as well as the usual goofy ingredients of library-cued music that never shuts the hell up, extraterrestrials in ridiculous costumes who need a new planet to inhabit because theirs is doomed, doctors using truth serum as if it is a real thing, plenty of stock footage, plus sets and gadgets that Roger Corman would even be embarrassed by. A long flashback sequence thrown in the middle finally jolts the viewer out of the torturous boredom of white people talking a lot, which is thankfully enough to sustain interest until Graves single-handedly confronts the otherworldly invaders with a plan that he concocts while scribbling down some equations in a hospital bed. There are some variations in William Raynor and Myles Wilder's script to just another unimaginative scenario where doctors and military men discuss what types of weapons to use, with Graves being the lone person who is hip to the alien's plan and being treated like a mentally ill person with shell shock. Every other character is entirely forgettable though, yet thankfully not given much screen time. At least the wacky Ed Wood-worthy human aliens are stupid and fun.
(1954)
Overall: WOOF
Though historically notable as one of if not the first Yeti movie, The Snow Creature is also one of if not the most dull. Instead of merely opening with narration over stock footage, (as was the case with director W. Lee Wilder's previous two science fiction films Phantom from Space and Killers from Space), Paul Langton interjects some commentary throughout the whole thing, recalling how he and a scientific expedition uncovered an abominable snowman that was then brought back to the US for further study. Such a tale is nearly void of action or anything remotely interesting though. Most viewers will not be able to make it through the first act where Americans and Japanese, (who are mountain climbing in India but whatever), trade a couple of mildly heightened conversations with each other, all while Wilder keeps his title monster off screen besides some silhouettes and shots of it behind ice. Things do not get any better once we get stateside, with more talking in rooms about finding the now missing creature, all while Wilder continues to keep it off screen. The usually competent and future Roger Corman collaborator Floyd Crosby's cinematography is sadly awful and makes an already boring movie that much more unwatchable, then throw in a hilariously anti-climactic ending and yeah, this is crap.
(1956)
Overall: MEH
A cheap variation of the same year's The Search for Bridey Murphy from Paramount, Fright, (Spell of the Hypnotist), is the only psychological thriller from the father/son writer/director team of Myles and W. Lee Wilder. After an intense opening scene where a murderer is cornered by both police and bystanders on a bridge, followed by Eric Fleming talking said murder off of said bridge via hypnosis, the main resurrection story gets underway involving Nancy Malone who seems to have a German baroness living inside of her. As usual, Wilder's direction is lifeless and even if the script was loaded with compelling revelations and the actors had overwhelming charisma, (neither of which is the case), it would still crumble under the stagnant presentation. Also, Fleming is dreadfully dull in the lead as if his face is perpetually stuck in a "Let's just get this over with so I can get a paycheck" grimace. It treats the concept of hypnotic manipulation as loosey-goosey as any sensationalized B-movie does and the final act throws a particularly cockamamie scheme into the mix that would be hilarious if anyone watching could stay awake long enough to notice it.
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