(1950)
Dir - Ivan Barnett
Overall: MEH
The only existing full-length to be directed by cinematographer Ivan Barnett, The Fall of the House of Usher is also notable as the first sound adaptation of Edgar Allan Poe's story of the same name, as well as the screen debut for English actor Gwen Watford. Filmed in 1948 on a low budget, it has curious, modern day bookending segments where some blokes at a gentleman's club share their fondness for Poe and one of them proceeds to tell the tale proper. This is hardly necessary, but there is a more significant tweak to the source material in that the Usher twin's now crazed, deformed, and super strong mother is shown to be living just outside of the infamous house yet on the same grounds, who guards a severed head of another Usher family member. Such ghastly new details differentiate this from other versions that were various levels of faithful to Poe's initial story, but the finished product here is a mixed bag. Barnett maintains a consistent atmosphere of Gothic doom and gloom, but the performances are uninspired and the editing is often clunky. There is also stock music playing throughout practically the whole thing, which undermines several moments that would have benefited from a more subdued approach.
(1954)
Dir - David MacDonald
Overall: MEH
In general, British B-genre movies had an aura of sophistication over their many, many American counterparts and Devil Girl from Mars has all of the ingredients to be a laughably camp anti-classic even if its sincere presentation undermines such inherent silliness. American-born producers Edward J. and Harry Lee Danzinger allegedly got the film made to take advantage of their television series Calling Scotland Yard wrapping up ahead of schedule, utilizing the remaining time that was booked at Shepperton Studios to churn out a second feature on the cheap. The shooting apparently went so quickly that single takes were all that was allowed, with a costume for Patricia Laffan's title character, her companion robot, and a spaceship all being cobbled together in break-neck time. In this respect, it is an impressive production and the cast breezes through the goofy material as if this is on par with the more legitimate The Day the Earth Stood Still, which it serves as a more malevolent answer to. Set at a single location, it runs out of steam quick, becoming nothing more than Laffan's alien lady telling everyone that they are doomed over and over again while taking breaks in her spaceship in order for the characters to be worried and argue over who is going to sacrifice themselves.
(1959)
Dir - Robert Day
Overall: MEH
An American/British co-production that takes its cue from 1955's big screen The Quatermass Xperiment adaptation, First Man into Space dilly-dallies for too long to recommend, but it delivers some effective monster mayhem eventually. The script is a combination of two different ones by Charles F. Vetter and Wyott Ordung respectfully, putting a cocksure pilot into orbit for the first time, only for him to encounter a mysterious meteorite that transforms him into a slimy brute. It takes forty-four minutes until we get a good look at Bill Edwards in his Toxic Avenger make-up and he makes a startling appearance; a filthy and charred abomination that slashes people up out of crazed confusion with his body no longer able to sustain itself on Earth's climate. The last act is the only one worth paying attention to which is obviously a problem since the bulk of the story concerns military people, scientists, and bureaucrats trying to figure out what the audience already knows. Marshall Thompson is logically cast as Edwards' army Commander brother who is in a constant state of talking to people and then getting rung up to go into another room and talk to some more people. At least Doctor Who's Roger Delgado makes a cameo as a Mexican consul and does an exaggerated foreign accent as well as any English thespian would.
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