Customer Reviews

Devil Girl from Mars [VHS]

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(13)
3 star:		(8)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

The more widely available DVD versions of this film, distributed by Westlake and other lesser distributors, are sourced from an EXTREMELY low quality master, and are virtually unwatchable. Make sure you go with the IMAGE release.

With a title like DEVIL GIRL FROM MARS you're not expecting much, so when you get a movie with at least a little bit of substance you're inevitably pleased. Almost a quiet, character ensemble movie buoyed considerably by its rural English setting and its well-defined (if somewhat broadly drawn) characters. Sure, it's a B-movie, but it's not nearly as campy as some would describe - in fact, it's played rather seriously. Overall, not a bad way to pass a Saturday afternoon; great home matinee material.

The DVD presentation is sparse - there's a trailer, and chapter selections, but nothing else. It's tough to justify the list price on this, but it IS a very nice print overall and shows excellent tone and definition. Sound is excellent as well. It goes without saying that it blows away those VHS EP copies out there.

Length:: 8:27 Mins

This video contains several clips from the 1954 British movie to show the quality of the dialogue, story, direction, and special effects. The film features characters with a bit more depth than usual for a 1950s alien invasion movie.

Being a 1950's sci fi buff I've long wanted to see this British film produced by "Spartan Productions", but not being your typical, splashy, colour filled production overwhelmed with special effects it has always been hard to find. Despite it's decidely "B", movie title that screams "forgettable cheapie!" this production is in actual fact well done and takes a distinctly different approach to your standard 1950's space saga story telling. Most importantly it has a strong and memorable female lead in the "Devil Girl", of the title played here by a most alluring Patricia Laffan who I have always enjoyed for her playing of the evil Roman Empress Poppea in MGM's collosal production of "Quo Vadis?" in 1951. Unlike many low budget sci fi's from this period this film takes a far less sensational slant in its telling relying more on some interesting character work while of course incorporating the standard element of romance for good measure. Despite the film's obviously limited budget it is a most handsome looking production and the interior of the Martian's spaceship in "Devil Girl From Mars", has a starkly classical look to it that recalls in my mind the wonderful space ship interior from Twentieth Century Fox's "The Day The Earth Stood Still".

Based on an obscure stage play by John Mather and James Eastwood, "Devil Girl from Mars", is set in the Scottish Highlands at a old Inn run by Mr. and Mrs Jamieson (John Laurie and Sophie Stewart). When there are sightings of a falling meteorite in the area Professor Hennessey (Joseph Tomelty), and reporter Michael Carter (Hugh McDermott), travel to the area to investigate. The Inn although closed for the winter soon becomes a hive of activity as not only do the two men arrive there after getting lost but escaped convict Robert Justin (Peter Reynolds) comes by to link up with his barmaid girlfriend Doris (Adrienne Corri), who works at the Inn. However these unexpected guests are the least of the locals worries as suddenly a huge spaceship lands near the Inn and the terrified residents, including London model Ellen Prestwick (Hazel Court), are soon faced with a ruthless female Martian called Nyah (Patricia Laffan),who explains what her sinister purpose for landing on Earth actually is. It seems that there has been a war of the sexes on Mars that has ended with the males of the population being weakened and of little use in breeding purposes. It is Nyah's purpose to gather a small group of Earthling men to take back to Mars to help replenish the population. Trapping the small group at the Inn behind an invisible wall Nyah has to wait why her spaceship which encountered some damage on its entry into the Earth's atmosphere repairs itself by some miracle of Martian science unknown to Man. Nyah's real destination was to be London and she intends to travel there once the strange "organic metal", of her ship finishes its repairs. The group see that they have to stop her for the sake of all mankind and after one attempt to over power her fails Professor Hennessey decides to use a different strategy and manages to get aboard her ship to see how it can be disabled. Nyah decides to actually take one of the men with her as a guide in London but brutally declares that "the rest will die". Despite the men's distrust of convict Robert Justin alias Albert Simpson he decides to do the noble thing once he hears from the professor about how best to destroy the enemy ship. When Nyah returns and the rest of the party are hiding in the cellar Albert agrees to go with her and since he is young and healthy she agrees. Boarding the now fully repaired spaceship the pair take off however Albert does as he promised and blows up the ship and all on it as it rises into space sacrificing himelf by saving the Earth from the Martian's evil intentions.

"Devil Girl From Mars", largely confines most of it's main action to the one main set and that actually works in the stories favour in seemingly cutting off the Earth characters from help from the outside world. It is easy to see that this story could have been a stage play as most of the time the action focuses on various characters making entries and exits to the Inn's main dining room set. Not being a Hollywood production the different slant taken on telling this sci fi story is an interesting one. The cast are really what makes this film an entertaining one and as mentioned Patricia Laffan as the black leather clad Martian woman Nyah steals every scene she is in with her sexy presense and wry observations of the human's failings. Expert at playing the villianess on screen it's a pity she didn't work more in films as she had a great screen presense and makes a most memorable impression playing this hard as nails female alien present on Earth to collect virile men for breeding purposes back on Mars. The beautiful and talented Hazel Court who won real stardom after she went to the United States and began working for A.I.P in horror efforts with such actors as Ray Milland and Vincent Price has a certainly less colourful role than Miss Laffan but she still manages to breath some dimension into her character. She is unfortunately saddled with a terrible love interest in the form of actor Hugh McDermott as Michael. McDermott really fails to impress as the supposed hero of the piece and his delivery never seems to be convincing. The cast as a whole are uniformily fine however I'd have to say that McDermott is definately the weak link in the chain. John Laurie as the alcohol loving Inn owner Mr. Jamieson and especially Sophie Stewart as his bossy and worrying wife both provide the welcome comical relief to the story and Sophie Stewart's scenes reacting to the female martian suddenly within the group's presense are especially entertaining. Her funniest piece is when Nyah is threatening to liquidate the entire group to which Stewart's solution is to have a good cup of tea which she says "always makes me feel better during a crisis"! Especially effective in the story is that the hero of the piece ends up being probably the most unlikely character in the escaped convict played by Peter Reynold's who sacrifices himself for the sake of all of mankind. Reynold's does a great job at transforming his character from an unlikeable and supposedly untrustworthy escapee into a character with great moral backbone. When talking production values on this British effort obviously we can't expect the same type of lavishness as from such contemporary Hollywood sci fi examples as the classic "War of the World's". Budget constaints are of course very obvious in the limited sets and special effects utilised however those effects present such as the ray gun courtesy of Jack Whitehead still look surprisingly good. The space ship set although sadly underused in the story is also highly impressive with its interior, only glimpsed in one scene being a real standout. The big let down comes however in the form of the very amateurish looking Martian robot that looks like an oversized tissue box with legs and arms glued on. This creation plus Miss Laffan's larger than life female alien definately gives "Devil Girl From Mars', it's camp appeal to modern audiences.

Not to be taken seriously for a minute "Devil Girl From Mars", I feel makes a refreshing change from the usual 1950's sci efforts we have all grown so used to. If you can look past it's rather silly sounding title it is a nifty little thriller with a quite risque theme (for the 1950's) embedded in it. The idea of men being shanghaid from Earth to mate with Martian women might not raise an eyebrow with modern audiences but I sometimes wonder how it was received upon its first release in 1954 when censorship was still very much in place. Patricia Laffan created a memorable sci fi character in the leather clad amazon Nyah who lets no man tell her what to do, and for her alone "Devil Girl from Mars", is essential in the collection of any sci fi buff.

Devil Girl from Mars, an early effort of Harry and Edward Danziger, producers of dozens of British potboilers throughout the 50s and 60s, is one of those movies that inhabits that netherworld of not-really-good-enough-to-be-good-not-really-bad-enough-to-be-good. While the title and advertising materials promise a super-campy yuk-fest a la Queen of Outer Space, Catwomen of the Moon, etc., the movie really only delivers a mildy diverting, highly derivative tale of a butchy femalien (Nyah) and her clunky robot. At times stealing shamelessy from The Day the Earth Stood Still (to one-tenth the effect), the script consists mostly of lots of Earthbound dramatic and romantic subplots. Die-hards may find some faint amusement in the Devil Girl's imperious, slightly bitchy manner, her ungainly robot's all-too-brief appearances, and the vaguely Monty Pythonish reactions of the Scottish townsfolk to their cosmic visitors. Also on the plus side: Nyah's dominatrix-like leather/vinyl costume; the cool 50s-deco-look spaceship and robot; OK, if limited, special effects, and the absolutely radiant Hazel Court. What she's doing romancing that schmuck Hugh McDermott is a complete mystery. I really wanted to like this movie more, but honestly it's pretty dry overall. Unless you're already attuned to English 1950s SF you're likely to find this a bit on the dull side, and Quatermass fans, etc. will probably find it rather dumb as well. Ultimately, Devil Girl remains a passable time-waster for bad movie aficionados, but just not as much fun as it should be. They should have put Hazel Court in that leather suit and had HER be mean and bitchy!
The good news is that at least the DVD is worthy. There is some occasional light speckling (a little worse toward the beginning of the movie), but otherwise the source print is quite presentable, with little to no visible damage, good tonal values, sharpness, and detail. An OK if somewhat scratchy trailer and chapter stops are included. If you already love the movie, or are a Hazel Court fan or 50s completist, it's a pretty solid buy; the only-curious may want to see it first (somehow) before purchasing.

So Mars needs men to repopulate? If they all look like this babe, sign me up! She's tall, sexy, and cold as ice. This may be the first and only sci-fi movie centralized around a female alien dominetrex. Talk about hot. She could melt the polar ice caps just walking by.

Her robot companion is nothing much more than a huge walking box. Maybe the movie went broke after the dazzling special effects they used inside the space ship.

The movie is pretty entertaining and creepy in a strange way. It's not my favorite Atomic Age movie, but if you enjoy 50's Sci-Fi, you need this in your collection.

Quite honestly I'd never bothered to check this movie out until recently and was really surprised! The special effects are very good for 1955 (or 1954 or 1958? Different sources have different dates for this film). The space ship alone is well worth checking out the film (minus the phallic landing gear which are good for a laugh). Her robot is really interesting too and has joined my top ten trippy sci fi robots list although his head does look like a light bulb. Impressive effects over all. True this film borrows heavily from Day The Earth Stood Still and only starts once the space ship arrives and does become very predictable by the end but if you're a collector of freaky cool space ship/aliens/robot movies then this is one worth owning. She arrives in a biogenic ship which is a concept decades away from Star Trek Next Generation. She sets up a force field around the Inn which is well done and the enterance to the space craft is so impressive I paused the DVD to figure out how they did it- it reminds me of the first Star Wars movie where R2 D2 is kidnapped in the desert by the Jawas(sp?). Way a head of the fifties in ideas although she dresses like an S/M Cat Woman and over explains her plans to the stupid humans, a character flaw that will lead to her demise! The funniest thing for me is she can easily travel in the 4th dimension with a blink of an eye and yet she constantly walks from her ship to the Inn. Sort of pointless don't you think?

Yup, watched her eyes the whole movie and nary a blink. Oh yes, just as the picture shows, she's wearing a mini-skirt. You'd think her legs would get cold in the sub-zero temperature of mars.

PROS: Just a few shorts here.

1. When you see that ship coming in for a landing pay real close attention. Despite it obviously being a model the landing it self is taken very seriously...it seems to take its gyro movement hours in movie land to stop turning--I guess martians don't use gyro brakes. Very interesting landing. Somesort of braking or manuvering rockets are used for the actual soft landing--the downward thrust is off center and would have made the ship yawl to the left side a bit.

2. Filmed in what appears to be Gothic England style--gives the film a slight classy look.

3. All in all, this film takes itself very seriously, and the arrival of an alien spaceship from another world is just part of the story. Several sub-plots here. It would have made an ok drama without the ships' arrival.

4. When they get back to the ship--after all the other sub-plots start up inside the house--notice the gyros' outer ring in the center of the ship. When it begins moving at the end of the movie it turns from right to left. Apparently some sort of air scoop or ram. Thinking about it, if the special effects people had hollowed the interior out a bit and funneled this air down through the ship, it could have aided the down blast of the engine flames a lot, making them more powerful looking.

5. The Robot; boy, now I've seen it all. Talk about a mail drop - mailbox at the postoffice! Two legs, no flashing lights a couple of dials, and of course the required destuctor ray.

Six. She does have a ray gun and uses it once on the gardner.

7. There is a lot of acting going on in the movie. I'm not sure I can
say it should have been better.

CONS:

1. I'm not sure more money would have helped. I would have liked to said the Devil Girl from Mars acting was a little bit off and might have taken a little something from the movie, but I don't think so. Not, it's not the acting. I think, believe it or not, it was the look of the robot and her cloths taking away from the movie and its intent. She certainly played her part seriously. After all, this long legged cutie is bullet proof.

I think you will enjoy this movie...don't look for the usual campy special effects here, it's more story than shooting. I've already seen the movie half a hour ago and am watching it now as I write this--I'm at the part where everybody is at the space ship. The Devil Girl has told them to come with her and she would show them true power! The suspense is building up, including the music. You can't fault acting here. The door to the ship eases open--the ramp is already down--heavy on the base drums to show it's a serious moment. The people in the movie see it before you do--they all take half a step back and clutch each other and then...and...AND, out waddles this mailbox from the postoffice!
Now get this, the Devil Girl gives this smug glance at the earth people as if say 'Ha! Now you know you're in for it puny humans.'

I've got to tell you, these actors can really act. Yes, that is it, it's the girls cloths and the robot. Had they been re-done this film would have been taken more seriously and a greater success.

So that's it. I give this serious science fiction with gothic and classy overtones four stars with an added star because none of the actors laughted when the robot first showed itself and because the long legged Devil Girl played her part so well.

Normally I would recommend one bowl of popcorn to watch this movie with because most of them do not require much attention, but I feel deep down in this movies' case you must have the full spread. One big salad bowl of popcorn and two hot dogs -- chili, onion, mustard on mine please -- and something to wash it down with. And get ready to study it closer than you thought you would.

This DVD, Devil Girl From Mars is a perfect example of what the savvy consumer should be on the lookout for...namely those sellers who are hocking inferior, rip-off, duplicated versions of the real deal. I won't mention any names, but when it comes to buying older DVDs, you better know who you're buying from or else you're gonna be disappointed and will have thrown your money away on garbage. This is a great period flick that is only watchable if purchased from a known, reliable source, such as IMAGE Entertainment, or any number of other major studios. Older movie, plus a small or unknown studio, equals trouble, almost guaranteed. Take it from someone who has purchased hundreds of films from dozens of sellers.

If I recall rightly, this film was adapted from a stage play, and a lot of the criticisms I find among these reviews are probably reflections of that fact--lack of action, some wooden moments (primarily in bits of the script), lack of variation in locale, and so on. Overall, it's a well-crafted film full of familiar faces from British film & television of the 50s and 60s. The American lead actor (whose performance, to be fair to critics, is a little hammy) can even be found later in Harryhausen's "First Men in the Moon." The story is straightforward with a decent sub-plot; the film moves right along. The robot and Martian space craft are highly imaginative--among my favorite sci-fi designs of that era (I'm speaking here as a professional designer who's had some experience in both sci-fi design and film production). An unusual, interesting, and entertaining film that deserves respect. I sure wouldn't dismiss this as schlock and the cinematography, lighting, costumes, props, etc. are as good as anything that came out of Britain at the time, so comparisons to Ed Wood really don't work. I return to this film fairly frequently.