Devil Girl From Mars — Devil Girl From Mars (Blu Ray)
From the early 1950’s Devil Girl From Mars is a British slice of low-budget Sci-Fi. It regards a decidedly stern & black leather glad humanoid Martian landing near an isolated Scottish inn, with a plan to invade London to gather human males to breed with. Here from Studiocanal's Cult classic series is a new Blu-Ray release- with a new commentary track, interview, and art cards.
Devil Girl From Mars is from the year 1954. It was directed by Scottish-born director David MacDonald. He had thirty-seven features to his name- these went from prison drama It’s Never Too Late Too Mend(1937). Onto Nazi treasure hunting mystery set in the Alps Snowbound(1948), horror edged thriller Tread Softly(1952), comedy Small Hotel( 1957), and English Civil war set action adventure The Moonraker(1958). So clearly he was genre versatile- which you can see with the film to hand as it mixes into the sci-fi focus touches of escape prisoner dramatics, romantic drama, and light comedy.
The film as with many 50’s Sci-fi starts in the skies- as a plane is exploded by a whirling object. We then drop to earth to a small out-of-season Inn Scottish inn set in the middle of the highlands. Inside we first met barmaid Doris(Adrienne Corri), around ten-year-old Tommy( Anthony Richmond) who is up from London visiting. Running the place, we have an older middle-aged Scottish couple Mr & Mrs Jamieson- he is played by John Laurie, who will be most known for playing Frazer in British wartime sitcom Dad’s Army. And she is played by Sophie Stewart(As You Like It, The Inheritance).
We hear a news report about an escaped criminal, and then a knock at the Inn’s door. Doris goes to see who it is, and it’s the escapee Albert (Peter Reynolds) who was romantically engaged with Doris before he was put away for murder- she tells the owners he’s a lost walker. Lastly, we have staying at the Inn Ellen Prestwick(Hazel Court) whose fashion model whose running away from something.
Next, we move to a car somewhere nearby where Professor Hennessey ( Joseph Tomelty), and Brill creamed journalist Michael Carter (Hugh McDermott are lost. The pair have come up from London to investigate the trouble in the skies- fairly soon they roll up outside the Inn. Just as these two are settling in, and Carter has revealed who Albert really is. A huge whizzing sound and bright lights disturb all at the inn- they go outside to see a spinning top-like UFO land.
Fairly soon a ramp is rolling out of the UFO, and out steps Nyah(Patricia Laffan) a female Martian glad in a full skull cap, gap, short shirt & boots- all in black leather. The first thing she does is incinerate the inn’s bespeckled handyman with her phaser- before marching into the inn itself, to declare she come collect men to mate with, then take over the planet. Also appearing fairly soon from the craft is a ten-foot-tall boxy robot- who goes on to incinerate a building, a car, and a few other things.
Laffan is a highlight here as the stern & bossy hands on hips Nyah. Both Laurie & Stewart have some lightly amusing banter as the inn's owners. McDermott is ok as a rather smug, at points downright nosey journalist. The romantic drama elements sort of develop as we move along- wrapping around the dilemma of what the group will do to stop Laffan & her robot from getting to London. Along the way, we get a fairly neat-looking spacecraft and the already-mentioned incinerations. Yes, at points it’s maybe a little too talk/ drama focused. We could have had a few more effects, but largely the film's hour & seventeen minutes move by entertaining enough.
Moving onto this new Blu-Ray. The print looks nicely clear and crisp in its black & white stock, and is all round unblemished. On the extra front, we get a commentary track from genre experts writers Barry Forshaw & Kim Newman. They start by talking about the promise of the film's title, and get a quote from a review of the time- pointing out its issues, but say they wouldn’t change anything. They discuss the career of the film's producers Edward & Harry Danziger- two American brothers who had seventy features under their belts, often knocking out films in a week- though the one to hand was made in three weeks. They point out actors as they appear- mentioning other worthy roles they did. They talk about the flying saucer, and its disctive spinning rim & bright glowing look. Later on, they discuss the villain/ creature bursting through the French widow trope, which is used here, as well as a few Hammer films. They talk about the robot, the ship, and how the film often sits squarely in the camp. A most worthy track- which I may well revisit down the line.
Otherwise, we get an on-camera interview with Kim Newman( 18.14) which sees him giving a good overview/ review of the film. Lastly, we have an image gallery.
I was completely unaware of Devil Girl From Mars before this release- so it’s great to see this more English take on 1950s cheap ‘n’ entertaining Sci-fi getting reissued. With a classy scan, and a few worthy extras to boot.