Devil Girl from Mars

Devil Girl from Mars
Devil Girl from Mars film poster
Directed by	David MacDonald[1]
Produced by	Edward J. Danziger Harry Lee Danziger
Written by	James Eastwood John C. Maher[1]
Starring	Patricia Laffan Hugh McDermott Adrienne Corri Hazel Court[1]
Music by	Edwin T. Astley
Cinematography	Jack Cox
Editing by	Peter Taylor
Distributed by	Danziger Productions British Lion Films
Release date(s)	1954
Running time	76 min.
Country	United Kingdom
Language	English

Devil Girl from Mars is a black and white 1954 British science fiction film, directed by David MacDonald. It was adapted from a stage play^[2] and became a cult favorite.^[3]

Synopsis

Nyah, a sexy, commanding female alien dressed in black vinyl, is headed for London. She is part of the advanced team that are looking for men to replace the dying male population on their planet. However, because of damage to her spaceship caused by atmospheric entry, she is forced to land her flying saucer in the remote Scottish moors.^[4] She is armed with a raygun that can paralyze or kill,^[5] and is accompanied by a menacing robot.

On Nyah's home world, the emancipation of women eventually led to open warfare between the sexes. The females won, usurping the political power of the men and leading to the complete impotence of the male population. The result has been a rapid decline in birthrate. The aliens possess a type of advanced organic, self-regenerating technology, which was used to construct Nyah's spacecraft. Against this technology, human weaponry proves ineffectual, as demonstrated when Nyah comes away unscathed by shots from a gun. However, the alien technology is unreliable and the alien women have not been able to use it to artificially produce new offspring.^[5]

The film opens in the lobby of an English country inn where most of the movie takes place. The alien intermittently enters the inn lobby, makes threats, then leaves so the residents can contemplate her words.^[6] Intermixed with the appearances of Nyah, a pair of romantic sub-plots are followed. In the first, a fashion model, Miss Prestwick (Court), has fled to this remote hotel in order to escape a married American reporter, Michael Carter (McDermott). Michael doggedly follows her to the hotel, hoping to rekindle their affair. Meanwhile, a convict who accidentally killed his wife has managed to escape prison and travel to the hotel, hoping to connect with the barmaid whom he truly loves.^[5]

Production

The film was shot on a low budget, with no retakes except in cases where the film became broken. It was shot over a period of three weeks, often filming into the night. Actress Hazel Court later said, "I remember great fun on the set. It was like a repertory company acting that film".^[7] The robot named Chani was constructed by Jack Whitehead and was fully automated, although this machine suffered breakdowns during the filming.^[8]

Cast

• Patricia Laffan as Nyah, the Devil Girl^[1]
• Hugh McDermott as Michael Carter^[1]
• Hazel Court as Ellen Prestwick^[1]
• Peter Reynolds as Robert Justin, alias Albert Simpson^[1]
• Adrienne Corri as Doris^[1]
• Joseph Tomelty as Professor Arnold Hennessey^[1]
• John Laurie as Mr. Jamieson
• Sophie Stewart as Mrs. Jamieson
• Anthony Richmond as Tommy
• James Edmund as David
• Stewart Hibberd as News Reader

Reception

Rolling Stones columnist Doug Pratt called it a "delightfully bad movie". The "acting is really bad and the whole thing is so much fun you want to run to your local community theater group and have them put it on next, instead of Brigadoon."^[9] American film reviewer Leonard Maltin said the film is a "hilariously solemn, high camp British imitation of U.S. cheapies".^[1] The reviewer for the Monthly Film Bulletin (1954) wrote that the "settings, dialogue, characterisation and special effects are of a low order, but even their modest unreality has its charm. There is really no fault in this film that one would like to see eliminated. Everything, in its way, is quite perfect."^[10] In Going to Mars, the authors described the film as "an undeniably awful but oddly interesting" film. They noted that the plot was "more a reflection of the 1950s view of politics and the era's inequality of the sexes than a thoughtful projection of present or future possibilities". ^[11]

Eric S. Rabkin likens the character Nyah to a dominatrix and even a neo-nazi. He said of the film that, "a host of charged images and subconscious fears" are handled with a broad camp irony. Otherwise, "without some underlying psychological engagement, how could anyone sit through a movie so badly made"?^[12] The film inspired Hugo and Nebula award winning author Octavia Butler to begin writing science fiction. After watching the motion picture at age twelve, she declared that she could write something better.^[13][14] Likewise, the Los Angeles avant-garde artist Gronk lists this film as the crucial factor that guided him in his career choice.^[15]

See also

• List of films in the public domain

References

1. ^ ^{a b c d e f g h i j} Wilson, John (2005), The official Razzie movie guide: enjoying the best of Hollywood's worst, Hachette Digital, Inc., p. 195, ISBN 0446693340, http://books.google.com/books?id=bLpJHjGFNk8C&pg=PT195 
2. ^ Boot, Andrew (1996). Fragments of fear: an illustrated history of British horror films. Creation Books. p. 57. ISBN 1871592356. 
3. ^ Johnson, Tom; Miller, Mark A.; Sangster, Jimmy (2004). The Christopher Lee filmography: all theatrical releases, 1948-2003. McFarland & Co.. p. 38. ISBN 0786412771. 
4. ^ Grey Smith and James L. Halperin, ed (2004). Heritage Vintage Movie Posters. Heritage Capital Corporation. p. 95. ISBN 1932899154. 
5. ^ ^{a b c} Markley, Robert (2005), Dying planet: Mars in science and the imagination, Duke University Press, p. 228, ISBN 0822336383, http://books.google.com/books?id=loalUL6vakoC&pg=PA228 
6. ^ Pratt, Douglas (2004). Doug Pratt's DVD: Movies, Television, Music, Art, Adult, and More!. UNET 2 Corporation. p. 332. ISBN 1932916008. 
7. ^ Weaver, Tom (2006), Science Fiction Stars and Horror Heroes: Interviews with Actors, Directors, Producers and Writers of the 1940s Through 1960s, McFarland, pp. 40–42, ISBN 0786428570, http://books.google.com/books?id=wOsGOm3YwokC&pg=PA40 
8. ^ Johnson, John (1996). Cheap tricks and class acts: special effects, makeup, and stunts from the films of the fantastic fifties. McFarland. p. 14. ISBN 0786400935. 
9. ^ Pratt, Douglas (2004). Doug Pratt's DVD: Movies, Television, Music, Art, Adult, and More!. 1. UNET 2 Corporation. p. 332. ISBN 1932916008. http://books.google.com/books?id=DTUw1SDQECoC&pg=PA332. 
10. ^ Hunter, I. Q. (1999). British science fiction cinema. British popular cinema. Psychology Press. p. 62. ISBN 0415168686. http://books.google.com/books?id=fbfkM1Ur4WEC&pg=PA62. 
11. ^ Muirhead, Brian; Reeves-Stevens, Judith; Reeves-Stevens, Garfield (2004). Going to Mars: The Stories of the People Behind NASA's Mars Missions Past, Present, and Future. Simon and Schuster. pp. 63–64. ISBN 0671027964. http://books.google.com/books?id=_jUZe2UUCdUC&pg=PA93. 
12. ^ Rabkin, Eric S. (2005), Mars: a tour of the human imagination, Greenwood Publishing Group, p. 154, ISBN 0275987191, http://books.google.com/books?id=a2QP30zybNkC&pg=PA154 
13. ^ Drew, Bernard Alger (2007). 100 most popular African American authors: biographical. Libraries Unlimited. p. 49. ISBN 1591583225. 
14. ^ Butler, Octavia. ""Devil Girl From Mars": Why I Write Science Fiction". MIT Communications. http://web.mit.edu/comm-forum/papers/butler.html. Retrieved 2009-03-04. 
15. ^ James, David E. (2005). The most typical avant-garde: history and geography of minor cinemas in Los Angeles. An Ahmanson Foundation book in the humanities. University of California Press. p. 66. ISBN 0520242572. http://books.google.com/books?id=n0mkbWQ6hIcC&pg=PA66. 

External links

• Devil Girl from Mars at the Internet Movie Database
• Devil Girl from Mars at AllRovi