The Cosmic Man

Although the idea for the story is completely ripped off from The Day The Earth Stood Still and the production values are practically opaque in this film, The Cosmic Man has a nice story to tell with a good cast of sincere competent players. Seeing John Carradine heading the cast I know the man was not to discriminate in those science fiction films he starred in I was expecting the worst. I was pleasantly surprised at how good it was.

Instead of Washington, DC for a landing, a small spherical spaceship travels and lands in a mountainous of the USA. It is plain that a man not like any we know has emerged and is in the area. Played by John Carradine The Cosmic Man is human like in general appearance, but he's not threatened by any of our more conventional like weapons. He takes refuge in a resort lodge owned by Angela Greene and he bonds with her son Scotty Morrow who is crippled and terminal.

The debate between scientist Bruce Bennett and military man Paul Langton as to what to do with this alien invader takes up a lot of the film. If you remember in The Thing the same debate takes place between Air Force Colonel Kenneth Tobey and scientist Robert Cornthwaite. Here we have a different winner.

I can't go further about the plot, but The Cosmic Man is a sincere plea for peace not just on earth. In the end Carradine The Cosmic Man leaves a legacy of love that there is no mistake about.

This is not The Day The Earth Stood Still, but this particular science fiction film from The Fifties while not great is unjustly neglected.

"The Cosmic Man" is about an alien craft that arrives on Earth. While the humans involved argue over how to deal with the situation, the Cosmic Man himself (John Carradine) materializes. But it's not certain just what his presence means; the Cosmic Man is interested more in observing human behaviour.

This little film may test the patience of some viewers because it's much more dialogue driven than action driven. There's a lot of information to digest here, but the script by Arthur C. Pierce is intelligent, and touches upon still common ideas. For example, the conflict between a scientists' methods and the military way of thinking. Our hero scientist, Karl Sorenson (Bruce Bennett), is regarded as being somewhat dubious by people such as jut jawed Colonel Matthews (Paul Langton).

Director Herbert S. Greene goes for a rather sedate pace, but he creates some undeniable suspense and creepiness. Before the Cosmic Man appears in the form of Carradine, he's very wraith like. (The special effects are actually pretty decent.) One might also wish that Carradine had more to do, as he doesn't turn up on camera until well into the film. But it's a treat to hear him spouting exposition in that unmistakable voice of his.

The rest of the cast is solid. Bennett is a likable co-lead, and Angela Greene is similarly engaging as the love interest, Kathy Grant. Scotty Morrow is very appealing as Kathy's disabled son.

One does see examples of the kind of unfortunate thinking which The Cosmic Man criticizes. This would make an interesting B feature to play along with "The Day the Earth Stood Still" (1951).

Seven out of 10.

It reminded me of "The Day The Earth Stood Still" but it wasn't as good. Not so scary creature and a very unusual spaceship. It has to be considered in the context of the times, which was the late 1950s. During it's day it probably was a good, scary Sci-Fi movie that gave the viewers nightmares after watching it. Over the years it's lost a lot of it's effectiveness. Consider that you are going to watch a 1959 movie. Things were different then. This movie should be considered a semi classic Sci-Fi, old fashioned drive in movie. It wasn't the best that came out of the 50s but I thought it was very enjoyable and a must see for any classic Sci-Fi viewer.

Not expecting much at all, I was a little surprised at how much I enjoyed this very small budget take on Day the Earth Stood Still. For all the plodding along and pretty miserable effects, the story is quite literate and even has some elements of HG Wells First Men In the Moon, that being the idea of space travel via an "gravity" repelling shutter device. The lead scientist does his part well, in a role that would have been Peter Graves' had he not been busy on Beginning of the End. He has a certain combination of ease and comfort in his role and it comes across as very realistic, the best of the cast, and livens up all the scenes which he is in. John Carradine puts in a typical decent performance but has to do double-duty since there is no Gort available here. Unfortunately, this weakens the film, and we wish there were more of a menace on his part, or more of some kind of ultimatum, but then that's why we return to view Day the Earth Stood Still again and again. Yet you can watch this "version" at least one time and not feel disappointed.

Cosmic Man, The (1959)

** (out of 4)

An alien (John Carradine) lands on Earth in what appears to be a large ping pong ball and tells us Americans how stupid we are and how the world will come to an end due to our dumbness. This is clearly a rip off of The Day the Earth Stood Still and it's poorly made but this leads to a few decent laughs. Carradine sleepwalks through his role, which isn't good considering this was a man who could make Billy the Kid vs. Dracula entertaining. The supporting cast are all rather bland and corny. This is far from a classic but it's enjoyable enough if you have 70-minutes to kill.