Phantom from Space

An alien (Dick Sands) comes to Earth only to be met with hostility. While it is tracked by a "communications team" and assorted others, it makes its way through L.A., inadvertently causing a fair bit of damage. The hook is that once its special space suit is removed, it is invisible to the human eye.

One does ultimately take some pity on this creature, which does not go out of its way to invite trouble. People react the way they do because of their own ignorance and fear. The phantom even tries to communicate with Barbara Randall (Noreen Nash), assistant to a scientist (Rudolph Anders).

Produced & directed by W. Lee Wilder ("The Snow Creature"), this extremely modest production had some potential in its premise, but it's never as much fun as one might like. Due to the limitations of the budget, it just doesn't have that much good Phantom action. The invisibility effects actually are better than expected, though. The story, such as it is, largely consists of the human protagonists conversing about the creature, or fussing over its seemingly indestructible suit, etc.

The cast is rather nondescript, but that doesn't mean that the actors are necessarily all that bad. Nash is appealing, Harry Landers is a jut jawed hero, Jack Daly is amusingly annoying as a pushy reporter, James Seay is fine as Major Andrews, and it's nice to see Michael Mark ("Frankenstein", "The Wasp Woman") in a small role as a watchman.

If you're fond of old black & white B pictures, like this viewer, you'll be sure to derive some pleasure from this one.

Five out of 10.

Phantom from Space is a rare little treat for classic monster movie/sci-fi fans. The first half is incredibly dull with not a single monster sighting for about 25 minutes! Instead of thrills, the beginning offers a set-up of the boring police/news reporter/government agent business that seems to permeate many old moster flicks. BUT, once you get to the good stuff it really holds up well. It's always fascinating to watch the old invisibilty tricks harking back to Universal's Invisible Man. And check out that cool space suit! The ending tops all, thought, with a really cool effect that finally lets the viewer see the man behind the mask. Alpha Video has a release of this film on DVD with spectacular, color cover art, a quite nice print of the film, and a budget savvy price of around $5-$6 bucks! Definitely worth the price of admission for classic monster fans!

W. Lee Wilder's science fiction debut was 1953's "Phantom from Space," elder brother of comedy specialist Billy Wilder ("Some Like It Hot"), 'Willie' was described by his younger sibling as 'dull,' and truth be told it sadly comes across on the screen. Though he helmed two decent vehicles for Lon Chaney (1950's "Once a Thief" and 1955's "Manfish") his genre outings can only boast of a general lethargy encapsulated in this early sci-fi entry. With a title like "Phantom from Space" the audience is treated to 72 minutes of dimwitted on screen stereotypes trying to catch on to what we already know, that there is an alien human on the loose, his two (unintended) murders and one explosion discussed rather than shown, depicted by a no name cast that at least boasts some faces familiar to seasoned viewers. When they're not seated in Wilder's own cramped office or chasing around Griffith Observatory, they venture only so far as Griffith Park again (but not Bronson Caverns). To avoid costly special effects the invader is conveniently invisible without his spacesuit and diving helmet, in fact nothing is learned about who he is or where he came from, and the poor sap expires without even an acknowledgement of his purpose on Earth. Boredom kicks off early with stock footage and lazy narration, though there is a female lead of sorts, at least Noreen Nash's pretty scientist possesses more aptitude than the military morons on display. Among the cast members can be spotted Michael Mark (Ludwig, father of Little Maria in "Frankenstein"), who saw bigger parts this decade in items like "Attack of the Puppet People" and "The Wasp Woman," James Seay from Wilder's upcoming "Killers from Space," and Peter Lorre's underworld nemesis in "The Face Behind Mask," Rudolph Anders going on to play Boris Karloff's closest confidante in "Frankenstein-1970." W. Lee Wilder did several more titles for his newly formed Planet Filmways company, many of which were scripted by his son Myles - "Killers from Space," "The Snow Creature," "Fright," "The Man Without a Body," "Spy in the Sky!" and "Bluebeards Ten Honeymoons."

Having no money to spend on special effects or makeup, producer-director William Lee Wilder did his best to entertain us with this light-weight tale about an alien who crashlands near the Griffith Observatory and tries to allude pursuing scientists.

To save money, the filmmakers (a) never actually show the spaceship and (b) make the alien invisible.

The scientists get hold of the alien's spacesuit (which is not invisible) and examine it in their lab. The alien can't live on Earth without it (so he was pretty stupid to take it off, right?), and he tries to get it back, but the helmet is accidentally destroyed.

Dying from asphyxiation, the alien is finally cornered on a catwalk in the observatory. The scientists use ultraviolet light to make the alien visible -- but he's just a man in a rubber cap to make him look bald-headed, and a flesh-colored swimsuit to make him look naked.

The mind boggles at the idea of a sci-fi movie in which the costume man, the make-up man, and the special effects man had nothing else to do but make an invisible alien look bald-headed and naked!

Boy, we weren't the ONLY ones who got gipped, huh?

As low-budget 1950's sci-fi stuff goes, this movie turns out to be relatively entertaining, certainly better than a lot of similar type movies from the era. The movie is set on a single night, and follows various government officials (police, military and communications) in the search for an alien being who's crash landed on earth, and who's killed a couple of people. The problem in finding him is that he's invisible, except when under ultra-violet lights. The effects are really what makes this seem very low-budget. They're pretty typical for the era, which means not very good. The movie also gets off to a bit of a slow start, as all we get to do for a while is watch "Mobile 1" and "Mobile 7" keep reporting into "Central" as they try to pinpoint the location of a mysterious signal of some type that's blocking communications. The first 10-15 minutes contain a lot of "Roger, Wilco, Out" kind of stuff. However, the actual story isn't bad and has a bit of mild suspense about it, particularly because we're not really sure about the motive of the alien. Did he deliberately kill the two people, or was it an accident or possibly self-defence? Ultimately, I thought this was a decent enough movie to spend a bit of time with. 6/10