The Cosmic Man

"The Cosmic Man" is a charming attempt to make a $5.00 version of "The Day the Earth Stood Still". It's an extremely low-budgeted Sci-Fi movie from the late fifties, so this generally means there are stern scientists talking a lot of pseudo-philosophical gibberish and asking themselves way too many rhetorical questions, villainous looking military men fantasizing about weapons of mass destruction and mysterious alien forces with minds that are immeasurably superior to ours. When a spherical UFO – a gigantic golf ball actually – is discovered in a small Californian canyon community, the army wants to nuke it and a local scientist wants to study it. Meanwhile, the alien passenger sneaks out of his interstellar golf ball and begins exploring the earthly habits, rites and inhabitants. This is where our cute and cheap little B-movie rips off "The Day the Earth Stood Still", in fact, as the alien witnesses the imbecility and self-destructive nature of the human race. How come aliens get such a kick out of observing how stupid we are? Like in a few hundred of the films he starred in, John Carradine receives top-billing even though he appears all together perhaps for a whole five minutes. "The Cosmic Man" is often rather dull and doesn't contain any real action, but it certainly has good intentions and an earnest supportive cast.

An unidentified object is tracked going at extreme speeds around the globe. A mysterious object is found in Bronson Canyon (a real location used in the filming of "Robot Monster" 1953). Naturally, the military is antsy and requests a top scientist Dr. Karl Sorenson (Bruce Bennett) investigate.

All the elements are there with the three-way love interest between the widowed mother Kathy Grant (Angela Greene) of a crippled kid Ken (Scotty Morrow), scientist Dr. Sorenson and military Col. Matthews (Paul Langton.) They must speculate on the good bad and ugly of their mysterious invader (John Carradine).

An added plus is the fun of seeing the technology of the time this film was made. And a vintage look at the Griffith Park Observatory. Too bad they did not show the inside as there is a nifty pendulum that swings with the rotation of the earth.

We are in luck as we get two space speeches before the conclusion. Will we heed the warning or is this the end?

In THE COSMIC MAN, a UFO crash-lands on Earth, causing great concern for the military. When a scientist is called in to examine the craft, he discovers a floating orb, hoverin about six feet off the ground. Not surprisingly, the military views it as a weapon.

Meanwhile, unbeknownst to anyone, the orb's occupant (John Carradine) is silently creeping about, causing panic. At first, he spends his time as a shadow figure (aka: a superimposed negative image), eventually taking on a human appearance.

Uh oh!

The military can't leave well enough alone, and decides to take control of the spaceship. This causes the mysterious visitor to reveal his agenda.

This is another movie, like STRANGER FROM VENUS, that owes much of its existence to THE DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL. The same, basic idea runs through all three films. The biggest difference here is that COSMIC MAN just isn't as interesting or exciting...

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.

"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.