The Cosmic Man

You can say a lot about John Carradine but dull he isn't except, of course, in THE COSMIC MAN. He has very little screen time and when he does appear it's behind the darkest pair of goggles this side of The Invisible Man. His affected, halting "alien speak" hampers him even further so he's not a exactly ball of fun and neither is the movie. I know it's a personal quirk but even as a kid I never liked genre films with child actors as major characters and when they play for sympathy (the boy has polio) it gets even more cloying.

On the plus side, there are atmospheric touches in a couple of scenes with Carradine printed "in negative." This, however, is more than balanced by scads of talking head scenes, some of which includes the leading lady wavering between her two oldish, low-charisma suitors Bruce Bennett and Paul Langton. It's a very slow go.

I recall back in the seventies when THE COSMIC MAN seemed to be a lost film, a friend of mine, a die-hard science fiction fan, was determined to track down a copy. He finally got his opportunity when the film suddenly became available on home video. Even he gave it a big Thumbs Down.

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.

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...

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.