Director: David MacDonald
Script: James Eastwood
Cast: Hugh McDermutt, Hazel Court, Peter Reynolds, Adrienne Corri, Joseph Tomulty, Patricia Laffen, Sophie Stewart, John Laurie
Running time: 77 minutes
Year: 1954
Certificate: PG
Playing out a bit like a British version of a mix of former American Sci-Fi flicks such as The Day the Earth Stood Still and Fire Maidens from Outer Space, Devil Girl from Mars is a historically significant British sci-fi movie that, sadly, was very hard to see for many years. In fact, despite being mentioned in many reference books, most authors and reviewers hadn’t actually seen it, at least not until the video revolution. In fact, I first saw this myself on a cheap sell-through release, which, if my memory serves me correctly, was used as an incentive to subscribe to a movie magazine that I used to buy regularly. Regardless, I was keen to revisit the film as I remembered it to be fun in a cheesy kind of way.
Plot-wise Devil Girl from Mars is fairly basic, seeing a group of strangers finding themselves trapped in a remote Scottish Inn, being menaced by an imposing female alien, wearing dominatrix apparel, along with her giant robot, named, err, Charlie. These strangers are a wide mix, including the bossy innkeeper and her alcoholic hubbie, their young nephew, an escaped convict and his lost love (who just happens to work at said inn), a model escaping her high pressure city life and controlling partner, and a professor and his attendant journalist who are in the area to find the meteorite that allegedly landed nearby. As you can imagine they might find much more than just a lump of inert space-rock!
Once everyone has assembled, a space ship, which resembles a rather fancy light fitting, lands nearby and outsteps Nyah, the aforementioned alien, in what can only be described as dominatrix-like fetish garb. After giving a demonstration of the power that she wields, through her giant robot, she explains that she’s actually landed in the wrong place (she intended to land in London), but her mission is still the same, to find suitable human male specimens to help repopulate her planet. The group discuss who should go with her, with the intension to try and take down the spaceship, but in the end the choice isn’t the obvious one.
It has to be said that Devil Girl from Mars is not a good film, by any stretch of the imagination. However, it has space trucks full of cheesy charm and good humour, which has won it plenty of fans throughout the years. Rather than nod and wink toward the camera, the game cast take their corny dialogue seriously, all of which makes the film much funnier and more endearing. In fact, Patricia Laffen, who plays Nyah, is very strong in her role and commands the screen whenever she hoves into view. Plus, it’s always good to see John Laurie (Dad’s Army) doing his drunken Scotsman shtick. Sophie Simpson, who plays John’s bossy wife in the film, is also very watchable and gets most of the funniest lines, including her saying: “While we’re still alive, we might as well have a cup of tea”, following threats of extermination from the alien invader.
Although it states in the credits that the film was based on a stage play by John C. Mather and James Eastwood there’s no historical evidence that this play was ever performed, although the film definitely has stage play elements to it, for sure.
Despite being an enjoyable watch, Devil Girl from Mars suffers from a very low budget, which shows up most keenly in the sound, with some bad sound syncing, especially with ADR voice overlays often not matching the mouth movements of characters. However, despite the below par budget the inside of the space ship is nicely done, and even though the visual effects are primitive they still work okay for a film of this vintage.
Devil Girl from Mars is being distributed by Studiocanal on Blu-ray. There are some decent extras included in the package, namely:
Audio commentary with film critic and author Kim Newman and writer and broadcaster Barry Forshaw – Kim and Barry are good company, as usual and reveal some interesting facts about the film, such as that it shares the same composer who scored the theme tune to Dangerman, and that actor Hugh McDermutt was not American but Scottish, and specialised in American roles.
Interview with novelist and critic Kim Newman (18 mins) – Kim is back sharing his vast knowledge on all things 1950s Sci-Fi-related. He talks about the Danziger brothers, who produced the film, along with many other ‘quota quickies’ and compares the film with other sci-fi films of that era. Apparently the ‘Devil Girl’ herself, Patricia Laffen, only had one other significant role before this, namely playing the wife of emperor Nero in the epic Quo Vardis
Please note – Following the release of DEVIL GIRL FROM MARS, we received some reports of an audio synchronisation issue affecting the Blu-ray release of the film (the DVD version is unaffected).
After a thorough investigation, we are pleased to say that the issue has been corrected, and fixed copies will soon be available at retail. For customers who have been affected by this issue, we also have replacement discs available.
More information about how to apply for a replacement disc can be found HERE.
Stills gallery (1.17 mins) – Plenty of production stills from the film and a cool blue, white and black poster.
