Review: Unearthly Stranger
Blu-ray: Unearthly Stranger (1963)
I love spending time in cex stores across the UK and browsing through their movies in the hope of discovering stuff that I’ve never previously heard of. Such was the case just yesterday in cex Liverpool (who have an incredibly helpful manager it has to be said) when I spotted the Blu-ray of Unearthly Stranger. The first thing I noticed was that it was a Network on Air release, and for all of us here at 60 Minutes With that is always a mark of quality. I have to admit that the 1950’s is my favourite decade for sci-fi movies, but the premise of this 1963 British production had me intrigued.
The movie opens with Dr. Mark Davidson (John Neville, whose clipped upperclass accent is surely the blueprint for what a lot of people think everyone in Britain sounds like) running through the streets of London late at night. What is he running from? Where is he running to? All is revealed as the story is told in flashback during the course of its lean 78 minute running time.
Dr. Davidson is a scientist who is currently working on the TP91 project; a formula that will allow the human race to project themselves through time and space. When Professor Geoffrey Muro (Warren Mitchell) is found dead in mysterious circumstances after solving the first part of the formula, Mark is promoted into the Professors position and told to carry on trying to complete the formula which will transform humanity as we know it. Little does he know that there are beings from another world that don’t want him, or humanity, to succeed.
In one flashback scene you see how Mark meets his future wife Julie (Gabriella Licudi), which then cuts to the present as she is being investigated by Major Clarke (Patrick Newell) who is investigating the mysterious deaths of those involved in the project. Why does Julie sleep with her eyes open? Why does she not blink? How can she lift hot food from the oven with her bare hands? Despite not wanting to believe otherwise, Mark becomes slowly convinced that his wife has something to do with the deaths that have been happening.
Eschewing the usual low budget sci-fi ‘person in a rubber suit’ monsters, Unearthly Stranger builds up the tension and shows the ‘monsters’ in a far more nerve tingling and sympathetic way. None more so than in a final shot which shows that humanity will never succeed in this project.
Director John Krish does a great job of portraying the events in a tense and atmospheric way, while Tom Priestley (in his first IMDB credit as an editor) keeps the narrative flowing coherently despite its non-linear structure.
Unearthly Stranger is a sci-fi classic that I encourage everyone to watch. Thank you once again to Network on Air for keeping movies such as this alive.
Review by Dave (host of 60 Minutes With)
