THE STRANGE WORLD OF PLANET X is a low budget, low fi slice of British science fiction that came out at the tail-end of the 1950s. Clearly unable to reproduce the kind of destructive action of the typical American sci-fi flick from the era, this one goes for the talky approach throughout, which makes it somewhat stodgy to sit through. However, it's not all bad.The cast give fairly brisk and efficient turns in this production. They're headlined by Forrest Tucker (THE ABOMINABLE SNOWMAN), making quite a name for himself in the sci-fi genre during this era, and enlivened by the lovely Gaby Andre as the female scientist (cue the usual sexist attitudes upon her arrival). The supporting cast includes the familiar faces of Martin Benson, Hugh Latimer, and Dandy Nichols (TILL DEATH US DO PART).There's a heck of a lot of gobbledegook to sit through here, plus vague plot similarities to THE DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL (which, of course, inspired so many alien films which were to come after it). However, things start to pick up around the halfway mark, with some traditional monster action to enjoy as various bugs and creatures in the woods are blown up to giant size. In addition, there's a surprisingly gory face-eating scene which must have repulsed audiences at the time. THE STRANGE WORLD OF PLANET X is no masterpiece, but as a cheap potboiler it passes the time well enough.

In a small lab in rural England, three scientists work on experiments involving magnetism. There's British Dr. Laird (Alec Mango), American Gil Graham (Forrest Tucker), and French Michele Dupont (a badly-dubbed Gaby André ). A mysterious stranger named Smith (Martin Benson) shows up and warns them about their experiments. He turns out to be right because the experiments have had unpredictable results, including releasing giant bugs on the English countryside.Not bad but not great sci-fi movie from across the pond. Most of the special effects are admittedly pretty lousy. Still, it's far better than its reputation. The romance between Tucker and André is nauseating. The overt sexism is pretty amusing, though. My favorite scene is when Smith first appears to a little girl in the woods. There's some funny dialogue there.

I caught this early today on Turner Classics as "The Cosmic Monsters" and hung around for the next feature, "Queen of Outer Space". On a relative basis, the Zsa Zsa flick is better, but seriously, that's not saying a whole lot. However this one has all the great and goofy pseudo-science I love to hear in sci-fi and horror flicks of the era, like Dr. Laird's (Alec Mango) method of altering the molecular structure of metals and alloys by experimenting with magnetic fields. The spin-off here is that his experiments create a hole in the ionosphere, thereby allowing dangerous cosmic rays to penetrate Earth's atmosphere and mutate living things. Guess what - they look just like giant size close-ups of crickets, frogs, and assorted insects! They even threw a lizard into one scene that actually looked fairly normal size, not at all like the creature in 1959's "The Giant Gila Monster".As predictable as the whole thing was, the film suffered somewhat from abrupt scene changes that distracted from the flow of the story. Like the creepy old guy in the woods who popped up every now and then. I guess the picture was setting us up for his eventual exposure to the cosmic rays, but then why didn't they affect any other humans? Just wondering.The picture offers a character similar to that of Michael Rennie's Klaatu from 1951's "The Day the Earth Stood Still", that of Smith (Martin Benson) who carries a warning from outer space to the inhabitants of Earth who are unknowingly posing a threat to the universe by virtue of Laird's experiments. The comparison ends pretty much right there however, with Smith allowed to signal his outer space fleet to wipe out the professor's scientific gizmo along with his cabin. I guess these aliens weren't bothered by things like a Prime Directive. It really didn't bother me either.

I saw this movie once - over 40 years ago - and I still remember it very well. Even as a kid, very few movie really scared me, but this one did. The resident mad scientist does something that let in lots of bad cosmic rays and the local insects become giants. The school is a one room affair set in the middle of a forest. The giant insects attack the school trapping the teacher & the kids. Most horror movie monsters looked hokey - but the monsters in this were extreme close-ups of real insects. It wasn't until Alien that I saw a movie monster as scary as those giant bugs.