Each time I think that I've seen every 1950's science
fiction or monster movie one pops up that reminds me that I still have not.
I know I've seen the poster art and the title of PHANTOM
FROM SPACE (1953) for years and I think I've gotten it mixed up with the film KILLERS
FROM SPACE (1954). That means that for a long time I thought that I knew this
film and was avoiding a rewatch. Instead it turns out that I had
never seen PHANTOM FROM SPACE until last night. It was a slow night!
After the first few minutes I realized how exciting it was
to discover a science fiction / horror movie from 1953 that I haven't seen
yet. Twenty minutes later I realized that I really regretted having finally
located this film. I'm sure there are fans of this one out there and more power
to you if that is the case. But I have to say that this dull 74 minutes was
nearly unendurable. If it wasn't for the fact that I was watching with someone
else who joined me in poking fun at the oddities that are part of the film I
don't know that I would have made it through in one sitting. Sometimes having a
movie buddy will get you through something much faster and with much less pain.
The film feels painfully drawn out to feature length with several scenes of
people standing around and regurgitating information we already know. Then they
sit around smoking and discussing the things we already know. Maybe just to
make sure the audience knows it? Maybe.
Needless to say PHANTOM FROM SPACE is an interesting curio
from the early 50's independently produced science fiction film genre but it's
an awfully slow affair. It was fascinating to wallow in the idiosyncratic
elements of the film that are attributable to the period when it was made (see
all of the smoking, all of the time) but there's just so little here of
interest that there's no way I could ever recommend it for anything other than
a group of people wanting to get drunk and joke around. If there are fans of
this movie out there, please let me know what I missed. But otherwise I doubt I'll be
revisiting this long slog sober again in my lifetime. I usually love 1950's SF
but this needed to be about 20 minutes shorter.
I do like the poster art though.
