Weirdhouse Cinema Rewind: Devil Girl From Mars
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Visit iBrands.com or call 1-844-9-iBrands for more information. Hey, welcome to Weird House Cinema Rewind. In today's episode, we're going to revisit an episode that originally published 9-9-2022. This is Devil Girl from Mars. Let's dive right in. Welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind, a production of iHeartRadio. ♪

Hey, welcome to Weird House Cinema. This is Rob Lamb. And this is Joe McCormick. And today we're going to be taking a look at a 1954 science fiction movie called Devil Girl from Mars. A movie about people who are obsessed with liquor, who in fact are in many cases even named after liquors. And they're called Devil Girl from Mars.

and who gather in a rural inn in Scotland to be attacked by an evil Martian boss lady who wants to kidnap and dominate Scottish men. Yes, that's right. Fans of Weird House Cinema may feel an inkling of a memory that this is, in fact, the second movie we've done with this exact plot. The plot of women from another planet within our solar system are running out of men and must come to Earth to steal our precious Earth hunk.

The other one was the lighthearted Mexican romantic musical horror comedy Ship of Monsters from 1960. And that one was such a delight. I still remember that so fondly.

I think Devil Girl from Mars is also a delight, but in a very different way. Ship of Monsters is clever, spunky, charming, intentionally funny, and made with this infectious sense of whimsy. Devil Girl from Mars is the exact opposite. It is made hilarious by virtue of its absurd self-seriousness. Yeah, yeah, this is not a lighthearted musical romp.

But it's still a lot of fun and has some great design work in it. Because that was one of the things we loved about

about the Ship of Monsters. It has some great monster designs, some great costumes, and we have some of that going on in Devil Girl from Mars as well. But also, there is no character in Devil Girl from Mars like Lalo Gonzalez in Ship of Monsters, you know, with the twinkle in his eye and the funny songs and all that. No, this is a movie mostly about men who are very serious about staying on Earth. Right.

Yeah, and none of the male performers are actually that interesting, either in their careers or in their performances here. At least I didn't find them so. But the female performers are pretty great. The titular devil girl from Mars, I think, is clearly the star of the show. My initial reaction to this when I started watching it,

I got about 20 minutes in and I was like, Oh, I don't know if this is all that great. Maybe this movie is really going to be kind of a drag. But then the moment the Martian shows up, the movie kicks into high gear immediately. Yeah, I agree. You warned me about the first 20 minutes and the first 20 minutes of this film are indeed quite slow. Um, and that are not all that fantastic. So, um, so definitely know that going into the film, but we mentioned Scottish, uh,

As much as anything is purely a Scottish film, I guess this is kind of our first Scottish film on Weird House Cinema, right? I can't think of another one. And it's also, it's not incidentally Scottish. It's not just like made by Scots. This is very much set in Scotland. Right, right. I think you can maybe get into the production credits and say like, well, it's more basically a British production, basically an English production. But yeah, a lot of Scottish talent involved in this picture.

And set in Scotland. Right. This film also has a very interesting indirect role in the history of science fiction literature.

Because it was apparently an early point of inspiration, a sort of anti-inspiration, for the great science fiction author Octavia Butler. I found a transcript of a talk she delivered at MIT in 1998 about the role of media like movies and TV in the history of sci-fi literature.

Um, and she, she goes over a bunch of different topics in the speech, but one of the first things she does is, is talk about seeing this movie when she was a kid. So I want to read her quote from the speech. She says, um,

It's impossible to begin to talk about myself in the media without going back to how I wound up writing science fiction, and that is by watching a terrible movie. The movie was called Devil Girl from Mars, and I saw it when I was about 12 years old, and it changed my life. It was one of those old 1950s movies in which the beautiful Martian woman arrives on Earth to announce that all of the Martian men have died off.

and there are a bunch of man-hungry women up there, and the Earthmen don't want to go. And as I was watching this film, I had a series of revelations. The first was that, geez, I can write a better story than that.

And then I thought, gee, anybody can write a better story than that. And my third thought was the clincher. Somebody got paid for writing that awful story. So I was off and writing, and a year later I was busy submitting terrible pieces of fiction to innocent magazines. I found this story so beautiful. Yeah, that's fun. I wasn't aware of this connection. And indeed, this is...

Essentially, I think one of the things that I've always enjoyed about films of this nature, not that, I mean, there have been times where I've been inspired to write something based on a less than stellar plot in a film or something. But more often than not, it's just like you're watching a film, there are spaces in it. Spaces that, yes, it's not only like, could this be improved, but what if this was improved? Right.

And so there's this film, there's this skeleton within the film, and then you sort of apply the meat to that skeleton with your own imagination, either in a product-based creative endeavor or just in the mindscape of enjoying a film.

Totally. I have long been of the opinion that if you're trying to study a creative art, you can learn just as much or even more by studying bad examples of that art form as you can from studying good examples. Like when you see the bad ones, it gives you a kind of analytical confidence. You can understand how and when things aren't working. Yeah.

Now, there's a lot that does work in this film, though, at least from a design standpoint. As we'll get into, there's at least one amazing costume. There's some cool sets. There's a cool robot.

And there are some times where there's a lot of technobabble, as we'll discuss, but occasionally, as our alien visitor is talking about conditions back home and laying down a little world building, some of it does kind of get you – or at least got my mind rolling. It's like, I wonder what this –

this gender war was like. How did all the Martian men die? And they're not filling in all the details for you, but they're giving you like a few visuals, some sights and sounds, some ideas, and then your brain kind of sketches in the rest of it.

it. And that's something I always enjoy about a film like this. Totally. I was actually, I was tempted to start asking genuinely interested questions about the war of the sexes that took place on Mars. I was like, well, were there like people on Mars who fell in love and they were like traitors to their side in the war of the sexes? I don't know. Yeah. It raises a lot of questions. You probably shouldn't think too

too literally about it all. I know that this isn't the only work of fiction to contemplate such a thing. So I guess, you know, metaphorically at least, it's useful in...

In fiction.

So it was an intra-sex dispute. The men killed each other on Venus. In this movie, it is that the women of Mars went to war with the men of Mars and killed them. I don't know if that's significant anyway. Maybe not.

Well, I guess she is supposed to have sort of a Black Widow kind of vibe to her. In fact, there is a part, rather clumsily, where one of the child characters, what's his name, Tommy? Tommy, yes. Tommy's like, you're like that spider that my dad sees in the barn or something like that. You know, basically saying, oh, you're like a Black Widow spider. And it's kind of like, yeah, that's part of what they're going for with the

black costume and you know this and it's kind of a trope and a stereotype of like a feminine power in films like this yeah I think the character is written in a way that is supposed to strike terror in the hearts of a 1950s male in the way that she is at least I think the way she's supposed to be received is as like very beautiful but also very like cold and rational and calculatingly evil yeah and it's

definitely portrayed in a way that is, I would say, sexually ahead of her time. Like I was reading about this film in Michael Weldon's Psychotronic books that summarizes this. He writes, quote, the alien herself is a real vision in boots, black tights, padded shoulders, cape, and a shiny black skull cap. The stuffy British males actually want to stay in England. Ha!

Which is great, though, not in England. They are in Scotland. I guess a couple of them are from England and stuck in Scotland and others are from Scotland. But whatever the case, yeah, they for some reason do not want to return to Mars with her and become part of like a captive earthling breeding program.

Right. But then, I mean, I was also thinking this whole time, I was like, like if they were excited to go, they would get to Mars and they'd find out that their participation in the breeding program involves being like hooked up in a tank somewhere and having their brain removed or something. So which would I think would have been fitting? That would have been a nice, like, I don't know if that would be a, maybe be a 90s Outer Limits ending. Oh, that would be a good twist. If like the character who goes is very like over eager young man.

But I was thinking the other twist, given that like they didn't, the Martians didn't realize earth was going to have a thick atmosphere. So when they got here, you know, they, they had trouble landing. It makes me think, well, what if they get the earthlings back to Mars and they don't realize that earthlings need to breathe oxygen. So as soon as they get there, it's just suffocation. Oh, we've got to go back for more now. I think we've already done the elevator pitch, so maybe we can skip that, but we've got to hear some trailer audio. All right, let's do it.

We saw this with our own eyes. An object the like of which we had never seen before. A frightening, strange shape descending from outer space with relentless purpose. Where did it come from? And what did it want of us? Hello! Hello! Hello! It's an aircraft, all right, but like nothing I've ever seen before. Hello! What do you mean? Hello! Hello! It's like something from another planet. Do not try to follow me. You cannot get help. Around this house, I've drawn an invisible wall for which no one may pass. There is a news reporter with a world-shattering story.

A girl trying to escape from her past. The scientist trapped in spite of his knowledge. And here also is the barmaid hiding a murderous secret. A murderer with a life already forfeit. And introducing the devil girl from Mars herself. Get back or I'll fire you. You fool. Get back.

All right, all right. Sounds pretty good. Let's see. So there are a bunch of places you can watch this one, I think. I just streamed it on Amazon. Yeah, I rented it through Prime. You can stream or buy it wherever you get your digital movies. It also looks like you can stream it via Film Movement, FlixFling, some other places. Yeah.

And I should also point out that there have been some basic physical releases as well, but also Bridget and Mary Jo covered it on riff tracks. So I haven't actually experienced their riff of the film, but I've very much enjoyed Bridget and Mary Jo's riffing in the past. So I bet they do a good job with this one. There's a lot of stuff to have fun with here. Yeah, I've got to watch that now.

All right, well, let's get into the various humans, mostly Scottish humans, involved in the creation of this picture. All right, starting at the top, we have director David MacDonald-Morris.

Born 1904 and died in 1983. Scottish-born director who at one point worked under Cecil B. DeMille in the U.S. as a production assistant. This would have been like the late 1920s and I guess early 30s. Basically an apprenticeship before returning back to the U.K. He worked with the Crown Film Unit during World War II to produce morale-boosting pictures.

And I've seen this film referred to as a career low point. And certainly he seems to have maybe been more successful during his lifetime with various other film and TV projects, most of which I'm not familiar with. I don't think he did much in the way of sci-fi or horror outside of this film, for instance. His most noteworthy films seem to have been 1947's The Brothers, 1948's Christopher Columbus, and the 1957 swashbuckler The Moonraker.

The Moonraker? Yeah, no connection, or at least...

I don't know. Maybe Moonraker has something to do with the plot of this 57 swashbuckler. I'm not sure. So when I was watching the credits for this movie, one of the weirdest things I noticed was the credit indicating that this is somehow based on a play for the stage. Yeah, this was weird. It was similar to something we encountered with Dr. X, right? Yeah. But in this one, yeah, you have the credit that reads...

like the credit for a play based on the play by John C. Mather and James Eastwood. And then James Eastwood also has a screenplay credit, which, because at first when I was looking at just how it was listed on IMDb, I was like, well, maybe they say play, but they mean screenplay. No, it seems more clear that this was a play and then it was adapted into a screenplay. Okay. Yeah, I don't know. This is Mather's only film credit while Eastwood,

Also worked on the screenplay for such films as 1955's The Case of the Red Monkey and 1956's Beyond Mombasa, which has Christopher Lee in it, a young Christopher Lee. But it starred seemingly mostly just a shirtless Cornell Wilde and then also Donna Reed. Oh, but let's not bury the lead. If there is one reason to watch this movie, it is our villain, played by Patricia LaFawn.

That's right. She plays Naya. This is our Martian visitor. Eliphon lived 1919 through 2014. And yeah, this...

Uh, this is a, this is a really fun role of our vamping space Lord here. And it's fitting because her biggest film role outside of this, uh, and I guess probably being fair, probably her biggest screen role period was playing Empress Pompeia in MGM sword and sandal blockbuster Quo Vadis from 1951. That was a film that had Robert Taylor, uh,

Peter Ustinov in it, and also an uncredited role as a chariot driver. We have Christopher Lee. Christopher Lee is just in the background creeping around uncredited with a goatee. Or sometimes credited in a number of pictures from this era. This movie, I don't know if it's primarily about Nero, but Nero is a major character in it. Emperor Nero.

And I think she plays a queen of Rome. Is that right? Oh, yes. She's queenly. You can look up footage and stills from it. She's in that she's decked out and gold and this elaborate hairdo. Uh, and, but she has that, that look on her face. She's got that smirk and those eyes. And I, I do have to say like, if you look up images from devil girl from Mars, there are probably any of her performances. Yes. Uh,

stunning outfit, stunning screen presence, but you're missing it. You're missing out on all the nuances if you don't see her alive in the scene because her sneer has a life all its own. She's using her eyebrows in very expressive ways. It's a wonderful performance.

Yeah. I mean, in some ways you would say it's an, it's a very emotionally flat performance. Like she's supposed to play like a very like unfeeling, uh, like a cold imperious unfeeling creature, but she is very expressive in like the way she raises her eyebrows at the pathetic attempts at heroism by earth men.

Yeah, it's kind of like sometimes you hear a criticism of a villain role and say, well, this is a real mustache twirling villain role. Meaning that, yes, it's leaning into a whole bunch of stereotypes and tropes regarding the particular classic cinematic villain. Over the top evil, yeah. Yeah, and this is very much a similar case. But the thing is, when a mustache is twirled just right,

It's satisfying. So this is definitely a performance that satisfies. Yes, this is a pencil-thin eyebrow twirling role. Yes. So LaFawn also appeared in 23 Paces to Baker Street in 56 that had Van Johnson and Estelle Winwood in it. She was an actor of stage and screen, and she also seems to have had some connections to the London, Paris, New York fashion world.

I love her. Every time she, she, it's like, um, you know, it's like Poochie. It's like every time, uh, Naya was not on screen, characters should be asking, where is Naya? When is she coming back? I felt the same way. Yeah. Yeah.

All right. I'm going to mention some of these male performers, though, again, they're the least interesting part about the film for the most part. You have Hugh McDermott playing Michael, a journalist. This actor lived 1906 through 1972. Scottish actor, also known for Pimpernel Smith from 41 and The Flying Swan from 1965. I'm not familiar with either of those pictures.

He plays a loudmouth journalist who I think is supposed to be likable, but he is not. He comes off as an absolutely insufferable jerk. Yeah. But hey, now we have another of the female players in this film, and it's a really good one. We have Hazel Court playing Ellen Smythe.

a fashion model. You know, I haven't introduced this concept yet, but the beginning of this movie is sort of like the prologue to the Canterbury tales where it's just a gathering of all of these randos into an in somewhere and, uh, finding out all about like, why is this person here? Oh, it's a surprise that they showed up. And she, she is also like sort of an odd puzzle piece amongst all the others here. She's like a, a, a, uh,

fancy London fashion model who's all glitz and glam she drinks tomato juice notably and people repeatedly point this out throughout the movie in fact I think they even refer to her sometimes as tomato juice girl and

And I think she's meant to be taken in the situation of the film as sort of a gem amongst the rough pebbles. Yeah, yeah. So it's a fun performance. I feel like she breathes a lot of life and character into this role, probably more than was necessary, and also in a way that gives you a hint of what's to come. Because a British actor here, but also –

essentially a horror queen of the late 50s, early 60s. She'd go on to become a star of Hammer Horror Films, and she also worked with the likes of Roger Corman. Her credits include The Curse of Frankenstein from 1957, The Mask of the Red Death from 64, The Man Who Could Cheat Death in 1959, Dr. Blood's Coffin in 61, and also 1963's The Raven.

On TV, she appeared on both The Twilight Zone and Thriller, and I suspect we'll discuss her once again in an upcoming Halloween selection for Weird House Cinema.

Her final film was 1981's The Final Conflict, in which she had basically a cameo. But this was the Omen picture that had Sam Neill playing a grown-up Damien. Oh, okay. It's called The Final Conflict, but it's the Omen 3, right? It's like the Omen 3 colon The Final Conflict. Yeah, or sometimes I think it's just called The Final Conflict. I don't know. No, you're right. Yeah, it's both. I think the demonic Sam Neill becomes president of the United States. I think something like that. I don't think I ever saw that one. I think I only saw the first one.

Yeah. All right. But she's not the only exciting female presence in the picture. We also have Adrienne Corey, who plays Doris, a barmaid, who

So Corey lived 1931 through 2016, Scottish-born actor known for her roles, probably best known for roles in Dr. Zhivago and A Clockwork Orange, along with such films as 1965's A Study in Terror. This is a film that had John Neville as Sherlock Holmes taking on Jack the Ripper.

And then she's also in a film that I know you've seen, but I haven't. I remember you talking about this one, 1974's Madhouse, starring Vincent Price and Peter Cushing. Looking this up. I don't know. Have I seen this? Maybe you haven't seen it. Maybe. If I said I've seen it, I don't remember seeing it now. Okay. Well, maybe we just will see it in the future at some point.

But Corey was also in the fun Hammer Space Romp Moon Zero 2 from 1969 and a film from 72 called Vampire Circus that I don't know much about, but with a title like Vampire Circus, you know, there's got to be something interesting in there.

I would say that both Hazel Court and Adrian Corey do more with the roles they have in this movie than is actually there on the page. Right. Yeah. They both like clearly these are these are two actors who would go on to have much bigger roles and bigger pictures and you can see why. Oh you

Oh, you know, I would also actually say that about... Mainly because this is just a really underwritten movie, except for the just, you know, delicious weirdness of all the scenes where Naya is explaining her home planet and their plans and stuff. But other than that, the characters are kind of underwritten, but...

The guy who plays the professor also does a little bit more with the role than you might have expected. Yeah. He's played by an actor by the name of, uh, I think I'm saying his last name, right? It could be wrong. Joseph, uh, Tomulty. Yeah, that's what I thought. Tomulty. He lived, uh, 1910 through 1995. Uh,

Northern Irish novelist, playwright, and character actor. And he was in at least, I don't know the extent of these roles, but he is credited as having appeared in 1958's A Night to Remember. I believe that's a Titanic movie. And 1956's Moby Dick. So he plays Professor Hennessy. Yes, that's right.

And he had, I think, despite the fact that the movie is all really all Naya, the line that Rachel and I kept quoting back and forth at each other is one of his lines. The part where he says, I am a scientist. I believe what my brain tells me to believe. Oh, that's, that's not, that's not how it works. I love it. I also believe what my brain tells me to believe. I really have no choice.

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Listen to the official Big Bang Theory podcast on Max or wherever you get your podcasts and stream episodes of the Big Bang Theory on Max. All right. Let's see another. I'm not including all of them because there are at least a half dozen other male characters. Way too many characters in this movie. Yeah. But there is another one by the name of David, who is a handyman, and he's played by James Edmond. James Edmond was a Canadian actor who.

Probably best known for this film, but he was also in 1974's Black Christmas alongside. One kind of forgets that that had a pretty good cast, Black Christmas. It had Olivia Hussey. It had Keir Dullea, Margot Kidder, and John Saxon. I saw it many years ago. I remember it did not leave a good impression. No, it's kind of a nasty film, as I recall. But there's no arguing with that cast. That's a good cast.

Oh, yeah. All right. On the music front, Edwin Astley did the music. British composer, lived 1922 through 1998. Worked in a lot of British action TV shows, such as The Saint. That's probably what he's most known for. He also did music for the Hammer adaptation of The Phantom of the Opera from 62, starring Herbert Lomm. And a 1958 Jack the Ripper TV movie starring Boris Karloff. Now, one name that...

caught my attention from the credits for the wrong reason was it said that Patricia Lafon's costume was by Ronald Cobb. And I was like, Ron Cobb, like from Alien and Raiders of the Lost Ark? No, it is a different Ron Cobb, but also a second excellent Ron Cobb. This world has at least two genius Ron Cobbs in it.

Yeah, this was a lot of fun to dive into because initially when I did the scan of the people involved, I saw that credit too. And I saw this guy, Ronald Cobb, and I saw that he had no other film credit. So I thought, well, maybe it's just a one-off, but it's worth mentioning him because the costume is great and clearly is one of the selling points of the whole picture. But looking into it a bit more, yeah, this is Ronald Cobb who lived 1907 through 1977. And

And this guy worked primarily in theater and especially in cabaret during this time period. I ran across some of his watercolors for various costumes that he designed over the years, several of which seem to be in the collection of the Victoria and Albert Museum. I included a link here for you, Joe, and I'll also include these links in the blog post I do for this at some mutamusic.com.

I didn't find anything that looked like a sketch that he had put together for Devil Girl specifically. But, oh, wow, there are some really wild, imaginative, dark and ahead of their time, I think, kind of designs that he put together for these costumes. Right. So these he has a lot of costume designs for like it appears to be burlesque clubs of some kind in London in like the 60s and 70s.

but they are not just your standard sexy outfits. They are weird. Like one is kind of Grim Reaper themed with like a big gallows. And I don't even know. It has bats. Yeah, yeah.

There's another one that has this, like, a flag with a pentagram on it. Like, this really wild stuff that seemed that, you know, you wouldn't expect to be emerging from this time period necessarily unless you're, you know, really into, I guess, to, you know, burlesque costume design of the period. There's also a headdress that has something that looks like a, like a, kind of like a Muppet goblin on top of it. It's really, really cool. Kind of almost, and it also looks like,

almost like a camera. I don't know. It's weird. I can't really put it all together, but you can find all of these images online in the collection of the Victoria and Albert Museum. There are also some images, apparently he did some of his designs for Murray's Club in Soho back in the day. And so if you go to the website for Murray's Club, they have some of these watercolors as well for other designs that he did. Some of these are not as weird as the ones we're describing here, but they're still pretty interesting.

Now, the costume that Naya has on in this picture, it's not nearly as revealing as these various cabaret designs. But still, you can see some of the connections to this world. That's why it is perhaps a little more...

alluring than what you would normally see going on with costuming in pictures from this time period. No, the devil girl from Mars is dressed kind of like a cross between the astronauts in Planet of the Vampires and Batman, but with a burlesque twist. Yeah.

Now, I read that writer John Mather, who we referenced earlier, later claimed in an interview that the suit was actually constructed by John Sutcliffe, a British fashion and fetish designer and photographer who worked a lot with leather and rubber and PVC. So lots of like catsuits and gas masks.

However, I couldn't find anything firm about his connection to this film. And there do seem to be some misconceptions about film projects that he has sometimes said to have been involved in. For instance, I think sometimes it's been said that he designed the catsuit that Emma Peel wears in the Avengers movie.

That doesn't seem to be the case, but he did design the catsuit that Marianne Faithfull wears in 1968's "The Girl on a Motorcycle." And I think that inspired the catsuit worn by Emma Peel. So I don't know where the truth lies in all of that. It seems like maybe it's a situation where, yeah, Cobb designs it and then they're like, well, somebody needs to build this thing. And someone's like, well, I know this guy named John. He's really into this stuff. He can make it come to life.

All right. Well, are you ready to talk about the plot? Let's dive into the first 20 minutes of The Devil Girl from Mars.

Really, I feel like the first 20 minutes of this movie is going to be more fun to discuss than to watch. And then it's a flip side once Naya shows up. Well, it starts with a bang. Yeah, yeah. Well, it starts with Big Ben. I mean, how could you deny that? We see that there's like a title card, a London Films international release. And then we see an airplane coasting through the clouds, then a whistling sound growing higher in pitch, and then boom, plane explodes in a stupendous fireball.

And we see the title, it's Devil Girl from Mars in block letters. Now there were several things I thought were funny about the credits. There was seeing the name Ron Cobb, even though it was a different one. There was seeing that this was based on a play. But then the other funny thing that caught my attention is the producer credit screen. The producers get their own screen.

And the screen makes it look like we're supposed to already know who the producers are. It says produced by the Danzigers. And then it's got two little signatures like in handwriting, Edward J. Danziger and what does it say? Harry Lee Danziger. I have no idea who those people are, but like it presents it as if they're like the Osmonds or something. Yeah.

Yeah, I looked into them briefly. They apparently were very active producers at the time, American-born brothers who produced many British films and TV shows in the 50s and 60s. I'm not sure most of the titles they were involved with really resonated beyond their time. So I think it's,

unless you're really into pictures of this time period yet, you probably don't know who the Danzigers are. Devil Girl seems to be one of the best remembered productions from everything they put out, for example. Along with perhaps the only film that maybe is a little more popular

famous than this one would be the 1956 sci-fi movie Satellite in the Sky. This one had Kieran Moore in it, who many out there may remember as the actor who played Pony in Darby O'Gill and the Little People. He was also in Crack in the World and Invasion of the Triffids. I haven't seen any of that. Oh, you haven't seen Darby O'Gill? No. Oh, it's a fun one. When St. Paddy's Day rolls back around, you should watch that one. Oh.

Oh, okay. All right. Well, after the credits wrap up, we establish the setting of the movie, which is the Bonnie Charlie. It is a rustic country in nestled upon the Scottish moor supposed to be somewhere in Inverness Shire, which is up in the Highlands. And it's said to be wintertime. So it's cold. And this is a, you know, a lonely, cozy little country house and in there.

And the first thing we hear is a radio going. So we go inside and the radio is saying, this is the BBC home service. Here is the news. It was announced by the home office today that a, uh, that the mysterious noise heard over a lonely part of Inverness Shire yesterday was caused by a supposed meteor falling to earth.

And here we meet a couple of characters. We meet Tommy, the annoying kid, and we meet Doris, the barmaid. And of course she is going to be very busy in this movie because a major theme of devil girl from Mars is needing a drink. And granted the characters in this film are put in exceptional circumstances, but it's still their intake of scotch suggests a daily regular intake of scotch that seems unbearable.

a bit beyond what I would be comfortable with.

Well, yeah, and the excessive intake of scotch begins long before any aliens appear on the scene. Right, yeah, they're already hard drinking before anything supernatural or out of this world occurs. So, you know, the radio's blabbering on with exposition about an unidentified white aircraft seen floating in the sky over the Hebrides. And Tony the Kid is like, uh, oi, what's a meteor? And Doris says, I don't know, but, you know, let's say good job to the meteor for not landing on us.

And then here comes Mrs. Jameson, who is Tommy's aunt, and she is the proprietor of the inn. And she kept reminding me of Maggie Smith, but her main characteristics are being suspicious of strangers, which is a very good quality for an innkeeper. Yeah.

and scolding her husband for having his 17th dram of scotch. I can't remember if I've already flagged this or not. Maybe I have, but I just want to emphasize again, the owners of the inn are named Jameson and the husband is apparently named Jamie Jameson. Wow. That'd be like, if you had a character named Jack, Jack Danielson.

Jack Danielson, or I think the professor's character name is Henny Hennessy. So anyway, Tommy the Kid, he's sent to bed and Doris and Mrs. Jameson discuss the meteor. Doris thinks it mighty romantic that it came all the way from outer space to land in their sleepy neck of the woods. And Mrs. Jameson is not impressed. She's just like, oh, a bit of rock from the sky.

But after Mrs. Jameson leaves, Doris the barmaid surreptitiously turns the radio back on. It's like she has a secret science news habit. And the radio says, Professor... Oh, okay, it's not Henny Hennessy. It's Professor Arnold Hennessy, the radio says.

the well-known astrophysicist has traveled North today to investigate the mysterious object. And we'll give a detailed report to the home office. So we've got the Jameson's and we got the Hennessy's and we know that their, their paths are going to collide. And you cut from here to two guys in a car in the dark. One is professor Hennessy himself. And the other is a fast talking, wisecracking journalist named Michael Carter played by Hugh McDermott. Michael Carter is such an insufferable lout. Uh,

I guess they've been driving around all day to find the meteorite, but now they are lost in Scotland, in the land of perpetual darkness, and they are unable to figure out the map that they're consulting. And then there's some really clunky expository dialogue where Carter says something like, You mean to tell me you spend your whole career plotting stars millions of miles apart, and yet you can't read a roadmap of Scotland? Hmm.

I really think they should have inserted a prize in there. Like he should have said, you mean to tell me you won the Nobel prize for plotting stars millions of miles apart. But professor Hennessy reveals that he believes the whole investigation is a waste of time. Anyway, he says he doesn't believe it will turn out to be a meteor. He thinks it will more probably turn out to be the engine cowling of an airplane.

Well, let's hope he's wrong because that sounds like that would be terrible for this film. That would be boring, yes. We also get more exposition via the radio. The radio announcer says, Robert Justin, who earlier today escaped from Sterling Prison, is still at large. His description is as follows. Height, 5 feet 10 inches. Fair hair.

And then what do you know? Next thing we see is a guy, presumably the escaped prisoner, darting around between hiding places in the dark beside the road as the professor and the journalist pass in their car.

And he's so, so unremarkable looking. Yeah. Well, when we first see him, he's got kind of a wild look in his eye, but he's also, he's kind of blandly handsome. So you can probably tell he's going to turn out to be the hero. Yeah. He doesn't look, he doesn't look menacing. So that's the, that's the, the key. That's what, that's the, that's the tell here. Uh, do you, do you think it's possible all these characters will make their way over to the Bonnie Charlie, the end? Uh,

Uh, anyway, next thing is we see Doris, the barmaid, and then Mr. And Mrs. Jameson doing some chores around the house while Mr. Jameson is trying to sneak off into the other room. And she's like, uh, Ms. Jameson is like, where are you going? And he says, oh, I'm just going into the lounge. And she says, uh, into the lounge bar, you mean? Well, you'll stay here. If you're thirsty, there's plenty of water in the tap. Uh,

So this is the ongoing dynamic between Mr. and Mrs. Jameson. He is always getting caught in an attempt to sneak away for a draft of scotch, and Mrs. Jameson forbids it. Though I will say, starting about halfway through the movie, he just starts getting away with consuming scotch, and she just sort of laughs about it. Like, oh, there he goes again. He sees the opportunity. It's like alien visitation. This is my chance to just drink scotch nonstop without being fussed at.

But Doris the barmaid instead goes off to the lounge where she hears a strange rapping at the door and she opens it up. And what do you know? It's that escaped prisoner we saw earlier. And he comes in and she says, Robert. And he says, no, it's not Robert anymore. It's Albert, Albert Simpson. Okay. So he was Robert Justin, but now he's going by Albert Simpson. And confusingly, this is how everyone will refer to him for the rest of the movie, even though they first introduced him by a different name.

Okay. So what happened? Well, we find out quote, Albert Simpson escaped from prison and Doris and Albert already have a relationship. In fact, they were in love. And while he was in prison, she promised to wait for him to get out. And she took the job in Inverness Shire to be close, I guess, to Sterling prison where he was being held, but he escaped. And here he is. Why was he in prison? We find out it is for murdering his wife and,

But he maintains that it was not murder. It was an accident. This is never really resolved. He just says it was an accident. And that's as much as we ever find out about it. That red flag just remains hanging there the whole time. Flying in the breeze. I think we're meant to understand that he's telling the truth and he didn't really murder her. I don't know. Yeah, I feel like the film should have put in a little more legwork on that one.

Yeah, at least explain, like, it doesn't go into how it was an accident or, like, why he was falsely accused. Yeah. Maybe that would sell it a little better. I don't know. But anyway, okay, so he's convicted of murdering his wife. He escapes from prison. He finds his old girlfriend at the end, and he's like, hide me. But in the middle of them talking about how she needs to hide him, oops, here comes Mrs. Jameson. You know, Maggie Smith comes in, basically. And...

And they've got to come up with a ruse really fast. So Doris is like, oh, this is a hiker. His name's Albert Simpson. He was out hiking, you know, in Scotland and he dropped his wallet in a stream while he was trying to look at a fish, they say. And now he is lost and he needs to stay at the inn and he will work for his keep. And Mrs. Jameson accepts this, but she's very suspicious of him. She says, I'm counting the spoons. Yeah.

Oh, and you know, what, what does Doris do first thing? She's like, would you like a drop of something? So she pours him a scotch. And she's got all these questions about his time in prison. She just keeps asking like, did you read a lot? You used to love to read. What was it like inside? And he, you can just see the pressure building up. He's like, stop, stop asking. Yeah. So, and then Albert Simpson's like, okay, well I got to know who all's here while I'm hiding out. And Doris tells him, this is confusing. She's like the only people here.

are Mr. and Mrs. Jameson and their nephew Tommy. But then the rest of the scene is other people coming in who she didn't list. So the first guy is this guy David who appears to live and work at the inn. He's the Torgo of the inn. He's

uh, carrying wood around and stuff. And, and Doris, uh, confides that David gives her the creeps, but then she also says, oh yeah. And there is somebody else here. It's miss Prestwick. She is a gorgeous model from London. What she's doing in a place like this. I don't know. This of course is Hazel court playing Ellen Prestwick. Uh, and then we see her come down to the lounge where, where Jamie Jameson tries to flirt with her. Uh, he's being very inappropriate. He's like, oh, you're always pretty as a picture. Uh,

and she's like doing a little fashion show for him in the hall. I don't know. It's weird. She's like talking about the outfit she's wearing as if it's in a fashion catalog. Yeah, yeah. I mean, it's kind of fun. Like I say, she's breathing a lot of life into this character.

fully inflating the character here. And then more hotel hijinks ensue. Jamie keeps sneaking booze and he says, my wife has the most unpatriotic contempt for her national beverage. And Mrs. Jameson says, you should see him when he has a patriotic head in the morning. There's nothing like sinking into luxury. Anabase sofas combine ultimate comfort and design at an affordable price. Sigh.

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Meanwhile, the professor and the journalist, they were the ones lost in the car. Well, they're done being lost on the road. They see a sign for a pub and they're like, let's go get a drink. So they pull up outside and they run in talking about how they're going to get, quote, a couple of big scotches. And then they come in and there's more like, can we accommodate them type hand wringing like we got with Albert Simpson earlier? Yeah.

And eventually Mrs. Jameson informs them was like, well, we're supposed to be closed for the winter right now. Uh, the rooms aren't ready. They're not in ship shape, but you can sleep there. And she says, the beds are good. And Rachel and I both reacted to that. Like something about the Bonnie Charlie does not seem like it would have good beds. My impression is this place would have,

beds that are basically a piece of flagstone wrapped in wool that feels like barbed wire. And I don't know if you also got the same, just uncomfortable vibes from, from the setting. Like I think inside this building, um,

It's one of those places that feels like it would be somehow cold and stuffy at the same time. Like it's too cold and too hot simultaneously. Yeah. And one of those situations where you know that wooden bar that it probably has that situation going on where you have like the dust and the grime have kind of, they're kind of one thing now, this kind of like sticky part.

like black film over everything. Like, you know, you know, that has to be the case here. Well, Mrs. Jameson offers them something to eat, but, but Michael Carter says, what I need most is a drink. So they go and they get drinks and Jamie is trying to serve them. And there's more bickering about whether he will serve them drinks or not. As they settle in Michael Carter, the journalist begins obnoxiously hitting on Miss Prestwick and,

Um, he, he's commenting on the fact that she's drinking tomato juice and he's like, not many girls drink tomato juice unless they're afraid of putting on weight. Uh, so he's like trying to do some kind of negging pickup artist routine. And I was just thinking, when will the Martians kill this man? Unfortunately, never. He turns out to be one of the heroes of the movie. Yeah. Uh, but then professor Hennessy introduces himself, uh, and they, they decided to have another wee Scotch.

And I think this is the scene where in the span of 30 seconds, they like go get a drink three separate times. Yeah, gosh, there's just so much scotch drinking and occasionally other liquids are suggested as possible beverages, possible liquids that could be consumed. But generally, everyone seems to be of the opinion that no scotch is the best.

Yeah. Uh, they, they do sit down to have some dinner to have some supper, which for which they're having Scotch broth. And no, if you're not familiar, that is actually a type of soup. It is not just a term for hot Scotch in a bowl. Uh, and me, one of the things they talk about at dinner is Jamie Jameson giving a passionate defense of the Loch Ness monster. He is like, I will not have anyone speak ill of that fine creature.

Yes.

Unless I was mistaken, I think we're supposed to believe that he recognizes him based on the description that was given on the radio earlier. I guess, though, that is a very vague description. Yeah. So I guess Michael Carter is a journalist, though, right? Yeah. So maybe he's seen a picture through journalism. I don't know. Oh.

Oh, he just happened to cover this guy's trial or something? Maybe. I mean, it's not explained. Anyway, the tension of this confrontation, when it's at its peak, it's suddenly interrupted by a cataclysmic event. There's like a shaking of the house.

And it is the approach and landing of a flying saucer, which when they go outside, they can't even get close to it because it's too hot. And this flying saucer, I'm going to say the effect looks a little too good for the movie that it's in.

Yeah, it is a way better UFO, way better flying saucer than you might expect from this film. A film that is often, one of the things that's often written about it is that it had a low budget. It's not a high budget affair. And also you see enough films from this era, you see enough films with flying saucers in it, you get used to a certain level of,

of cheapness, you know? You can have some sort of a dinky model and some large tripods for characters to stand around. That's essentially all you need. And it can be fun, but there's sort of a standard level of quality that you kind of accept things to hover around. And I feel like this flying saucer goes beyond that. It's got this, you know, it's got plenty of the elements of a standard 50s flying saucer that you might come to expect.

But it also has this kind of different energy to it. You know, it's described as being hot, portrayed as being hot. It has this kind of industrial atomic sensibility to it. And it has these like telescopic legs that come out. Yeah, it has moving parts and it seems to emit its own light. Yeah. So it's, this is a really cool flying saucer model, I have to say. All right. So they all react to that in various ways. Mr. Carter, the, the,

journalist runs to the telephone and I think quite hilariously just keeps like screaming into it. Hello. Hello. Hello. Hello. Hello. And meanwhile, Doris gets her convict boyfriend to hide in the attic. Others scramble around trying to get a car working or to find a functional telephone all to no avail. We get our first action scene in our first scene seeing Patricia Lafon as Naya when the ship opens up and

a ramp extends down out of the hull and we see Naya come out. She hasn't said anything yet. She's just silent and wearing all this shiny black leather with the skull cap. She looks very dangerous and she comes down the ramp and, uh, oh, there's a, you know, there's,

David, the ends, the Bonnie Charlie's Torgo wandering around outside and he collapses outside the ship and she just vaporizes him. Yeah, he is not a specimen that she thinks is going to help Mars out at all. So instantly vaporized, leaves nothing but smoke and a pair of spectacles. That's right. It's just like a steaming patch of sod and the major tote glasses. Yeah.

But it's hard facts of life. She's looking for hunks, and Torgo here does not make the cut. This is in stark contrast to Ship of Monsters, remember? Because in that one, our females from Venus arrive. They encounter our male hero, and they're like, oh, it's a male. And they ask him, it's like, are you the prime specimen? Are you like the peak specimen for your species? And he's like, yeah, I am. And they believe him. And they believe him. In this, she's like, no, no, this isn't it. Vaporize.

What is this is 1954. I guess she'd be like, where is rock Hudson? Take me to your rock Hudson's though. Interestingly, this film has no rock Hudson caliber actress in it. So, no. So, uh, so that unfortunate thing happens to David. And meanwhile, the professor and Michael Carter have been trying to fix up the phone in the car, but to no avail, it's as if all of their earth technology has been magically disabled and

And so they come back inside and they're like, hey, Doris, fix us up a couple of big scotches, will you? That is a direct quote. But Doris can't fix them big scotches because she has been hypnotized. And this is something that will happen to multiple characters throughout the movie. Later, the escaped convict gets hypnotized. The Martians appear to have some kind of like mind control ray.

And when, when somebody suggests, do you think her catatonic state could have anything to do with the flying saucer outside? The professor, for some reason is just categorically opposed to the idea that the flying saucer could have anything to do with it. He goes, I tell you that's absurd, but this is the scene where we meet Patricia Lafon. She,

suddenly throws the doors to the room open and comes inside. And here she is folks. The alien commander is standing between the French doors, you know, cold and imperious. And this scene just rocks. There is something so unusual in a simultaneously, uh,

and kind of spellbinding way about the rhythm of the dialogue in the scene, the way it mostly consists of fairly short questions and answers. Like the earthlings will ask a question of, of the Martian and then she will answer in a short form. And the way she delivers her lines, uh,

I don't know if you know what I'm talking about, Rob, but it just establishes this amazing rhythm that's so consistently weird and funny. Oh, yeah, yeah. The rapport here is pretty great. And I also have to say the scene where suddenly she's there. Naya is there emerging through the French doors. There was something about this that, I mean, it's a visually captivating scene.

But it was tingling something in my memory. And then I realized what it was. It's Jim Henson's 1986 film, Labyrinth. Pretty early on when we encounter Jareth, the Goblin King. He is standing, it's not exactly the same, but it's very similar. Like these terrestrial French doors or something or windows that have been opened and inside...

This opening, you have this just exquisite character from another world in this amazing costume that's, you know, bold and confident and sexy. I see exactly what you're talking about. Yeah. So she comes in and the guys in the room ask her who she is. She says her name is Naya. They ask her where she's from. She says Mars. Professor Hennessy objects that it is preposterous that she could be from Mars. No way.

And then she says, you men on Earth are not as we expected. She's very disappointed. And Professor Hennessy says, we scientists were always skeptical about the possibility of life on Mars, but certainly nothing so human.

And she asks him, you are a scientist? He says yes. Then she says, you are a very poor physical specimen. So cold, so mean. But then she just sort of shoves the professor out of the way, presumably because, I don't know, she's trying to get a look at Michael Carter. I guess he's a better physical specimen.

But Michael Carter is like, you speak English? And she says, of course. You are English, aren't you? What other language should I speak? And then she does this weird hand gesture. I don't know what this is all about. I think maybe she's like turning off the hypnosis mode on Doris.

And then she says that she in fact speaks all languages by picking up earth radio. They ask her, is this the first time Martians have landed on earth? And she says, yes. They ask, why did she land here? And she says, it's a miscalculation. You see, she was trying to get to London, presumably to locate the stud district of London, uh,

But Earth's atmosphere was thicker than expected and part of the ship was torn off and they were forced to land in Scotland. And the part of the ship being torn off explains the meteor from earlier. She says repairs are going to take about four Earth hours. And in the meantime, I guess she's probably just going to toy with them very cruelly.

Now they ask her, is she alone in the ship? And her answer is, according to the version I was watching and the subtitles that came with it, the answer is Johnny is with me. I have read elsewhere that the character she's referring to is actually named Chani spelled C H A N I. But it sounds like there, every time she says it, it sounds like Johnny and the subtitle spelled it Johnny. So I don't know what to believe.

Yeah, I read it somewhere as Chani, but when she's saying it in the picture, it's really hard to hear anything other than Johnny. But Chani would be a more fitting name, I think, for an off-world robot. Right, because Johnny is a kill bot. She explains Johnny is a mechanical man, a robot with many of the characteristics of a human. This is hilarious when you see him later because he's not very much like a human. Yeah, he's like 20 feet tall.

Yeah. He's a refrigerator with arms and legs. But they say, but she says, oh, but he is improved by an electronic brain. And then here we get a bunch of voluntary techno babble from Naya. She just offers up explanations about how all of her stuff works. She says the metal from which her spaceship is constructed can reproduce itself and

Uh, and, uh, and then we're, I don't know why this is, but we see miss Prestwick outside the door, like listening in, like she's spying on them. Um, but eventually she gets FOMO and just sort of comes into the room. Uh, but the, the, the professor and everybody arguing about this, do you realize what you've said? They've turned the inorganic into the organic, uh,

Okay, but we're about to get to the main premise. So they start questioning her why she's going to London. This is what Naya says. She says,

Uh, uh, Henny here says, uh, so you've had wars too. I was like, why would you ask that? She just said, they just said, she just said that. But Naya says all inhabited planets have had wars. Some have ended by wiping themselves out for every new weapon invented. A defense was perfected until the ultimate weapon was developed. A perpetual motion chain reactor beam. Uh,

Oh, God. This has got to be peak technobabble. Like, what is that even? And then how, even I'm failing to imagine what that could be, much less how it is then utilized in an on-planet battle between two factions based on sex. Yeah.

Oh, I mean, she explains a little bit. The professor's like, tell me more. I want to know about the perpetual motion chain reactor beam. And she says, as fast as matter was created, it was changed by its molecular structure into the next dimension and so destroyed itself. Okay. Well, I don't know if that actually helps me any, but she's got more to say. The professor, his comment on this is, so there is a fourth dimension. Yeah.

But Naya explains more. She says, you know, after the war of the sexes, women became the rulers of Mars. But now the male has fallen into a decline. The birth rate is dropping tremendously. For despite our advanced science, we still have found no way of creating life. I guess she means other than like standard sexual reproduction, which we assume is their method, though they're never explicit about that. So I don't know.

But then Miss Prestwick, she kind of challenges Naya on this. She goes, so you've come here for new blood. And I love the way Hazel Court here has this like defiant tone. Like Miss Prestwick is feeling territorial.

And she's like, you're not going to steal my beloved earth schlubs. You know, they belong here with us. But Naya just, you know, she's not having any defiance. She's like, yes, we are here to steal your males. We're going to kidnap your males and breed with them. But also, we are here to test a newly invented organic metal.

Quote, Okay, so it's a dual mission. Yeah, yeah. It's, you know, it's testing out the prototype metal and it's collecting Earthmen and...

And Michael Carter of the Earthmen says, and if I don't want to go with you, just assuming he's going to be picked. And Naya says there is no if. She says she will take her pick of, quote, the man and subdue London with the help of a nuclear paralyzer ray.

And so like the humans start arguing about this with each other. Miss Prestwick says to the professor, don't you understand that this thing from Mars can destroy all life?

And then very funny. So most of the earth males don't want to go to Mars, but I thought it was funny here how the professor is like, well, hold on now. We must think objectively about what is happening. He says, this is the turning point in the history of the world. Maybe, you know, I think he's saying we need to hear her out. But it's also extra funny given how cold she was to him earlier. He's like, but maybe it's me. Maybe I'm the one that should go.

No, you are a very poor male specimen. But then, oh, but then one of the funniest parts of the whole movie, Mrs. Jameson comes into the room and she sees this lady here just dressed in this like crazy leather space suit. And Michael Carter says, Mrs. Jameson, may I introduce your newest guest, Miss Naya? She comes from Mars. Yeah.

And then what does Mrs. Jameson reply? She says, oh, well, that'll mean another bed. Yeah. And it's always kind of neat when in a film like this you have one or two lines that are legitimately intentionally funny. That was some good writing there. Yeah. But then she does a double take. Mm-hmm.

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By the way, Joe, you included here for me a screenshot of the character standing in front of the bar. Do you think those are all scotch bottles back there on the wall? They have like four shelves of liquor bottles. And I'm just, I'm suddenly wondering, what are we looking at here? It's a lot of bottles and I don't, I don't know. I'm not seeing a lot of gin back there. It all looks like a brown liquor of various sorts.

Scotch enthusiasts will have to let us know. I really only know my way around a couple of Scotches. Yeah. Uh, though it's funny. I just remembered something when Rachel and I were watching this, uh, you know, with all the characters that are named Hennessy and Jameson when, um, when Naya first came in, Rachel said, my name is Campari. Yeah.

That's good. That's a good riff. Oh, suddenly at this point in the movie, everybody gets agitated that they can't find David, the guy that she vaporized out on the lawn. And they're like, he's missing. And then they all turn to her and they're like, Miss Naya, have you? And she says, of course, he was no stud muffin. So I killed him. Yeah.

And Michael Carter gets really mad about this. They have to restrain him. He's trying to punch her or something, and they're all holding him back.

I don't know why they felt the need to establish that they found him creepy earlier. Like there was no payoff for that. Like he never did anything that was creepy. There was no such, sometimes you introduce the stereotypical creepy groundskeeper character because you want to have him be a suspect in, you know, or something or, you know, or he's creeping around and happens to, you know, run afoul of the Jason or whatever's running around on the,

But in this case, I don't know, he was just out getting wood. Like why did it matter that he was creepy?

He didn't actually do anything wrong. Yeah. You kind of got to feel bad for David. Like for all we know, he was a totally nice guy. He had no lines. Yeah. Uh, but anyway, here Naya leaves and she says, okay, uh, around this house, I've drawn an invisible wall. You can't get through it. So don't even try to leave. Uh, I'm going to do repairs on my ship and I'll be back to, to kill you all and maybe take some of the strongest males. Hmm.

And then the rest of the movie is just people coming and going back and forth from the ship like 15 times. Naya in a quite funny manner, in fact, keeps leaving and then coming back to the inn. And then there are some more scenes between the humans that are, I think, trying to

Do character development. Like there is a scene where Michael Carter, the, the really annoying journalist and miss Prestwick fall in love. Uh, like he ostensibly, he comes up to her room at the hotel knocking on the door with the excuse that he has come to see if she has any scotch.

Like they're out downstairs. Yeah. No, they're clearly not. It's like, Hey, I was wondering if there's any air in your room that I could breathe. I couldn't find any anywhere else. Uh, but if she invites him in and she, he's like, you got any scotch? And she says, no, but I've got some brandy. Okay. Um,

And, uh, and so, and we get their backstories. Miss Prestwick talks about how she's in Scotland. Actually, she doesn't volunteer this information. He does like a cold reading routine where he like tells her her whole backstory just by, I don't know, by like, like observing her. And,

And I guess it's all correct. You know, he figures out that she's in Scotland because she's, she's hiding from a married man with whom she is having an affair. He, I think he is the fashion designer and she is his muse. And then meanwhile, Michael Carter explains, I don't know, his backstory is like, he's like, Oh, I've seen all the terrible things in the war zones, but now I'm done with all that. And then he says, now I'm letting my hair down.

which was a laugh out loud moment because he does not have much hair to let down. Right. Oh, but then there's also the invisible wall. This was a lot of fun because you have, uh, Naya established that she was going to set a perimeter, an invisible wall to keep people from leaving. And again, these characters have been drinking scotch nonstop. And then you have the professor bumble in. Right. So they, they look out the window actually before this, sorry, before this, they, um,

uh, Michael and Ms. Prestwick have a dialogue exchange that is so funny. It means nothing, but at one point he's just, I guess he's just frustrated. He just goes, it's that thing out there. And then she says, it is there, Michael. Yeah.

What does that mean? Thanks. Thanks, movie. Oh, yeah, I remember now. There is a spaceship outside. And also an invisible wall, though. That's right. Maybe that's the thing they were talking about. I don't know. Is it the spaceship or is it the robot or the spaceship?

But so the professor comes back. He's got blood on his head now. And they're like, Professor, what happened? And he's like, well, I went out walking and then I crashed into the invisible wall. There really is an invisible wall. I thought it impossible by all that is known to science. Yeah, I don't know. I just found that also hilarious. I think this might be the scene with I believe what my brain tells me to believe. And my brain ran into an invisible wall. Yeah.

Now, here we get the first of a couple of times where the people at the end try to figure out how to outsmart Naya. Like there's another scene later where they set literally set an electrical trap for her, like in the thing from another world, which doesn't work. But in this scene, they try to they find a gun and they're like, well, we can just shoot her when she comes in.

And Naya makes a fabulous entrance. She like throws the doors open and steps in. And I wish I could like show you the, the listener out there, a gif of this because it's, it's such a wonderful step in move. Yeah. It's very Jareth from labyrinth. Again, there's, there's no owl, but it has that same energy. Yes. And they try shooting her with a revolver, but the bullets have no effect. The, the posture that Michael Carter does,

while he's shooting at her is so funny. He's got his non-shooting hand tucked behind his back and he's just standing up straight with the gun sort of at stomach level, just going bang, bang. And of course the bullets bounce off of Naya because she's perfect. Literally nothing could defeat her. Absolutely bulletproof. Right. She says, you poor demented humans to imagine you can destroy me with your old fashioned toy. Yeah.

So she's going to give a demonstration. I love it when aliens give a demonstration of their power for a crowd of Earth onlookers. Yeah.

And so they, so she takes them out to the spaceship to show her robot Johnny, to show them what Johnny can do. So Johnny, he comes out. Johnny is gigantic. He is a refrigerator with arms and legs. His arms are kind of like made out of a stack of solo cups and

His head is a police siren and he, he walks around, he's, he's slow moving and he hates trees and he's going to incinerate them. And he vaporizes a bunch of stuff with his death ray while people watch, he does the tree, he does a car, he does a barn, uh,

you don't want to mess with Johnny. I think it's a pretty good robot design. I mean, it's one of the, it's kind of like the UFO, kind of like the flying saucer in this film where yes, it does match up with what you would expect from this time period. Boxy, you know, uh, sort of, uh,

lumbering around, but overall well-executed. I like how its arms, you described them as being kind of like stacked silo cups, but they kind of have that telescoping energy that matches up with the flying saucer well. You feel like these are two things from the same design universe. Sure, yeah, I can see that. And again, he's really tall. He's like 15 feet tall, maybe? I don't know. He's powering.

She's like, he is like one of your Earth humans, but with an improved brain.

And then Naya, let's see. Oh, Albert Simpson. Remember him, the convict? He's been hiding in the attic. Well, he sneaks out of the window along with Tommy, the kid. They both climb down a tree and they're running around outside. Eventually, Naya comes across them and she's like, oh, this Earth Tommy. I will take this boy back to Mars with me. And Tommy literally goes, goody.

He wants to go to Mars. But as you might guess, this turns into, for the rest of the plot, a lot of it's like various adult men trying to find a way to rescue Tommy and destroy the spaceship. Again, there's the part where they try to set an electricity trap for Naya. That does not work. At one point, Professor Hennessy

tricks Naya into showing him the inside of her spaceship. And the way he does it by his, uh, by like appealing to her pride, he's like, we earthlings also have powerful machines. And this makes her really mad. She's like none equal to those of Mars. So she takes him to see the inside of the spaceship. Um,

And he's going to get a look at things to figure out what the weak point inside the ship is. And you know what? He finds out. Yeah, you can imagine him being like, oh, you should see the self-destruct mechanisms we have on Earth ships. And she's like, those are nothing. Look at this self-destruct button. Yeah.

Yeah. This mechanism is far superior. But the design of the inside of the spaceship is cool. Yeah, I really liked it as well. It has some cool angles in it. They do some nice things with shadow and light. And this leads me to another interesting visual connection. This is not one that I made. This is one that I ran across when I was looking at images from the film. Jane Voss of SciFiest.net, that's S-C-I-E-S-T.

I guess it looks like scifist.net. Anyway, this author made this particular comparison pointing out that the inside of the spaceship matches up at least a bit with the meditation chamber of Darth Vader in The Empire Strikes Back. They do a side-by-side comparison here. And

You know, I'm not sure I 100% am convinced. I think it's a nifty comparison. The author points out that Lucas certainly was inspired by older genre films and in making the Star Wars films, they did look to older cinematic images. So it's, I don't know, it's a neat connection, if nothing else. The author also points to possible connections between Naya and Dr. Frankenfurter from the Rocky Horror Picture Show. Okay.

I'm not so sure personally, but maybe. There's certainly some shared DNA between Nia and the likes of Jareth from Labyrinth or Frankenfurter from Rocky Horror. And I guess you could also make some comparisons in a different way between Nia and Darth Vader. I mean, they're both stunning characters clad in black, shiny clothes.

you know, garments and armor. Yeah. Well, they both have the, the black, uh, like the shoulder pads and the, and the smooth head piece and the, the, the foot, the floor length Cape. Yeah. Yeah. So I don't know. Maybe so at any rate, cool ship interior. I like it. Yeah. Yeah.

So there's a bunch more intrigue. I'm not going to go into detail, but everything else that happens, especially between the humans, there's one part where like the, one of the humans gets hypnotized and then they gets into a fist fight with one of the other guys. And they, they argue about how to defeat the alien in the end.

But ultimately, the movie ends with Albert Simpson, the convict, doing a brave act of heroic self-sacrifice to use the information gained by the professor about the weak point on the ship and to save the day for Earth.

It's a fun ending because on one level, I don't know, I guess we were supposed to think this as well, because we see him get on the ship. He boards the ship with Naya and the ship takes off. And again, wonderful flying saucer effect. It feels dangerous and, you know, almost explosive. And it takes off and it's ascending up in the atmosphere. It's going to leave Earth's atmosphere, return to Mars. And we know what he is supposed to do. He is supposed to

hit that self-destruct. He's supposed to make the ship explode. And we already have a built-in kind of, they don't really dwell on this, but she established earlier that the other Martians think that the ship won't survive the trip. So there's almost like a guarantee. If they can only blow the ship up, they're not expecting her back. But on the other hand, it's like this guy escaped from prison and his biggest, his plan consisted of, well, maybe I can flee to Ireland. Yeah.

But now he's got a chance to flee the planet. He can flee the terrestrial legal system entirely and go to Mars. And yeah, maybe he's going to end up in a breeding pod somewhere with some sort of a sensor stuck in his brain. But hey, at least he's not in prison or in Ireland doing whatever he was planning to do in Ireland. So there's kind of this tension building as you watch the ship go up. It's like, is he going to betray...

everyone out of his own self-interest, or is he going to sacrifice himself for Earth? And then suddenly the ship does explode. But this is great because, again, watching a movie from this time period, you have certain expectations for that explosion. You kind of expect, you know, sort of a dynamite explosion in the sky. But no, instead, you get this really cool kind of like underwater smoke explosion.

which is extra nice here in black and white. And it looks really super creepy, like a, indeed, like a dangerous piece of advanced technology from another world just blew up in our atmosphere, ripped a hole, perhaps in reality. You know, it looks like it's created a stain in the sky that's going to stick around for quite some time. But indeed, he came through, he saved the earth and the alien threat has been destroyed or,

Or maybe just avoided for a little while. The Martians maybe won't come back to Earth for a few decades anyway. I agree that explosion looks really cool. And it actually, I think, the way the explosion looks kind of unusual is

maybe relates to something, a scene we didn't actually talk about, the one where Naya like folds herself into the fourth dimension and disappears. She becomes blurry and they're like, ah, the fourth dimension. This was another scene where she's like basically just showing off how great Martian technology is.

Well, you know, I'd say in the end, Devil Girl from Mars is great fun. I do recommend it. I would also say stick around at least until Naya shows up. It will drag for the first 20, 25 minutes or so. But once Naya is on screen, it's a hoot. Yeah, this one's a lot of fun. Again, some great design work in here, some fun performances, some surprisingly good effects and costuming that in many ways, despite the budget, despite the time period, you know, I mean, it feels very ahead of its time.

The ending's pretty solid, though part of me still thinks that Scotland should have surrendered and become a breeding colony for Mars. I think Naya ultimately, she made a good show of force. She was busting out just a lot of just cold facts on these poor earthlings. So maybe they should have gone in the other direction. But still, it's hard to argue with a solid ending. That scene where she explains about the negative condensity is just...

Oh, so much quality technobabble in this one. It's like, I wonder, is there still technobabble of this quality in sci-fi films today? I don't know. I mean, I feel like, unfortunately, the direction has gone more into just like not saying as much or trying to make it more at least semi-realistic or plausible or just referencing things that have

no relationship to real words, you know, that it might as well be magic. Yeah, or you just, I guess nowadays you can, you see a lot of the casual invocation of quantum mechanics or nanobots and that explains everything. They're like, yeah, Tony Stark's power armor, it's basically magic. It just melts away into nothing. It crawls inside a

I guess like a little pocket in his skin or something. It comes back out again and then it's everywhere and it's shooting rockets. Like, don't worry about it. It's just, it's quantum mechanics, it's nanobots. It all works out, don't worry. It's carbon nanotubes. Yeah, it's just carbon nanotubes. That's all you need to know.

But they didn't have that excuse back in the old days. You had to work a lot more to create quality Technobabble. You had to come up with phrases like a perpetual motion chain reactor beam or the negative condensity. Oh, so good.

All right, we'll go ahead and close it out here. But obviously, we'd love to hear from everyone out there. If you have thoughts on Devil Girl from Mars or any of the players in this film or films in a similar genre, write in. We'd love to hear from you if you have memories of catching this film on TV back in the day. Yeah, we're always interested to hear those stories.

And in the meantime, yeah, we're primarily a science podcast with core episodes on Tuesdays and Thursdays. But on Fridays, we do Weird House Cinema here. That's our time to set aside most serious concerns and just talk about a weird film. I do blog posts about these episodes at Samudamusic.com. And if you use Letterboxd, that's L-E-T-T-E-R-B-O-X-D.com, well, you can find us on there. Our username is WeirdHouseCinema.

We maintain a list of all the movies we've covered so far, and sometimes we'll include a preview of what we're about to cover as well. Huge thanks, as always, to our excellent audio producer, Seth Nicholas Johnson. If you would like to get in touch with us with feedback on this episode or any other, to suggest a topic for the future, or just to say hello, you can email us at contact at stufftoblowyourmind.com.

Stuff to Blow Your Mind is a production of iHeartRadio. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app. Apple Podcasts are wherever you listen to your favorite shows.

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