Mjeteconer Just perfect...

Fairaher The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.

Zandra The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.

Logan By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

AudioFileZ If you grew up on The Twilight Zone and The Outer Limits, and you liked these, it's not a stretch that you'll find Unearthly Stranger to your liking.This is a Brit B-Movie of the times, the early sixties when the actual talk of UFOs and possible aliens, more or less, began permeating pop culture. By keeping the story compact, using a cast that plays it serious with a bit of intelligence no matter how slightly bare bones the story…it mostly works in it's modest scope.There are some elements to this film that at the time must have seemed tremendously far- fetched, quite unbelievable? It's interesting that many of these elements became more accepted, in fact they've only expanded with time. One of is the element of remote viewing which is alluded as his having something to do with the secret project being studied. The others would be hybrid aliens and some kind of extraterrestrial shut-down of electrically controlled things. Anyone who has read up on more modern UFOs know of cars being disabled, nuclear weapon systems being taken mysteriously off line, and even mysterious unexplainable sounds in whole communities. All of that is already in this movie strangely enough. I'd say it's out there without being too out there at all. At the time I imagine it seemed quite weird. Pretty good in hindsight.

kuciak Thank goodness they did not make this film in color. Certainly color would have made this film at the time less the masterpiece that the film is. Also color might have made us concentrate not on this first rate story and acting, but also the bare budget that this film most likely had.While many have compared the film to Invasion of the Body Snatchers and I Married an Alien From Outer Space, I think that it has more in common with another film that was made the same year of 1963, The American production of The Day Mars Invaded Earth. Both films concern an alien entity basically fighting back in insidious ways to prevent scientists from the planet earth into invading their planet, and seem to infiltrate the Earth much the same way in both films.What is intriguing about the film as I have written in my Summary title is its feminist angle. Years before women were demanding equal pay for equal work, this film presents a world where women are actually valued more as not being equal to men, but also as somewhat of a prized possession.After our introduction of the main character, it is interesting to note that when we go back into flashback, we see men in suits scouring around doing their important work, while two women on a staircase are cleaning and scrubbing on the floors of this building, doing what can be described as menial work. The next is when we see the first victim meeting with his secretary played by Jean Marsh before her Upstairs Downstairs triumph. She appears to be the dutiful secretary of a smart man. Subordinate to his needs When we meet Patrick Newell who would later go on to fame playing Mother in The Avengers, an obnoxious investigator, he is making rather stupid comments about John Neville (the main character of the films) wife. Later on when we meet the wife she is playing the dutiful wife of our main protagonist, a stay at home woman of the time.Yet in many ways the men, accept for Phillip Stone, are not shown to be so smart. Certainly the first victim of the film is careless in revealing what he has discovered. John Neville's character should have thought more clearly about getting married to someone who he has just met, also considering about the vital work and top secret work he is doing. He also shows rather immature behavior to his colleague played by Stone, when he does not apologize for his rude behavior when suggested that he should have done so. Patrick Newell seems very content to eat sweets while investigating, no doubt contributing to his considerable girth, plus appearing to be less than likable.Stones character will turn out to be the savior of the film in some ways, as he rescues Neville;s character from certain death. While Neville is intelligent, it is Stone who is portrayed really as perhaps one of few who can save mankind, with his rational thinking.Gabriella Lucidi the wife, who made very few film appearances is effective in her brief time on screen as the alien form who has succumbed to be a female human being, and who later will be denounced as having been weak and not like the other stronger beings that are among the humans on earth. As a woman, Gabriella Lucidi's character it is suggested may really be the woman of the past. Not content really to be subservient to a man's needs. The children probably fear her because they realize that with women like her, they would probably not have been born, and are more aware of the threat that her kind is.Until his death in the film, we are somewhat led to believe that Patrick Newell's character is the real villain, the surprise of course is that it is Jean Marsh, who by declaring that not all of her life forms are like Neville's supposed wife, is suggesting really the coming of a new woman, one who may not wish to be subordinate to men.If one does not think that this might be the true about this film, the ending of the film, with the eight or so women, who are just staring at the two main male leads, suggesting that they are alien life forms as well, should really leave no doubt. Why have these life forms not been shown to take the forms of men? As for the ending, I don't think that it is meant as an idea that our two men are doomed, but more of a symbol of 'they are among us,'

telepinus1525 I remember the first time that I saw this SF chiller was at a local drive-in theater in the late 60's as the second feature. I don't remember what the first one was--that's how creepy "Unearthly Stranger" was for me. For a low-budget film it has everything: wit, intelligence, excellent acting, compelling direction, and for it's modest budget more than adequate (minimalist) use of special effects. I've seen it a few times since on t.v., and just recently acquired a second or third generation copy on ebay. I was waiting for the scene where the professor's wife ( whom we already know is a tad unusual) goes for a walk into town and loiters near the public schoolyard, where the nine-to twelve-year-olds are playing. While standing there, the children, one by one, begin to take notice of her, and in a mass, start backing away from her...well, if you haven't seen it, what follows is worth the price of viewing by itself. A bit of info: many years ago a friend told me that this film was actually inspired by the SF novel "To Walk The Night" by William Sloane, originally published in 1938. When I finally got a copy, I was surprised how the closely the plotline of "Unearthly Stranger" hews to Sloane's novel. Hard to understand why the producers would fail to give credit where credit's due...at any rate, find a copy where you can, and pray for it's release on DVD!

austex23 There are a handful of fine films that have never been released on tape or disk. Sometimes they show up on the few independent TV stations around the country that still have access to the old collections of movies that used to circulate in the days before cable. Nearly lost films, except in the memories of people who saw them at drive-ins or on TV before the current age of homogenous viewing. Unearthly Stranger is a perfect example of this kind of film. Not the masterpiece that Invasion of the Body Snatchers is, Unearthly Stranger is still a wonderful science fiction story with trappings of the paranoia that characterizes Body Snatchers, I Married a Monster, and other, earlier, SF films. Stranger was a throwback when it was new, and that may be why it was pretty much ignored when it was released. With DVD releases of an awful lot of true garbage, there really is no excuse for the continued neglect of this stylish, almost lost movie.