DevilGirlfromMars

Devil Girl from Mars (1954)

An isolated Inn plays host to a diverse group of strangers during an out of season month. You have the Innkeeper, his wife and their nephew. Also there is a fashion model that is hiding out from her married boyfriend, a barmaid that is living in the isolated Inn to be near her convict boyfriend, the convict who has recently escaped prison, a newsman and his scientist friend that are investigating a meteor that crashed nearby. But if this isn’t enough the Devil Girl from Mars (hint: it wasn’t a meteor) and her indestructible robot companion show up to collect men for “breeding” stock. The whole movie is basically the Devil Girl showing everyone how powerful she is, getting one of them to be her guide when she visits London, and threatening to blow everyone up! Will the Devil Girl be defeated?

Well of course she will and it is pretty obvious which one of our “heroes” will step up and save the planet by sacrificing himself. Oops that was a spoiler I suppose, but then not really. This movie is bad, really bad. But it is so silly and poorly put together that I had a blast watching it and ended up very entertained. If you have ever watched one of these “old school” sci-fi gems from the 50s then you will recognize all of the standard characters from the comic relief, to the reluctant hero and his love interest. Hell you even have the bad man that has to redeem himself, which is another common character to many of these movies. Now where this movie goes “wrong” (in an amusing way) is how poorly the narrative is put together. Characters, including the all-powerful Devil Girl, appear and disappear at random, which gives the movie a convoluted narrative that is both confusing and senseless. But again this isn’t a bad thing and actually is part of the fun. The cast is about the same quality as the script. Even genre vet Hazel Court is reduced to looking pretty and screaming a lot.

Oh my god are the special effects special, as in short bus special. The Devil Girl’s costume is a skintight rubber and plastic job that looks like it belongs on the wall of Dominatrix-r-us! Her ray gun looks like it should be producing bubbles and you can actually see the strings holding up the mighty rocket ship. But the absolute best part of the movie is the indestructible robot, which has to be seen to be believed. While not good in the traditional sense, even by the standards of the 50s, this all just adds to the fun.

By no means imaginable is this “good” movie. But then sometimes movies can be bad and fun to watch. Devil Girl from Mars falls into that category, but be warned if you hate bad 50s sci-fi you will not enjoy this one.

2 ½ out of 4

reviewed by John Shatzer