Not of This Earth: The Roger Corman Collection

Way before he was a Hollywood legend who produced movies and gave time to up-and-coming filmmakers, Roger Corman was a wannabe filmmaker himself who produced and directed a series of cheap sci-fi films. Amongst these was Not of This Earth, cheap, short and fun flick that some now regard as a B-movie classic.

Not of This Earth stars Paul Birch as an alien who has been sent to Earth from his home planet of Davana to investigate whether human blood is compatible with theirs as something has afflicted Davana and its inhabitants are in desperate need of blood. Going by the name Paul Johnson, the alien goes into a hospital, a very simple hospital with only one doctor and one nurse on view, and says that he needs a transfusion. The doctor, quite understandably, will not give him a blood transfusion without testing some of Johnson's own, but Johnson has strong psychic abilities and is able to get inside the doctor's head and convinces him never to ask any questions or discuss what he finds with anyone else.

Not only does Johnson secure a blood transfusion, but he acquires the services of a nurse from the hospital who drives the mysterious man back to his house where she will stay as a live-in nurse along with Johnson's assistant, a man who is paid to do just about anything but doesn't ask questions because he is paid an awful lot of money.

In frequent communication with his home planet, Johnson learns that his stay involves several stages: to establish whether the blood is compatible; to see if it can sustain his body; to arrange for a human to be sent back to Davana for testing and, if all of these prove successful, for Earth to be colonised.


Not of This Earth is pretty typical for a 1950s sci-fi film as it is full of paranoid imagery and a subtext that subsidies the alien for a Communist. It is clearly a film done on a very limited budget but then so many of classic sci-fi B-movies from that era were. The acting is hardly Oscar-winning stuff but Paul Birch does a decent job with Johnson, looking fairly stiff and uncomfortable in his own body and Beverly Garland, playing the nurse, also acquits herself well.

Prior to watching this last night, I had only seen Jim Wynorski's 1988 remake with Traci Lords as Nadine, the nurse, and Arthur Roberts as Johnson so it was quite refreshing to see where Wynorski got his ideas from and watch the original film. I'm not sure which one is better, but Corman's certainly fits into its era better. The concept of a vampire alien who is on Earth to see if human blood would allow Earth to be captured and repopulated by foreign beings who use humans to keep themselves alive is interesting and works as a premise for a sci-fi/horror film.

The Disc

The Picture
Nothing to shout about here with a perfectly serviceable transfer, showing the film in its original full frame ratio and in stark monochrome. The quality is reasonably good especially considering the film was made for little money and is now over 50 years old. The soulless alien eyes which proved fatal to anyone who looks into them, were obviously achieved with white contact lenses that these also look pretty good.

The Sound
A fairly unremarkable Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono soundtrack that does its job very well. As this is a film made in Mono and without any fancy sound effects, there is no need for a surround mix and all you require is for something to present the dialogue well and not irritate you too much with an intrusive background hiss and frequent crackling. Fortunately, this is exactly what you get.


Final Thoughts
Not of This Earth is an interesting early cheapie by Roger Corman and it's good to see it on DVD. I have a real soft spot for 1950s sci-fi B-movies so watching this was a fun experience. It isn't a great film, nor does it pretend to be, and isn't in the same league as something like Robert Wise's The Day the Earth Stood Still but is still a good watch.