This week on Weirdhouse Cinema, Rob and Joe discuss the 1954 Scottish sci-fi film “Devil Girl From Mars,” featuring a fashionable Martian queen, her robot Chani and interplanetary intrigue on the Scottish moors.
Welcome to Stuff to Blow your Mind production of My Heart Radio. Hey you 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 nineteen fifty four 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 who are 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 How Cinema may feel an inkling of 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 hunks. Uh. The other one was the lighthearted Mexican romantic musical horror comedy Ship of Monsters from nineteen sixty 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 uh 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 uh that it's 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 about the Ship of Monsters has some great monster designs, some great costumes, and we we have we have some of that going on in Devil Girl from Mars as well. But also there is no character and Devil Girl from Mars like Lolo Gonzales and 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. Yeah. And none of the male performers are actually that interesting, either in their in their careers or or in their performances here at least I didn't find them so. But the but, but the female performers are pretty great. Uh. 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 twenty minutes in and I was like, 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 that that you warned me about the first twenty minutes, and the first twenty minutes of this film are indeed quite slow. Um, and that are not all that fantastic. So um yeah, 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 is not just like made by Scott's. This is very much set in Scotland, right right. I think you can you can maybe get into the production credits and say like, well, it's more basically a British production basically in production. But yeah, a lot of Scottish talent involved in this picture and said in Scotland right. Uh. 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. It m I t in about the role of media like movies and TV in the history of sci fi um and she she goes over a bunch of different topics in the speech, but one of the first things she does is talk about seeing this movie when she was a kid. So I want to read her quote from the speech. She says, 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 twelve years old, and it changed my life. It was one of those old nineteen fifties movies in which the beautiful Martian woman arrives on Earth to announce that all of the Martian men have died off and there were 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 often writing, and a year later I was busy submitting terrible pieces of fiction to innocent magazines. I found this story so beautiful. Yeah, it's a that's fun. I wasn't aware of this connection. And uh and 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 on on a 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 that it's not only like could this be improved, but what if this world was improved? And so there there's this like 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 in a product based um creative endeavor, or just in the mindscape of enjoying the film totally. I 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 when when things aren't working. Now, there's a lot that does work in this film, though at least from a from a design standpoint. Uh As we'll get into there's there's there's there's at least one amazing costume, there's a there's some cool sets, there's a there's a cool robot, and 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 um world building, some of it does, you know, kind of get you get 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, you know, and you know that they're not they're they're not feeling on all the details for you, but they're giving you, like a few visuals, some some sites and sounds, some ideas, and then your brain kind of sketches in the rest of it. And uh, and that's 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, where they're like where they're like people on Mars who fell in love and they were like traitors to their to their side in the War of the Sexes? That I don't know. Yeah, it raises a lot of questions you probably shouldn't think too literally about at all. I know that this isn't the only work of fiction to to contemplate such a thing, so I guess, you know, metaphorically at least it Uh, it's it's useful in um in fiction. You know that this plot differs somewhat from the premise of Ship of Monsters and Ship of Monsters the Aliens or one of the aliens. It comes from Venus and the problem is that on Venus, the men all destroyed each other with atomic wars. So so the men they got nuclear weapons and they killed all the other men. So Venus has no men left, so it was an intra sex dispute. The men killed each other on 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 this part rather clumsily where one of the child the child characters what's his name, Tommy, Tommy, Yes, Tommy's like, you were like that spider and 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 yes, 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 nineteen fifties 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, um what sexually ahead of her time? Um Like I was reading about this this film in um in Michael Weldon's Sucotronic 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, 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. Um So, which would I think would have been fitting? That would have been a nice um like. I don't know if that would be a maybe be a nineties outer limits ending. Oh, that would be a good twist if like the character who goes as very like over eager young man um. But I was thinking the other twist given that like they didn't the Martians didn't realize Earth was gonna have a thick atmosphere, so when they got here, you know, 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. We gotta 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, and object the like of which we had never seen before. A frightening, strange sheep descending from outer space with relentless putts. Where did it come from? And God? Did it want to the Us? How I've ever seen before? Hellon? Would you mean hello? Hello? It's like something from row flat to do not try to follow me. You cannot get help around it. Yes, I've drawn an invisible walls through which no one may pass. Here is a news reporter with a world shattering storm, a girl trying to escape from her posts, the scientist trapped in spite of his knowledge. And here also is the barmaid hiding a murderers secret, a murderer with a life already off it, and introducing the devil girl from Mars herself. Got back on, fireful, get back, shoot one shoot alright, alright, 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 I rented it through through Prime. You can stream or buy it wherever you get your digital movies. It also looks like you can stream it um via film Movement uh flicks fling uh some other places. And I should also point out that there have been some basic physical releases as well, but also Bridget and Mary Joe covered it on riff tracks, so I haven't actually experienced their riff of the film, but I've I've very much enjoyed Bridget and Mary Joe's riffing in the past, so I bet they do a good job with this one. There's a there's all, there's a lot of stuff to 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, alright. Starting at the top, we have director David McDonald born nineteen o four and died in nineteen eighty three, Scottish born director who at one point worked under Cecil B. De Mill in the US as a production assistant. This would have been like the late nineteen twenties and I guess early thirties, uh, basically an apprenticeship. Before returning back to the UK. He worked with the Crown Film Unit during World War Two to produce morale boosting pictures. And I've seen this film referred to as a career low point. Uh. 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 ninety seven, The Brothers, ninety eight, Christopher Columbus in the nine seven Swashbuckler, The Moonraker, The Moonraker. Yeah, no, no connection or at least um, I don't know. Maybe maybe Moonraker has something to do with the plot of this fifty seven 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. This was it was similar to something we encountered with Dr X. Right, yeah, but in this one. Yeah, you you have the credit that reads, uh 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 one 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 more clear that this was a play. And then it was adapted into a screenplay. Okay, yeah, I don't know. This is Matther's only film credit. Eastwood also worked on the screenplay for such films as nineteen fifty five The Case of the Red Monkey in nineteen fifty six is Beyond Mombassa, which has Christopher Lee in it and the young Christopher Lee. But it started seemingly mostly just a shirtless Cornell Wild 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. Lafon lived nineteen nineteen through 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 Imparius Pompeia in MGM Sword and Sandal blockbuster Quo Vadis from nineteen fifty one. That was a film that had Robert Taylor, uh Peter Houston off 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 and sometimes credited in one number of pictures from this era. Uh, this movie. I don't know if it's primarily about Nero, but it's Nero is a major character in an 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 in gold and its elaborate hair do. Uh. And but she has that let look on her face. She's got that smirk and those eyes. And 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 her sneer has a life all its own. She's using her her eyebrows in very expressive ways. It's a it's it's a wonderful performance. Yeah, I mean in some ways you would say it's in a it's a very emotionally flat performance, like she's supposed to play like a very like unfeeling 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 roll and say, well, this is a real mustache twirling villain roll, meaning that yes, it's leaning into a whole bunch of stereotypes and and tropes for regarding you know, the particular classic cinematic villain and this over the top evil. Yeah. Yeah, and this is very much similar case. But the thing is when a mustache is is twirl just right on screen, Um, it's it's satisfying. So this is definitely a performance that satisfies. Yes, this is a pencil thin, eyebrow twirling role. Yes. So. Lafon also appeared in twenty three Paces to Baker Street in fifty six that had And 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 Pucci. It's like every time Naya was not on screen, character should be asking where is Naya? When is she coming back? I felt the same way. Yeah, alright, I'm gonna 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. Uh this actor who of nineteen o six seventy two, Scottish actor also known for Pimpernell's Smith from forty one and The Flying Swan from 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 so it's a really good one. We have Hazel Court playing Ellen, 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 inn somewhere and 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 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 I think she's meant to be taken in in the situation of the film. Is sort of a gym amongst the rough pebbles. Yeah, yeah, so yeah, it's a it's a it's a fun it's a fun performance. I feel like she she brings a lot of life and character into this into this role, um probably more than was necessary, and also in a way that lets you, it gives you a hint of what's to come, because uh British actor here, but also essentially a horror queen of the late fifties early sixties. 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 seven, The Mask of the Red Death from sixty four, The Man Who Could Cheat Death in ninety nine, Dr Blood's Coffin in sixty one and also ninety three is 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 The Final Conflict, and which she had basically a cameo. But this was the This was the OMEN picture that had Sam Neil playing a grown up Damien. Oh, okay, it's called The Final Conflict, but it's all it's the OMEN three, right, It's like the OMEN three colon the Final Conflict. Yeah, or sometimes I think it's just called The Final Conflict. I don't know. You're right, Yeah, it's both. I think the demonic Sam Neil becomes President of the United States, I think something like that. I don't. I don't think I ever saw that, and I think I only saw the first one. Yeah, all right, but but she's not the only exciting of female presence in the picture. We also have Adrian Corey, who plays Doris, a barmaid. Uh So, Corey lived through two thousand and sixteen. Scottish born actor known for her roles, probably best known for roles in Doctor Shivago and A Clockwork Orange, along with such films as nineteen sixty five 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 you've seen, but but I haven't. I remember you talking about this Mad House starring Vincent Price and Peter Cushen. Looking this up, I don't know have I seen this? Maybe you haven't seen it. Maybe, but if I said I've seen it, I don't remember seeing it now, Okay, well maybe maybe we just will see it in the future at some point. But Corey was also in the fun Hammer Space Romp Moon zero two from in a film from seventy two 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 know, I would also actually say that about mainly because this is just a really underwritten movie except for the just, uh, you know, a delicious weirdness of all the scenes where Naya is explaining our home planet and their and their plans and stuff. But other than that, it's it's 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 I think I'm saying his last name. I could be wrong, Joseph tom Alty. Yeah, that's what I thought. Tom Alty. He lived nineteen Northern Irish novelist, playwright and character actor, and he was he was in at least I don't know the extent of these roles, but he is credited as having appeared in Tonight to Remember, I believe that's a Titanic movie in nineteen fifty six. Is Moby Dick. So he plays Professor Hennessy. Yes, that's right, um, 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 my brain tells me to believe. I really have no choice. Alright, let's see another I'm not including all of the because here at least the halfs another male. Way too many characters in this movie. Yeah, but there is another one by the name of David, who is a handy man, and he's played by James Edmond. James Edmond was a Canadian actor, probably best known for this film, but he was also in Black Christmas alongside. It's one kind of forgets that that had a pretty pretty good cast Black Christmas. It had Olivia Hussey, it had cre Delay, Margot Kidder and John Saxon. I saw it many years ago. I remember it did not leave a good impression. But now it's kind of a kind of a nasty film, as I recall. But there's no argument with that cast. That's a good cast, all right. On the music front Edwin asked Lee did the music. British composer of worked in a lot of British action TV shows such as The Saint. That's probably his his what he's most known for. He also did music for The Hammer adaptation of The Phantom of the Opera from sixty two starring Herbert lom and a Jack the Ripper TV movie starring Boris Karloff. Now, one name that caught my attention, uh from the credits for the wrong reason was it said the Patricia A. Fonds 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 cop the this world has at least two genius Ron Cobs 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 credits, so I thought, well, maybe it's just a one off, but it's worth mentioning, and because the costume is great and clearly as one of the selling points of the whole picture. But looking into it a bit more more. Yeah, this is a Ronald Cobb who lived nineteen oh seven through nineteen seventy seven, and um this guy worked primarily in theater and especially in cabaret during that this time period. UM 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. UM I included a link here for you, Joe, and also include these these links in the blog post I do for this at sam muta music dot com. I didn't find anything that looked like a sketch that he had put together for Devil Girls specifically, but oh wow, there's 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 in London in like the sixties and seventies. But they are not just your your standards EXE outfits. They are weird. Like one is kind of grim Reaper themed with like a big gallows and I don't even know what it has bats and 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 necessary land Less year, you know, really into I guess too, you know less costume design of the period. Uh 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 it also looks 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 and the collection of the the Victorian Album Museum. There are also some images apparently he 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 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 that the costume that that that Nia has on in this picture, it's not nearly as um uh as revealing as these various cabaret designs. But but still you can see, you can see some of the connections to this world, you know, like that's why it is perhaps a little more um alluring than 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 um, the the Astronauts in Planet of the Vampires and Batman, but with a burlesque twist. Yeah, now I was. I read that writer John Mather 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 cats suits and gas masks. However, I couldn't find anything of anything firm about his connection to this film, and there do seem to be some misconceptions about film projects that he is sometimes uh said to have been involved in. For instance, I think sometimes it's been said that he designed the cats suit that him appeal we are wears in the Avengers. Uh, that isn't doesn't seem to be the case. But he did design the cats suit that marry Anne Faithful wears in The Girl on a Motorcycle, and I think that inspired the cats suit worn by him appeal. Uh So, I don't know where the truth lies and all of that. It seems like maybe it's a situation where 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. Uh, he's really into this stuff. He can make it come to life. M hmm, all right, well, are you ready to talk about the plot. Let's dive into the first twenty minutes of The Devil Girl from Mars. Really, I feel like the first twenty minutes of this movie is going to be more were fun to discuss than to watch. And then and then it's a flip side once and I shows up starts with the bank. Yeah yeah, well he starts with big Ben. I mean, how could you deny that? We see that, you know, there's like a title card a London Films International release, and then uh we see an airplane coasting through the clouds, then a whistling sound growing higher and 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's as produced by the Danziggers. And then it's got two little signatures, like in handwriting Edward J. Danziger and what does that say Harry Lee Danziger. I have no idea who that those people are, but like it presents it as if they're like the Osmond's or something. Yeah, I I looked at it into them briefly, and they apparently were very active producers at the time, American born brothers who produced many British films and TV shows in the fifties and sixties. I'm not sure most of the titles there there they were involved with really resonated beyond their time. So I think it's it's unless you're really into pictures of this time period, you probably don't know who the Dan Figgers are. Devil Girl seems to be one of the best remembered productions from everything they put out. For example, along with perhaps the film, the only film that maybe it is a little more famous than this one would be the nineteen fifty six sci fi movie Satellite in the Sky. This one had Kirian Moore in it, who many out there may remember as the actor who played Pony in Darby Ogill and the Little People. He was also in Crack in the World and Invasion of the Triffids. I haven't seen any of that. So oh you haven't seen Darby o Gil. No, oh, it's a fun one. When in St. Patty's Day rolls back around, you should you should watch that one, Okay, all right? Well, after the credits wrap up, we established the setting of the movie, which is the Bonnie Charlie. It is a rustic country in nestled upon the Scottish more supposed to be somewhere in Inverness Shire, which is up in the Highlands, and it's said to beat wintertime, so it's cold and this is a you know, a lonely cozy little country house and inn. And the first thing we hear is a radio going. So we 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 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 a bit beyond what I would be comfortable with. Well, yeah, and the the excessive intake of scotch begins long before any aliens appear on the same right, Yeah, they're already hard drinking before anything supernatural or out of this world occurs. So you know, the radio is blabberant on with exposition about an unidentified white aircraft seen floating in the sky over the Hebrides, and Tony the Kid is like, 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 Jamison, 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, and h skull holding her husband for having his seventeen 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 Jamison and the husband is apparently named Jamie Jamieson. That'd be like if you had a character named Jack Jack Danielson and Jack Jack Danielson or I think the professor's character name is is Henny Hennessy. So anyway, Tommy the Kid, he's sent to bed and Doris and Mrs Jamison discussed the meteor. Doris thinks it might be romantic that it came all the way from outer space to land in their sleepy neck of the woods. And Mrs Mrs Jamison is not impressed. She's she's just like, oh, a bit of rock from the sky. But after Mrs Jamison leaves, Doris the barmaid surreptitiously turns the radio back on. It's like she has a secret science news habit um. And the radio says, professor, Oh, okay, it's not Henny Hennessy, it's Professor Arnold Hennessey. The radio says, uh, 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 got the Jamisons 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, wise cracking journalist named Michael Carter played by Hugh McDermott. Michael Carter is such an insufferable out I guess they've been driving around all day to find the meteor, right, 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 road map of Scotland. I really think they should have inserted a prize in there, like you should have said you mean to tell me you won the Nobel Prize for plotting stars millions of miles apart. But Professor or Hennessey 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 be 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 that would be terrible for this film. That would be boring. Yes, we 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 five ft ten inches, fair hair. And then what do you know? Next thing we see as a guy, presumably the escaped prisoner, darting around between hiding places in the dark beside the road as the Professor and the journalists 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 key, That's what that's that's 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? Anyway, next thing is we see Doris the barmaid, and then Mr and Mrs Jamieson doing some chores around the house while Mr. Jamison is trying to sneak off into the other room and she's like, uh Ms Jamieson is like where are you going? And he says, oh, I'm just going into the lounge and she says into the lounge bar. You mean, well, you'll stay here if you're thirsty. There's plenty of water in the tap. So this is the ongoing dynamic between Mr and Mrs Jamison. He is always getting caught in an attempt to sneak away for a draft of scotch, and Mrs Jamison 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 like 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 and stop without being fussed at. But Doris the barmaid instead goes off to the lounge where she here's 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 Invernesshire 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, but he maintained 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, if I feel like the film should have put in a little more legwork on that one, Yeah, at least explained, like it doesn't go into how it was an accident or like why it was he he was falsely accused. 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 to Mrs Jamison, you know, Maggie Smith comes in basically and uh. And they've got to come up with a ruse really fast. So Doris is like, oh, um, this is a hiker. His name's Albert Simpson. He was out hiking, uh, 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 has lost and he needs to stay at the end and he will work for his keep. And Mrs Jamison accepts this, but she's very suspicious of him. She says, I'm counting the spoons. 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 uh, 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 you can just see the pressure building up. He's like, stop, stop asking and so, and then Albert Simpson's like, Okay, well, I gotta know who all is here while I'm hiding out, and Doris tells him this is confusing. She's like, the only people here are Mr. And Mrs Jamison and their nephew Tommy. But then the rest of the scene is other people like coming in who she didn't list. So the first guy is this guy David, who appears to live and work at the end. He's kind of he's the Torgo of the end, you know, he's carrying wood around and stuff and and and Doris 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. And then we see her come down to the lounge where where Jamie Jamison tries to flirt with her. Uh, he's being very inappropriate. He's like, oh, you're always pretty as a picture. And she she's like doing a little fashion show for him in the hall. I don't know, it's weird. She's like 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 she's she's like, he says, he's breathing a lot of life into this character. Yeah, fully inflating the character here and then more hotel Hijinkson's Jamie keeps sneaking booze and uh, he says, my wife has the most unpatriotic contempt for her national beverage. And Miss James, Mrs Jamison says you should see him when he has a patriotic head in the morning. Uh. 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. Uh. And then they come in and there's more like can we accommodate them type hand ringing like we got with Albert Simpson earlier, and eventually Mrs Jamison informs them, was like, well, we're supposed to be closed for the winter right now. The rooms aren't ready, they're not in ship shape, but you can sleep there. 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 flag stone 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 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 like black film over everything, like you know, you know that has to be the case here. Well, Mrs Jamison offers them something to eat, but but Michael Carter says, what I need most is a drink. So they go and they get drinks. Uh, 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. Um. 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. So he's like trying to do some kind of nagging pick up 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. But then Professor Hennessy introduces himself, uh, and they decide to have another we Scotch and uh. I think this is the scene where in the span of thirty 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 and now scotch is the best. Yeah. 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 one of the things they talked about at dinner is Jamie Jamison giving a passionate defense of the Lockness Monster. He's like, I will not have anyone speak ill of that fine creature. But can we explain the scene of Michael Carter blowing Albert Simpson's cover so that the escaped convict comes in. He's, you know, working for his stay, so he's like serving bread at the table, and then the journalist uh recognizes him. He's like, do you know who that is? That's not Albert Simpson, that's this other guy. And 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 what Michael Carter is a journalist though, right, Yeah, so maybe he's seen a picture through journalism. I don't know. Oh, he just happened to cover this guy's trial or something. Maybe. I mean, it's it's not explain 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 uh. The 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 gonna say the effect looks a little too good for the movie that it's in. Yeah, it is 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, you know, had a low budget. It's not a high budget affair. And uh and and also you see enough films from this area, you see enough films with flying saucers in it, you get used to a certain level of of cheapness. You know, you can have like some sort of a dinky model and some large tripods for characters to stand around. That's essentially all you need and and it can be fun. It can, but there's sort of a standard level of quality that you kind of set things to hover around, and I feel like this flying saucer goes beyond that. It's it's got this um uh, you know, it's got plenty of the elements of the standards fifty standard fifties flying saucer that you might come to to expect, but it also has this kind of different energy to it. You know, it's described as being hot, betrayed 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 hello. And uh, meanwhile, Doris gets her convict boyfriend to hide in the attic. Others scramble around trying to get a car working or defined a functional telephone, all to no avail. We get our first action scene, and our first scene seeing Patricia lafaun is Nia when the ship opens up and a ramp extends down out of the hull and we see Nia 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 oh, there's uh, you know, there's David the the ends the Bonnie Charlie's Torgo wandering around outside and he collapses outside the ship and she just vaporizes him. Yeah he is he is not a specimen that that she thinks is gonna 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 and the major tote glasses. But it's hard facts of life. She's looking for hunks and uh and Torgo here does not make the cut. This is in stark con Trust 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 asked 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. They may believe him in this. She's like, no, now this isn't vaporized. What this is nineteen fifty four? I guess she'd be like, where is Rock Hudson? Take me to your Rock Hudson's so interesting in this film has no Rock Hudson caliber actress in it. So no, so, so that unfortunate thing happens to 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 says if all of their Earth technology has been magically disabled. Uh, And so they come back inside and 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 multip characters throughout the movie. Later the the escaped convict, it 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. Uh, you know, cold and imperious. And this scene just rocks. There is something so unusual in a simultaneously funny and kind of spell binding 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. I don't know if you know what I'm talking about, Rob, but it just establishes this this amazing rhythm that's so consistently weird and funny. Oh yeah, yeah, they're appoort here is pretty great. And I also have to say this scene where suddenly she's there. Uh, nya is they're emerging through these the French doors. There was something about this that I mean, it's it's a it's a visually captivating a scene, and but but it was it was tingling something in my memory, and then I realized what it was. It's h Jim Henson's film Labyrinth. Uh. Pretty early on when we encountered Jeref the Goblin King, he is standing. Uh. It's not exactly the same, but but it's it's it's very similar like these terrestrial door French doors or something, or windows that have been opened and inside um, this opening, you have this 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 uh, and the guys in the room ask her who she is. She says her name is Nia. They asked 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, hu, men on Earth are not as we expected. She's very disappointed. Uh and uh Professor Hennessy says, we scientists were always skeptical about the possibility of life on Mars, but certainly nothing so human. And she she asks him you are a scientist. He says yes. Then she says you're a very poor physical specimen, so cold, so mean. Uh. But then she just sort of shoves the professor out of the way. Presumed but 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 asked 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, 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 asked 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 Johnny spelled C H A n I, but it sounds like they're Every time she says it, it sounds like Johnny, and the subtitle spelled at Johnny, So I don't know what to believe. Yeah, I read it somewhere as Johnny, but when she's saying it in the picture, it's really hard to hear anything other than Johnny. But Shawnny would be a more fitting name, I think for an off world robot, right, because Johnny is a killbot. 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 doesn't he's not very much like a human. But yeah, he's a refrigerator with arms and legs. Um. But they say, but she says, oh, but he is improved by an electronic brain. And then here we got a bunch of voluntary technobabble from Nia. 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. Uh and uh. And then weirdly, 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. But the professor and everybody arguing about this, do you realize what you've said? They've turned the inorganic into the organic. Okay, well, we're about to get to the main premise. So they start questioning her why she's going to London. This is what Nia says. She says, many of your Earth years ago, our women were similar to yours today. Our emancipation took several hundred years and ended in a bitter, devastating war between the sexes, the last war we ever had. Uh, Henny here says, so you've had wars too. I was like, why would you ask the obviously she just said they've just said. She just said that. But Nia 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 shame reactor beam. Oh god, that's this has got to be peak um techno babble, Like what what is that even? And then how even I'm failing to imagine what that could be? Much less hall it is than utilized in an on planet battle between two factions based on sex. Oh, I mean she explains a little bit that he's 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 destroy it itself. Okay, well, I don't know if that actually helps me. Annie, but that she's got more to say, and the professor his His comment on this is so there is a fourth dimension. But now I explains more. She says, you know, after the War of the Sexes, women became the rulers of Mars. But now the mail has fallen into a decline. The birthrate 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 Nia 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 gonna steal my beloved earth schlubs. Uh you know, they belong here with us. But Nia just uh, you know, she she's not having any any defiance. She's like, yes, we're here to to steal your males, We're going to kidnap your mails and breed with them. But also we are here to test a newly invented organic metal, uh quote of which my ship is built on. Mars. Some think I will not return, that the metal is too unstable. But when I get back, we will build more spaceships. Meanwhile, I will select some of your strongest men to return with me to Mars. Okay, so it's it's it's a it's a dual mission. Yeah, yeah, uh, it's you know, it's testing out the prototype metal and it's collecting earthmen. And Michael Carter of the Earthman says, and if I don't want to go with you, just assuming he's going to be picked um and Nia 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 array. 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. Uh he's 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, He's like, but but maybe it's me. Maybe I'm the one that should go no, you're a very poor male specimen. But then, oh, but then one of the funniest parts of the whole movie, Mrs Jamison comes into the room and she sees this lady here just dressed in this like crazy leather space suit, and uh, Michael Carter says, Mrs Jamison, may I introduce your newest guest, ms Nia. She comes from Mars. And then what does Mrs Jamison reply? She says, oh, well that'll mean another bed. Yeah, and it's it is one of the 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 that some good writing there, Yeah, but then she does a double take. By the way, Joe, you included here from me a screenshot of the 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 cup the 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 Hennessey and Jamison. When Um, when Nia first came in, Rachel said, my name is Campari. That's good. It'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. Um, and they're like he's missing. And then they all turned to her and they're like, miss Nia, have you and she says, of course he was no stud muffin, so I killed him. Uh. And Michael Michael Carter gets really mad about this. They have to like restrain him. He's like 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 that there was no payoff for that, Like he never did anything that was creepy, there was no So sometimes you introduced the the stereotypical creepy groundskeeper character because you want to have him be a suspect you know, you know or something or you know, or he's creeping around and happens to, uh, you know, run a foul of the Jason or whatever is running around on the on the grounds. But in this case, he's just not getting wood. Like, why did it matter that he was creepy. He didn't actually do anything wrong. Yeah, you kind of gotta feel bad for David, Like, for for all we know, he was a totally nice guy. He had no lines. Yeah, but anyway, here Naya leaves and she says, Okay, around this house, I've drawn an invisible wall. You can't get through it. So I don't even try to leave. I'm gonna do repairs on my ship and I'll be back to to kill you all and maybe take some of the strongest males. And then the rest of the movie is just people coming and going back and forth from the ship like fifteen times, uh naya in in a quite funny manner. In fact, keeps leaving and then coming back to the end um. And then there 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. 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, yeah, I know 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. But if she invites him in and she he's like, you got any Scotch And she says nope, 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 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 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 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. Oh. But then there's also the invisible wall. This was a lot of fun because you have I established that she was going to set a parimeter, an invisible wall to keep people from leaving. And again, these characters have been drinking Scotch NonStop. And then and then you have the professor bumble in right, so they look out the window. Actually before this, sorry, before this, they um, 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, what's that mean? Thanks? Thanks movie? Yes said, oh yeah, I remember. Now there is a spaceship outside and also an invisible wall though, and that's right, maybe that's the thing they were talking about. I don't know, is that 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 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 in my brain ran into an invisible wall. Uh. Now here we get the first of a couple of times where the people at the end try to figure out how to out smart Naya. Like there. There's another scene later where they set literally 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 uh Nia makes a fabulous entrance. She like throws the doors open and steps in. And I wish I could like show you the listener out there a gift of this, because it's it's such a wonderful step in move from Labyrinth again. There's there's no owl, but it has that same energy. Yes, uh And they try shooting her with the revolver, but the bullets have no effect. 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 Nia because you know, she's she's perfect, She's she's literally nothing could defeat her, absolutely right. She says, you poor demented humans to imagine you can destroy me with your old fashioned toy. What do you know of force? Force? As we use it on Mars, I could control power beyond your wildest dreams. Come and you shall see. So she's gonna give the demonstration. I love it when aliens give a demonstration of their power for a for a crowd of earth On lookers, 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. 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 yeah, he 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 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, sort of lumbering around, but overall well executed. I like how it's it's arms though you just described him as been kind of like stack silo cups, but they kind of have that telescoping energy. Uh that matches up with the flying saucer. Well, like 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 fifteen 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. Um. And then Nia, let's see, oh Albert Simpson, remember him the convict, he's been hiding in the attic. Well, he he sneaks out of the wind dough along with Tommy the kid. They both climbed down a tree and they're running around outside. Eventually Nia comes across them and she's like, ah, this 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 uh. 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 Nia that does not work. At one point, Professor Hennessy tricks Nia into showing him the inside of her spaceship, and the way he does it by his 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 space ship and uh, and he's going to get a look at things to figure out what the weak point inside the ship biz. And you know what he finds out, Yeah, he's he he You can imagine him being like, uh, like you should you should see the self destruct mechanisms we have on earth ships, which she's like, those are nothing. Look at this self destruct button. 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 some cool angles in in 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. Um Jane Voss of sci fi ast dot net. That's s C I F I S T. I guess it looks like sci fist uh not dot net anyway. This author made this particular comparison, pointing out that um that the the inside of the spaceship can matches up at least a bit with the meditation chamber of Darth Vader in The Empire's Tricks Back. They do a side by side comparison here, and UM, you know, I'm I'm not sure. I one am convinced. I think it's a nifty comparison. The The author points out that Lucas certainly was inspired by older genre films and the and in making the Star Wars films, they did look to older cinematic images. Uh so it's I don't know, it's any connection of nothing else. The author also points to the two possible connections between um Nia and Dr Frankenfurger from the Rocky Horror Picture Show. Again, I'm not so sure personally, but but maybe there's certainly some shared DNA between Nia and the likes of Jareth from Labyrinth through Frankenfurger from Rocky Horror. And I guess you could also make some comparisons in a different way between uh Nia and Darth Vader. I mean, they're both you know, stunning characters clad in black shiny uh you know, garments and armor. Yeah, well they both have the black like the shoulder pads and the and the smooth headpiece and the 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 about 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 argue about how to defeat the alien in the end, but ultimately the movie ends with Albert Simpson, the convict of 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 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 and you know, almost almost explosive and it takes off and it's as sending up in the atmosphere. It's gonna leave or it's Atmos returned 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 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 we can I can flee to Ireland. But now like 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 gonna end up in a breeding pod somewhere with a with a you know, 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. U. So there's kind of this tension building as you watch the ship go up, it's like, is he gonna betray uh everyone, out of his own self entry 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, a 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. Um, and it looks really super creepy, like a indeed, like a dangerous piece of advanced technology from another world just blew up in her atmosphere, ripped a whole. Perhaps in reality, uh 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 uh, the alien threat has been destroyed or or or maybe just avoided for a little while. The Martians maybe won't come back to Earth for uh, you know, a few decades. Anyway, I agree that explosion looks really cool and it and it actually I think the way the explosion looks kind of unusual, maybe relates to something a scene we didn't actually talk about, the one where Nia like folds herself into the fourth dimension and disappears. She becomes blurry and they're like, ah, the fourth dimension. This is another scene where she's like basically just showing off how great Martian technology is. Well, you know, i'd say in the in Devil Girl from Mars Is is great fun. I do recommend it. I would also say stick around at least until Nia shows up. It will drag for the first five minutes or so, but but once Nia is on screen, it's it's a hoot. Yeah, this is a lot of fun. Again, some great design work in here, some fun performances, uh some you know, 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. Um. The ending is pretty solid, though part of me still thinks that Scotland should have surrendered become a breeding colony from Mars. I think I think Nia ultimately she made a good show of force. She was busting out just a lot of just cold facts on these poor earthlings. Uh so, uh, maybe they should have gone in the other direction, but still it's hard to hard to argue with the solid ending. That scene where she explains about the negative condensity is just oh so much quality technobabble on this one. It's I I wonder is there's still techno babble 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 there might as well be magic, yeah, or you just I guess nowadays you can you see a lot of the the casual invocation of quantum mechanics or nanobots, and that explains that everything. They're like, yeah, Tony Stark's power armor, it's basically magic. It just melts away into nothing, It crawls inside of 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 don't, don't worry about it. It's just it's quantum mechanics. It's nanobots. It all works out, don't worry. Carb. Yeah, it's just carbonano nanoitudes, so that's all you need to know. But they didn't have that excuse back in the old day. You had to work a lot more to create quality techno babble. You had to come up with phrases like a perpetual motion chain reactor beam or the negative condensity. So good, all right, we'll go 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 in this film, or or films in a similar genre. Yeah, right in we'd love to hear from if you have memories of catching this film on TV back in the day. Uh yeah, yeah, We're always always interested to hear those stories. And in the meantime, yeah, we're primarily a science podcast with core episodes on two season 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 smut to music dot com and if you use letterbox that's l E T T E R B O x D dot com. Well, you can find us on there. Our user name is weird House. 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 stuff to Blow your Mind dot com. Stuff to Blow your Mind. It's production of I Heart Radio. For more podcasts my heart rate Dio, visit the I heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.