They Came from Beyond Space (1967)

[trekgeezer]

They Came From Beyond Space (1967) Directed by Freddie Francis (Day of the Triffids)

Nine meteorites land in a Cornish farmer's field. This prompts an investigattion by the Ministry of Space Research because the meteorites  flew and landed in perfect V formation.

All of Britain's top space scientists are called into action, except Curtis Temple (Robert Hutton) who is the country's top ET scientist. Seems Curt's doctor won't let him go because he is recovering from a recent car accident after which he had to have a silver plate (yes, silver not steel) put in his head.

The rest of the scientists ( including Curt's girlfreind/assistant Lee) head for Cornwall and begin studying the meteorites.  When someone tries to chip off a piece of one, suddenly there is a blue light and folks are taken over by an alien force. Soon the scientists are taking over bankers and construction crews, then before you know it they have the site surrounded by a 10,000 volt electric fence and all kinds of secret construction going on.

When they go back try to take over Curt and his colleague, they discover Curt is immune from being taken over (gee, I wonder why?). Curt then starts trying to find out what is going on, after getting shot at , raygunned, witnessing a rocket launch to the moon, and being warned off by Internal Security he decides to break Lee out. He gets her out and takes her to his friend Farge, who works with optics.

Since Curt has come to the conclusion that the plate in his head is what keeps the aliens out he melts down some of Farge's trophies and makes a shield from them (a colander with a silver plate attached) for Farge.Then they use Lee as a test subject (she's still possessed) for their alien detecter (the most myopic set of goggles you'll ever see) and their version of the alien's cosmic ray gun (a flashlight with a pistol grip). The ray gun kills the alien presence without harming the host.

For those who haven't watched this I will stop here so as not to spoil the ending, except for an appearance by Michael Gough (Alfred from the Batman movies) as the Master of the Moon.

This movie actually has a tiny bit of suspense and the sets are a tad above the quality of Dr.Who episodes from the 60's and 70's. I really liked the yellow and black striped elevator (or should I say Lift) in the farmhouse living room.

Overall not a terrible way to spend 85 minutes on a sick day from work. I would give it a mild cheddar rating on the Cheese-o-meter.

[Gerry]

This one really stinks in my opinion.  I'd rather watch ENEMY FROM SPACE a.k.a. QUATERMASS 2, which this one rips a large portion of the plot from.

Then again, there are those goofy helmets and a scenery chewing Michael Gough on the moon...

[Scott]

Ooooo............This was tough viewing. The best part may have been the guy with the plate in his head and the little "elevator" in the house. The story didn't come across well, possible because the ultra low budget was just to distracting and not in a fun way.  The idea is of course good, but the execution was poor in my opinion.

TrekGeezer did you buy the 50 movie Sci-Fi DVD pack? I bought it around December and really enjoy it.  I had another copy of THEY CAME FROM BEYOND SPACE about a year ago and traded it in at a CD exchange shop for a couple dollars. Now I own another copy with the 50 movie pack. : )

I can't read your KILLERS FROM OUTER SPACE post yet till I view my copy, but have been wanting to check out this title for awhile. Hoping it is better than THEY CAME FROM OUTER SPACE.



Post Edited (04-08-05 21:00)

[Gerry]

Scott wrote:

> TrekGeezer did you buy the 50 movie Sci-Fi DVD pack? I bought
> it around December and really enjoy it.  I had another copy of
> THEY CAME FROM BEYOND SPACE about a year ago and traded it in
> at a CD exchange shop for a couple dollars. Now I own another
> copy with the 50 movie pack. : )

I had the Diamond and traded it to a friend, and got it back in the 50 movie pack.  Talk about a bad penny...

[trekgeezer]

I got this on a Double Feature $1 DVD at Big Lots. The other movie on the disk is Warning from Space, a Japanese movie that Scott has posted about here. It has what looks like a starfish with one big eye on the cover.

[Scott]

Like Gerry I had a Diamond double feature. Got rid of it then it turned up in my 50 pack.

[Flangepart]

Am i the only one here who tends to laugh his galaxy spanning ass off, looking at the actual ..wording...of the films title?