Phantom from Space (1953)

Highly Overrated But Still Good

Great Film overall

For all the hype it got I was expecting a lot more!

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

A narrator tells us, "It began right after sunset," as we're looking at stock footage of fighter planes in broad daylight. The first four minutes of this snoozefest are composed entirely of stock footage, including stuff I recognized from 1950's "Radar Secret Service."Here's what passes for the plot: an invisible space alien lands in Santa Monica, CA. After killing two men who attacked him due to his "menacing" spacesuit (which resembles a leotard with a diving helmet), the creature takes it off while government authorities pursue him. As scientists examine the suit in their lab, a pair of scissors become magnetically attached to it. However, just moments before, one of the scientists tried unsuccessfully to cut the suit with those scissors, and there was no magnetic effect at all.Director W. Lee Wilder knew exactly how to keep this film within its virtually non-existent budget: rather than showing the action, have witnesses describe it after the fact; make your alien invisible, thus eliminating the need for make-up and costuming; make sure nothing in your script calls for special effects that would cost anything; hire Z-grade actors with names like Nora Nash and Sandy Sanders; and pad it out with gobs of stock footage.PHANTOM FROM SPACE consists mostly of exchanges of dry dialogue, quasi-scientific chit-chat, and endless scenes of people running up and down hallways and stairs. The last couple of minutes are interesting, but you have to sit through a lot of tedium to get there.

So an alien crash-lands on Earth, kills a couple of people because they didn't like his spacesuit, it scared them. The alien runs into other humans and they start reporting their encounter to officials. The alien takes off his spacesuit and is the invisible alien running around trying to get away from Earth's government. He ends up with them, wearing only his helmet and he tries to communicate with the people by some type of morse code but the humans can't figure out what he's trying to communicate to them.This one has it's ups and down, some boring stuff and some entertaining stuff. As others have mentioned, this film is very talky without much action most of the time (except for the beginning and ending).I liked it to a degree but it's definitely not on my toplist of 1950s Sci-Fi.4/10

A touching story involving an almost seemingly human alien is weakened by unnecessary serious narration as the alien is by the lack of his proper oxygen. Almost resembling "The Day the Earth Stood Still" in theme and motivation, it takes a while to get off the ground but when it does, you may find yourself beginning to be touched by the unfortunate being who seems determined to try and communicate. At times, the alien seems nefarious, but like Frankenstein's monster, there is definitely something to pity. The scenes between the alien and the heroine (Lela Nelson) take on a level of understanding usually absent in these kind of movies. Like other viewers, I too mistook actor Harry Landers for Rod Sterling, having recognized him from TV commercials as well.

Phantom from Space (1953) ** (out of 4) W. Lee Wilder directed this well-made sci-fi flick about an invisible alien who lands on Earth wearing what looks like a diver's outfit. A few locals are trying to track down the creature but when he takes the outfit off it becomes nearly impossible to find him. PHANTOM FROM SPACE is basically The Invisible Man with an alien. The film runs 75-minutes, which at times feels long but there's also no question that this film tries to do a bit more than your typical drive-in fluff from this period. I thought the screenplay was actually decent as it tried to bring some real thought to the stuff going on. This includes the various ways they try to figure out what this creature is. I thought Wilder actually made a good looking film that at least looks very professional and it's even more impressive considering the budget and the no-name cast. As for the cast, the performances really aren't the greatest but I think for the most part they're good enough for this type of material. Another major plus is the look of the actual alien when we do finally get to see it. I'm not going to ruin how it's revealed but once you see it and the position he's in, it's certainly not something you'd expect to see from 1953. There are still many problems with the film including the pacing, which isn't all that strong. Another problem is some of the early stuff where stock footage and narration are used to tell the story. PHANTOM FROM SPACE certainly isn't a classic but fans of "B" films will know there's much worse out there.