DEVIL GIRL FROM MARS (1954)

A meteor falls near Invernesshire in the Scottish moors and causes a minor ruckus, enough for a reporter (Hugh McDermott) and a scientist to head out there to investigate. They stay at an isolated inn which, because it's not tourist season, is relatively empty. In addition to the owners (an older married couple), a handyman, and the barmaid, the only other folks around are a busty model (Hazel Court) and an escaped convict (Peter Reynolds) who is the boyfriend of the barmaid (Adrienne Corri) and who is posing as a hiker so he can stay at the inn. Some slight melodramatic tensions arise until one more visitor appears: the leather/vinyl clad Nyah (Patricia Laffan), the title character, whose spaceship has crashed nearby. She needs a few hours for the ship to repair itself, so she throws an invisible force field up around the inn and casually mentions the fact that Mars needs men--the emancipation of Martian women led to a literal war of the sexes; the men lost and are dying out, and the women need virile earthmen to reproduce. When her ship is fixed, Nyah plans on carrying out an invasion plan, along with her large boxy robot (who looks a bit like a less intimidating Gort from THE DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL). Can any of the hapless stranded earthlings stop the miniskirted Martian? This British B-film is fun as long as you are fully aware of what you're getting into; the opening credits note that it's based on a play, and indeed, most of the talky "action" is set inside one or two rooms in the inn, not to mention that the visual style of the film is like a filmed TV play. It's a little like KEY LARGO or THE PETRIFIED FOREST except with a Martian Devil Girl instead of Edward G. Robinson or Humphrey Bogart as the baddie. Laffan, who is deadpan serious, is fine as the alien; Court and Corri look good; sadly, none of the men are especially handsome or hunky, and I was wondering if Laffan was reconsidering her mission after this sampling of babymakers. [DVD]