Night Caller from Outer Space

This is quite an amazing little movie. It very much falls within the style of British 1950s science fiction, in that it is deliberately paced and very dialogue-driven, as distinguished from being rooted in action. It is certainly suspenseful, but is more scifi drama than what we are currently used to, or indeed than what we are used to seeing in 1950s American science fiction. In this sense, then, Night Caller from Outer Space is typical of its time, place, and genre, and reminiscent of the BBC Quatermass television dramas of that same era, and their cinematic counterparts, as well as other classic British science fiction of the era such as Village of the Damned and X the Unknown. Its tone is very dark, marking another similarity to the latter examples, none of which is particularly optimistic.Night Caller diverges from its counterparts in its surprisingly upscale, savi cinematography and editing, and its even more surprising moments of humor. One such scene, involving a police detective interviewing a middle-aged married couple with regard to their missing daughter, has to be seen to be believed - genuinely funny, and using overlapping dialogue in a way which reminds me of Howard Hawks' The Thing, or - I'm serious - the interspersed interviews with old married couples in When Harry Met Sally.Additionally, while the examples of British science fiction I mentioned are darkly themed and dark in tone, at least one moment toward the end of this movie is downright shocking; I've never seen a plot development quite like it in a movie of this kind, and from that time.One hideously dark element, which was almost certainly not intentional, but which is nonetheless present, and which ought to come to the mind of any socially aware twenty-first-century viewer, is that of the impending rape of the women who are taken from the Earth. This plot point is not couched in terms of rape, but it's impossible to avoid seeing it that way.The scene with the married couple also reflects the excellent dialogue and acting, and the inspired casting, including of minor roles - other elements which set this film apart from what we normally consider "B movies."I don't want to imply that this is the best science fiction movie of the 1950s, or even the best British science fiction movie of that time - there are a couple of logic gaps that I found somewhat difficult to abide, and the lower budget does show - but I would place it among the best, even though it is far less well known than many others we consider to be classics.

Someone got the bright idea to colorize this oddity so everyone looks quite pink. The plot is simple, a bubble not containing Glinda arrives on earth so an alien can kidnap women to help repopulate Ganymede. Naturally, the alien kills those who get in his way. And then he has the gall to lecture mere earthlings about heading down the same path as they did! If he was so high and mighty why was he kidnapping and killing people!A mild distraction that proved most entertaining.

Great effort to restore. Its watchable but at times looks kinda xray.Its interesting and a concept that has stood the test of time.I found it hard to watch...shrug

What a downer of a movie. It started out promising but ended up in a confused, muddled mess. It also lacked a sense of justice that should have been in the movie. At first the Night Caller does not intentionally kill anyone. Then he accidentally kills someone. Then he purposefully kills someone who was trying to communicate with him and he justifies it by saying he "destroys what he can't control." Finally at the end of the movie he gives some kind of "holier than thou" speech about his race being better than ours but they just take what they want yet claim their victims will be well-treated, even though he has killed innocents and shows not a smidgen of remorse for it. So, he expects us to believe him? Not likely.Also, as another reviewer has said, John Saxon's presence in the movie is wasted. He is supposedly the lead yet he does nothing heroic or does anything to bring the bad guy to justice or stop him. There was really no reason for him to be in the movie. It's too bad about this movie. It had a lot of promise initially but in the end I just wish I had that hour and twenty-five minutes back.

Night Caller from Outer Space with John Saxon reminded me of another B/W sci-fi movie from my youth that had a "learn from our mistake of destroying our own planet" message: The Day the Earth Stood Still. Saw this thanks to Amazon Instant Video and was impressed with the quality of the video as viewed on my laptop.

Great movie, more psychological than FX monsters.Liked it so much, I bought it. Definitely worth a watch

This was a pretty good old sci-fi film.Younger people might find it slow.

a good old b movie

A good creepy old Si Fi, well acted and quite original in places. If you like Quartermaster you'll like this too.Pity about the silly theme tune at the start but the same goes for The Blob too.