Devil Girl From Mars

Now, I just know a blog-post title like that is going to get your attention!

A couple of nights ago I watched an old (1954) British, black-and-white science-fiction film called Devil Girl From Mars that starred Patricia Laffan as the Devil-Girl herself, and Hazel Court (who appeared in a number of the classic Hammer horror films of the late 1950s and early 1960s), and John Laurie, a Scottish character-actor best known in Britain for his role as Fraser in the BBC comedy of the 1960s and 1970s, Dad's Army.

Basically, the film tells the story of a hot alien babe from Mars called Nyah (who spends the whole film clad in a tight-fitting black outfit, black cloak and long black-boots - most certainly not something I was complaining about!), who comes to our world to seek out males to help boost the waning Martian population - which has been decimated as a result of a war on the red-planet between males and females, in which the women won. Of course, with the Martian men gone, this makes breeding quite a problem!

The plan is for Nyah to land her Flying Saucer in London. Unfortunately, things go awry and she comes down near an old inn in the wilds of Scotland - an inn that is populated by just the owner, a couple of employees and a handful of guests. And, yes, they become the small band that has to try and thwart Nyah's dastardly plans.

Well, personally speaking, having to repopulate a whole planet full of numerous Nyah's doesn't sound such a bad job to me at all - but I digress!

Anyway, I won't spoil the outcome for those who may want to watch the film, but I will say the following: Devil Girl From Mars certainly isn't a classic. But it is entertaining and thought-provoking, too. Indeed, it also contains a number of Contactee-based parallels, too.

For example, Nyah can speak all Earth-based languages (as, reportedly, could a number of the Space-Brothers); her people have been secretly listening to our radio shows and signals (and radio played a central role in several of the early Contactee cases); she warns (as did pretty much all of the long-haired and alien ones) of the perils of war and destruction; she provides a wealth of scientific data about her craft to those of the group she invites on-board (a curious theme present in many Contactee accounts); and is strangely detached and even slightly ethereal - which reminds me very much of Truman Bethurum's very own alien-babe, Captain Aura Rhanes of Clarion.

I suspect not many people will be aware of Devil Girl From Mars, but for anyone with an affection for the early years of the Flying Saucer culture (both in the real world and in the domain of fiction), it's worth a watch.