Not of This Earth
        
Director: Roger Corman
Year: 1957
Rating: 5.5
A low budget gem from Roger Corman. So much so, that he remade it two more times. It is crammed with lots of nifty sci-fi ideas in its 67-minute running time. An alien has come to earth because his planet of Davanna is dying. Wars and disease have nearly wiped out the population. Mr. Johnson (Paul Birch) has been sent to see if the blood of humans can keep Davannas alive. In his dark conservative business suit, brimmed hat, briefcase and sunglasses he wanders the streets of Los Angeles looking for victims in order to draw their blood. When he removes his sunglasses, his white gleaming eyes will kill whoever he stares at. He is up to number fourteen and the police are baffled. His orders from the home planet come in six steps - five and six are the important ones. 5. if the human blood keeps you alive, we will conquer the planet and subjugate them or 6. if not, we will destroy the planet. That seems a little unnecessary. If human blood doesn't do it, try cat blood, then dog blood, then monkey blood. He is also ordered to send specimens back through a transporter for further study.

 

To get a constant flow of blood, he goes to a doctor's (William Roerick) office and asks for a blood transfusion and when the doctor refuses to do so without testing for his type of blood, Mr. Johnson uses mind control on him. He hires his nurse to come stay with him and administer a transfusion every day. She is played by Beverly Garland who had already appeared in a few of Corman's films. Her suspicions are slowly raised by this weird dude who doesn't eat food and picks up homeless men and invites them to dinner. And they never leave. Dick Miller who was to become a Corman regular plays a door-to-door vacuum salesman who went to one door too many. The film moves quickly and Garland is tough as the damsel in distress. Mr. Johnson has one more trick - he has a large parasite looking creature that he can send after people - it envelops their heads and kills them. Very cool. It was remade in 1988 with Traci Lords and 1995 with Michael York.