NOT OF THIS EARTH

   1) Film (1957). Los Altos/Allied Artists. Prod and dir Roger CORMAN, starring Paul Birch, Beverly Garland, Jonathan Haze, Dick Miller. Screenplay Charles B. Griffith, Mark Hanna. 67 mins. B/w.

   A sombre humanoidalien (Birch), whose dark glasses conceal blank white eyes, seeks human blood and victims to send by matter transmitter to his home planet, whose inhabitants' blood is being "turned to dust" by radiation from continuing nuclear war. Low-budget nonsense - a typical Corman film of the period - cheaply made, NOTE is nevertheless well scripted and surprisingly powerful; unusually, it shows some sympathy for the lonely, pedantic alien.

   2) Film (1988). Miracle. "Roger CORMAN presents" a film dir Jim Wynorski, starring Arthur Roberts, Traci Lords, Lenny Juliano. Screenplay R.J. Robertson, Wynorski, based on that of the 1957 film. 76 mins. Colour.

   Though fairly true to the original script, and played moderately straight apart from a plethora of large-breasted women, this Corman-inspired remake cannot cope with cultural and cinematic changes over the intervening three decades, and what was once mildly serious now emerges as high camp; hence it was promoted as a spoof.

   PN

   See also: MONSTER MOVIES.