People are voting emotionally.

Good start, but then it gets ruined

It is neither dumb nor smart enough to be fun, and spends way too much time with its boring human characters.

It is a whirlwind of delight --- attractive actors, stunning couture, spectacular sets and outrageous parties.

1963's "Unearthly Stranger" is one of the relatively few British examples of low budget science fiction, airing only twice on Pittsburgh's Chiller Theater, paired with first feature "Flight of the Lost Balloon" on Aug 9 1969, and with second feature "The Flying Saucer" on Jan 1 1972. Not including Amicus and Hammer's efforts, I can rattle off several that were TV staples on CT- "Fire Maidens of Outer Space," "The Cosmic Monster" aka "The Strange World of Planet X," "The Crawling Eye" aka "The Trollenberg Terror," "The Man Without a Body," "Womaneater," "The Atomic Man" aka "Timeslip," "The Electronic Monster" aka "Escapement," "Night Caller from Outer Space" (with John Saxon), and "Invasion" (with Edward Judd), each in glorious black and white. All of differing quality of course, but part of the TV landscape at the time, and virtually all quite forgotten today. "Unearthly Stranger" can easily be regarded as one of the best of this bunch, a tidy little character study featuring a small cast of only six actors, suggesting the story may have stage origins as scripted by Rex Carlton, of "The Brain That Wouldn't Die," "Nightmare in Wax," and "Blood of Dracula's Castle." One reviewer griped about the British tendency for dialogue over action, but clearly Carlton was an American; none of the titles mentioned above centered on expensive special effects. Dr. Mark Davidson (John Neville) marries a beautiful young woman named Julie (Gabriella Licudi), who appeared seemingly out of nowhere during a European vacation. Mark is currently working on a top secret space mission that proves to be the death of a colleague (Warren Mitchell), but Mark and his friend, Prof. John Lancaster (Philip Stone), vow to carry on with his work, despite warning signs that something unnatural is going on. For one thing, John isn't the first to notice that Julie never blinks her eyes (though the actress can be seen doing so several times), and is spotted removing a hot dish from a 275 degree oven using her bare hands. Investigating the recent death is Major Clarke (Patrick Newell), a rather unorthodox sleuth who enjoys eating candy during interrogations. Miss Ballard, the secretary, is played by Jean Marsh,in roughly the same fashion that she played the secretary in Alfred Hitchcock's "Frenzy" (1972). John Neville was a future Sherlock Holmes in another Chiller Theater classic, "A Study in Terror"(1965), while Patrick Newell was best known for the role of Mother during the final 1968 season of THE AVENGERS, as well as one or two appearances on THE BENNY HILL SHOW (he died in 1988). Without going into much detail, I must admit that I found the many twists and turns quite fascinating, virtually the entire cast in excellent form. But I have a soft spot in my heart for 20-year-old Gabriella Licudi, an actress I've seen only rarely- in the ONE STEP BEYOND episode "The Sorcerer" (1961, opposite Christopher Lee), in the 2-part "Hound of the Baskervilles" (1968, opposite Peter Cushing's Sherlock Holmes), and the James Bond spoof "Casino Royale" (1967). In my opinion, this was her finest role, not an easy one to play, which leaves audiences guessing (always leave them wanting more).

Despite its current unavailability, Unearthly Stranger enjoys a considerable cult following among dedicated sci-fi fans—and no wonder! Admittedly very low budget, but nonetheless highly entertaining, this movie represents science fiction horror at its very best. True, the basic idea seems at first a trifle ridiculous, but it's developed with such logic, precision and acumen employing sharply dramatic dialogue and intriguing situations, it quickly becomes both meaningful and acceptable. In fact the suspense was so electrifying, my palms were sweating, my hair prickling. I wanted to get up and turn the lights on, but I couldn't move. My eyes were riveted to the screen. The cast is small, but this concentration enhances rather than dispels atmosphere. All the acting comes across as uniformly excellent, with every performer contributing outstanding work. Director Krish is obviously a television graduate, yet here the close-ups are not only strikingly handled and dramatically most effective but used with both imagination and economy. Krish actually knows when to use close-ups and when to fall back on long shots and medium angles. Believe me, this is a rare quality among television men!

One of the most entertaining films to come out of British studios in the Sixties which sadly has never been given the plaudits it richly deserved. Both Neville and Stone (who played an excellent part in "The Shining"), demonstrated total commitment and kept the pace and excitement of the plot going right to the end. And we shouldn't neglect to mention Patrick Newell, who played the 'sweet-toothed' security bod, with precision-like reality. I too was surprised by the similarity to the plot of William Sloane's "TO WALK THE NIGHT", an eerie and thought-provoking story I first read in 1959 and have read a dozen times since. The similarity is just too close to be coincidence and it is nothing short of criminal not to have Sloane's name on the credits. The film was excellent; the novel is superb, both deserve a place in any SF collection.

There are a handful of fine films that have never been released on tape or disk. Sometimes they show up on the few independent TV stations around the country that still have access to the old collections of movies that used to circulate in the days before cable. Nearly lost films, except in the memories of people who saw them at drive-ins or on TV before the current age of homogenous viewing. Unearthly Stranger is a perfect example of this kind of film. Not the masterpiece that Invasion of the Body Snatchers is, Unearthly Stranger is still a wonderful science fiction story with trappings of the paranoia that characterizes Body Snatchers, I Married a Monster, and other, earlier, SF films. Stranger was a throwback when it was new, and that may be why it was pretty much ignored when it was released. With DVD releases of an awful lot of true garbage, there really is no excuse for the continued neglect of this stylish, almost lost movie.