Devil Girl from Mars

2025-10-21T10:43:04Z

2A00:23C5:EF0B:5401:4590:12EA:A954:627F: /* Critical reception */

{{Short description|1954 British film by David MacDonald}}
{{EngvarB|date=August 2014}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=August 2014}}
{{Infobox film
| name = Devil Girl from Mars
| image = Devil Girl From Mars poster.jpg
| caption = [[Film poster|Theatrical release poster]]
| director = [[David MacDonald (director)|David MacDonald]]
| producer = [[Edward J. Danziger]] [[Harry Lee Danziger]]
| writer = James Eastwood John C. Mather
| starring = [[Patricia Laffan]] [[Hugh McDermott (actor)|Hugh McDermott]] [[Hazel Court]] [[Peter Reynolds (actor)|Peter Reynolds]] [[Adrienne Corri]]
| music = [[Edwin Astley]]
| cinematography = [[Jack Cox (cinematographer)|Jack Cox]]
| editing = [[Peter Taylor (film editor)|Peter Taylor]]
| studio = [[The Danzigers|Danziger Productions]]
| distributor = [[British Lion Films]]
| released = {{Film date|1954|10|05|df=yes}}
| runtime = 77 minutes
| country = United Kingdom
| language = English
| budget =
}}

'''''Devil Girl from Mars''''' is a 1954 British [[B movie|second feature]]<ref name="Chibnall">{{Cite book |last1=Chibnall |first1=Steve |title=''The British 'B' Film'' |last2=McFarlane |first2=Brian |publisher=[[BFI]]/[[Bloomsbury Publishing|Bloomsbury]] |year=2009 |isbn=978-1-8445-7319-6 |location=London |pages=212}}</ref> [[black-and-white]] [[science fiction film]] directed by [[David MacDonald (director)|David MacDonald]] and starring [[Patricia Laffan]], [[Hugh McDermott (actor)|Hugh McDermott]], [[Hazel Court]], [[Peter Reynolds (actor)|Peter Reynolds]], and [[Adrienne Corri]].<ref name="BFIsearch">{{Cite web |title=Devil Girl from Mars |url=https://collections-search.bfi.org.uk/web/Details/ChoiceFilmWorks/150016673 |access-date=16 December 2023 |website=British Film Institute Collections Search}}</ref> The screenplay was by James Eastwood based (per on-screen credits) on a play by John C. Mather and Eastwood, and was produced by the [[The Danzigers|Danziger Brothers]]. It was released by [[British Lion Films|British Lion]]<ref name="Warren">{{Cite book |last=Warren |first=Bill |title=Keep Watching The Skies, American Science Fiction Movies of the 50s (Vol I: 1950–1957) |publisher=[[McFarland & Company]] |year=1982 |isbn=0-89950-032-3 |location=Jefferson, North Carolina}}</ref> and released in the United States the following year.

A female [[Extraterrestrial life|alien]] is sent from [[Mars]] to acquire human males to replace their declining male population. When negotiation, then intimidation, fails she must use force to obtain co-operation from a remote Scottish village where she has landed her crippled [[flying saucer]].{{TOC limit|limit=2}}

==Plot==
Nyah, a female commander from Mars, heads for [[London]] in her [[flying saucer]]. She is part of the advance alien team looking for Earthmen to replace the declining male population on her world, the result of a "devastating war between the sexes". Because of damage to her craft, caused when entering the Earth's atmosphere, and an apparent crash with an airliner, she is forced to land in the remote [[Scotland|Scottish]] [[moorland|moors]]. She is armed with a [[raygun]] that can paralyse or kill, and is accompanied by a tall, menacing [[robot]] named Chani.

Professor Arnold Hennessey, an astrophysicist, accompanied by journalist Michael Carter, is sent by the British government to investigate the effects of the crash, believed to be caused by a [[meteorite]]. The pair come to the Bonnie Charlie, a remote inn run by Mr and Mrs Jamieson in the depths of the [[Scottish Highlands]].

At the bar they meet Ellen Prestwick, a fashion model who came to the Bonnie Charlie to escape an affair with a married man. She quickly forms a romantic liaison with Carter. Meanwhile, escaped convict Robert Justin (under the alias Albert Simpson), convicted for accidentally killing his wife, comes to the inn to reunite with barmaid Doris, with whom he is in love.

Nyah happens across the inn, incinerates the Jamiesons' handyman David, and enters the bar. When she finds no one willing to come with her to Mars, she responds with intimidation, trapping the guests and staff within an invisible wall and turning Chani loose to vaporise much of the manor's grounds. Discovering Justin and Tommy, the Jamiesons' young nephew, hiding in the grounds, Nyah kidnaps Tommy as a possible male specimen, and sends Justin back to the inn under some manner of mind control. Nyah then brings Professor Hennessy aboard her spaceship to view the technological achievements of Martian civilisation, including the ship's atomic power source. In exchange for Tommy, Carter volunteers to go to Mars with Nyah.

Realising that the only road to victory over Nyah requires trickery, Hennessy suggests Carter sabotage the ship's power source after take off. However, Carter attempts a double cross before boarding the ship, snatching Nyah's controller for Chani, but this attempt is thwarted by Nyah's mind control powers. Carter is released by Nyah, and they both return to the bar, where she announces that she will destroy the inn and kill everyone within when she leaves for London. However she allows for one man to go with her in order to escape death. The men draw lots and Carter wins the draw, still hoping to enact Hennessy's plan to destroy the spaceship.

At the last minute, Justin, alone at the bar and now free from mind control when Nyah returns, offers to go with her of his own free will. After take-off he successfully sabotages Nyah's flying saucer, sacrificing himself to save the men of Earth, and atoning for the death of his wife. The survivors celebrate their escape with a drink at the bar.

==Cast==
* [[Patricia Laffan]] as Nyah, the Devil Girl from Mars
* [[Hugh McDermott (actor)|Hugh McDermott]] as Michael Carter
* [[Hazel Court]] as Ellen Prestwick
* [[Peter Reynolds (actor)|Peter Reynolds]] as Robert Justin/Albert Simpson
* [[Adrienne Corri]] as Doris
* [[Joseph Tomelty]] as Professor Arnold Hennessey
* [[John Laurie]] as Mr. Jamieson
* [[Sophie Stewart]] as Mrs. Jamieson
* Anthony Richmond as Tommy
* James Edmond as David
* [[Stuart Hibberd]] as news reader (voice only)

==Production==
In an interview with Frank J. Dello Stritto, screenwriter John Chartres Mather claimed that ''Devil Girl from Mars'' came about while he was working with [[The Danzigers]], who were producing ''[[Calling Scotland Yard]]'' (1953) that appeared as both an American television series and as cinema [[featurette]]s in Great Britain and the British Commonwealth. When production finished ahead of schedule, Mather says he was ordered to use up the remaining film studio time already booked and paid for by working on a feature film for the Danzigers.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://beladraculalugosi.wordpress.com/2015/05/03/vampire-bats-and-devil-girls-from-mars-dracula-producer-john-chartres-mather-interviewed-by-frank-j-dello-stritto/|title=Vampire Bats and Devil Girls from Mars: John Chartres Mather, Producer of BelaLugosi's British Tour of Dracula, Interviewed by Frank J. Dello Stritto|date=3 May 2015}}</ref> The interview also states that Patricia Laffan's devil girl costume was economically made by designer [[John Sutcliffe (designer)|John Sutcliffe]]. The film's opening credits, however, state: "Miss Laffan's costume designed by Ronald Cobb."

The film was made at [[Shepperton Studios]] with sets designed by the [[art director]] [[Norman G. Arnold]]. It was made on a very low budget, with no retakes except in cases where the actual film stock became damaged; it was shot over a period of three weeks, often filming well into the night.<ref name="boot1996">{{Cite book |last=Boot |first=Andrew |title=Fragments of Fear: An Illustrated History of British Horror Films |publisher=Creation Books |year=1996 |isbn=1-871592-35-6 |location=Baghkok |pages=57}}</ref> Actress Hazel Court later said: "I remember great fun on the set. It was like a repertory company acting that film".<ref name="weaver2006">{{Cite book |last=Weaver |first=Tom |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wOsGOm3YwokC&pg=PA40 |title=Science Fiction Stars and Horror Heroes: Interviews with Actors, Directors, Producers and Writers of the 1940s through 1960s |publisher=[[McFarland & Company]] |year=2006 |isbn=978-0-7864-2857-1 |location=Jefferson, North Carolina |pages=40–42 |language=}}</ref>

The robot, named Chani, was constructed by Jack Whitehead and was operated by a human being.{{Citation needed|date=December 2023}}

The alien Klaatu, posing as "Mr. Carpenter" in ''[[The Day the Earth Stood Still]]'' (1951), was intended by screenwriter [[Edmund H. North]] to evoke [[Jesus Christ]],<ref name="weaver1996">{{Cite book |last=Weaver |first=Tom |title=It Came from Weaver Five: Interviews With 20 Zany, Glib and Earnest Moviemakers in the SF and Horror Traditions of the Thirties, Forties, Fifties and Sixties |publisher=[[McFarland & Company]] |year=1996 |isbn=978-0786401918 |location=Jefferson, North Carolina |pages=342}}</ref> and there are indications that the Martian woman Nyah was intended to evoke an anti-[[Virgin Mary]] image.<ref name="miller2016">{{Cite book |last=Miller |first=Thomas Kent |title=Mars in the Movies: A History |publisher=[[McFarland & Company]] |year=2016 |isbn=978-0-7864-9914-4 |location=Jefferson, North Carolina |pages=158}}</ref>

''Devil Girl from Mars''{{'}}s sound editor was [[Gerry Anderson]] (credited as Gerald Anderson), later to create UK television series such as ''[[Thunderbirds (TV series)|Thunderbirds]]''. To save time and money, composer [[Edwin Astley]] reused his ''[[Saber of London]]'' TV series score for the film.

== Critical reception ==
At the time of the film's release [[Gavin Lambert]] wrote in ''[[The Monthly Film Bulletin]]'': <blockquote>This primitive British effort at science-fiction is quite enjoyably ludicrous, mainly on account of Patricia Laffan's splendid Nyah. Clothed in black silk tights, a black cloak, a metallurgical-looking wig and walled in make-up, she moves with the air of a sleep-walker, never looking at the person to whom she is talking and speaking her lines – particularly those describing the scientific marvels of her planet – in an impatient monotone, as if contemptuous of any meaning they may, from time to time, contain. One would like to see Nyah again, preferably in a serial. The romance of mannequin and journalist, also, will have its appeal to connoisseurs of life among the English. Settings, dialogue, characterisation and special effects are of a low order; but even their modest unreality has its charm. There is really no fault in this film that one would like to see eliminated. Everything, in its way, is quite perfect.<ref>{{Cite journal |date=1 January 1954 |title=Devil Girl from Mars |url=https://www.proquest.com/docview/1305817960 |journal=[[The Monthly Film Bulletin]] |volume=21 |issue=240 |pages=83 |id={{ProQuest|1305817960}}}}</ref></blockquote>Contemporaneously ''[[Kine Weekly]]'' said:<blockquote>Effective interplay of character establishes human interest without curbing essential spectacle, and the ending literally goes with a bang. At once ingenious stunt offering and artful woman's stuff, its conquest of both worlds stands it in good stead. ...The picture keeps the strange and frightening 'flying saucer' at a respectable distance, but resourceful camera work gives the illusion validity ... and the characters are not dwarfed by the gimmicks. Although the shots of the rocket-ship landing, departing and disintegrating are arresting, they are not introduced at the expense of human interest. The sacrifice made by Albert is the heart of its sensational and salutary matter.<ref>{{Cite journal |date=6 May 1954 |title=Devil Girl from Mars |url=https://www.proquest.com/docview/2676989603 |journal=[[Kine Weekly]] |volume=446 |issue=2445 |pages=17 |id={{ProQuest|2676989603}}}}</ref></blockquote>''[[Rolling Stone]]'' columnist Doug Pratt called ''Devil Girl from Mars'' a "delightfully bad movie". The "acting is really bad and the whole thing is so much fun you want to run to your local community theatre group and have them put it on next, instead of ''[[Brigadoon]]''."<ref name="pratt2004">{{Cite book |last=Pratt |first=Douglas |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DTUw1SDQECoC |title=Doug Pratt's DVD: Movies, Television, Music, Art, Adult, and More! |date=2004 |publisher=UNET 2 Corporation |isbn=978-1-932916-00-3 |pages=232 |language=en}}</ref>

American film reviewer [[Leonard Maltin]] said the film is a "hilariously solemn, [[high camp]] British imitation of U.S. cheapies".<ref name="wilson2005">{{Cite book |last=Wilson |first=John |url= |title=The Official Razzie Movie Guide: Enjoying the Best of Hollywood's Worst |publisher=Hachette Digital, Inc. |year=2005 |isbn=0-446-69334-0 |location=New York |pages=95 |language=}}</ref>

''Filmink'' called it "bonkers fun".<ref name="cad">{{cite magazine|magazine=Filmink|url=https://www.filmink.com.au/peter-reynolds-forgotten-cad/|date=11 November 2024|access-date=11 November 2024|first=Stephen|last=Vagg|title=Peter Reynolds: Forgotten Cad}}</ref>

In ''Going to Mars: The Stories of the People Behind NASA's Mars Missions Past, Present, and Future,'' Muirhead et al describe the film as "an undeniably awful but oddly interesting" film. They noted that the plot was "more a reflection of the 1950s view of politics and the era's inequality of the sexes than a thoughtful projection of present or future possibilities".<ref name="muirhead_reeves_stevens2004">
{{Cite book |last1=Muirhead |first1=Brian |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_jUZe2UUCdUC&pg=PA93 |title=Going to Mars: The Stories of the People Behind NASA's Mars Missions Past, Present, and Future |last2=Reeves-Stevens |first2=Judith |last3=Reeves-Stevens |first3=Garfield |date=2004 |publisher=Simon and Schuster |isbn=978-0-671-02796-4 |pages=63–64 |language=en}}
</ref>

In ''Mars: A Tour of the Human Imagination,'' Eric S. Rabkin likens the character Nyah to a [[dominatrix]] and even a [[neo-Nazi]]. He said of the film that, "a host of charged images and subconscious fears" are handled with a broad camp irony. Otherwise, "without some underlying psychological engagement, how could anyone sit through a movie so badly made"?<ref name="rabkin2005">
{{Cite book |last=Rabkin |first=Eric S. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=a2QP30zybNkC&pg=PA154 |title=Mars: A Tour of the Human Imagination |year=2005 |publisher=Bloomsbury Academic |isbn=978-0-275-98719-0 |pages=154 |language=en}}
</ref>

British film critic [[Leslie Halliwell]] said: "Absurd attempt to cash in on the then new science fiction craze. The budget matches the imagination."<ref>{{Cite book |last=Halliwell |first=Leslie |title=Halliwell's Film Guide |publisher=Paladin |year=1989 |isbn=0586088946 |edition=7th |location=London |pages=269}}</ref>

In ''British Sound Films: The Studio Years 1928–1959'' [[David Quinlan (film critic)|David Quinlan]] rated the film as "average", writing: "Talky science-film runs like an early serial."<ref>{{Cite book |last=Quinlan |first=David |title=British Sound Films: The Studio Years 1928–1959 |publisher=[[Batsford Books|B.T. Batsford Ltd.]] |year=1984 |isbn=0-7134-1874-5 |location=London |pages=301}}</ref>

Chibnall and McFarlane in ''The British 'B' Film'' wrote: <blockquote>Clad as a dominatrix in leather cap, cloak and stiletto boots, [Nyah] is a genuinely shocking figure in the staid world of British film-making of the time: it is as if the underworld of S&M fetishism had suddenly surfaced, and with it the collective unconscious of the nation. Backed by the mechanised might of her faithful robot (resembling a fridge on legs) she imparts a sexual charge that the film's scenario struggles to contain, and gives a wholly different spin to the desire expressed by another of the inn's visitors, the prodigal metropolitan model played by Hazel Court, to spend more time in the country, find the right man, have children. Nyah is an eroticised threat to a patriarchy that was increasingly troubled in the post-war years. She comes to turn the proud men of Earth into sex slaves for her matriarchal order. ... ''Devil Girl From Mars'' is, therefore, not only a camp classic but an ideologically significant moment in 1950s British cinema.<ref name="Chibnall" /></blockquote>

==Legacy==
The film inspired [[Hugo Award|Hugo]] and [[Nebula Award|Nebula]] award-winning author [[Octavia E. Butler]] to begin writing science fiction. After watching the motion picture at age 12, she declared that she could write something better.<ref name="drew2007">
{{Cite book |last=Drew |first=Bernard Alger |title=100 Most Popular African American Authors: Biographical |publisher=Libraries Unlimited |year=2007 |isbn=978-1-59158-322-6 |pages=49}}
</ref><ref>
{{cite web |title=Remembering Octavia Butler: Black Sci-Fi Writer Shares Cautionary Tales in Unearthed 2005 Interview |url=https://democracynow.org/2021/2/23/octavia_butler_2005_interview |access-date=2022-01-31 |website=[[Democracy Now!]] |language=en}}
</ref><ref name="butler">
Butler, Octavia. [http://web.mit.edu/m-i-t/articles/butler_talk.html "Devil Girl From Mars": Why I Write Science Fiction."] ''MIT Communications''. Retrieved: January 10, 2015.
</ref>

The Los Angeles avant-garde artist [[Gronk (artist)|Gronk]] lists this film as the crucial factor that guided him in his career choice.<ref name="james2005">
{{Cite book |last=James |first=David E. |title=The Most Typical Avant-garde: History and Geography of Minor Cinemas in Los Angeles |publisher=[[University of California Press]] |year=2005 |isbn=0-520-24257-2 |location=Oakland, California |pages=66}}
</ref>

''Devil Girl from Mars'' developed a following via home video.<ref name="johnson_miller_sangster2004">{{Cite book |last1=Johnson |first1=Tom |title=The Christopher Lee Filmography: All Theatrical Releases, 1948–2003 |last2=Miller |first2=Mark A. |last3=Sangster |first3=Jimmy |publisher=[[McFarland & Company]] |year=2004 |isbn=0-7864-1277-1 |location=Jefferson, North Carolina |pages=38}}</ref>

==See also==
* ''[[Mars Needs Women]]'' (1967); a gender-reversed version of the same theme
* ''[[Under the Skin (2013 film)|Under the Skin]]'' (2013); a somewhat similar theme

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
* {{IMDb title|0046907}}

{{David MacDonald}}
{{The Danzigers}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Devil Girl From Mars}}
[[Category:1954 films]]
[[Category:1954 science fiction films]]
[[Category:Films about alien invasions]]
[[Category:British black-and-white films]]
[[Category:British science fiction films]]
[[Category:1950s English-language films]]
[[Category:British films about extraterrestrial life]]
[[Category:Films directed by David MacDonald (director)]]
[[Category:Films set in Highland (council area)]]
[[Category:Films shot at Shepperton Studios]]
[[Category:British Lion Films films]]
[[Category:Mars in film]]
[[Category:Films about robots]]
[[Category:1950s British films]]
[[Category:English-language science fiction films]]
[[Category:Films scored by Edwin Astley]]
[[Category:Flying saucers in film]]

Vero - Wikipedia - User contributions [en]

Devil Girl from Mars