We watched a movie called The Strange World of Planet X as our Sci-fi Friday movie, which toured theaters under the title The Cosmic Monsters. It was quite interesting and a refreshing twist on an old theme.
Here we have a group of scientists doing experiments with intense magnetic fields. The lead scientist is brilliant, dogmatic and a bit mad. They are funded by the military which hopes to weaponize their research. The happy little crew is stirred a bit with the addition of a new computer operator, who turns out to be an attractive (and smart) young woman.
Of course it all goes awry and ends up creating giant bugs which begin killing people. Flying saucers have also been sighted and are blamed for the killer bugs and the atmospheric disturbances. But in fact, the UFOs are there to help. I’ll leave it there so I don’t spoil it for you should you want to watch it for yourself.
Internet Movie Data Base (www.IMDB.com) rates it at 5 of 10 stars with 424 ratings and has this to say:
A friendly visitor from outer space warns against conducting experiments with the Earth’s magnetic field, that could mutate insects into giant monsters.
Director: Gilbert Gunn
Writers: René Ray (novel), Paul Ryder (screenplay)
Stars: Forrest Tucker, Gaby André, Martin Benson | See full cast and crew »
Storyline
At a small, rural British lab, monomaniac Dr. Laird and his staff create ultra-intense magnetic fields. Inexplicably, the apparatus seems to be affecting distant objects, and to be drawing “extra power” from…somewhere. One night, after a “freak” storm, strange and deadly things start happening in Bryerly Woods, and a strange man from “a long way off” appears in the district…concerned about Laird’s pulling down disaster from the skies. Written by Rod Crawford <puffinus@u.washington.edu>
