Devil Girl from Mars (1954)

Devil Girl from Mars (Dir: David McDonald, 1954). 

With Martian men on the verge of extinction, Nyah (Patricia Laffan), a PVC clad dominatrix who bears a passing resemblance to a young Agnes Moorehead, is dispatched to London to collect male specimens for the purpose of repopulating the planet. Think Mars Needs Women (Larry Buchanan, 1968) with a gender reversal and you have the idea. Accompanied by a robot seemingly made from odds and ends found in a garden shed, the would-be seductress with the voice of a British Rail announcer goes off course and crash lands in the Scottish Highlands. Here she invades the remote Bonnie Charlie Inn; the residents of which are a motley bunch including an escaped murder and his girl, an aspiring model, a scientist, an investigative journalist and a sturdy Scots landlady. The men of the Inn aren't up to spec so Nyah must repair her craft and continue on her mission. But those pesky Earthlings have other ideas and are intent on stopping her. You can bet they are sorry when she unleashes a powerful raygun and her giant flowerpot 'bot on them! 

Not as kinky as it sounds, Devil Girl from Mars is a family friendly second feature. If your family likes obscure sci fi with wobbly visual effects that is. With stock characters and predictable plotting, the screenplay is just as bad as the 'special' effects. Some choice dialogue includes a nonchalant: "Mrs Jamieson, may I introduce you to your latest guest, Miss Nyah. She comes from Mars". Possibly my favourite line is the exclaimation of one character, mid-invasion: “Nothing like this has happened to me before!” In fairness, the cast make the best of the woeful script. Hugh McDermott and John Laurie are the most recognisable faces in a cast awash with actors you have seen before but cannot quite remember where. 

Director David McDonald spent the previous two decades in low budget second features. So prolific was his career in the quickies that he could have directed Devil Girl from Mars in his sleep. On the evidence of the finished film he may well have. 

Let’s be brutally honest: Devil Girl from Mars is a load of old tripe. Yet it is oddly compelling, entertaining old tripe. Campy and cringy in equal measure while at the same time oddly twee, it is sci fi schlock of the highest - or should that be lowest? - order. If low budget, lowbrow Brit B movies are your thing you could do worse than check it out.