Night Caller from Outer Space

Description

Two different kinds of movie coexist within this low-budget thriller. One is a civilized sci-fi picture, with a discreet monster (we barely see him, actually) and more impenetrable scientific jargon than you hear in an average episode of ER. The other is a British police procedural, with lots of men in trench coats marching stolidly around murky London streets. Neither works especially well, which may be why Night Caller from Outer Space isn't better known to film history--even under its alternate title, the more lurid Blood Beast from Outer Space. A glowing beach ball lands in English farm country, allowing an alien from Jupiter's moon Ganymede to beam himself down. The alien places an ad in Bikini Girl magazine (hey, it was swinging London, remember?) in order to lure human females into his plan to repopulate his planet. Pretty dull overall, with journeyman B-movie actor John Saxon as the token American presence. The ending is actually rather surprising, and includes a little Day the Earth Stood Still jibe at mankind's insistence on messing up a perfectly good world. The theme song at the beginning is surprising, too, adding an irrelevant touch of soft-jazz romance to an already askew movie. --Robert Horton