- Directed by Roger Corman
- Written by Charles B. Griffith, Mark Hanna
- Stars Paul Birch, Beverly Garland, Morgan Jones
- Run Time: 1 Hour, 7 Minutes
- Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Y_bRt7Wdyc
Spoiler-Free Judgment Zone
An alien lives among us, managing to blend in for the most part. But he’s not here as a tourist. He’s here for blood to save himself and his race, and it could be the end of Earth. It’s them or us – will he be found out and stopped in time?
Synopsis
A girl walks home from her date and is confronted by a strange man in sunglasses. She screams and passes out and the man drains her blood into a machine. The man has white eyes; wild guess, but I’d say he is “Not of this Earth.” Credits roll.
The man with the suitcase full of blood goes to the hospital for a transfusion. He says his name is Paul Johnson. He refuses to get a blood-type test. He cuts himself and says it will bleed later. Johnson hypnotizes Doctor Rochelle and forces him to keep his information secret. Johnson then hires Nurse Nadine as his personal nurse.
Johnson goes home and tells his servant Jeremy to prepare a room for Nadine. He puts several bottles of blood in the fridge. Johnson speaks in a stilted, uncomfortably formal accent. Nadine arrives, and he locks her in her bedroom. Nadine’s boyfriend Harry is a cop.
Johnson uses a communication device to “phone home” to his commander on the planet Davanna. He’s here to study humans and send blood home. There are several phases to the plan, and phase five is conquest, followed by obliteration of humanity.
A vacuum cleaner salesman comes to the door, and Johnson invites him in. After all, salesmen are full of blood. Johnson drains him dry and puts the body in his incinerator. He tells Jeremy to invite three homeless “bums” to dinner tonight.
Dr. Rochelle returns, and he has many questions about Johnson’s blood. His blood is different from any man on Earth. It’s breaking down, evaporating. The doctor thinks he can keep it from continuing with more research. Johnson is aware of all this, admitting that he will die if the process is not halted.
Jeremy brings the bums over as ordered and soon they end up drained and in the incinerator. The police are finding bodies with neck wounds, like a vampire. Jeremy notices that the bums came in, but they never left.
Johnson drinks a strange liquid instead of food. Nadine sneaks a sample to Dr. Rochelle to analyze, and it’s a perfect food substitute.
A woman comes through the portal from Davanna and gives Johnson bad news about the wars at home. She explains that they cannot go home; not only that, but she’ll die in four days without a transfusion. Johnson gives her canine blood. She passes out in front of Dr. Rochelle’s office; she soon dies from rabies. Harry is there too, and he thinks there’s a connection between her and Johnson.
Nadine and Jeremy search the house, looking for anything out of place. They stumble upon his communication and teleport machine. Jeremy finds skulls in the furnace. They come to the conclusion that Johnson is from another planet. Johnson is onto them and kills Jeremy. Nadine escapes.
Johnson regenerates a freeze-dried flying creature to assist him. The thing flies through the air and kills Dr. Rochelle. Johnson pursues Nadine through the park in his car. He catches up to her and commands her to go home and enter through the portal as a sample for Davanna.
Harry chases Johnson down the road; Johnson crashes his car and dies, breaking his control over Nadine just in time.
Commentary
Paul Birch, who played Johnson, quit halfway through the film. After about the 45-minute point you can see that he’s been replaced by a double in several dimly-lit scenes.
It starts out interestingly enough but quickly devolves into a chase through the woods. Without Paul Birch, they had to end the whole thing in an impersonal car crash, which was far too abrupt and over too quickly.