Steering clear of the horror genre for much of the 50s, financial necessity finally beckoned John Carradine in 1956 with "The Black Sleep," "The Incredible Petrified World," and "The Unearthly." His tremendous output combining both movies and television nearly reached 500 credits, but his identification as a horror star didn't truly take hold until the mid-60s, after which he received fewer parts in straight films. As a starring vehicle 1958's "The Cosmic Man"" hardly taxes his considerable abilities, little screen time as a micro budget Klaatu, his rather small spherical spaceship sitting in Bronson Canyon as his mostly invisible presence is occasionally seen in dark silhouette peeking through windows or solving complex scientific equations for the benefit of Bruce Bennett's insufferable scientist. Finally appearing in corporeal form he takes a room at a small inn, befriends the crippled son of the widowed owner, and in doing so somehow cures the boy of his terminal illness. This sadly does not exempt him from being a target for the unthinking military, yet he and his ship disappear into the ether even as Bennett assures us he'll be back some day. Viewers familiar with 1951's "The Day the Earth Stood Still" would find this a rather difficult sit, the central character off screen most of the running time, so Carradine wasn't granted the opportunities that made Michael Rennie's visitor such an engaging, sympathetic figure. And boy does this cloying kid make one miss Billy Gray! This was the first screenplay cranked out by Arthur C. Pierce, who followed on with more low budget efforts like "Beyond the Time Barrier," "Women of the Prehistoric Planet," "Dimension 5," Michael Rennie's "Cyborg 2087," and even Carradine's Jerry Warren fiasco "Invasion of the Animal People."
Review of The Cosmic Man
