Movie Review: The Night Caller From Outer Space (1965)

The Night Caller, as it was known in the UK, (and its onscreen title on the DVD) is a low-budget British B movie that I repeatedly revisit. That’s partly due to the nostalgia factor. I first saw this as a schoolboy in the seventies, only being allowed to stay up late once a fortnight to watch horror films on TV. This reminds me of the excitement and antcipation I felt for horror films back then – they certainly weren’t as easily accessible as they are today.

But objectively, I feel it’s also worth recommending because…

• it’s shot in crisp black and white with a creepy use of shadows and dutch (slanted) angles when it gets crazy (this is before Adam  West’s Batman wore out the technique a year later);
• every actor in it is a star turn – from the leads to the supporting cast – all taking the invasion-from-outer-space plot deadly seriously, but realistically;
• it’s directed by John Gilling, who peaked here in the mid-sixties with the Hammer horror films Plague of the Zombies and The Reptile;
• a star cameo by Aubrey Morris as a creepy porn-merchant, flirting with the granite-faced detective (Alfred Burke), he coos, “Magic seeing you again”; Morris later played the abusive probation officer in A Clockwork Orange, and was similarly typecast for decades of his screen career;
• a rare bit part by Ballard Berkeley – the only other time I’ve seen him onscreen, besides playing The Major on the classic TV comedy Fawlty Towers.

The Night Caller From Outer Space starts with a UFO landing on wasteland just outside London. The army have been tracking it and bring in three scientists from a nearby government research facility. Convinced that it was a spacecraft, they are all surprised to discover a small sphere, the size of a football, sitting on the ground. There’s no crater, so it must have been guided down. They take it to their lab for further tests. 

Guarded by the army, the scientists discover that, late at night, the object glows intensely and a dark, clawed figure appears.

In the panic, the figure disappears with the sphere, as do dozens of young women a few weeks later. Thinking that they’re going for an exlusive modelling job in the heart of London’s seedy Soho, they don’t realise they’re meeting the monster from the lab. As the kidnappings continue, how can the scientists help the police stop the creature from space? 

Article Author: Maximillian

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