The colorful psychedelic intro during the opening credits of "They Came From Beyond Space" suggest something rather unusual might be about to happen, while the first appearance of scientist Lee Mason (Jennifer Jayne) and her foot tall red haired bouffant 'do definitely got my attention. And why are we intrigued by the fact that Dr. Curtis Temple has a silver plate in his head?

Temple (Robert Hutton) is an expert on extraterrestrial life, though I'm a bit confused on how one earns that designation, since there are no extraterrestrials around to study. He's been summoned to examine a meteor crash that has landed in Cornwall in perfect V formation, but he's denied by his superior because he's still recovering from an accident some time earlier, hence the aforementioned brain armor. Bodiless intelligent life forms take over Temple's colleagues, and create a "crimson plague" to disable other humans who are then held in a deep freeze until they can be transported to the aliens' stronghold on the moon, where they're held to construct another ship to transport the beings to their home planet. Still with me?

The movie see saws it's way back and forth with Temple alternately a captive of the aliens and then an aggressor, as he eventually figures out that his silver plate prevents his mind from being overcome. You just know that the answer to defeating the bad guys is to fashion a helmet out of a set of silverware so his buddy can protect himself, along with a cosmic ray gun they're able to scrounge up along the way.

Eventually we're introduced to Master of the Moon Zon, who's tale of woe gets Temple's attention - all they want is to get back to their home planet where they can die in peace. In his best 'All you had to do was ask' sincerity, Temple offers Earth's assistance and the foes shake on it to bring this story to an abrupt conclusion.

1967 seems a bit late to have films like this still being made; done in the 1950's in black and white might have given it more of a campy flavor. Still, it's not a bad diversion for it's eighty five minute run time if you're willing to give it a go. You'll have to supply your own laughs along the way though, as the film takes itself a bit more seriously than necessary.

This movie is passable at best. It has an interesting plot: some aliens are trying to find a way to survive by building a base on earth. They are seen as hostile because, for heaven's sake they take over people's brains and use them to construct their stuff. A scientist who has had brain surgery and has a silver plate in his head, is immune to this. Later, a buddy of his puts a colander on his head with a silver plate and is able to infiltrate the "evil forces." Along the way, our hero, who suffered his initial brain damage in a car accident, drives around in a classic roadster (he must be trying not to be conspicuous) which he is always parking somewhere and setting the hand brake. He flies in the faces of the aliens who seem to tolerate him a lot more than they should. His girlfriend, who finished in third place in the Lucille Ball look-alike contest is a scientist who is carrying the soul of an alien around with her. There is so much coming and going, we never quite understand what the heck they're doing. Only that they seem to make frequent trips to the moon. The ending is full of emotion and good will and, yes, overacting. Captain Kirk would have been proud. Sometimes you see a film that has a good skeleton plot and with a few bucks and a little imagination, it could have been OK. What is lacks is the human element.

This film begins with a very strange phenomenon. A group of apparent meteorites land IN FORMATION on the Earth! Obviously, there is some intelligence behind this. But, when researchers try chipping a piece off the stones, an alien spirit flies from the rocks and takes over the bodies of these people—and others cannot initially see that they have possessed these poor souls as they appear " normal. However, considering how weird these possessed people soon behave, it's apparent to some that something is seriously wrong.

When a doctor goes to investigate what happened to the researchers, he finds that the entire town appears to be possessed. While they don't kill him, he is threatened, attacked and tossed out of town. Later, he finds a government agent who believes his account---and soon that guy falls down—dead with a plague-like disease that killed him almost instantly! When the Doctor tries to go back to the town, again and again the townsfolk threaten him with bodily harm and tell him that what they are doing is for the good of mankind! Considering they already appeared to have killed a man, have possessed many people and are building SOMETHING in this town, their explanation seems hard to accept! Pretty soon, the entire town seems like a giant prison camp and NOTHING is going to be allowed inside.

So, it's now up to an unlikely hero—a supposedly medically unfit middle-aged man to save the planet---or at least break in and see what they're up to. He sure doesn't look like Rambo or one of the Dirty Dozen, but amazingly this old guy sure kicks butt! In many ways, the plot is rather reminiscent of INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS as well as VILLAGE OF THE DAMNED (the original—not the crappy remake). The film abounds with menace from another planet but unlike INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS, it's less clear that the aliens are actually evil or at least completely evil. It also bears some similarity to two episodes of the original "Star Trek" series—the one where almost god-like beings occupy the bodies of three of the Enterprise crew ("Return to Tomorrow") as well as the one where very powerful beings from Andromeda commandeer the ship ("By Any Other Name). Now this is odd, because these two episodes appeared only two weeks apart in 1968. Perhaps, and I have no way of knowing this, but perhaps the people who made these two episodes were inspired by IT CAME FROM BEYOND SPACE—the plots are just so very similar.

Regardless, the movie is exceptional despite its low rating of 4.0. The plot idea and simplicity of the film is to be admired—showing good sci-fi does not need to cost a fortune or have amazing special effects. Interesting and well worth seeing—I wonder, though, why such a good film is now in the public domain.