The Strange World of Planet X, Never Mess with Mother Nature

Fans of "F Troop" can never get enough of Forrest Tucker. The Crawling Eye still goes down as one of the best B movies ever made.1958, the same year this Forrest Tucker film hit the silver screen, another, lesser known, Tucker horror film premiered, "The Strange World of Planet X." Again, everyone's favorite "F Troop" star, will be faced with marauding creatures bent on destroying our planet.

Meeting at the pub

The brilliant, and as it turns out, mad scientist Dr. Laird (Alec Mango) has created a machine that changes magnetic forces. Gil (Tucker) is his trusty assistant and the two of them seem unable to fine tune it enough to master this feat.  After some electrical accidents, Michele (Gaby Andre) is sent to help them out. The government begins to believe, correctly, that Laird is a loon and desires to shut him down. Meanwhile UFOs begin appearing all over England and tidal waves start taking out the British navy. Are these related to Laird's experiments? As the lovely French Michele and Gil fall in love, Laird makes breakthroughs that begin to play havoc with Earth's magnetic field.

The monsters attack

As UFO activity and more tidal waves occur, people in the local town begin going mad and some manifest radiation burns. Uh oh, a mysterious visitor named Smith (Martin Benson) arrives asking lots of questions about Dr. Laird. Now men in the town are going mad and homicidal, and something horrifying lurks in the nearby woods. Meanwhile Gil and Michele kiss and go to the pub a lot, and Dr. Laird begins to ramp up his experiments which could have lasting consequences on the planet Earth.

Michele in much distress

The first 50 minutes of "The Strange World of Planet X" may come across as a standard man fooling with nature sermon. Stick with it, however, as the final 20 minutes will treat you to a man versus monster war with a surprising amount of gore. As many fall, and many damsels are put in much distress, will Gil be able to continue to romance Michele? Will Michele be eaten by giant bugs? Must Dr. Laird be allowed to continue his experiments? This British horror/scifi B movie is perfect for a rainy Saturday afternoon for those of you longing for Creature Feature to come back.