Ordinary Lady From Outer Space

This week is, of course, Halloween - probably my favourite holiday of the year (with the possible exception of National Bubble Wrap Appreciation Day, but that's another story). 

This Thursday I want to show an appropriate Halloween film, as has become a tradition for these weekly film nights, so I am proud to present the most terrifying Ordinary Lady you will ever encounter (and, no, I don't mean Liz Truss, so stop sniggering in the back).


Admit it: you just googled National Bubble Wrap Appreciation Day, didn't you?

The mid-Twentieth Century was an era of paranoia. Politically, American society was whipping itself into a frenzy over an imagined Communist plot to overthrow the US Government, but a general fear of unseen threat was more widespread than the specific "Reds Under the Beds" scare. For many people (especially people of a certain age) everything about the society they used to know seemed to be in flux, and it was easy for them to imagine that they were somehow "under siege". 

In a sense, of course, they were under siege. Society really was changing, quite rapidly. In the UK, post-war immigration was bringing large numbers of new cultures, new languages and new faces into British Society. In the US, the Civil Rights movement was gaining traction, and lots of American citizens were demanding the right to be treated like - you know - citizens.

The Women's Rights movement and the Gay Rights movement were making a lot of noise, and it was becoming increasingly clear that being a heterosexual white man was not quite the automatic ticket to the front of the queue that it used to be - or at least it might not be for much longer. (Just how much longer is a question that has yet to be answered.)

If you were one of those aforementioned Heterosexual White Men, it sometimes felt as if the "threats" were coming in from every direction, and there was an increasing sense - at least in some quarters - that everyone who Didn't Look Like You was (or at least might be) The Enemy.

In Popular Culture, this was the era of the Monstrous Other.



They Look Just Like Us...

The Monstrous Other is an idea that has long been a favourite amongst politicians who want to make you, the voter, afraid of some specific sub-section of society (Jews, Immigrants, Communists, Welfare Mothers, fill-in-the-blank). These people (so they will tell you) are not like you. They don't think like you, they don't feel like you, and they want to take everything you love away from you. 

But (and this is the really scary part) they live among you. 


In the 1950s, the US Government spent a great deal of time and money teaching everyone to be afraid of "secret Communists" who were making our movies, teaching our children, marrying our daughters etc. but who were almost impossible to detect until it was too late.

Not coincidentally, the genre films of that era were full of alien invaders who look just like us, but were actually strange, malevolent beings sent here to conquer our brains out.

This Thursday's Ordinary Lady is just such a being.


The Unearthly Stranger is a 1964 British film about a talented rocket scientist (played by a young John Neville) who has been working on the problem of interstellar travel. While on holiday, he has had a whirlwind romance with (and subsequently married) a mysterious and beautiful young woman (Gabriella Licudi) who, it becomes apparent, is not all she appears to be. Actually, if you've just read the first part of this page (and the title of the movie) she is exactly what she appears to be, but it takes John Neville a little while to notice that.



While this film is hardly unique among the "Silent Invader" films of the mid-Century, it is surprisingly effective, with some genuinely creepy moments and an ending that absolutely sets it apart from many of its brethren. Or, as I suppose I should say when talking about this particular film, its sistren. (I'll explain later.)

We will be screening this spooky Halloween offering at 7.30 on Thursday, the 27th of October at the Victoria Park Baptist Church.

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