oscar-35 *Spoiler/plot- The Cosmic Man. 1959. An alien from another planet arrives on Earth in a glowing sphere. Mankind's experts differ in their response to this event. Military is fear driven expect the worst and scientists are benevolently curious. In the end, the alien is a messenger to earthlings.*Special Stars- John Carradine, Bruce Bennett, Angela Greene, Scotty Morrow, Lynn Osborne.*Theme- This dilemma is explored; Science for knowledge or science for power.*Trivia/location/goofs- B & W. Regular non-scientific grip lighting equip is placed around the alien sphere to measure it's sound properties. Bronson Caves in Gower Canyon is where the sphere lands. Goof: obvious microphone boom shadow movement on ground as AF Sargent enters mountain lodge looking for the maker of the loud footsteps.*Emotion- A wonderful 'slice of' 1950's Cold War psychology involving all controlling races from a more developed stars.*Based On- 1950's views on space and spaceflight. Plot is somewhat accounted for during the Cold War scare.

Coventry "The Cosmic Man" is a charming attempt to make a $5.00 version of "The Day the Earth Stood Still". It's an extremely low-budgeted Sci-Fi movie from the late fifties, so this generally means there are stern scientists talking a lot of pseudo-philosophical gibberish and asking themselves way too many rhetorical questions, villainous looking military men fantasizing about weapons of mass destruction and mysterious alien forces with minds that are immeasurably superior to ours. When a spherical UFO – a gigantic golf ball actually – is discovered in a small Californian canyon community, the army wants to nuke it and a local scientist wants to study it. Meanwhile, the alien passenger sneaks out of his interstellar golf ball and begins exploring the earthly habits, rites and inhabitants. This is where our cute and cheap little B-movie rips off "The Day the Earth Stood Still", in fact, as the alien witnesses the imbecility and self-destructive nature of the human race. How come aliens get such a kick out of observing how stupid we are? Like in a few hundred of the films he starred in, John Carradine receives top-billing even though he appears all together perhaps for a whole five minutes. "The Cosmic Man" is often rather dull and doesn't contain any real action, but it certainly has good intentions and an earnest supportive cast.

Chuck Straub It reminded me of "The Day The Earth Stood Still" but it wasn't as good. Not so scary creature and a very unusual spaceship. It has to be considered in the context of the times, which was the late 1950s. During it's day it probably was a good, scary Sci-Fi movie that gave the viewers nightmares after watching it. Over the years it's lost a lot of it's effectiveness. Consider that you are going to watch a 1959 movie. Things were different then. This movie should be considered a semi classic Sci-Fi, old fashioned drive in movie. It wasn't the best that came out of the 50s but I thought it was very enjoyable and a must see for any classic Sci-Fi viewer.

Eegah Guy Earnest but boring 50s sci-fi for John Carradine completists only. Borrowing ideas from DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL this film has ideas but forgets to add thrills to the mix. Carradine is only in the movie for maybe 5 minutes, and even then he's sometimes a black shadow giving lectures on the follies of man going into outer space. The film is an OK time-waster.