The $1.98 movie

One of the lowest-budget genre of movies in Hollywood history would have to be the "B" science fiction movies of the early 1950s. One of the lowest-budget directors would have to be Edgar G. Ulmer. What do you get when you combine the two? The surprisingly watchable The Man From Planet X, overnight tonight at 1:30 AM ET on TCM.

Astronomers have spotted an asteroid that's going to make a close pass of earth, and have determined that when it makes that close pass, the observatory best sited to view the asteroid is one on an isolated Scottish island. A reporter who's engaged to the daughter of an astronomer hears about this, and sets off to that island. It turns out, however, that it might not be an asteroid, but a spaceship from another planet -- and an alien from that planet has landed on their little island! Needless to say, strange things start happening....

This movie has all the hallmarks of both the schlockly scifi movies of the era, as well as the budget-saving stereotypes. The alien looks like, well, what you'd expect an alien of that era to look like. He's got a ray gun, and two of the scientists clash over whether they should try to understand the alien, or destroy him before he can cause too much harm to the people of Planet Earth. As far as saving money goes, Ulmer presumably had the movie set on the moors of a Scottish island because it would be a place with a lot of fog. Use a fog machine, and the fog obscures everything else on the set -- or more accurately, the fact there there's nothing on the set! Ulmer also reused sets from a recently-completed version of Joan of Arc.

Overall, The Man From Planet X isn't great, but it's no worse than a lot of the other scifi movies being released in the early 1950s. That having been said, it's not quite up to the level of an Ulmer movie like Detour. As long as you know what you're getting into, though, it's a lot of fun.