Not wanting to be left out of the giant bug craze that was infesting American theatres, British film makers conjured up "The Strange World of Planet X" (released in the US as "Cosmic Monsters") in which scientists messing with magnetic fields disrupt the ionosphere and allow cosmic rays to penetrate to the Earth's surface with deadly results. Taking a page from "The Day the Earth Stood Still" (1951), a messenger from the stars, complete with Klingonesque mustachios, arrives to warn us of our impending doom if we keep messing around with the unmessable. True to his prediction, the cosmic radiation generates voraciously hungry giant bugs as well as turns the local ne'er-do-well into murderous lunatic. It's up to heroic scientist Gil Graham (Forrest Tucker of "F Troop" fame) to stop obsessive scientist Dr. Laird (Alec Mango) before he destroys the world. The movie features great misogynic wisecracks about women scientists for viewers who delight in taking offence at such things, the typically high-quality acting one associates with British accents (Tucker, playing a Canadian is OK as well), and a cerebral, if plodding, story. Unfortunately the special effects are pretty limp - mostly macroshots of insects, worms etc (with a salamander thrown in for good measure) back-dropping a superimposed screaming or fainting woman (unexpectedly, there is one grim shot of a soldier getting his face eaten that is pretty good). The ending, although not spectacular, is satisfying although no mention is made of the massive outbreak of cancers that the National Health should expecting in the area over the next couple of decades. The movie is somewhat smarter that its American contemporaries ('The Deadly Mantis', 'The Black Scorpion', 'Tarantula', 'Them', etc) but not nearly as entertaining.
