A feline from another planet makes an unscheduled stop on Earth. While the U.S. military ponders over his spacecraft and tries to determine if it's Russian (or otherwise) in origin, he makes contact with a bumbling, likeable, eccentric scientist (Ken Berry) and implores the human to help him with his spacecraft repairs. Meanwhile, a nefarious enemy agent (William Prince) is determined to unravel the secrets of the cats' powerful collar.
It's true that you can't be too hard on films like this. Although, as an adult, I found "The Cat from Outer Space" overlong and not always good at gaining momentum, it's still quite engaging family fare that the kids ought to enjoy. Certainly the talented cast makes it quite easy to watch: Sandy Duncan is cute as Berry's would-be love interest, McLean Stevenson a hoot as his sports-obsessed pal, Harry Morgan hilarious as a ramrod-straight Army general. There's a generous dose of familiar faces in the supporting cast, too: Roddy McDowall, Jesse White, Alan Young, Hans Conried, Ronnie Schell (who plays both Sergeant Duffy and the voice of Jake the cat), James Hampton, Howard Platt, etc. Berry is quite personable in the lead.
Overall, this is fairly mild as far as live-action Disney comedy goes, with not that many true laugh-out-loud moments, but again, kids are likely to be far less judgmental, and may very well take to most of the gags (there is one good laugh when we see Morgans' underwear); young and old alike will be endeared to the feline star, a very well trained animal indeed. The airborne finale is reasonably tense and exciting.
Sorrell "Boss Hogg" Booke appears unbilled at the conclusion, in his final feature film appearance.
Seven out of 10.
