The Unearthly is an American science fiction film of the horror subgenre. It was directed and co-produced by Russian filmmaker Boris Petroff and written by Jane Mann and John D.F. Black. It was produced by Republic Pictures and released theatrically in the United States on June 28th, 1957. The film stars John Carradine, Myron Healy, Allison Hayes, Marylyn Buferd, Arthur Batanides, Sally Todd and Tor Johnson. The premise of the film focuses on Doctor Charles Conway (Carradine), a mad scientist who runs a mental institute and tries to increase the longevity of human test subjects by cultivating a synthetic gland into their skulls. As with most such experiments, the process fails and Conway's patients rise as psychopathic mutants.
The concept behind The Unearthly is liberally borrowed from Edward Wood, Jr.'s 1955 flop Bride of the Monster, both of which feature Tor Johnson cast as a character named Lobo.
This is the second sci-fi film by Russian filmmaker Boris Petroff, but the first one that he has directed. He was producer and screenwriter on Norman Dawn's monster mash-up Two Lost Worlds. Petroff is credited as Brooke L. Peters in this film.
First professional writing work for John D.F. Black. He is credited as Geoffrey Dennis in this movie. John will go on to write scripts for ten episodes of Star Trek and two episodes of Star Trek: The Next Generation.
