Woodyanders An alien (a fine performance by John Carradine) arrives on earth in a spherical spaceship. Is he here to help mankind or destroy us? Ramrod Colonel Matthews (nicely played to the stern hilt by Paul Langton) assumes the worst while kindly scientist Dr. Karl Sorenson (a sound and likable portrayal by Bruce Bennett) tries to protect the cosmic man.Director Herbert S. Greene relates the absorbing story at a steady pace, does a sturdy job of crafting an intriguing mysterious atmosphere, and maintains an appropriately earnest tone throughout. Arthur C. Pierce's intelligent script brings up a few interesting philosophical issues and provides a pointed critique of gung-ho paranoid military types. The sound acting from the capable cast rates as another major plus, with especially praiseworthy contributions from Angela Greene as cheery innkeeper Kathy Grant, Scotty Morrow as Kathy's sweet, yet sickly son Ken, and Herbert Lytton as the hard-nosed General Knowland. Moreover, the titular character makes neat use of Carradine's trademark deep booming voice. Both John F. Warren's sharp black and white cinematography and the spare moody score by Paul Sawtell and Bert Shefter are up to par. The special effects are pretty hokey by today's standards (for example, the cosmic man's spaceship looks like a giant golf ball!), but still do the trick just the same. A worthwhile science fiction outing.

kapelusznik18 ***SPOILERS*** Traveling at speeds of 180,000 MPH the Cosmic Man, John Carradine, lands on earth in what looks like an either giant beach or cue ball in the western desert of the USA. At first seen only in shadows the Cosmic Man later fills out and is almost, but not quite, human looking as if he has just been liberated from a Nazi concentration camp. What his mission on earth is isn't made clear only that he's looking for rock and soil samples for his planet that it needs to survive.It's Dr. Karl Sorenson, Bruce Bennett, who feels that Cosmo or Mr. Cosmic is of no harm to the US and only wants to get a chance to talk with the guy about the peaceful use of nuclear power. It was in fact Dr. Sorenson who was one of the inventors of the atomic bomb that in flattening Hiroshima & Nagasaki in WWII that killed upwards of 200,000 innocent human beings. With that guilt on his head Dr. Sorenson wants to make good use of nuclear power not have it used as a weapon of mass destruction like in was in WWII. But the US military has other ideas. They want to do in the what turns out to be peace loving and harmless Cosmic Man because they fear that he has the same destructive ideas as they do in using his knowledge of advance nuclear power to conquer not only the USA but the entire earth!Taking a brake while picking rock & soil samples Mr. Cosmic runs into the polio stricken 12 year old Kenny Grant,Scotty Morrow, whom he feels that with his advanced knowledge on medical science he can help to walk again. He also gets smitten by Kenny's mom Kathy ,Angela Greene, a Korean War widow who's had to see and confront the hard reality that her bright little boy will not ever walk again but has barely, due to his illness, a year left to live. ***SPOILERS*** With the US military determined to take Mr. Cosmic into custody and force him, by water-boarding if necessary, to tell them the secrets of the universe as well as advance nuclear energy, that they can use against the USSR Communist China and possibly Communist Cuba, they send from the Penatgon this warmongering crazed mad scientist, a former member of Hitler's medical experiment team, Dr. Ignots "Man Dog" Steinholtz, Hal Torey, to keep the Cosmic Man from taking off on his giant beach or cue ball for home. That mad and insane attempt by Dr. Steinholtz to destroy the man, the Cosmic Man, from outer space in fact proved to be his, in never being taken seriously by the US Government again, demise! After collecting the rock & soil samples he was after in a show of good faith Mr. Cosmic also cured little Kenny of his polio even without the use of the Salk or Sabin vaccine.

vawlkee_2000 Until today it's been 46 years since I've seen this film. As a child I didn't see the point and the social ramifications. Sure it's a "B" programmer and loosely based on "The Day the Earth Stood Still" but it has a wonderfully "cerebral" track to it!Bruce Bennett as the scientist works well. At 53 he was perfect for the part of a nuts and bolts guy with a soul! No bullshit romance stuff, just nuts and bolts! How many "B" sci-fi films of this era can make that claim!I found myself getting teary-eyed at the end when the usual gun crazy military stooges offed him. If only he'd had Gort!A surprisingly literate film with a lesson for all mankind. I highly recommend it!

Michael_Elliott Cosmic Man, The (1959) ** (out of 4) An alien (John Carradine) lands on Earth in what appears to be a large ping pong ball and tells us Americans how stupid we are and how the world will come to an end due to our dumbness. This is clearly a rip off of The Day the Earth Stood Still and it's poorly made but this leads to a few decent laughs. Carradine sleepwalks through his role, which isn't good considering this was a man who could make Billy the Kid vs. Dracula entertaining. The supporting cast are all rather bland and corny. This is far from a classic but it's enjoyable enough if you have 70-minutes to kill.