MovieChat Forums > The Man from Planet X (1951) Discussion > Earliest use of a non-human humanoid?

Earliest use of a non-human humanoid?


There were earlier movies depicting aliens, but making no attempt to look or act different than a human (Flash Gordon, Superman, etc).

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As I remember the first chapter of the serial Flash Gordon's Trip To Mars (1938) begins as Flash Gordon & Co. return to Earth to a hero's welcome and everything seems fine.

Then a teleportation beam strikes Earth and two nonhuman humanoid aliens materialize on Earth. They insert a device in the ground, activate it, and die. Watching from Mars, Azura Queen of magic says they have just seen the deaths of two of her most loyal subjects, and with his usual degree of empathy Ming the Merciless says that is a small price to pay for the destruction of Earth.

You can watch the chapter online to decide if those two aliens are non human enough to qualify. And Queen Azura also transforms human-looking Martians who displease her into clay people who look a lot less human.

So maybe the first movie with nonhuman humanoid aliens is Flash Gordon's Trip To Mars (1938), if it has any aliens nonhuman enough, and if a movie serial counts as a movie.

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George Méliès' A Trip to the Moon from 1902, known as the first sc-fi movie, features the selenites - humanoid, played by humans but with insectoid features.

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Here is a link to a discussion, including a image of Selenites:

https://alchetron.com/A-Trip-to-the-Moon

And here is a like to a still showing Selenites, including the Grand Lunar, from The First Men in the Moon J (1919):

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_First_Men_in_the_Moon_(1919_film)#/media/File:The_First_Men_in_the_Moon_(1919).jpg

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The genie in the 1940 "Thief of Bagdad" is Humanoid non-human.

Of course he's not an alien, he's either from Earth or some astral plane that isnt another planet. But you didnt say "alien".

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