What We Saw
The autopsy subject is a humanoid biped, hairless from head to toe, lying prone on its back on a table. No external genitalia are visible, but a vertical crease below the pubis suggests a vulva. (On television, digital manipulation blurred the creature’s pubic area.) There is no visible navel. The corpse appears pale or chalky, with a head that is large relative to the body. Ears, nose, and jaw are small. The face is dominated by oversized black eyes. The eyes are open at the film’s outset, and remain so. The forearms are somewhat longer, relative to the body, than is standard for humans. Each hand and foot has six fingers and toes.
The belly is distended, and the right knee and thigh are marked by evidence of trauma and dramatic tissue loss Radiation or anticontamination suits, with headpieces, disguise the primary human participants. Two people are usually in the room, while a third, wearing a surgical mask, observes from behind a window that, apparently, opens onto a corridor adjacent to the autopsy room. (Because the film stock is overexposed, some critics have erroneously placed the observer inside the room.) A black, rotary phone hugs a wall behind the autopsy table. A microphone, to take the surgeons’ remarks, hangs from the ceiling. (Although skeptics claimed that the vintage phone and mic are too modern for 1947, the specific models of both implements had been in use by the early 1940s.)