Stranger from Venus

Helmut Dantine stars in the title role and sleepwalks from scene to scene looking like he's just had extensive back surgery. This film is basically a ham-handed ripoff of "Day The Earth Stood Still" and "The Cosmic Man" only not as good as either. The running time is padded out with endless shots of slow-moving cars interrupted occasionally by in- action in the plotline. The direction as well as the not-so-special effects is amateurish (look for the shadow of the boom mike in one scene)and the whole thing comes across as one big bore. In short, this is the kind of film one should show to a blind date if one wanted to get rid of him/her. Why Patricia Neal (who co-starred in the excel- lent "Day The Earth Stood Still") decided to star in this lifeless yawner is a mystery. "Stranger From Venus" makes "Devil Girl from Mars" play like "Ben-Hur". 'Nuff said.

Patricia Neal had recently turned her back on Hollywood for the New York stage and married Roald Dahl (with whom she settled in Buckinghamshire to raise a family) when she was offered this cheap, cheeky and stultifyingly humourless British rehash of 'The Day the Earth Stood'.

Helmut Dantine - like Michael Rennie in the original - performs Christ-like miracles like healing the sick and speaking in tongues; but like this film lacks a pulse. Instead of Bernard Herrmann's eerie theremin we occasionally get twee musical contributions from Eric Spear (later immortalised by the theme for 'Coronation Street'). The agreeable Hertfordshire exteriors compensate for director Burt Balaban's stilted interiors, and since it's only 76 minutes long you keep watching.

I'm always amazed at how emotion some people get. This movie (which few if any people have heard of) is a neat little slice of life thing. Once again Patricia Neal is paired up with an alien who looks more Aryan than Venutian. Once again, he holds the power to do great harm to the earth unless the military posturing stops. I guess this town is too big for the both of them. This is a gently done offering with few sparks or special effects. The point is that despite all he proves to them and the kindness of his actions, the people decide he needs to be destroyed. I don't put it quite in the same cinematic league with "Citizen Kane" and "Lawrence of Arabia" but it's no worse than hundreds of other films of the early 1950's. For those that consider it boring, I never lost interest in some rather neat characters who interact throughout. Please relax.

I found this slightly creaky old film engaging throughout. I really enjoyed the kind and gentle stranger and the genuine un-hysterical fascination for him by the locals. You must remember that this was set just after WWII when people in the British Isles were traumatised but jaded by all the things they had seen and been through.

I'm a huge fan of the brilliant 'The Day the Earth Stood Still' but I found a lot to like about this 'Alien-warning' short. No time is wasted and the story flows well to its tragic conclusion: Mankind can't be trusted to do the right thing!

It's obvious that the people making this film were trying to do a remake of the classic sci-fi film THE DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL only three years later. Not only is the plot very similar but it also stars Patricia Neal--the same lady who starred in the original film! Like THE DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL, this film is about an alien coming to our planet to deliver an ultimatum concerning our ill-advised use of nuclear weapons. Oddly, however, he lands in the middle of no where in England--probably because it's obviously they have no budget and couldn't set the film in London or any other big city. You hear about the military, but you only see a few assorted guys in rather generic uniforms with no fancy equipment.

Despite the many limitations due to budget, however, the film is still very entertaining--even if you've seen the superior prior film. I think part of it is because the alien, played by Helmut Dantine, seemed a lot more like an alien than Michael Rennie from THE DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL. This isn't saying Rennie was bad--just that Dantine offered a unique interpretation. The other thing I liked is that instead of the humans attacking by mistake, in this film the leaders from the UK are real jerks. Despite the Venusians coming with openness and peace, the officials responded with lies and a foolish attempt to steal their space ship!! As a result, this film takes an even more cynical view of human nature. In the original, humans were scared and a bit dumb. Here, they're just jerks! The final thing I loved about the film is that they didn't try too hard with the special effects. Other than a model of a space ship, the film has no bug-eyed alien or silly ray gun--just a dandy story.

So, despite being extremely derivative, the film still is entertaining thanks to good acting and a few interesting twists.

By the way, in a silly little scene, one "expert" said that Venus is "many light-years away from the Earth". No, dude, it isn't. A single light year is about 6 trillion miles. Venus is actually about 25 million miles. So, a light year is 240,000 times greater than the distance to Venus AND they said "many light-years"! I am surprised the writers didn't notice this discrepancy. Wow. I now feel like Mr. Wizard!