JohnHowardReid SYNOPSIS: A Venusian books a room at a British country inn. NOTES: Movie debut of Marigold Russell.COMMENT: The first of six minor movies directed by Burt Balaban, this is probably the best-thanks chiefly to a superior group of players who work wonders with a heavy-on-clichés, light-on-ideas script that was obviously inspired by The Day the Earth Stood Still. Oddly, Miss Neal (so superb in Day the Earth...) is not so impressive here as she is forced to struggle against the opposing forces of a flimsy screenplay and too heavily indulgent direction. Helmut Dantine as the aggressive Venusian scores more forcefully, but the audience's real interest is constantly deflected to the minor characters, particularly the lovely Marigold Russell, quietly forceful Cyril Luckham (in only his second film appearance) as the doctor, and Nigel Green (one of my favorite stars) who brings such expertise to his small role as a policeman, he almost makes the film worth seeing on his account alone. Production values are definitely second-drawer, but credits come over as competent enough. Kenneth Talbot's cinematography has its attractive moments, and Eric Spear has contributed a suitably romantic musical theme.OTHER VIEWS: Despite all her indulgent close-ups, Hollywood import Patricia Neal is none too flatteringly photographed. It's attractive newcomer Marigold Russell who walks away with the film's acting honors (though 37-year-old Willoughby Gray, who made a career playing older men, seems too young to be her father. The director should have had enough sense to change this relationship to "brother"). Writers Jacoby and Leslie present some mildly interesting ideas here and there, but there's a lot of obvious padding to build up the parts of the two principals and listless Derek Bond proves a liability rather than an asset in his "other man" role.

mark.waltz Yes, there is a stranger from Venus, played by the dashing Helmut Dantine. He indicates that Venus is the earthly name for his planet, preparing for the arrival of others from his home. He warns that earth itself is like the unruly younger brother which needs to be disciplined and educated in the dangers of the progression of nuclear power and other energies. All interesting to read about in a science fiction short story, and already explored in much better science fiction films, most obviously "The Day the Earth Stood Still". The presence of Patricia Neal adds to the obvious connection between the two films, but a good majority of the film is just chat, constant and boring.Is this supposed to be a science fiction analogy of what the world is doing wrong in its attempts to keep peace? If so, it never goes past what could have been explained in a 10 minute educational short, adding a romance in between Neal and Dantine. Best known for his roles as Nazi soldiers in propaganda films of World War II, he gives a very good performance, passionate in an otherwise lifeless film. Neal, with her strong eye expressions, is hard to resist, but her presence only explodes the idea of why this has failed to be nearly as stunning as "The Day the Earth Stood Still". The rest of the cast is rounded out with some of England's finest character performers, but the laziness of an un-intriguing film takes away any real impact that it could have had. Desperate attempts to bring in some last minute suspense seems to be too little, too late.

lemon_magic If you sucked all the grandeur and excitement and great acting out of "The Day The Earth Stood Still", you'd essentially end up with "Devil Girl From Mars", are you with me? (Or just take out the big budget and you'd have the "Quatermass" serials...still really good.) Now, take "Devil Girl" (or Quatermass) and remove the special effects, the cool costumes, the sense of menace, and the action scenes. Throw in Patricia O'Neal, but make sure she sleepwalks though her part. Potentially fairly awful, but someone like Theodore Sturgeon could still do something very interesting with it.Now carefully stage each and every scene and exchange of dialog so that it drags on endlessly. Dose the results with Dramamine, and you've got something like this movie, a talky, static, dull little set piece that thinks it's being classy and cerebral, but really just marches in place without doing anything of interest. I realize that even in British cinema, they can't all be gems...but it always surprises me when a Brit film studio releases something like this.

MartinHafer 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!