The Venusian

...as the British attempt to duplicate The Day The Earth Stood Still.

Patricia Neal plays the lead, but mostly appears as window-dressing. The alien looks like Helmut Dantine. In fact, he is Helmut Dantine. For the first fifteen minutes, we only get to see the back of his head. Unfortunately, at some point he turns around. He wears the same expression on his face throughout the entire film. I couldn't tell if it was boredom or disdain, both of which I felt watching his performance. It's hard to believe that men from Venus speak with Austrian accents - then again, it was hard to believe Arnold Schwarzenegger playing Hercules.

Dantine lands in the British countryside, although we don't get to see his ship. Neal has an accident and he miraculously heals her. He also heals a guy with a limp. Dantine strolls into the first bar/inn he sees and orders something to drink. We discover he does not like beer, but he loves water. He wears what look like jogging pants and some kind of pullover jacket. Fortunately, he is not wearing a spacesuit. I shudder to think of Helmut in a helmet.

Dantine is here to confer with our world leaders about, you guessed it, atomic energy. Of course, that's why he picked a farmhouse in which to stay. Meanwhile, two more ships are on the way to pick him up.

Neal's fiance, played by Derek Bond, is a bit of a pain, kind of like the Hugh Marlowe character in Day, just not as good-looking and not as obnoxious. The rest of the cast just go through the motions. Look for Nigel Green in one of his earliest screen roles.

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!

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.

Stranger From Venus is a nice little film, but really has not much to recommend it. Obviously it is adapted/stolen from the Robert Wise classic, The Day The Earth Stood Still and even has Patricia Neal as well as the female star. But even for a fifties science fiction film, there is a serious lack of special effects...especially in comparison with the other movie. The few shots of the Venusian spacecrafts look to be very childishly done and do not mesh well at all with the other footage.

This film is one of the precursors of the wave of excellent British science fiction that was heralded in by Terrence Fisher, Val Guest and the rise of Hammer Films. The script for Stranger From Venus does have some of eloquence of the films to come, but the ideas just don't gel properly.

When first considering to watch this film I expected it to be very bad. The title seemed cheesy, it was made 40 years ago. Also I had viewed other online reviews and on average it didnt seem favorable.

This being said I am a fan of older sci fi and horror films. I found the acting, rather subtle compared to the cheesy performances I was imagining. I found that the film displayed the best traits of the 40 year old sci fi movies I had seen in the past. Such traits like the fun playful whimsy while still gladly lacking exaggerated attempts to shock or scare unnecessarily. The thing I like about these old movies is that they are fun, light and at the best of time thoughtful without being preachy.

I would agree that this film may lose points for lack of originality in parts. This being said the critics scored this film a lot poorer than it deserved. Part of the problem is that we just dont have a large number of people who have seen the film to give an accurate depiction of what the average person who likes old movies would feel about it.

I must finally say that it is not an all time classic must see film. This being said, if you like older sci fi and are looking for some light fun with the subject matter, "stranger from venus" is a decent watch for you. I feel it deserves at least 7 stars and I found it a relaxing and enjoyable sci fi story.