The 27th Day

This movie is an underrated gem that has been overlooked by science fiction buffs. The 27th day rates with such films as: The Day The Earth Stood Still and The Thing From Another World. This movie was too cerebral for its' time. It examines the possibility of a superior life form, from another galaxy, providing mankind the power to obliterate life or to salvage life from our planet. The handling of this subject is done with intelligence, a good cast and a decent script.

The movie portrays the constant struggle between good and evil. In this case, with the paranoia of the cold war, the Russians are the ones who seek world domination. All in all a good movie to watch and enjoy. An 8 out of 10!!

The underlying premiss of this film is quite interesting. Five people are kidnapped by a vastly superior alien race and each given a potentially toxic capsule. These capsules can only be opened upon the command of the owner, but if they ever are then mankind is doomed to eradication. The five are from different nations and all walks of life and once the alien announces to the assembled world the identities of the group, their lives become frantic and unsafe - a predicament they must endure for twenty-seven days if they are to save the population from certain death! Arnold Moss does his best "Klaatu" impersonation as the visitor and William Asher offers us a considered story about how ordinary people - and their governments - might react in such weighty circumstances. Gene Barry leads a rather unimpressive cast, however, and that really lets this decent story down somewhat. He wasn't very good at the best of times, and here neither he nor Valerie French's "Eve" do justice to the intrigue of the plot. The ending, even after a few viewings, is a bit disappointing - but the whole concept makes this well worth watching.

27th Day, The (1957)

*** (out of 4)

There were dozens and dozens of science fiction movies released throughout the 1950's and for everyone like THE DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL you got at least ten "Z" movies like PLAN 9 FROM OUTER SPACE. The movie here seems to be forgotten even by the biggest sci-fi fans. I had personally never heard of the film, which is saying quite a bit because of the amount I read on various message boards. When sci-fi films were mentioned this one here never came up and that's a shame because it's a real gem. The film has an alien from a dying planet giving capsules to five people. These capsules have the power to destroy life on Earth, which would give the aliens a place to move. The humans can determine their fate but sure enough there are some bad people who want to use the capsules for their own gain even though they don't fully understand their power. During the decade people in this country were afraid of aliens from space and anything dealing with the Cold War so this movie combines both and makes a very entertaining movie out of it. There's really not too much "action" that goes on here and the monsters don't have four eyes or green bodies. Instead the monsters are pretty much certain humans who want to do bad in the world. The way the film makes this capsules so important and powerful was a nice move but so is the pay off at the end. The very final thing in the movie is a tad bit too preachy but the message is still there. Gene Barry, Valerie French, George Voskovec and Stefan Schnabel add nice performances as well. When people think of sci-fi from the 1950's it's doubtful they'll think of this movie but it's a real shame because here's a gem that needs to be rediscovered.

One of those 1950s sci-fi movies that plays out as a kind of morality play. Five people from all over the planet are taken on a UFO and provided with a mega-weapon as a kind of experiment to find out if mankind will destroy itself in a month. When they're returned, each adopts a different method to cope with their newfound powers. Inevitably this soon adopts a Cold War bent and builds to a climax with incredible - not to mention eyebrow-raising - implications. This reminded me of a TWILIGHT ZONE story.

An alien ship picks up five different people from the five super powers of the world. There he gives each a device that only they can open. Each device contains three vials that have the power to annihilate every human being on Earth. The aliens are a dying race from a dying planet, and even though they can and will not destroy mankind on earth, they will speed up the process of seeing whether mankind will destroy itself. How long is the experiment of seeing whether these five will survive and live without opening the vials? 27 days. This is a thought-provoking film about the nature of man more than anything. The underlying point behind the film is that mankind needs to rise from its child-like state of fighting and killing itself over seemingly petty issues. The aliens act merely as referees watching and waiting to see if the Soviet Union will destroy North America or vice versa. Now, the film definitely has an anti-communist slant(not that there is anything wrong with that)but admonishes all negativity, power hunger, and perniciousness in humankind worldwide. Director Will Asher does a fine job setting up the pace of the story and creating tension. The script, even though very weak in some areas, is quite interesting and full of thoughtful insights. Gene Barry plays the American representative and is good as a cynic. The rest of the cast is also very good with George Voskovec as a German scientist and Stephan Schnabel as a Soviet general standing out. Arnold Moss is the alien and he certainly makes his screen presence memorable. A good film. After watching I kept wondering what I would do if given the same circumstances, and I must confess I am so very happy that that burden lies not on my shoulders! Take some time to see The 27th Day and enjoy!