Stranger from Venus |
UK / USA • 1954 • 75m •
  • Directed by: Burt Balaban. • Starring: Patricia Neal, Helmut Dantine, Derek Bond, Cyril Luckham, Willoughby Gray, Marigold Russell, Arthur Young, Kenneth Edwards, David Garth, Stanley Van Beers, Nigel Green, Graham Stuart, John Le Mesurier. • Music by: Eric Spear.    Tonight, first contact will be made! A beautifully-crafted tale of a superior being from Venus who has the power of life and death at his touch. Academy Award-winning actress Patricia Neal's glowing and sensitive performance as a woman caught up in the biggest event in history is complemented by Helmut Dantine's powerful, moving portrayal as the Stranger. Suggested by events in the sci-fi classic ''The Day the Earth Stood Still,'' this film is a touching, humanizing and haunting story of ''first contact'' with a peaceful and advanced intelligence from another planet coming to Earth with an ultimatum and out-of-this-world powers to back it up.
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Review:
In the first place, the story definitely takes from The Day the Earth Stood Still, even to casting Neal in the part. Story-wise, there is a definite extreme sensitivity (or even paranoia) that is on display here that I regard as noir. The government isolates the area, prevents communication, refuses to invite in other nations as requested, is entirely suspicious even after Dantine shows extraordinary healing powers and also shows his superior powers personally to generate a protective force field around himself. The local doctor comments on how stupidly the government behaves, and that's even before it decides to attempt to bring down a messenger craft so that it can steal the technology of its flight mechanism. This risks the much more powerful mother ship cutting a hole in the atmosphere and directing destruction at the entire area in retaliation. The officials with whom Dantine comes in contact are bureaucratic, limited-thinking types, suspicious, and ready to double cross him. Although utter destruction is avoided, the story does not end happily for Dantine, and a question is left as to whether these earthlings will get their act together. Dantine has already told them they are not ready.
Flashing forward 59 years to the present, I certainly believe that nothing in the interim has demonstrated yet that we earthlings have gotten our act together yet. The story is as relevant for today as it was in that era.
Noir characters struggle against unknown forces. Harrison Ford struggles in Blade Runner on a path of self-discovery of who or what he is. Dantine struggles in a different way. He is offering bounty and scientific discovery, and instead he meets with the distrust, suspicion and scheming to take advantage that frequently brings down the human race. His communications device is stolen. The human beings cannot even respect his property rights. His struggle is against the human failure to cooperate. Also skewered is the blind obedience of underlings to what their government tells them and orders them to do. It is only when Derek Bond disobeys that total disaster is avoided.
One cannot look at 50s sci-fi and judge it by standards of today, or vice versa. A movie like this is clearly not geared to special effects. It has a message to convey through the story. In its own way, this movie stands on its own two feet by going in a different direction than "The Day the Earth Stood Still". This explores the paranoia and short-sightedness of a government faced with a stupendous event, a man from Venus with advanced knowledge. The ending does generate considerable suspense.
Review by msroz from the Internet Movie Database.
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