Last night we found a sci-fi, "Stranger from Venus"(1954), that Wiki says is a low-budget remake of "The Day the Earth Stood Still". After watching, I had thought it was an imitation, or "in the mold of" as opposed to a remake, but it's easy to see why they say that: both films star Patricia Neal, and both have a handsome alien who arrives on Earth via spaceship to warn humans about the folly of atomic weapons. Unfortunately, while "Stranger" is good in places, and features an excellent lead alien in Helmut Dantine, it could be subtitled "The Day the Movie Stood Still" because it's ultra-slowwww. It runs 74 minutes but needs twenty cut out. Lemme give you the basics: it begins with people calling in UFO reports in a small English village. The lights of the ship blind Patricia Neal while she's driving, causing her to crash. She appears to be dead in the wreckage, but then a strange man arrives at the scene. Meanwhile, in the village, at an Inn, the owner and his daughter are serving a few regulars when the strange man enters. We only see him from behind. He orders a beer but then says he doesn't like the taste. The owner's daughter, who works as the Inn's waitress, remarks to her father that the chap seems weird and they keep an eye on him but he just sits there. Then, a local bursts in to say that "Susan North has been in an accident!". "Susan" is Pat Neal. Then the strange man speaks up, telling the patrons not to worry. "She was dead but I revived her." They look at him like he's crazy, but then Susan walks in, proving what he's told them. She remembers nothing of the accident, and feels fine.
The Inn's owner is now suspicious of the man, and the other locals think he's a kook and possibly dangerous. A doctor in the joint takes his pulse and finds none. "Either I'm drunk or you're dead," he says. That's when the man announces he's from Venus, and when they finally accept that he is a Venusian - after the cops try to arrest him and he repels them with a force field - he is brought before some politicians and military officials, at his request, to lay the lowdown on them of what he is doing on Earth: "I came to issue a warning, that you are endangering our planet with your foolish testing of atomic weapons. The mothership from my planet is coming to pick me up, but before I leave I am instructed to implore you against their further use, or we will have no choice but to destroy you." It's basically the same spiel Michael Rennie gave, but this guy didn't bring a bigass, laser beam shootin' robot with him.
During the interludes, which really slow the flick down, he falls in love with Patricia Neal by a beautiful British MGM Studios lake, strewn with lily pads. There, he tells her his secret; that he can only breathe Earth's atmosphere temporarily. If he stays too long he will die and simply vanish.
Of course, the generals and politicians plan to trap the Venusian mothership when it arrives, by pulling it down with giant magnets. Silly humans, always antagonistic. But the alien can read minds, and he tells them "you just want to back engineer our ship so you can make one and dominate your own planet." He warns them again against such foolhardy plans, but being Veddy Britttttttisshh, they won't listen. No one is gonna out-stra-teeger-ize the Brits, not even Big Eyed Beans from Venus. Or Helmut Dantine.
Finally, one scientist develops a conscience before it's too late. A punchout ensues, and Dantine calls the mothership off, just before the magnets pull it to the ground, at which point it woulda blown The Whole Shebang to smithereens. By calling off the ship, Dantine is now trapped on Earth and will soon lose his ability to breathe, but he's noble and cool with his decision, knowing that he sacrificed himself for the greater good of the solar system. It is good stuff if you can handle the glacial pace, so let's give it Two Big Thumbs Up. Dantine holds the screen, reading newspapers aloud in six languages. There's also a lot of interesting physics discussed (magnetic lines of force) and philosophical constructs, but the director didn't inject much energy and so, man is it ever slow. You've really gotta hang in there cause it has a good script, but at times it just drags with it's head down. Bottom line, it's recommended. The picture is wide screen and razor sharp. ////
No movie the previous night, but we did start a new chapter serial from Republic Pictures, called "S.O.S. Coast Guard"(1937), chosen mainly because we're in search of Halloween material and it stars Bela Lugosi as a Mad Scientist who's invented a gas that disintegrates whatever it comes in contact with. The gas holds the promise of Vorld Domination!, but Lugosi is more interested in cash. He's negotiating, through a Veddy Britttish spokesman, from a yacht that's anchored past the twelve-mile limit, to sell the gas to the highest bidding nation. So far, a joint called Morovania is winning the bid. The Coast Guard intercepts one of the yacht's radio calls, and "Lieutenant Terry Kent" (Ralph Byrd) is sent out to detain it and whoever is aboard. At the time, they don't know it's Lugosi. He and his Captain see the Coast Guard approaching and make a run for it. They board a cargo ship with all of his henchmen aboard, but a schtorm front is opening up at sea. The (non) tiny ship is tossed. If not for the courage of the fearless crew, Lugosi would be lost.
As it is, the Coast Guard ironically comes to their rescue, again not realising a gang of criminals are aboard. They zip-line Lugosi across battering waves to the shore, but there, a sailor recognises him as the infamous "Boroff", Mad Scientist and disintegrator gas inventor. He runs down the beach and gets away, after shooting the guy who recognised him.
Once again in hiding, this time at a Los Angeles mansion, Lugosi (or Boroff if you prefer) and "Thorg", his zombified hulk of a right-hand man (Richard Alexander), who Lugosi has lobotomised, make plans for Thorg to swim out to the shipwreck to recover the supply of arnatite, the rare element that creates the gas. Thorg swims there, he's built like a defensive end, and after securing the crate with the arnatite, he takes an axe and starts chopping away at the wounded ship's mooring lines, which are the only things keeping it from sinking. Chapter One ends as the ship does indeed sink, with Lieutenant Kent and reporter "Jean Norman" (Maxine Doyle) trapped below deck. They, too are looking for the arnatitie gas element, and it looks like they're about to go down with the ship. But then Thorg sees them in the rapidly rising water and a Major League Punchout ensues. MLPs always account for at least two minutes of screen time in any given chapter in a serial. But we're off to a good start with this one, woodentcha say? We recently finished two others, "The Phantom of the Air" (which starred Tom Tyler and had the best aerial stunts I've ever seen in a movie) and "Jungle Girl", which was also excellent and featured, in addition to Frances Gifford and Tom Neal, our old pal Gerald "Less Is" Mohr. Remember him?
Well anyway, that's all I know for tonight. The John Lennon novel by Jude Southerland Kessler is fascinating, because she recreates (from conversations with his relatives) anecdotes and real-life interactions from John's childhood, which we've never known much about. She's an excellent writer, and now I wanna read her other Lennon books (she wrote a trilogy) but they're all out of print and selling for outregisphilbin prices, and the Libe only has this first one. I'll keep looking, though. My blogging music tonight is "Ummagumma" by Pink Floyd. It's okay, definitely a product of it's time, but not my favorite period of the band. My late night is Richard Strauss's opera "Electra." I hope your week is going well and I send you Tons of Love as always. xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo :):)
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