Jeanskynebu the audience applauded

SnoReptilePlenty Memorable, crazy movie

FuzzyTagz If the ambition is to provide two hours of instantly forgettable, popcorn-munching escapism, it succeeds.

Rosie Searle It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

Panamint Some careful thought and preparation is evident in this production but overall it is made in a non-dynamic manner, very deliberate and you might say too slow. The direction seems primitive. Once this director sets his camera for a scene it is seemingly planted in concrete- it ain't gonna move. In some scenes maybe coffee or caffeine would have helped the director. Military personnel just stand around, and even scenes beside a Monet-esque lily pond are flat and unromantic.The British actors are really good, especially the grey haired doctor and young Willoughby Gray who portrays "Gretchen". Helmut Dantine is very focused and is riveting in the lead role. In contrast, Patricia Neal looks as if she would rather be somewhere else and is not effective in her role. The music is mostly of the orchestrated "English pastoral" style popular in the early to mid 20th century but other than providing a classy sound is not lively enough for a sci-fi film. There is a huge early-50's Packard auto that is loaded with chrome and very noticeable but is thoroughly ugly- its too bad because the earlier post-WWII Packard designs were generally more elegant and graceful. I always enjoy looking for mid-century ambiance and trappings in films from the era such as I found in this movie.Some interesting science can be found here such as a proposed landing in a magnetic field area and concepts of interplanetary gravitation.An advanced being lectures us on how stupid and crude we are in routine fashion that has been done in films numerous times before and since, so this aspect of the theme seems rather redundant.

Hitchcoc I'm always amazed at how emotion some people get. This movie (which few if any people have heard of) is a neat little slice of life thing. Once again Patricia Neal is paired up with an alien who looks more Aryan than Venutian. Once again, he holds the power to do great harm to the earth unless the military posturing stops. I guess this town is too big for the both of them. This is a gently done offering with few sparks or special effects. The point is that despite all he proves to them and the kindness of his actions, the people decide he needs to be destroyed. I don't put it quite in the same cinematic league with "Citizen Kane" and "Lawrence of Arabia" but it's no worse than hundreds of other films of the early 1950's. For those that consider it boring, I never lost interest in some rather neat characters who interact throughout. Please relax.

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!

Michael_Elliott Stranger from Venus (1954) * (out of 4) An incredibly bad rip off of The Day the Earth Stood Still, this one here also starring Patricia Neal. An alien lands in a small British town where he tries to warn people and show them his healing powers. This British film isn't ashamed in how much it rips from the Robert Wise classic as we get scenes, which appear the same and even some of the dialogue is the same. Even stranger is that the producer's of this got Neal to pretty much play the same part. It's a real shame that they didn't try to do more with the story because it's just too dry to be entertaining. The Wise film had a number of rips but this one here doesn't have the camp value as something like John Carradine's The Cosmic Man. The performances are all rather bland and that includes Neal who must have known this film wasn't offering much.