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Stranger from Venus (1954 England)

 
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Bud Brewster
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PostPosted: Mon Apr 06, 2015 7:09 pm    Post subject: Stranger from Venus (1954 England) Reply with quote




Shortly after a UFO is sighted by RAF pilots over England, a strange man enters a local pub and announces that he is an emissary from Venus.

Patrica Neal ("The Day the Earth Stood Still") arrives a short time later and tells the locals that her car crashed — but that all her injuries have been miraculously healed.

When the authorities come to question the Venusian, he demonstrates his ability to read minds and speak all of Earth's languages. The alien explains that his race wants to share its technology with mankind and help them avoid atomic destruction.

But some of the government officials secretly arrange an ambush for the saucer (which is scheduled to arrive in a few days) hoping to steal the very technology that the Venusians have offered to give us!

"Stranger from Venus" is often called a low-budget remake of "The Day the Earth Stood Still", an easy comparison since it stars Patricia Neal in a role very similar to the one she played in the 1951 classic, and since the alien's message of peace is somewhat like Klaatu's.

But "Stranger from Venus" contains no special effects other than a few poorly done shots of the approaching flying saucers during the climax. No saucer is shown during the opening scene when Patricia Neal's car crashes, just aerial shots of the English countryside, accompanied by a high-pitched sound.

Helmut Dantine does a fair job of portraying the alien, though not nearly so well as Michael Rennie.

All in all, "Stranger from Venus" is not highly recommended. Directed by Burt Balaban.

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Last edited by Bud Brewster on Tue Mar 03, 2020 10:26 am; edited 3 times in total
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alltare
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PostPosted: Sun Mar 27, 2016 9:34 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

This one might be a good discussion topic for a Friday chat.

I bought the DVD several years ago, but have only watched it once. I don't recall much about it, except that is was uninteresting enough that I haven't been in a hurry to see it again. Your post has prompted me to move it up to the top of my "to watch" stack, so I'll probably see it again in a week or two.
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Bud Brewster
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PostPosted: Mon Mar 28, 2016 8:37 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

________________________________

I was perhaps too kind to the movie in my review above, which was written back in the 1990s as part of a personal project to find info about science fiction movies and try my hand at writing reviews.

Back then we didn't have things like Wikipedia and IMDB which can provide tons of info about every movie imaginable. Summarizing a plot and providing production credits is completely unnecessary, and I don't do that any more.

If I started a thread for this movie today, I'd talk about the first time I saw it in the 1980s with friends, and how we laughed at the director's strange habit of shooting characters delivering lines with their backs to the camera from two feet away, so that all we saw was the head and shoulders from directly behind. Or the closeups of tires on a car as it drove away.

What in the world was this man thinking?

Anyway, when you watch Stranger from Venus please be ready for a lesson in how NOT to make a science fiction film. You can't even say the movie is so-bad-it's good. It's more like it's so-dull-it's-DOA.

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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)


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Robert (Butch) Day
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PostPosted: Sun May 15, 2016 8:30 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Burt Balaban was also the nephew of Elmer Balaban, the father of actor Bob Balaban!
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Gord Green
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PostPosted: Wed Aug 31, 2016 7:06 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Another 50's Brit flick that really wasn't about much and nothing happens, but I learned what British pubs were like!
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Bud Brewster
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PostPosted: Fri Aug 04, 2017 10:17 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

alltare wrote:
I bought the DVD several years ago, but have only watched it once. I don't recall much about it, except that is was uninteresting enough that I haven't been in a hurry to see it again. Your post has prompted me to move it up to the top of my "to watch" stack, so I'll probably see it again in a week or two.

Well, it's been over a year since you made the above comment, Steve, and I was wondering if you ever watched Stranger From Venus. If you did, what did you think of it the second time around?
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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)
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alltare
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PostPosted: Fri Aug 04, 2017 7:41 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Bud Brewster wrote:
alltare wrote:
I bought the DVD several years ago, but have only watched it once. I don't recall much about it, except that is was uninteresting enough that I haven't been in a hurry to see it again. Your post has prompted me to move it up to the top of my "to watch" stack, so I'll probably see it again in a week or two.

Well, it's been over a year since you made the above comment, Steve, and I was wondering if you ever watched Stranger From Venus. If you did, what did you think of it the second time around?

I did watch it again shortly after my last message. To put it briefly, rather than watching the DVD again, I would prefer to have back the $10 or $15 that I spent for it.
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Gord Green
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PostPosted: Fri Aug 04, 2017 8:41 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

This movie would have made a decent 1/2 hour TWILIGHT ZONE episode, but extended to over an hour makes it much ado about very little!
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Bud Brewster
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PostPosted: Thu Jan 04, 2024 12:21 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

___________________________________

IMDB only has five items for this movie, none of which are very interesting . . . except this one. I admire the careful research the author did to learn all the facts in the item below.
___________________________________

The setting of this film is somewhat mysterious. It appears to be England, but the radio has American voices instead of British ones. Both the doctor and the barmaid have very English accents, but middle-European names. The police wear uniforms suggestive of eastern Europe (and carry revolvers in a holster). A politician is described as "Secretary of the Interior", a post which does not exist in the British government. There is a reference to "the President", rather than the Prime Minister, and the inn where much of the action takes place seems halfway between an English pub and an Austrian gasthaus.

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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)
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