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THE 27th DAY (1957)
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Gord Green
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PostPosted: Fri Mar 27, 2020 1:47 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

I do take some Umbridge with your conclusion, although I generaly agree with your overview of this film.

I think that Marie Tsien as Su Tan was THE highpoint of the film. All the rest was painted to allow her sacrifice to be the centerpoint of the film, and the hidden meaning of her sacrifice to be the HUMAN response...beyond political points of view, beyond all the ephemeral reasons we may come up with to explain the others responces….HERS was the most noble….the most HUMAN reaction....and therefore the most notable and remembered.

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Bud Brewster
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PostPosted: Fri Mar 27, 2020 8:27 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

________________________________

Thanks, Gord. I really shouldn't have said that about the debate. Now it sounds petty, and I've deleted the last remark. Embarassed

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Maurice
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PostPosted: Wed Apr 01, 2020 2:53 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Not going there again...
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filmdetective
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PostPosted: Wed Apr 01, 2020 1:31 pm    Post subject: Very Surprised Reply with quote

Bud, I have not seen the 27th day since 1971, but I thought it was a good film, and was both surprised and gratified to see that it was taken seriously, on this thread, and things were debated in such detail.

Everyone has their own ways of looking at things, and I am always open minded to listening and reading what they have to say when people are at variance over such things.

I thought the film was good, and took it seriously and it did make a considerable impression on me.

I distinctly remember the man from whatever planet he came to Earth from, introducing himself, by saying, "I am an alien . . from?" which I though was a bit odd.

You and any other board member can check this out
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Bud Brewster
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PostPosted: Wed Apr 01, 2020 6:23 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

___________________________________

The fine YouTube copy of this movies has the scene you referred to at the 6:30 mark. The alien introduces himself after the professor says this.

"Who are you?"

"Since I'm a stranger to each of you, perhaps it would be simplest to call me . . . The Alien."

"But where are you from?"

"The name of the planet I come from is unknown to you, one of many worlds in a nearby universe."

FD, you really should watch this movie again. It is, as you said, very good. The novel by John Mantley (who wrote the screenplay as well) clears up the misconceptions some folks have about the movie.

That's why I transcribed large sections of it for this thread during the spirited debate some of us had.
Very Happy
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filmdetective
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PostPosted: Wed Apr 01, 2020 10:30 pm    Post subject: More On Reply with quote

Bud, I will have a bit more to say about the 27th day, before I watch it again, whenever that might be.

I need to keep acquainting myself with All Sc'i-Fi.

I also read the thread on Red Planet Mars, which had some similarities and provoked similar debate to that over 27th day, as well as The Day The Earth Stood Still, and other films which might be said to have a "message".

And, I will comment on that film when the Right Time arrives.

Same with 2001: A Space Odyssey, and a lot of others.
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Bud Brewster
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PostPosted: Thu Apr 02, 2020 12:33 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

________________________________

FD, I don't think All Sci-Fi has ever had a member who seemed so devoted to thoroughly exploring the board! Cool

Perhaps I should send a message to the White House and suggest that Trump not only mandate a National Shelter At Home program but also encourage folks to visit All Sci-Fi to help them stay sane, healthy, and intellectually stimulated! Very Happy

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~ The Space Children (1958)
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filmdetective
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PostPosted: Thu Apr 02, 2020 2:45 pm    Post subject: John Baxter Reply with quote

Thanks for the post, Bud. With me, it's Any Way the Wind Blows.

Obviously, the threads with the least pages are the best starting point for me, and there are plenty of those pages.

One thing I like to do is quote people accurately, so I'll quote from Science Fiction In The Cinema, by John Baxter, second printing, October, 1974.

In Chapter 13, The Bomb, and After, Mr. Baxter discusses The 27th day (and having not read but two of the 100 + pages of this thread, this book could have well been mentioned before).

Mr. Baxter's discussion of the film is on pages 155-156,

" . . . The plot has echoes of that old war-horse The Most Dangerous Game, filmed as The Hounds of Zaroff in 1932 . . .

"Unfortunately the unlikely elements of Mantley's story are carried on in his script, the hardest to accept being the finale in which the capsules kill selectively all the world's villains.

" 'I know you'll find this hard to believe,' an announcer accurately remarks, 'but the capsules seem to have killed every enemy of human freedom.'

"One assumes it is only a coincidence that the President of the U.S.A. is not mentioned after this event."
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Bud Brewster
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PostPosted: Thu Apr 02, 2020 9:51 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

________________________________

I promise that you'll gain a much better understanding of the movie and the book if you'll read our thread. I transcribed large sections of the book, which I bought on eBay just to have the actual source to quote from first hand.

For example, the short scene of the humans aboard the ship in the movie is very different. The humans are given a hour to discuss whether or not they want to accept the capsules, and to decide the best way to keep them from being used by ANY government, since they're so dangerous.

The scene goes on for several pages, with the Russian soldier and the Chinese girl having an equal say in the matter. The five people make a pack to give up their lives if necessary to keep the capsules hidden for the twenty-seven days.

The movie didn't have time to include that part. I think Mantley did a fine job of abbreviating his fine story.

What I didn't quote was the latter part of the book which describes what the capsules do when they are actually used by the professor after he alters them, according to the directions engraved on them by the aliens.

Mantley had to simplify his concept considerable for the movie.

In the book, mankind's basic nature is drastically and beneficially changed in a manner which resembles a jump in evolution. We become more reasonable, less self-centered, and more than willing to work together for the good of mankind. We literally come to understand what we've been dong wrong for thousands of years.

The only people who died because of the capsules are the ones whose basic nature was so cruel and corrupt that the change was too drastic for them to endure. The whole concept is brilliantly presented and very inspiring.

It was not just a mass assassination of the "bad guys" that Americans don't like. I'm sure you'll find our discussion very interesting

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filmdetective
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PostPosted: Fri Apr 03, 2020 3:25 pm    Post subject: Thanks for the post Reply with quote

Thanks for the post, Bud. I will watch the 27th day again and give a lot of soul searching to what to say about it.

One time when i said to some guy, that I was going to do some soul searching, he replied, when you search your soul, what do you find?

Perfectly good question that we all need to ask ourselves, even if we don't call it soul searching.

Forry Ackerman, in the 37th edition of Midnight Marquee, among many SF enthusiasts, was asked for a statement about the heart and soul, of the genre, and replied, "as a secular humanist . . . I must confess to having no soul . . . "
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ralfy
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PostPosted: Sun Apr 26, 2020 10:01 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

In high resolution 1080p:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z9yYrO4M3aY
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Maurice
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PostPosted: Tue Apr 28, 2020 12:18 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Bud Brewster wrote:
The movie didn't have time to include that part. I think Mantley did a fine job of abbreviating his story.

Unless the screenwriter or director said as much, to say "The movie didn't have time to include that part," is pure speculation, and arguable as the film is only 75 minutes long.

A scene with all the main characters discussing would have been great, and addressed my longstanding objection that Su Tan is given no voice at all in the film.

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Pow
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PostPosted: Sat Dec 11, 2021 3:24 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

From the Bill Warren book: Keep Watching the Skies!

Despite being one of the most blatantly anticommunist film of the 1950s, The 27th Day is surprisingly intelligent and interesting, until the preposterously optimistic and naive conclusion.

It was apparently conceived as being something more special than the average, run-of-the-mill science fiction movie.

Furthermore, it is one of the very few SF films ever to be adapted from a contemporary science fiction novel.

But to feel that all possible harmful attitudes reside in the minds of only a few thousand people the world over is crude optimism.

Still, The 27th Day is about something even if it was blatant and naive about it.

Openly expressed political idealism and ideas were rare in these films, and offered few solutions---all at once the bad guys die and the good guys live---is unquestionable. It's rather conservative, but it is more literate and intelligent than most other SF films at the time.

Compared to 20 Million Miles to Earth, the movie it was released with, The 27th Day seemed to matinee audiences to be too cerebral and pokey.

By 1957, the science fiction movie as made for adults was almost dormant. Such films were, everyone "knew," intended only for children. Hollywood had strangled this particular golden-egg goose, and it would be years before anyone thought that science fiction movies could appeal to intelligent adults.

As a movie The 27th Day was actually pretty lively, and managed to generate a fair amount of tension by the climax.

The 27th Day has slipped almost totally into obscurity, from which it deserves to be rescued, if only for the amazing sociopolitical ideas that form its climax.
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Gord Green
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PostPosted: Sat Dec 11, 2021 10:03 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

POW WROTE:
Quote:
But to feel that all possible harmful attitudes reside in the minds of only a few thousand people the world over is crude optimism.

Still, The 27th Day is about something even if it was blatant and naive about it.

Looking at the movie as part of Cold War propaganda it is obvious that the story WAS idealized and not literal in it's message.

Right....EVERYBODY who is guilty of "Wrong Thinking" is eliminated. Who decides? That question is even more disturbing.

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Bud Brewster
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PostPosted: Sat Mar 25, 2023 2:20 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

________________________________

IMDB has 5 trivia items for this movie/series. Here’s a few of the ones I found the most interesting, in the blue text. Very Happy
________________________________

~ The glimpse given of the spacecraft reveals it to be from another Columbia release, Earth vs. the Flying Saucers (1956). The scene was also used in Flying Saucer Daffy (1958) and an episode of The Twilight Zone (1985).

Note from me: Not only did they borrow a shot of saucer from Harryhausen's movie, the used the same show twice — once when it zoomed away from the camera and shot upward, then in reverse when it dropped down and zoomed towards the camera.

~ The beach scene at which Eve Wingate is out with her original boyfriend, and later where she throws away the capsules, is the same location used by Columbia for the famous love scene between Burt Lancaster and Deborah Kerr in "From Here to Eternity."

Note from me: Ah-ha! So THAT'S who those two horny, waterlogged lovers were we get a brief glimpse of on the far right side in the widescreen version of this movie! Shocked

~ This was based on a novel by John Mantley. Mantley himself wrote the screenplay. This may explain why this film is regarded as more intelligent than most low budget science fiction films of that period.

Note from me: One really must read the novel to fully appreciate how intelligently he treated both the premise of the story and all the characters — especially the Chinese girl's brief but important role.

~ When the Soviet General and Prof. Beckner launch the capsules, the General gives the coordinates for Houston, Texas (29° 45' 26" N, 95° 21' W).

Beckner gives the coordinates for Moscow(55° 45' 18" N, 37° 37' 14" E).

Beckner is also heard giving partial coordinates for 45° 4' 23" N and 12' 12" E but the degrees are missing.

When the US tests one of the "bombs," it is supposed to take place in an area more that three thousand miles in diameter off the east coast of South America. The test capsule is activated with the coordinates 71° 25' 13" S, 150° 14' 18" E which is instead in Antarctica.


Note from me: I admire the person who research these facts! And he revealed more than just the fact that the two men targeted the actuat places they were supposed to, according to the story. In the movie, the capsule was tested in the Pacific — but in screenwriter/author John Mantley's novel, the capsule was indeed test in Antarctica!

Obviously Mr. Mantley snuck in this sly reference to one difference between his novel and his screenplay. Very Happy

~ The unusual looking sports car that Eve's boyfriend is seen standing near in the opening scenes on the beach is a 1954 Arnolt Bristol Competition.

Note from me: Wow, Eve had a rich boyfriend! Very Happy






However, I'm not that impressed with his skills as an artists. Rolling Eyes






The YouTube version below was uploaded three months ago, and the picture quality is flawless! Furthermore, the aspect ratio is 16.9 rather than the 4:3 I posted a link to on page 3 of this thread!

It's the same one that Ralfy shared the link for at the bottom of page 3. (Thanks, Ralfy! Cool


____ The 27th Day (1957) Sci-Fi Full Length Movie


__________

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