ALL SCI-FI

[Bud Brewster]

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Jerry Lewis plays Kreton, a visiting alien with a few unearthly powers at his disposal (telekinesis, mind control, and a personal force field). Think of Kreton as a kind of knuckle-headed Klaatu.

Earth culture gets a good razzing from Kreton when the curious alien encounters beatniks, a right-wing news commentator, an attractive Earth woman (Joan Blackman) and her jealous boyfriend (Earl Holliman of "Forbidden Planet").

The idea of an alien who won't let anyone disclose his identity (ala "Day the Earth Stood Still") is played to good comic advantage, especially when Kreton uses his long-distance powers of mind control to make newsman Fred Clark recite "Mary Had A Little Lamb" on live radio whenever he tries to blab Kreton's secret to the public.

Even non-fans of Lewis will find something to like about "Visit to a Small Planet". The special effects are by John P. Fulton (Paramount's ace effects artist), and the story was based on the play by Gore Vidal. The title theme is a true delight, a perfect combination of comedy-music and `50's-eerie-music. Directed by Norman Taurog.
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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)

[Pow]

I'm guessing that Vidal was thrilled with this movie version of his play.

[Bud Brewster]

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I tried to find a source that stated what Vidal thought of the movie, but I struck out. I guess if he public declared he hated it, we'd be able to find some evidence of that pretty easily. Maybe you'll be able to find something I missed.
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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)

[Krel.]

I haven't seen this movie since the 60s, but I did read VTASM back in Middle School, back in the 70s. It wasn't formatted as a play, it was a short story.

You can see the saucer model about the one minute mark, it is upside down. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jLd-GjFu15I

David.

[Robert (Butch) Day]

The model flipped to show correct orientation:



Scene from the original B&W movie:



Scene from the colorized movie:



Based upon this actual color publicity photo:


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Common Sense ISN'T Common

[Bud Brewster]

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Sorry, Butch, but this movie has not been colorized. In fact, it still hasn't been officially released on DVD!

Amazon has a region 2 version made in Spain, and there are some gray market versions available, but that's it.



That "scene from the colorized movie" is just a badly done job of painting colors onto the publicity still you posted directly below it. The "colorized" one has also been widened (very crudely) by pasting a flipped copy of the left side of the saucer onto the right to make it look like the entire saucer is shown.

So, somebody took this —



— and screwed around with it to make this —



— when what they were trying to do was (pause for modest cough) . . . this.



And as we can see from the screen grabs below, the publicity still differs greatly from the scene in the movie.




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

[orzel-w]

[Bud Brewster]

At the Amazon listing for this DVD, scroll down to Editorial Review, and the first sentence says, "Spain released, PAL/Region 0 DVD: it WILL NOT play on standard US DVD player."

That's what I based my statement on.
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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)

[Bud Brewster]

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Enjoy the moive from YouTube!

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______________________Visit to a Small Planet


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

[scotpens]

[Brent Gair]

From Kino Studio Classics:

Coming Soon!
First Time on DVD and Blu-ray!
Brand New 2017 HD Master!

Academy Award Nominee: Best Art Direction-Set Decoration (Black-and-White)

Visit to a Small Planet (1960) Starring Jerry Lewis, Joan Blackman, Earl Holliman, Fred Clark, John Williams, Jerome Cowan, Gale Gordon, Joe Turkel and Lee Patrick - Based on a Play by Gore Vidal (The Left Handed Gun) - Screenplay by Edmund Beloin (Donovan's Reef) and Henry Garson (Don't Give Up the Ship) - Shot by Oscar Winner Loyal Griggs (Shane) - Directed by Oscar Winner Norman Taurog (Boys Town)

[Pow]

From author Gene Warren

As science fiction became more profitable (if not respectable), it began to turn up in major studio films. Jerry Lewis took the plunge with Visit to a Small Planet.
However, the film is more fantasy than science fiction.

The basic idea is that aliens will (a) look just like us, (b) be curious about our strange emotion of love, and (c) work magic, being from outer space.
Kreton, the alien, might just as well have strolled in from fairyland as from another planet.

Gore Vidal is a sharp, observant satirist, and his play was primarily a satirical look at mankind's activities, seen as futile and silly.

Kreton was a lofty, arrogant and altogether superior sort, sarcastic and cynical. At the climax, it is revealed that Kreton is an alien child, despite his appearance; it is very Vidalesque to make this superior, threatening sophisticate a spoiled child, but one still superior to Earthlings.

The play was first presented on TV Playhouse, August 5, 1955, with Cyril Richard as the alien. (Supporting America's underlying suspicion that the British are our social superiors.) Vidal rewrote the work, and it was successfully staged for Broadway; Richard repeated as Kreton.

Paramount then altered it drastically to fit Jerry Lewis' antic, slapstick screen persona. Satire is turned into slapstick, and although the movie is slightly more cerebral than most Jerry Lewis films, it's still a vehicle for him.

Lewis can be a good comedian and, as King of Comedy showed, an outstanding dramatic actor as well. Unfortunately, Lewis is a tireless egocentric who insists on being involved in all phases of a production, even those he seems basically unqualified for, such as direction.

Here, it's pretty much Lewis business as usual. He mugs, shouts, bugs out his eyes, rushes around with his knees close together, and screams a good deal.

"Both Lewis and director Norman Taurog have made better integrated comedies than this one but the total result is a lot of fun," as reviewed by Jack Moffitt.

Sidebar: Like Bud, I'm not a big fan of Jerry Lewis. He generally comes off as an obnoxious, loud, in-your-face kind of comedian. I never liked the Martin & Lewis comedy team films at all where the adult Lewis plays characters that act nine years old. I find comics who act like children for laughs not funny at all. Sorry Red (Mean Widdle Kid) Skeleton, it didn't work for you either.

His solo efforts saw him act somewhat more adult than when he was Dean. Some of his movies can indeed be funny, others have wonderful comedic moments from him here and there.

He must be praised for his dedicated years of raising money for the MDA and his Labor Day Telefon.

However, off screen there are a tsunami of stories about how petty, jealous, vicious, nasty, demanding, and egocentric he was. Perhaps that seeps into my having trouble of truly enjoying his onscreen work. Maybe he just isn't my cup of tea.

By all accounts it was Lewis who destroyed his act with Dean Martin with his out-of-control raging ego and demands.
People who have worked with the duo found Martin a decent gent while Jerry could be intolerable.

I do enjoy a few of his movies and this is one of them. Warren sums up this film quite well.

Interesting how we see similar story elements from this movie also pop up on the Star Trek: TOS episode "The Squire of Gothos."

Kreton has been observing earth but mistakenly believes we're currently in the Civil War era and not the twentieth century.
Trelane's research of earth from his planet has him making a similar mistake as to precisely how advanced earth's civilization is, while Trelane is centuries behind with his observations.

Both Kreton & Trelane are child alien beings who possess tremendous power.

[Krel]

[ralfy]

Nice!

The beatnik scenes:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=smmfEEaMyHc

[Bud Brewster]

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That's one of the funniest scenes in the movie! Kreton plays the bongo drums from across the room, using telekinesis.

And I love the part in which the girl is singing nonsense "beatnik" lingo, and by a strange coincidence it just happens to be an alien language Kreton understands!

Furthermore, it tells a sad story which reduce Kreton to tears.
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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)