 |
ALL SCI-FI
The place to “find your people.”
|
| View previous topic :: View next topic |
| Author |
Message |
Bud Brewster
Galactic Fleet Admiral (site admin)
Joined: 14 Dec 2013
Posts: 17637
Location: North Carolina
|
 Posted: Sun Nov 24, 2024 6:01 pm Post subject: |
 |
|
________________________________
IMDB has several interesting trivia items for this production. 
________________________________
~ Gore Vidal, who wrote the original play, was extremely upset with the choice of Jerry Lewis as the lead in the movie version. On Broadway Vidal's play ran for 388 performances between Feb 7, 1957-Jan 11, 1958 and won Cyril Ritchard, originator of the Kreton character, a 1957 Tony Award nomination for Best Actor in Play.
However, Lewis was a star, 12 times named to the Top Ten list of Box Office Stars, six times with partner Dean Martin (with whom he was the top star of 1952), and six times solo (ranking as high as #3 in 1958). He got the part.
Note from me: I'm not a fan of any Jerry Lewis movie . . . except this one.
~ Producer Hal B. Wallis considered either Lewis, Alec Guinness or Danny Kaye for the lead role.
Note from me: I can't imagine either of those two fine actors in this wacky role instead of Jerry — unless the script was completely rewritten in some manner which I can't really visualize.
~ Prior to its successful Broadway run, "Visit To A Small Planet" was first aired as a television play on May 8, 1955. The stage play opened on Broadway February 7, 1957 at the Booth Theater, where it ran for 388 performances.
Note from me: I couldn't find a YouTube copy of the play, but they do have the movie itself.
________________Visit to a Small Planet 1960
__________ 
~ Gore Vidal claimed that producer Hal Wallis had assured him that the film would star David Niven as the extra-terrestrial visitor, but it was Jerry Lewis who played the part.
Note from me: David Niven . . . as Kreton? Seriously? 
_________________
____________
Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958) |
|
| Back to top |
|
 |
Maurice
Starship Navigator
Joined: 14 Dec 2013
Posts: 542
Location: 3rd Rock
|
| Posted: Sun Dec 01, 2024 9:55 pm Post subject: |
|
|
From Daily Variety Wed., Feb. 3, 1960, p.3
This replicates the original formatting.
| Quote: |
Film Review
Visit To A Small Planet
(Sci Fi Comedy)
Paramount release of a Hal Wallis production. Stars Jerry Lewis; costars Joan Blackman, Earl Holliman, Fred Clark; with John Williams, Jerome Cowan, Gale Cordon, Lee Patrick; introducing Barbara Lawson. Directed by Norman Taurog. Screenplay, Edmund Beloin and Henry Garson, based on the play by Gore Vidal; camera. Loyal Griggs; art direction, Hal Pereira and Walter Tyler; set decoration, Sam Comer and Arthur Krams; assistant director, D. Michael Moore: editor, Frank Bracht: sound, Gene Merritt and Charles Grenzbach; music, Leigh Harline. Previewed at the Loyola Theatre, Jan. 15, 1960. Running time: 85 mins.
Paramount's "Visit To a Small Planet," a watered-down film version of a celestial Broadway romp by Gore Vidal, wraps up the 10year association of producer Hal Wallis and Jerry Lewis. During that decade the pair has come up with 13 straight financial winners, and "Visit" should make it a clean sweep.
The play, which starred Cyril Ritchard as the frisky spaceman, understandably has been altered for Lewis. But writers Edmund Beloin and Henry Garson, or whoever dictated the changes, gave neither the screenplay nor the star a fair shake. Vidal's original has a good deal of thoughtful commentary on the stupidity of war, hidden adeptly behind a facade of farce. The picture tries, with only moderate success, to replace that commentary and, indeed, the core of the play with a poor stab at romance.
As Kreton, the spaceman from X-47 who goes AWOL to Earth. Lewis keeps the farce moving within the limits of its weakened story. But he's up to much more, showing in rare spots that he can be as vigorous as he is carefree. Lewis indicates that, if given meaty comedy role to sink his teeth into, he'd come up with a strong, sure bite. Still, as Jerry Lewis the sympathetic clown, he turns in a good, laugh-evoking performance. And director Norman Taurog fires up a rocket of comedy through the hero's ability to make cars fly, cameras pop and animals talk.
The film opens somewhere in the clouds, with Kreton playing the Peck's Bad Boy of extra-gallactic [sic] space. He hops to Earth in a flying saucer to observe all that is human and winds up in the home of a befuddled television commentator who has just reported to America: "Flying saucers? There jest ain't no sech animal."
Kreton, whose planetary existence is devoid of pain and sex, has a field day on Earth, peeking in on the love-making of the commentator's daughter and her harebrained boyfriend. In fact, he becomes so absorbed with it all, his space leader, looking down from above, lifts his powers and lets him be human for a spell. At that point, Kreton finds what pain and love and jealousy are all about, and realizes how mixed up Earth really is. He hops aboard a return flying saucer without a fuss.
In support of Lewis, Joan Blackman, as the daughter, makes a lovable, engaging female. Earl Holliman, as her boyfriend, adeptly projects his light mentality, and Fred Clark, as the TV commentator, is very good in an alternately settled and upset role.
Rounding out the cast in top performances are John Williams as the space leader, Gale Gordon as an anxious Civil Defense watcher, Lee Patrick as the TV commentator's wife, and Jerome Cowan as a Madison Avenue executive. In a beatnik sequence, which finds the beat generation looking its kookiest best, Barbara Lawson dances up a storm with Lewis.
Wallis' production is technically excellent, particularly Loyal Griggs' black-and-white photography, aided by John P. Fulton's special effects and Farciot Edouart's process work. Top benefits are art direction by Hal Pereira and Walter Tyler, set decoration by Sam Comer and Arthur Krams, editing by Frank Bracht, sound by Gene Merritt and Charles Grenzbach and spacial music by Leigh Harline.
Ron |
_________________
* * *
"The absence of limitations is the enemy of art."
― Orson Welles
Last edited by Maurice on Wed Dec 04, 2024 12:10 am; edited 5 times in total |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Bud Brewster
Galactic Fleet Admiral (site admin)
Joined: 14 Dec 2013
Posts: 17637
Location: North Carolina
|
| Posted: Mon Dec 02, 2024 4:27 pm Post subject: |
|
|
_____________________________________________
What a wonderful review of this sc-fi comedy. Thanks for sharing it with us, Maurice. Where do you find this gem?
Could you please provide a link?
Thanks!
_________________
____________
Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958) |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Maurice
Starship Navigator
Joined: 14 Dec 2013
Posts: 542
Location: 3rd Rock
|
| Posted: Mon Dec 02, 2024 4:53 pm Post subject: |
|
|
| Bud Brewster wrote: | ~ Producer Hal B. Wallis considered either Lewis, Alec Guinness or Danny Kaye for the lead role.
Note from me: I can't imagine either of those two fine actors in this wacky role instead of Jerry — unless the script was completely rewritten in some manner which I can't really visualize.
~ Prior to its successful Broadway run, "Visit To A Small Planet" was first aired as a television play on May 8, 1955. The stage play opened on Broadway February 7, 1957 at the Booth Theater, where it ran for 388 performances.
~ Gore Vidal claimed that producer Hal Wallis had assured him that the film would star David Niven as the extra-terrestrial visitor, but it was Jerry Lewis who played the part.
Note from me: David Niven . . . as Kreton? Seriously? |
By all reports the source TV play and Broadway play were very very different than the film. The thing was heavily rewritten to be tailored to Lewis.
Here's a writeup on the TV version aired on Goodyear Playhouse in early May, 1955:
| Quote: | SOURCE LINK There's a photo of the Cyril Ritchard on it.
'Small Planet' Made Punctures In Current American Attitudes
By John Crosby
SATIRE, as George Kaufman used to say is what closes Saturday night. It's a difficult business, satire, and it has to be extremely well done to come off at all. Gore Vidal's "Visit To A Small Planet" on Goodyear Playhouse Sunday night passed the test with great wit and style, though.
In fact, a good many of Mr. Vidal's thrusts at our current American attitudes were so sharp and pungent that I'm a little surprised that it got on the air at all. "Visit To A Small Planet" is the story of a visitor from outer space dropping in on a stuffy TV news commentator and his family. The visitor, marvelously played by that fine English actor Cyril Ritchard, is garbed in Nineteenth Century costume under the mistaken assumption that he is arriving in 1860, which for some reason is his favorite year.
Right from the outset, Mr. Ritchard treats his unwilling hosts-the commentator, his wife, daughter, daughter's suitor, and eventually the United States Army—much as Margaret Mead views a South Sea Islander. In short, as savages. "Everyone travels in space,” he tells them gaily, “But no one wants to visit you.” I know of no actor who can make condescension so charming as Ritchard.
When he says a line like: “None of my people would dream of invading you," the earth and its people become a mighty unattractive place. It is Mr. Vidal's conceit that the people from outer space, far from wanting to conquer the earth, can't stay far enough away from it. His own interest, says Ritchard cheerily, is entirely eccentric. This gives him an opportunity to throw some mighty sharp barbs as some contemporary beliefs. When the Army starts quizzing the space visitor about whether he’s a spy, Mr. Ritchard remarks brightly: “Isn't that interesting—that wonderfully primitive assumption that every visitor is hostile.”
Satiric fantasy of this sort is mighty hard to sustain on a single level throughout, and I won't pretend that Mr. Vidal managed it altogether successfully. There were moments when Mr. Vidal's sermon got a little ponderous and when the space visitor started to stir up a religious war to liven things—they didn't have wars where he came from—I got very nervous that Mr. Vidal had gone overboard.
Fortunately, a little man in a white coat (or the space equivalent of such a thing) came along and led Mr. Ritchard away, explaining that he wasn't supposed to be messing around with the destiny of the earth and the play ended on the light note on which it started.
It was in the main a very gay romp with some wonderfully witty lines. I specially like Mr. Ritchard, when asked whether he came from Mars, remarking: "No one lives on Mars-at least no one I know." Even Ritchard playing with a couple of toy airplanes with an expression of manic glee is a pretty funny sight. This remarkable actor graced our screens as Captain Hook in "Peter Pan" and did wonderfully well in it. I do hope we see more of him.
It was not all his show, however. The whole cast—Edward Andrews as the news commentator, Jill Kraft as his daughter, Alan Reed as a pouter pigeon of an army general, and even in a very small part Bruce Kirby as the general's aide—were all splendid and, what is even rarer, very well cast for their parts. The director who got the most of this nonsense was Jack Smight. |
Ritchard played Captain Hook opposite Mary Martin's Peter Pan in the 1955 TV airing of that play.
_________________
* * *
"The absence of limitations is the enemy of art."
― Orson Welles
Last edited by Maurice on Mon Dec 02, 2024 6:43 pm; edited 3 times in total |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Maurice
Starship Navigator
Joined: 14 Dec 2013
Posts: 542
Location: 3rd Rock
|
| Posted: Mon Dec 02, 2024 4:55 pm Post subject: |
|
|
| Bud Brewster wrote: | What a wonderful review of this sc-fi comedy. Thanks for sharing it with us, Maurice. Where do you find this gem?
Could you please provide a link?
Thanks! |
Variety Archive. It's a paid service. Unless you have an account you can't see it.
_________________
* * *
"The absence of limitations is the enemy of art."
― Orson Welles |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Pow
Galactic Ambassador
Joined: 27 Sep 2014
Posts: 3739
Location: New York
|
| Posted: Mon Dec 02, 2024 11:41 pm Post subject: |
|
|
| Thanks so much, Maurice, for these fun reviews of this film. Had no idea that Goodyear Playhouse produced a TV version of it. Be interesting to see it because it's much closer to Gore Vidal's play than the Lewis film. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Maurice
Starship Navigator
Joined: 14 Dec 2013
Posts: 542
Location: 3rd Rock
|
| Posted: Tue Dec 03, 2024 8:28 am Post subject: |
|
|
Bud, why are posts being reformatted to max size? I deliberately try to format these reviews to replicate the look of the original post, and if everything gets set to max size then there's no way to make larger headlines or headings.
_________________
* * *
"The absence of limitations is the enemy of art."
― Orson Welles |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Bud Brewster
Galactic Fleet Admiral (site admin)
Joined: 14 Dec 2013
Posts: 17637
Location: North Carolina
|
| Posted: Tue Dec 03, 2024 4:19 pm Post subject: |
|
|
_____________________________________________
I apologize for changing the font size, Maurice. Please let me explain why I did it. The reason is because my vision is deteriorating so fast that my prescription glasses can't keep up with it. 
Add to this the fact that I have macular degeneration in my right eye (which, unfortunately is my "dominate eye"), and this makes it even harder to read the posts on All Sci-Fi.
FYI: The treatment for this condition is an injection into that eye every six weeks to slow the progression. Sadly, it can't be cure . . . it can't even be stopped. The progression can only be slowly down.
Because of this vision problem, many of our members have granted my request to make their post's font size 22. That used to be enough — but now I even have trouble reading posts which are that size!
However, Maurice, the good news is the 24 is not the maximum size!
You can make the portions of the text in your posts which you want to be larger than the rest any font size up to 29!
Here's an example of text size 29.
Sir, I applaud your efforts to format your posts in a dramatic manner! Please continue to do so. And you can use the font sizes which are even larger than 24 whenever you deem them appropriate. 
_________________
____________
Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958) |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Maurice
Starship Navigator
Joined: 14 Dec 2013
Posts: 542
Location: 3rd Rock
|
| Posted: Wed Dec 04, 2024 12:08 am Post subject: |
|
|
Bud. Ah, that explains it!
Apologies if I'm telling you things you already know, but have you looked into low-vision accessibility options, like this for PCs and this for Macs?
In a pinch, you can also use the zoom function in a browser to make everything bigger (e.g. Ctrl + to zoom in, Ctrl - to zoom out, and Ctrl 0 to go back to the default size).
_________________
* * *
"The absence of limitations is the enemy of art."
― Orson Welles |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Bud Brewster
Galactic Fleet Admiral (site admin)
Joined: 14 Dec 2013
Posts: 17637
Location: North Carolina
|
| Posted: Wed Dec 04, 2024 12:06 pm Post subject: |
|
|
_____________________________________________
Thanks for understanding, Maurice.
As for zooming in, I do that often on jepgs I want to study closely just by pressing CTRL and using the wheel on the mouse.
But as we both know, when you do that to make text larger it makes the right side of the display go off the screen, cutting off the text before the line break.
It's sort of like what you commented on concerning what the oversized jpegs on Gord Green's post did to the text — causing it to go off the right side of the screen, thus making it necessary to scroll back and forth to read it.
But with 24-sized text and jpegs that are not too large, everything fits on the display, and the posts are easy to read — even for old folks like me.
And since All Sci-Fi tends to have elderly members (some of which have actually passed away over the years), I think the easy-to-read text size is a plus for this message board.
Thanks again for making the effort to format your posts in interesting and skillful ways, making them more enjoyable to read.
To show my appreciation, I'll fix those oversized jpegs you mentioned.
_________________
____________
Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958) |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
|
|
You cannot post new topics in this forum
You cannot reply to topics in this forum
You cannot edit your posts in this forum
You cannot delete your posts in this forum
You cannot vote in polls in this forum
|
Powered by phpBB © 2001, 2005 phpBB Group
|
FAQ
Search
Memberlist
Usergroups
Register
Profile
Log in to check your private messages
Log in
