Stranger from Venus
| Stranger from Venus | |
|---|---|
| File:The Stranger from Venus.jpg
DVD cover
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| Directed by | Burt Balaban |
| Produced by | Burt Balaban Gene Martel Roy Rich |
| Written by | Desmond Leslie (story) Hans Jacoby (writer) |
| Starring | Patricia Neal |
| Music by | Eric Spear |
| Cinematography | Kenneth Talbot |
| Edited by | Peter R. Hunt |
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Release dates
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1954 |
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Running time
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75 minutes |
| Country | United Kingdom, United States |
| Language | English |
Stranger from Venus (aka Immediate Disaster and The Venusian) is a 1954 UK black-and-white science fiction film produced by Burt Balaban, Gene Martel, and Roy Rich, directed by Burt Balaban, and starring Patricia Neal and Helmut Dantine.[1]
Contents
Plot
A spacecraft is viewed flying over the British countryside by several eye witnesses, including a woman who gets into an auto accident as a result. Later, a man enters a country inn very near where the sighting and auto accident took place. Acting strangely, seemingly able to read people's thoughts, he gives no name but says he needs a room. The stranger (Helmut Dantine) also asserts that he is responsible for saving the life of Susan North (Patricia Neal), the road accident victim. When he explains that he comes from the planet Venus, Arthur Walker (Derek Bond), a high-ranking government official and Susan's fiancé, calls the War Ministry. A Dr. Meinard (Cyril Luckham) later examines the stranger from Venus and observes that he seems to have no pulse.
A journalist, Charles Dixon (Kenneth Edwards), tries to learn more about the mysterious Stranger. Dixon learns the alien is able to communicate in several languages, and that the mysterious stranger has learned quite a bit about humanity from listening to radio broadcasts and viewing television transmissions. The stranger also explains to the journalist how his spacecraft uses "magnetic brilliance" for propulsion, supplied by the other planets as they move in their orbits.
When governmental officials come to visit the stranger, he confides in them the purpose of his visit to Earth. He is here to prepare the way for the arrival of another spacecraft carrying his superiors, who will be giving a dire warning to Earth's leaders. Humans are developing very dangerous technologies without measuring their long term destructive consequences; nuclear explosions create very dangerous magnetic fields. These technologies are a threat to Venus and the other planets in the solar system. Should fifty hydrogen bombs be exploded in the same general location during a future atomic war, it would have dire consequences, moving the Earth out of its orbit and affecting its gravity. This loss of Earth's gravity would also affect the orbits and gravity of all the planets in the solar system. The stranger makes a promise that as soon as Earth eliminates these dangerous technologies, Venus will share its higher scientific knowledge with all of Earth's researchers.
But the man from Venus soon concludes that humanity is not ready to receive such advanced knowledge. When his communication disc is stolen, which allows him to contact the approaching Venusian saucer, he quickly realizes that such a interplanetary meeting of minds can not take place. He has also learned that such a meeting will be turned into a trap by the Earthmen in order seize the Venusian spaceship and its technology.
If humanity carries out this warlike action, the man from Venus assures Walker that an immediate retaliation would happen that would likely terminate all life on Earth. Walker unsuccessfully tries to warn the War Ministry, but he is able to steal back the stranger's communication disc; the stranger is then is able to warn away the approaching spaceship.
An interplanetary conflict is avoided, but any chance for the return of the Venusian saucer has now been compromised. His mission to Earth a failure, the mysterious stranger disappears as suddenly as he appeared, the future of both worlds now quite uncertain.
Cast
- Patricia Neal as Susan North
- Helmut Dantine as The Stranger
- Derek Bond as Arthur Walker
- Cyril Luckham as Dr. Meinard
- Willoughby Gray as Tom Harding
- Marigold Russell as Gretchen Harding
- Arthur Young as Scientist
- Kenneth Edwards as Charles Dixon
- David Garth as First Police Officer
- Stanley Van Beers as General
- Nigel Green as Second Police Officer
- Graham Stuart as Police Chief Richards
References
External links
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