The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951)

Country of Origin: USA
Year of Production: 1950-1951
Running Times: 92m
Length:
Format: 35mm
Colour Format: black and white
Aspect Ratio:
Sound: mono

DIRECTION

Directed by: Robert Wise

PRODUCTION
Copyright: MCMLI [1951] by Twentieth Century-Fox Film Corporation
Production Company: Twentieth Century-Fox presents
Produced abd released by Twentieth Century-Fox Film Corporation
Executive in Charge of Production: Darryl F. Zanuck (uncredited)
Produced by: Julian Blaustein

SCRIPT
Screen Play by: Edmund H. North
Based on a Story [Farewell to the Master] by: Harry Bates

DIRECTION
2nd Unit Director: Bert Leeds [uncredited]

PHOTOGRAPHY
Director of Photography: Leo Tover

EDITING AND POST-PRODUCTION
Film Editor: William Reynolds

MUSIC
Music: Bernard Hermann
Theremin Music: Dr Samuel Hoffman, Paul Shure (uncredited)

SOUND
Sound: Arthur L. Kirbach, Harry M. Leonard
Western Electric Recording

COSTUMES AND MAKE-UP
Wardrobe Direction: Charles Le Maire
Klaatu's Costume Designed by: Perkins Dailey
Costumes Designed by: Travilla
Makeup Artist: Ben Nye

VISUAL EFFECTS
Special Photographic Effects: Fred Sersen
Effects Team: Ray Kellogg [uncredited], Emil Kosa [uncredited]

DESIGN AND SET CONSTRUCTION
Art Direction: Lyle Wheeler, Addison Hehr
Set Decorators: Thomas Little, Claude Carpenter

OTHER CREW
Technical Advisor: Dr Samuel Herrick [uncredited]

CAST

with
Michael Rennie (Klaatu)
Patricia Neal (Helen Benson)
Hugh Marlowe (Tom Stevens)
Sam Jaffe (Dr Barnhardt)
Billy Gray (Bobby Benson)
Frances Bavier (Mrs Barley)
Lock Martin (Gort)

UNCREDITED CAST

Drew Pearson (himself)
Frank Conroy (Harley)
Carleton Young (Colonel)
Fay Roope (Major General)
Edith Evanson (Mrs Crockett)
Robert Osterloh (Major White)
Tyler McVey (Brady)
James Seay (government man)
John Brown (Mr George Barley)
Marjorie Grossland (Hilda)
Glenn Hardy (interviewer)
House Peters Jr (military police captain)
Rush Williams (military police sergeant)
H.V. Kaltenborn (himself)
Elmer Davis (himself)
Olan Soule (Mr Krull)
Gil Herman (government agent)
James Craven (businessman)
Herbert Lytton (Brigadier General)
Freeman Lusk (General Cutler)
George Lynn (Colonel Ryder)
Marshall Bradford (Chief of Staff)
John Burton (British radio M.C.)
Wheaton Chambers (Mr Bleeker)
Marjorie Crossland (Hilda, Barnhardt's secretary)
Lawrence Dobkin (army physician)
Harry Harvey (taxi driver)
Gabriel Heatter (voice of himself)
Harry Lauter (platoon leader)
Millard Mitchell (voice of General Cutler)
Dorothy Neumann (Margaret, Tom's secretary)
Kim Spalding (army orderly)
Harlan Warde (Carson)
Stuart Whitman
Adam Williams (army physician)

Alien emissary Klaatu arrives on Earth with a huge robot, Gort, as his only companion. Klaatu comes with a warning to people of Earth, that they should give up their war-like ways of pay the consequences. But he's shot by a nervous soldier and later escapes from the hospital he's taken to. He passes himself off as a human to learn more about humans - but also warns that Gort could destroy the planet of provoked.

Of all of the 50s Hollywood SF movies, The Day the Earth Caught Fire is the one that's aged the best. It still works remarkably well today thanks to a sharply written script by Edmund H. North and the direction of Robert Wise. Certainly it has its flaws, but there's still much to enjoy, not least of which is the ambiguous nature of Klaatu - painted as a potential saviour of Mankind (Christ allegories abound), he in fact comes across as a bullying thug willing to massacre billions of people if they won't do as he tells them. This, and the whole notion that Mankind is not to be trusted with its own free will, make The Day the Earth Stood Still one of the most complex and enduring films of its era.

UK
Video Distributor: CBS-Fox

USA
Theatrical Distributor: Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation
Video Distributor: CBS / Fox Video
Laserdisc Distributor: Encore (EE 1138 - 1998); Fox Video (8738-80; 8739-80 (limited edition) - 1995); CBS Fox (1011-80 - 1988)
The 1995 limited edition was limited to 2500 copies and boasted the following features: box signed by director Robert Wise; audio commentary by Wise and Nicholas Meyer; theatrical trailer; Movietone News footage; stills collection; gold CD of Bernard Hermann's score containing 18 minutes of material missing from the 1993 CD release; a biography of Wise; a 70 minute documentary, Making the Earth Stand Still; overview of memorabilia; production stills; portraits; pressbooks; preliminary sketches and storyboards; memos from Darryl Zanuck; spaceship blueprints; and a complete copy of the shooting script.

Finland
Rating: K-12

USA
Rating: G
MPAA: 15271

1952
Golden Globes, USA
Best Film Promoting International Understanding - winner

1995
National Film Preservation Board, USA
Added to the National Film Registry

1951
September
28: USA - theatrical release

1952
August
15: Finland - theatrical release

1995
June
27: USA - laserdisc release (Fox Video (8738-80; 8739-80 - 1995))

1999
October
9: USA - special screening held in Omaha, Nebraska

2001
August
9: USA - television broadcast (on 5MAX)

From Out Of Space... A Warning And An Ultimatum

Strange Power From Another Planet Menaces The Earth!

What is this invader from another planet... Can it destroy the Earth?

Ultimatum alla Terra - Italian title

REMAKE
Day the Earth Stood Still, The (2008)

SEE ALSO
Army of Darkness (1993)
Cosmic Man, The (1959)
Devil Girl From Mars (1954)
Rocky Horror Picture Show, The (1975)
Stranger from Venus (1954)
Uchujin Tokyo arawaru (1956)

FOOTAGE INCLUDED IN
AFI's 100 Years, 100 Thrills: America's Most Heart-Pounding Movies (2001)
Century of Science Fiction, A (1996)
Explorers (1985)
Independence Day (1996)
It Came from Hollywood (1982)
Theremin: An Electronic Odyssey (1993)

PERIODICALS

Cinefantastique vol.4 no.4 (1976)
article

Dynamo Magazine July 1951
illustrated article

Fantastic Films April 1978
illustrated article (The Day the Earth Stood Still: The Film and the Times by Jay Stock)

Filmfax November 1989
illustrated article (Director Robert Wise Remembers The Day the Earth Stood Still by Al Taylor and Doug Finch)

Film Review October 1998 p.26
review (by Alan Jones)

Halls of Horror 27 p.19
note

Radio Times 23-29 March 1985 pp.20, 70
review; credits

Radio Times 31 October - 6 November 1987 p.27
review

SPFX no.2 (1978)
illustrated interview with Robert Wise (Gort Found! by Jay Duncan and Ted Bolus)

TV Times 8-14 April 1989 p.47
review

Samhain 61 p.34
review

Shivers 50 p.57
review

Starlog no.211 (February 1995) pp.24-27, 69
illustrated interview with Robert Wise (Years After Stillness by Tom Weaver)

Uncut no.96 (May 2005) p.139 (UK)
illustrated review (by P.H. (Peter Hogan))

BOOKS

Hoffman's Guide to SF, Horror and Fantasy Movies 1991 - 1992 p.92
credits, review

Reference Guide to Fantastic Films p.90
credits

OTHER SOURCES

screen
credits

aliens, ambassadors, children, military, robots, scientists, spaceships, UFOs

Last Updated: 4 January, 2010