Posted by : Ray Plumlee in (Space Travel Movies)
Posted on February 19th, 2010
and last modified on March 7th, 2010
1951 Movie – The Day the Earth Stood Still
Tagged Under : 1950s, 1951, Flying Saucers, Gort, Klatuu, Movie, Outer Space, Robot, sci-fi, science fiction, Space Travel
The Day the Earth Stood Still 1951
In the hospital Klaatu tells our government that he brings an important message to the planet that he wishes to tell to representatives of all nations. However, the mistrust between nations seems to get in his way. So he escapes into the city to try and learn more about this planet and understand earth-men.
Melting into the city he takes up residence in a boarding house where he befriends Helen Benson and her son Bobby. Bobby takes Klatuu on a tour of the city and leads him to a meeting with the worlds foremost scientist Professor Jacob Barnhardt.
His meeting with Professor Barnhardt leads Klatuu to stage a demonstration of his power where he turns off all power on the planet for 30 minutes.
Klatuu confides in Helen Benson and tells her that if anything should happen to him she is to get to Gort and tell him “Klaatu barada nikto.”
The Day the Earth Stood Still 1951 Playbills
Helen Benson’s boyfriend turns him into the Army where he is chased, shot and killed. She then heads to the mall where Klatuu’s Flying Saucer and Gor are. She tells him “Klaatu barada nikto” and Gort relents from destroying the Earth and resurrects Klaatu after his death.
As Professor Barnhardt is talking to a group of world scientists outside of the Flying Saucer Klatuu, Gort and Helen Benson emerge and he tells the gathering that Gort is a member of a race of super-robot enforcers invented to keep the peace of the galaxy that will destroy the Earth if we do not contain our nuclear weapons and purse peace. He leaves them after saying “There must be security for all or no one is secure.”
Klatuu and Gort then reenter the Flying Saucer and depart.
The Day The Earth Stood Still Trailer
Review:
The Day The Earth Stood Still is among my top 10 favorite classic space travel themed movies. I Loved it as a kid, I love it now. The cast were all top rate.
Only a little outdated considering that more than 50 years have passed since its release. Fifty seven years later with the 2008 remake with Keanu Reeves is a good film and worth watching, but is no where as good as the original.
The Day The Earth Stood Still is the benchmark “Atom Bomb Scare” movie for which all later cold war scare movies would be compared to.
The phrase “Klaatu barada nikto” has developed a cult following with references to it from later cult classics such as The Army of Darkness, Tron, Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi and others.
The Day The Earth Stood Still was also broadcast as a radio show on the Lux Radio Theater on 01 April 1954. Listen to that episode of The Day The Earth Stood Still here:
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Order The Day The Earth Stood Still 1951 DVD
The Day The Earth Stood Still Cast
Klaatu – Michael Rennie
Helen Benson – Patricia Neal
Bobby Benson – Billy Gray
Professor Jacob Barnhardt – Sam Jaffe
Tom Stevens – Hugh Marlowe
Mrs. Barley – Frances Bavier
Gort – Lock Martin
Cameo Appearances:
H. V. Kaltenborn, Elmer Davis, Drew Pearson and Gabriel Heatter, well-known broadcast journalists of that time, appeared as themselves.
Publication Source: “Farewell to the Master” a science fiction short story written by Harry Bates which was first published in the October 1940 issue of Astounding Science Fiction.
Production Credits:
Producer – Julian Blaustein
Director – Robert Wise (who also directed West Side Story, The Sound Of Music and Star Trek The Motion Picture)
Screen Writer – Edmund H. North
Original Music – Bernard Herrmann
Cinematography – Leo Tover
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