An enigmatic stranger (Austrian actor Helmut Dantine) who claims to be an emissary from Venus lands his spacecraft in rural England. He proceeds to confound and fascinate all the locals; he has an amazing ability to learn things and in fact spends a fair amount of time explaining the nature of his people to these intrigued Earthlings.
His ultimate mission definitely offers echoes of the bigger American production "The Day the Earth Stood Still" (which also starred this movies' leading lady, Patricia Neal). It's a worthy subject, but moviegoers of the time must have experienced a major case of deja vu.
This clearly had a low budget since there is a bare minimum of locations, and much of the plot is expressed through dialogue. Viewers could easily argue that it's much too talky, and largely uneventful, but yours truly had a pretty good time with it. It helps a lot that this is well cast from top to bottom with sterling, mostly British actors: also appearing are Derek Bond, Cyril Luckham, Willoughby Gray, and Nigel Green. As innkeeper Gray's daughter, young Marigold Russell is radiant, although the whole cast does engaging work. (In uncredited roles you'll see Jack Gwillim, John Le Mesurier, and a young Peter Sallis.) Neal is very appealing as the woman who, despite being engaged to Bonds' politician character, is attracted to, confused by, and even apprehensive towards the stranger. And although Dantine won't make anybody forget Michael Rennie, he does a solid job as the title character.
"Stranger from Venus" does benefit from a reasonably intelligent script (by Hans Jacoby, based on a story by Desmond Leslie), and engrossing direction by American filmmaker Burt Balaban ("Murder, Inc.", "Mad Dog Coll"). The aforementioned low budget obviously put a limit on how many special effects could be created, but what little we see is pulled off fairly well. The tense (and ultimately bittersweet) resolution is one of the best parts, as The Stranger does *want* to put faith in human beings, but finds that he may end up disappointed.
Six out of 10.
His ultimate mission definitely offers echoes of the bigger American production "The Day the Earth Stood Still" (which also starred this movies' leading lady, Patricia Neal). It's a worthy subject, but moviegoers of the time must have experienced a major case of deja vu.
This clearly had a low budget since there is a bare minimum of locations, and much of the plot is expressed through dialogue. Viewers could easily argue that it's much too talky, and largely uneventful, but yours truly had a pretty good time with it. It helps a lot that this is well cast from top to bottom with sterling, mostly British actors: also appearing are Derek Bond, Cyril Luckham, Willoughby Gray, and Nigel Green. As innkeeper Gray's daughter, young Marigold Russell is radiant, although the whole cast does engaging work. (In uncredited roles you'll see Jack Gwillim, John Le Mesurier, and a young Peter Sallis.) Neal is very appealing as the woman who, despite being engaged to Bonds' politician character, is attracted to, confused by, and even apprehensive towards the stranger. And although Dantine won't make anybody forget Michael Rennie, he does a solid job as the title character.
"Stranger from Venus" does benefit from a reasonably intelligent script (by Hans Jacoby, based on a story by Desmond Leslie), and engrossing direction by American filmmaker Burt Balaban ("Murder, Inc.", "Mad Dog Coll"). The aforementioned low budget obviously put a limit on how many special effects could be created, but what little we see is pulled off fairly well. The tense (and ultimately bittersweet) resolution is one of the best parts, as The Stranger does *want* to put faith in human beings, but finds that he may end up disappointed.
Six out of 10.