The Day the Earth Stood Still
From out of space...A warning and an ultimatum.
Country
Production
Genre
Budget
$1 200 000
Revenue
$1 850 000
Director
Actors
Scenario
Producer
Julian Blaustein
Operator
Composer
Artist
Audition
Editing
William Reynolds
All team (16)
All team (16)
Short description
A flying saucer lands in Washington, D.C., and a humanoid visitor named Klaatu steps out with a towering robot, Gort. They bring a message from an interplanetary federation: Earth must abandon its nuclear testing and live in peace, or face consequences. When Klaatu asks to address the world's leaders together, the request is refused, and the tense military welcome turns hostile. Wounded in the confusion, he escapes the hospital and goes into hiding among ordinary people, staying in a boarding house run by Helen Benson, a widow whose young son Bobby befriends him. Under the assumed name Mr. Carpenter, Klaatu tries to understand humanity from the inside while Gort waits with the saucer. Meanwhile, Professor Jacob Barnhardt, a scientist who grasps what is at stake, works to arrange the meeting Klaatu came for.
Robert Wise directed this 1951 science fiction drama, the second of the thirteen features he directed in chronological order, following The Set-Up and preceding Executive Suite. Edmund H. North wrote the screenplay, and Julian Blaustein produced it for 20th Century Fox. Michael Rennie plays Klaatu, with Patricia Neal as Helen, Billy Gray as Bobby, Sam Jaffe as Barnhardt, Hugh Marlowe as Tom Stevens and Lock Martin as Gort among a credited cast of forty.
Released in September 1951, the film runs 92 minutes. Its critical standing is strong, with a critics' rating of 8.3/10 from 110 reviews, while viewers rate it 7.7/10 on IMDb and 7.5/10 on TMDB.
What's left behind the scenes
- After reading the script, the army leadership refused to cooperate with the filmmakers. Then the filmmakers turned to the National Guard command, which enthusiastically seized the opportunity to portray the army in a less than favorable light.
- To ensure the authenticity of events on screen, famous reporters and representatives of so-called broadcast journalism of the time appeared in episodic roles in the film. They played themselves.
- The film's main musical theme, composed by Bernard Herrmann, is performed on a theremin.
- To create the illusion of a seamless hull for the spaceship, the gaps around the hatch were filled with putty and then painted accordingly. When the hatch opened, the putty would tear, creating the impression that the hatch simply appeared out of nowhere.
- The film is based on the novella 'Farewell to the Master' by Harry Bates.
- To design the 'flying saucer,' the filmmakers enlisted one of the greatest architects and designers, F. L. Wright. The maestro advised making the object from an 'experimental substance that, according to rumors, is like living tissue: a cut would heal, leaving behind a solid surface without any scars.'
- Michael Rennie said he was born to play Klaatu. Initially, however, the role was intended for Claude Rains, who had a pronounced accent. Gort was portrayed by the towering Lock Martin, who worked as a doorman at one of the Los Angeles movie theaters.
- The scene in which the crowd flees the landing site of the flying saucer with the appearance of the robot was clearly sped up during playback, making it look somewhat unnatural. The reason for this was explained in an interview by director Robert Wise. Despite all the persuasion, the inexperienced extras did not run fast enough, and their fear did not look convincing. After several takes, Wise threw his hands up in the air and decided to simply speed up the playback of the scene during post-production, fully aware of how it would look on screen.
- Sam Jaffe had already signed a contract to star as Professor Barnhardt, who resembled Einstein, and the role was similar to the one he had played three years earlier in the drama 'Gentleman's Agreement' (Elia Kazan, 1947), but studio management proposed replacing him due to his overly liberal views. Moreover, during the 'witch hunt' and the compilation of various blacklists, the actor was suspected of sympathizing with communists. Producer Julian Blaustein went directly to Darryl F. Zanuck, who allowed Jaffe to remain in the film's cast, but 'The Day the Earth Stood Still' became the actor's last Hollywood project until the late 1970s.
- In 1995, the film was added to the National Film Registry.
- Director Robert Wise later admitted that he was inclined to believe in the existence of UFOs, as “it would be foolish to think that earthlings are the only living creatures in the Universe – that is the most blatant egoism.”
- The surname 'Carpenter,' which Klaatu, portraying a human, calls himself, translates from English as 'carpenter' and is a reference to the biblical story (Jesus was a carpenter and the son of a carpenter).
- The immobile statue of Gort was slightly taller than Lock Martin and could not stand on an inclined ramp, and the actor had to endure a lot for one of the scenes near the end of the film. The shooting lasted so long that Martin began to experience spasms in his hands, and during Klaatu’s speech, you can notice his hands trembling slightly.
- Long shots of Klaatu and Bobby (played by Michael Rennie and Billy Gray, respectively) walking through Washington were filmed using doubles. None of the actors involved in the film actually traveled to Washington; everything was filmed against backdrops onto which images of Washington landmarks, shot by a second unit, were projected.
- The alien's association with Jesus Christ provoked objections from conservative audiences. Not only was Klaatu kinder and more humane than most earthlings, sacrificing his life to save them – but in the finale, he even rises from the dead. At the insistence of studio management, a disclaimer was added to the film stating that this resurrection was temporary and occurred by the will of the "Almighty Spirit."
- The equations on the board of Professor Barnhardt (played by Sam Jaffe) are genuine equations describing the famous "three-body problem" (referring to calculating the trajectory of three bodies interacting with each other). The style of writing the equations and the terminology used in the scene demonstrate that a real physicist contributed to its creation.
- The main filming took place on California studio lots, and the lead actors didn't even travel to Washington.
- To show the hatch closing in such a way that it left no trace on the hull of the alien spaceship, the already filmed scene of the hatch opening was played in reverse.
- One of the reasons Michael Rennie was cast as Klaatu was that he was virtually unknown to the American audience, making him appear more organic in the role of an alien than another, more famous actor. The head of 20th Century Fox, Darryl F. Zanuck, showed the script to Spencer Tracy, who said he would gladly take on the role. Producer Julian Blaustein objected to Tracy’s candidacy, stating that audiences would inherently expect a lot from such a famous actor. Blaustein understood that Zanuck would have the final say, and that he would either have to resign or film the movie according to his superiors’ wishes, but fortunately, Zanuck agreed with his point of view, and Rennie was cast.
- Parts of the film's episodes were parodied in 'Mars Attacks!' (1996).
- In addition to the two Gort costumes created for Lock Martin, a fiberglass robot statue was constructed. It was slightly taller than the actor in the Gort costume, and it was built for shots of the stationary robot. In addition, a separate robot head was made with a remotely controlled visor. This was necessary for close-up shots of Gort firing beams from his eyes.
- The film's overt pacifist message (Professor Barnhardt was modeled after the pacifist physicist A. Einstein) alarmed the US Department of Defense, which refused to cooperate with its creators.
- Loc Martin, who worked as a doorman, was cast as the robot Gort due to his height exceeding two meters. However, Martin couldn't be called physically strong, so he couldn't carry Patricia Neal himself, and in the corresponding scenes, her body was supported by wires or a lightweight mannequin. Gort's costume was so heavy that Martin could only stay in it for a maximum of half an hour.
- The alien spaceship was made of wood, wires, and construction plaster.
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