Stranger from Venus
| Stranger from Venus | |
|---|---|
 DVD cover | |
| Directed by | Burt Balaban |
| Produced by |
Burt Balaban Gene Martel Roy Rich |
| Written by |
Desmond Leslie (story) Hans Jacoby (writer) |
| Starring | Patricia Neal and Helmut Dantine |
| Music by | Eric Spear |
| Cinematography | Kenneth Talbot |
| Edited by | Peter R. Hunt |
Production company |
Princess Pictures Inc |
Release dates | 31 December 1954 |
Running time | 75 minutes |
| Country | United Kingdom, United States |
| Language | English |
Stranger from Venus (released in the United States as Immediate Disaster and aka The Venusian) is a 1954 independently made British black-and-white science fiction film, produced by Burt Balaban, Gene Martel, and Roy Rich, directed by Burt Balaban, that stars Patricia Neal and Helmut Dantine.[1]
Plot
A flying saucer is seen in the sky above the countryside by various eye-witnesses, including an American woman driving in her car. She crashes after being blinded by the craft's landing lights and deafened by its loud propulsion system. A stranger walks up to the car and sees that she is injured.
The stranger (Helmut Dantine) later enters a country inn very near where the sighting and accident took place. He is able to read people's thoughts, and when asked says he has no name. He also asserts that he is responsible for saving the life of Susan North (Patricia Neal), the car accident victim. She later walks into the inn a little dazed, but with her crash wounds nearly healed. After the mysterious stranger explains that he comes from the planet Venus, a guest at the inn, Arthur Walker (Derek Bond), a high-ranking government official (and Susan's fiancé), calls the war ministry. With permission, Dr Meinard (Cyril Luckham) examines the stranger from Venus and says that he has no detectable pulse. The area surrounding the inn is quickly cordoned-off by the government.
Journalist, Charles Dixon (Kenneth Edwards), tries to learn more about the man from Venus. Dixon discovers that the stranger is able to speak multiple human languages, and that his people have learned quite a bit about humanity by listening to our radio broadcasts and viewing our television transmissions. He also explains how Venusians use 'magnetic brilliance' for their spaceship propulsion, supplied by the magnetic energy fields of the other planets as they revolve in their various orbits.
When governmental officials arrive at the inn, the man from Venus outlines his purpose for coming to earth: to prepare the way for the arrival of his superiors, who have a dire warning for humanity's leaders. Humans are developing dangerous technologies without measuring their long term destructive consequences, such as nuclear explosions, creating very dangerous magnetic field affects that threaten 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, they could alter the earth's orbit, thereby affecting its gravitational field. This disruption would then affect the orbits and gravitational fields of all the other planets in the solar system. The stranger makes a promise that if earth eliminates these dangers, Venus will share some of its higher scientific knowledge with our scientists. During the meeting, however, the man from Venus concludes that humanity is not yet ready to receive such advanced knowledge.
After his communication disc is stolen, which allows him to contact the approaching Venusian ship, the stranger quickly realizes that an interplanetary meeting of minds can never take place. He also learns that such a meeting will be turned into a trap by the British government, in order to seize the Venusian ship for its advanced space technology.
Should Britain carry out this warlike action, the stranger assures Walker that an immediate retaliation from an orbiting Venusian mothership would terminate all life in England. Walker tries to warn the war ministry, without success, but he returns the stolen communication disc, and the stranger is able to warn-away the approaching scout ship. A deadly interplanetary conflict is avoided, but discussion with earth's leaders has been derailed by England's short-sighted play for Venusian technology. The future now uncertain, and his peaceful mission a failure, the stranger from Venus vanishes.
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
US theatrical and television releases
The film appears to have had little or no theatrical exhibition in the US; surviving records are unclear. Under the titles Immediate Disaster and The Venusian, the film was distributed to American television, being shown for years on the smaller independent stations.