Protraph Lack of good storyline.

Bereamic Awesome Movie

ChicDragon It's a mild crowd pleaser for people who are exhausted by blockbusters.

ActuallyGlimmer The best films of this genre always show a path and provide a takeaway for being a better person.

Panamint Some careful thought and preparation is evident in this production but overall it is made in a non-dynamic manner, very deliberate and you might say too slow. The direction seems primitive. Once this director sets his camera for a scene it is seemingly planted in concrete- it ain't gonna move. In some scenes maybe coffee or caffeine would have helped the director. Military personnel just stand around, and even scenes beside a Monet-esque lily pond are flat and unromantic.The British actors are really good, especially the grey haired doctor and young Willoughby Gray who portrays "Gretchen". Helmut Dantine is very focused and is riveting in the lead role. In contrast, Patricia Neal looks as if she would rather be somewhere else and is not effective in her role. The music is mostly of the orchestrated "English pastoral" style popular in the early to mid 20th century but other than providing a classy sound is not lively enough for a sci-fi film. There is a huge early-50's Packard auto that is loaded with chrome and very noticeable but is thoroughly ugly- its too bad because the earlier post-WWII Packard designs were generally more elegant and graceful. I always enjoy looking for mid-century ambiance and trappings in films from the era such as I found in this movie.Some interesting science can be found here such as a proposed landing in a magnetic field area and concepts of interplanetary gravitation.An advanced being lectures us on how stupid and crude we are in routine fashion that has been done in films numerous times before and since, so this aspect of the theme seems rather redundant.

Woodyanders An odd and aloof alien being (a convincing performance by Helmut Dantine) from Venus with the ability to save human lives and heal wounds with just his touch arrives on Earth in a remote town in England to warn mankind to stop their destructive ways before it's too late.Director Burt Balaban offers an intriguing air of mystery, maintains a somber tone throughout, relates the engrossing story at a steady pace, and makes neat use of the English countryside. Although Hans Jacoby's thoughtful script handles the subject matter in an admirably low-key and straightforward manner, said script alas goes a bit too heavy on dialogue over any real action that could have given this rather flat film a bit more kick. Fortunately, the sound acting from a capable cast keeps this movie on track, with especially praiseworthy contributions from Patricia Neal as the sweet Susan North, Derek Bond as meddlesome troublemaker Arthur Walker, Cyril Luckham as the wise Dr. Weinard, Willoughby Gray as amiable innkeeper Tom Harding, and Marigold Russell as Harding's fetching barmaid daughter Gretchen. Kenneth Talbot's crisp black and white cinematography makes neat use of fades and dissolves. A bit slow and talky, but overall pretty good.

Vigilante-407 Stranger From Venus is a nice little film, but really has not much to recommend it. Obviously it is adapted/stolen from the Robert Wise classic, The Day The Earth Stood Still and even has Patricia Neal as well as the female star. But even for a fifties science fiction film, there is a serious lack of special effects...especially in comparison with the other movie. The few shots of the Venusian spacecrafts look to be very childishly done and do not mesh well at all with the other footage. This film is one of the precursors of the wave of excellent British science fiction that was heralded in by Terrence Fisher, Val Guest and the rise of Hammer Films. The script for Stranger From Venus does have some of eloquence of the films to come, but the ideas just don't gel properly.

pghmoe Basically British variation on The Day Earth Stood Still, which Neal also starred in. It tries to overcome it's low budget limitations but just falls short of the mark. A for effort; C for execution. British sci-fi would take off the following year with the arrival of Professor Bernard Quatermass.