DVD review (region 1)
Directed by Robert Wise
Starring Michael Rennie, Patricia Neal, Hugh Marlowe, Sam Jaffe, Billy Gray
Release date Out now

The spaceman Klaatu (Rennie) lands on Earth with the aim of delivering a stark warning to world leaders. But after he’s shot and then shut up in a military hospital, he escapes to hide out among ordinary people…

With the Keanu-starring remake currently invading cinemas, here’s the inevitable re-issue for Robert Wise’s 1951 original. Luckily, this isn’t just a rush release; there’s a feast of excellent commentaries and documentaries here, many of which are new.

The (previously released) highlight is a commentary/interview between the late Wise and Nicholas Meyer (both men sharing a common history as directors of Star Trek movies). They’re a little dry at times, but give a fascinating account of the making of the movie and the political background of the time.

Other worthwhile extras include an introduction to the theremin, which played such an important role in Bernard Herrmann’s seminal score; a reading of Harry Bates’s original short story, Farewell to the Master, and Race to Oblivion, a 1981 anti-nuke documentary by The Day the Earth Stood Still’s writer Edmund H. North. The latter feature, which is presented by Burt Lancaster, contains some fairly cheesy direct addresses to camera, but does include an affecting account from a survivor of the Hiroshima bombing that highlights many of the concerns of The Day the Earth Stood Still.

The film itself remains the definitive sci-fi flick of the 1950s. The special effects, of the flying saucer and laser-eyed robot Gort, still look great, but Wise presents the majority of the action in a calm, unusually realistic manner. Klaatu is a charming alien fugitive, finding himself shocked at mankind’s appetite for destruction but also discovering its inherent goodness in the form of the well-meaning Helen (Neal) and her young son Bobby (Gray).

The themes are very much tied to concerns of the day – namely the fear of nuclear annihilation with the ever-increasing brinkmanship of the USA and USSR – but this is a more thoughtful picture than many paranoid genre movies of the period. Matt McAllister

VERDICT: 9/10
An intelligent and brilliantly put together saucer story.