Patricia Neal and Michael Rennie Find the Perfect Day for Sci-Fi Immortality

 

               The event of the 1950s brought with it a major uptick in interplanetary interest onscreen, starting with such fare as When Worlds Collide and Destination Moon.  From this early period, 20^th Century Fox’s The Day the Earth Stood Still from 1951 endures as one of the best and most influential offerings made during the sci-fi craze, with revolutionary special effects and top production values, including expert editing by William Reynolds, cinematography by Leo Tover and Bernard Herrmann’s eerie, groundbreaking theremin-laced score that continue to impress, adding much individual flavor to the film. Esteemed director Robert Wise scored one of his most impressive achievements behind the lens with his ace handling of the fantastical premise (based on a Harry Bates 1940 short story, with a thought-provoking screenplay by Edmund H. North), aided by a first-rate cast led by Patricia Neal, Hugh Marlowe, Sam Jaffe and the majestic Michael Rennie as Klaatu, a visitor to Earth who lands his spacecraft in Washington D.C., carrying with him an important message to the humanity in regard to living peacefully. 

                With Day, Robert Wise reached helmed perhaps his most distinguished achievement to date, after starting in films as an editor, culminating in an Oscar nomination for no less than Citizen Kane before turning to directional assignments with 1944’s cult classic The Curse of the Cat People. The director handles Day’s off-beat material with a deft touch, allowing for a consistently believable tone, both performance-wise and in how the set pieces are designed and presented, specifically in the scenes staged around the UFO as it sits ominously in the National Mall area, as viewers apprehensively await how the usual predicament will play out. Wise would go on to great success after Day, guiding Susan Hayward to a Best Actress Oscar in I Want to Live! While gaining two Oscars of his own for West Side Story I and The Sound of Music, as well as scoring in a supernatural vein via 1963’s impressively eerie The Haunting and making a return to the sci-fi genre with 1979’s opulently produced Star Trek: The Motion Picture to kick off the franchise on the screen, before paring back on his film endeavors to enjoy a happy retirement until his passing at age 91 in 2005.

For Patricia Neal, Day would stand as possibly the highlight of her early movie career. After a major breakthrough on Broadway in Lillian Hellman’s Another Part of the Forest (the prequel to The Little Foxes), for which she won one of the first Tony awards, Neal moved to Warner Bros., wherein she made a florid film debut The Fountainhead, director King Vidor’s hyperbolic 1949 version of Ayn Rand’s legendary novel. Neal would hone her craft in subsequent movies of varying quality, and by the time of Day she exhibited a surer, more subtle acting approach onscreen, allowing her to imbue her role of Helen Benson, a young mother caught up in the central intrigue, with a warmth and believability that helps one buy into the otherworldly events as they unfold, including a meeting with the statuesque robot Gort, who takes Helen aboard the alien craft after she repeatedly states “Klaatu barada nikto” to him, in possibly the strangest and most vivid moment in the film. Shortly following this fruitful loan-out to 20^th, Neal would return to Broadway in the revival of The Children’s Hour and become involved in the Actor’s Studio, making a strong return to films via 1957’s A Face in the Crowd. The 1960s would allow for major career highs, peaking with a Best Actress Oscar for her beautiful, moving work in Hud, and many personal lows, including the loss of a daughter and a stroke, which Neal heroically recovered from to triumph again in movies via Oscar-nominated work in 1968’s The Subject was Roses. Neal would thereafter make occasional appearances in films and television, with highlights including Emmy-nominated, Golden-Globe winning work in the 1971 teledrama The Homecoming, which served as the basis for The Waltons, and fine work in Robert Altman’s Cookie’s Fortune.

In his most famous role, the handsome, dignified Michael Rennie makes a vivid impression as Klaatu, the noble alien visitor trying to understand more about humanity, while warning earthlings of the consequences that come if peace is not emphasized worldwide. With his calm but commanding vocal delivery and simultaneously austere-yet-warm manner, Rennie maintains a serene, mysterious presence that is ideally suitable to this calm-but-imposing leader, drawing characters and viewers to Klaatu in magnetic fashion as he seeks a deeper understanding of life on Earth. From this breakthrough, Rennie would send a fruitful period at Fox in the 1950’s, with such hits as The Robe, Desirée and Island in the Sun to his credit, then continue on films, television and the stage (with a key role in Mary, Mary on Broadway a highlight) before his untimely passing at 61 in 1971.

Sam Jaffe, fresh off his Oscar nomination for 1950’s The Asphalt Jungle, also as scores strongly as Professor Barnhardt, a brilliant scientist who proves helpful to Klaatu in his quest for a more unified civilization. A professor in his own right before turning acting with great success (including memorable roles in Lost Horizon and as Gunga Din), Jaffe brings an admirable gravitas to his work as Klaatu’s astute colleague that adds keen dimension to the role. Hugh Marlowe, having a good run at Fox with such as excellent films as Twelve O’Clock High, All About Eve and Night and the City recently on his roster, gets a chance to play a bit outside of his typical good guy, mild-mannered casting as Tom Stevens, Helen’s boyfriend, who is wary of Klaatu’s motives.

Billy Gray does fine, earnest work as Helen’s inquisitive son, Bobby, adopting a natural, direct approach to his playing and avoiding any cute overplaying often seen in child performances. Francies Bavier, a decade before her signature, Emmy-winning role as Aunt Bea on television’s The Andy Griffith Show, pops up as Mrs. Barley, while Stuart Whitman, at the outset of his lengthy career, can be glimpsed as a sentry guard. Finally, as Gort, Klaatu’s gigantic right-hand robot who can cease any unfriendly fire with laser beam precision and perform other unworldly tasks at the drop of the film’s aforementioned catchphrase, Lock Martin utilizes his 7-foot-7 frame to maximum effect, offering a vivid rendering for one of the most iconic figures found in the sci-fi genre.

Released in September of 1951, Day did well with audiences, reaping $1,850,000 in rentals (according to Variety) and gaining fine reviews, leading to the movie’s win at the Golden Globes for “Best Film Promoting International Understanding,” an award Klaatu specifically would find satisfying. Influencing the wealth of sci-fi movies to come, including an ill-advised 2008 remake, Day would eventually land on the National Film Registry’s 1995 preservation list, then place fifth on the AFI’s 2008 list of the best sci-fi movies. Through showings on television and re-releases, as well as representation via physical media, the film has gathered loyal fans, including the author, who had the privilege to briefly meet Ms. Neal at a book signing and showing of A Face in the Crowd a few months before her death, wherein she still had that incredible voice and earthiness she so adeptly utilized in movies. Although in awe and somewhat tongue-tied, I mentioned how I’d see Day several times growing up as Ms. Neal asked how old I was and shook her head when I mentioned five or six; during the later interview Ms. Neal expressed a sense of wonderment over the movie’s status as a classic, stating they could hardly keep a straight face making the movie. Fortunately, the professional decorum evident in every aspect of the film was maintained, allowing The Day the Earth Stood Still to obtain and sustain its lofty, warranted place among the greatest sci-fi films ever produced.