Wow! Such a good movie.

Powerful

Did you people see the same film I saw?

Like the great film, it's made with a great deal of visible affection both in front of and behind the camera.

Five disparate individuals from across Earth are contacted by an alien intelligence (Arnold Moss). They are American newspaperman Jonathan Clark (Gene Barry), English woman Eve Wingate (Valerie French), German scientist Professor Klaus Bechner (George Voskovec), Chinese woman Su Tan (Marie Tsien), and Russian soldier Ivan Godofsky (Azemat Janti). Each is given a "box" containing capsules with tremendous power - the power of life and death. If all five people can refrain from exploiting the destructive power of the capsules, Earths' people will be spared by the aliens, who are looking for a new planet to colonize.Scripted by John Mantley from his novel, and directed without frills by William Asher, "The 27th Day" is marked by an intelligent and interesting premise. It won't be to every taste because instead of dazzling us with action scenes or special effects, it instead focuses on examining the human tendencies towards xenophobia, paranoia, self destruction, and conflict. Naturally, people in power do end up discovering the amazing "gifts" bestowed upon the five strangers, and learn of their potential. Events escalate towards a tense showdown with the Russians, who see the annihilation of the Western world within their reach.Jonathan and Eve, all too aware of what reactions will be once the world at large learns their identities, attempt to hide out (and predictably, fall in love, although this subplot remains appreciably minor). The most important breakthroughs are made by Professor Bechner, who means to study the capsules in greater detail.The performances are solid from the well chosen cast. Likable leads Barry and French are extremely well supported by actors such as Stefan Schnabel as the warmongering Russian general, Friedrich von Ledebur as the sincere Dr. Neuhaus, and Paul Birch as an American admiral. Paul Frees and Mel Welles appear unbilled; the greatest contribution is by Mr. Voskovec, one of those actors who makes exposition worth listening to.This definitely merits a look from fans of '50s science fiction.Eight out of 10.

Five ordinary earthlings are given a box by a benign alien (a fine and credible performance by Arnold Moss) containing capsules capable of killing millions of people. If they can refrain from using the capsules with twenty-seven days, then the earth will be spared from annihilation.Director William Asher relates the intriguing story at a steady pace and maintains a serious thoughtful tone throughout. John Mantley's compelling script offers an intelligent and provocative exploration of human nature as well as mankind's capacity for either self-destruction or self-preservation. Gene Barry as cynical reporter Jonathan Clark and Valerie French as the sweet Eve Wingate make for appealing leads; they receive sturdy support from George Voskovec as the kindly Professor Klaus Bechner, Stefan Schnabel as a sadistic power mad Russian general, Friedrich von Ledebur as the wise and noble Professor Karl Neuhaus, Paul Birch as a hard-nosed admiral, and Azemat Janti as resolute Russian soldier Ivan Godofsky. The ubiquitous Paul Frees has a small uncredited role as a newscaster. Henry Freulich's crisp black and white cinematography provides a nice sharp look. A solid little movie.

There's this extraterrestrial guy known as "the Alien" who zips to earth in a flying saucer and kidnaps five ordinary people -- an LA reporter (Gene Barry), a nice English singer (Valerie French), a German-American egghead (George Voskovic), a Russian soldier (Azemat Janti), and a Chinese girl (Marie Tsien).Once the puzzled guests are comfortably seated in the Alien's space yacht, he explains to them that his culture lives on a planet that is about to be demolished by a novating sun. All the people on his planet naturally want to evacuate to the planet Earth and live in Las Vegas. Well, not necessarily Las Vegas. But they don't want to live among an earthly population who have been ruled by impulses from their reptilian brains and have been warring constantly with each other. And the Alien's own culture doesn't permit them to exterminate the present population on Earth.Therefore, he proposes to give each of the five captives a little scallop-shaped box, each of which contains capsules that together will destroy all human life on Earth -- and nothing BUT human life. The Alien opines sensibly that earthlings will use the capsules to destroy everyone, thereby sparing the Aliens the distasteful trouble of doing so. The earthlings have 27 days. At the end of that time, the capsules will become powerless. Each of the five boxes will turn to dust if their owner dies during the 27 days. The Alien then deposits them back on earth, in the places whence they came. He does not wish them good luck.Well, things happen fast. The Chinese girl commits suicide and her box does indeed disintegrate. The Russian soldier isn't a bad chap but his bloodthirsty leaders shoot him full of drugs and drag the secret of the capsules out of him. The British babe throws hers in the sea. There is a good deal of political intrigue and running around. The singer joins Gene Barry and they hide out for a while in an out-of-season race track before giving up to the authorities.The Russian general, now in possession of the ultimate weapon, demands that the US withdraw its troops to North America. The US complies but the treacherous Red begins to recite the longitude and latitude of 3 locations in the Americas -- one for each capsule -- that will depopulate all of North America and parts of Central America, leaving the way clear for an invasion by the USSR and its partners. The humble Russian soldier rebels and tackles his leader who dies before he can carry out his nefarious plan.How does he die? Here's how. The German scientist -- a GOOD German scientist because he is on OUR side -- figures out from some hieroglyphics printed on the capsule and from some off-hand remark by the Alien, that the capsules will only kill BAD PEOPLE. That's how the Soviet general dies. And that's how all the bad guys in Russia and China presumably die too.This is ludicrous. All the bad guys are limited to Asia? And all the good guys live in Europe and North America? So far this has been a slightly sluggish but thoughtful story made for adults. Then suddenly it collapses in upon itself, squashed flat by the heavy weight of reassuring morality it carries. John Mantley wrote the novel this story was based on and at least he had some token Westerners bite the dust too -- an occasional Archbishop, a couple of politicians. And Mantley also recognized that true evil must be measured on at least an ordinal scale, not a nominal one. That is, some people are less evil than others. In the novel, those with SOME bad ideas suffered miserable headaches while the evil was burned out of their brains, but they survived.Yet, this isn't a junky movie. It's rather like a thought experiment. There are no monsters and no splashy razzle dazzle effects. What there is, is useful and kind of horrifyingly simple. An elderly scientist volunteers as a subject to see if the capsules really do what they're intended to. He's afloat in mid-South Atlantic in a raft, accompanied only by some goats and pigeons. The capsule is sent to his coordinate and -- poof. He disappears. His empty clothing flops to the deck. Neither the pigeons nor the goats give a damn but observers aboard the distant US destroyer do.It's a little slow for the kids, and maybe for some adults. No giant grasshoppers or anything. And the plot has a couple of holes that need caulking badly. But the film remains a sly and perceptive comment on human nature. In real life, of course, it would be unsafe to predict the happy ending we see in this movie.

(There are Spoilers) Cold war alien from space sci-fi thriller that has five people from different parts of the earth entrusted with the power of destroying the entire human race. Being abducted by an alien space ship the five earthlings L.A reported Jonathen Clark, Gene Barry, young British woman Eva Wingate,Valerie French, German scientist Prof. Klaus Bechner, George Voscovec, Chinese peasant Su Tan, Marie Tsien, and Red Army private Ivan Godofsky, Azemat Janti. These five are given these strange glass encased capsules by the Alien spaceman, Arnold Moss, that only they can open and activate.Told by the Alien that they have just 27 days to either destroy themselves, by opening up and arming the capsules, or if they don't it would mean curtains for the aliens in their plan to make the earth their new home away from home which is to be destroyed by their sun, turning into a super-nova, in 35 days. The aliens who are dead set against violence of any kind don't have it in them to kill anyone much less wipe out the entire human race. In order to have the earth all to themselves the aliens know that the humans, from studying them over the centuries, are more then willing to do themselves in. With just a little push on their part, the aliens, in giving the human race the ultimate weapon of mass destruction, it will only kill human beings and leave everything else on earth alone and they'll be more then happy, by their not using the wisdom and common sense that nature or the lord gave them, to mindlessly self-destruct.The Alien for some strange reason broadcast, on live TV, the reason for his coming to earth and even more puzzling the true reason for the destructive capsules that he gave the five humans. The Alien also gives out their names and addresses and making it almost curtain that they'll be marked men, and women, by everyone from neighborhood kooks to secretive and shadowy spy agencies as well as ego-maniacal power hungry world leaders. As you would expect all the people who received the capsules become targets of the very country's that they live in but are saved from either being killed or suffer severe mental or psychical damage since they, those who received the capsules, are the only ones who can open, with their individual minds, and use them.With the 27th day soon upon them the two earth super powers, the USA & USSR, feeling that each of them are now in possession of this super-neutron bomb. With reporter Clark of the USA and Private Godofsky of the USSR, in possession of the capsuls it's now only a matter of time before the human race, with the help of the space aliens, blows or neutrons itself out of existence until the very wise and observant German scientist Prof. Bechner, one of the five earthlings who received them, notices something cryptically etched onto the capsules that the aliens who put it there hoped would be deciphered.The 1957 movie "The 27th Day" is in many ways ahead of it's time in not being so over-the-top in trying to paint the former Soviet Union, the Evil Empire dubbed by the future President Ronald Wislon Reagan, as pure evil. Both Willing and able to go so far as killing every man woman and child on earth, including those within it's own borders, in it's mindless and mad rush to achieve world domination. We only have the power mad Soviet general Stefan Schnabl and his hand picked stooges trying to have the deadly capsules used to wipe out the entire Western Hemispher. It's the brave and good Red Army private Godofsky, also one of them, who turns out to be the real hero in the film by freely giving up his life by jumping to his death to prevent that from happening.You get the strong feeling in watching "The 27th Day" that it's message is that it's only the power mad leaders on both sides of the Iron Curtain, not the majority of people of their respected country's, who are the one's more then willing to bring about Armageddon upon the world. These insane actions are order to fulfill their mad dreams of being the first person or world leader to conquer the entire planet