Beautiful, moving film.

This is ultimately a movie about the very bad things that can happen when we don't address our unease, when we just try to brush it off, whether that's to fit in or to preserve our self-image.

Great movie. Not sure what people expected but I found it highly entertaining.

Yes, absolutely, there is fun to be had, as well as many, many things to go boom, all amid an atmospheric urban jungle.

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.

An alien has just given you a box with three capsules in it. Only YOUR thought impulses can open the box. Each capsule can destroy all human life in a 3000 mile radius. If you die, your capsules become useless. After 27 days, ALL the capsules become useless. You are one of five humans to be given such a box. Thanks to the alien, EVERYONE on Earth knows your identity. WHAT DO YOU DO? Do you run and hide? Do you report what you know to your government authorities? Do you use the awesome power of the capsules to wipe out billions of human lives? There's something else to consider: the aliens' world is dying. They mean to inhabit Earth whether or not there are humans about. Are they peaceful or warlike? Benefactors or conquerers? You don't know. WHAT DO YOU DO?

27th Day, The (1957)*** (out of 4) There were dozens and dozens of science fiction movies released throughout the 1950's and for everyone like THE DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL you got at least ten "Z" movies like PLAN 9 FROM OUTER SPACE. The movie here seems to be forgotten even by the biggest sci-fi fans. I had personally never heard of the film, which is saying quite a bit because of the amount I read on various message boards. When sci-fi films were mentioned this one here never came up and that's a shame because it's a real gem. The film has an alien from a dying planet giving capsules to five people. These capsules have the power to destroy life on Earth, which would give the aliens a place to move. The humans can determine their fate but sure enough there are some bad people who want to use the capsules for their own gain even though they don't fully understand their power. During the decade people in this country were afraid of aliens from space and anything dealing with the Cold War so this movie combines both and makes a very entertaining movie out of it. There's really not too much "action" that goes on here and the monsters don't have four eyes or green bodies. Instead the monsters are pretty much certain humans who want to do bad in the world. The way the film makes this capsules so important and powerful was a nice move but so is the pay off at the end. The very final thing in the movie is a tad bit too preachy but the message is still there. Gene Barry, Valerie French, George Voskovec and Stefan Schnabel add nice performances as well. When people think of sci-fi from the 1950's it's doubtful they'll think of this movie but it's a real shame because here's a gem that needs to be rediscovered.

(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