THE 27TH DAY (1957)

Based on John Mantley’s 1956 novel of the same name, this seventy-five-minute science fiction effort could be considered a thought-provoking approach but it is the time-honored Hollywood fear that atomic weapons will destroy Earth by dim-witted political administrations. And every galaxy knows about it. Though not given any credit, Robert Fresco wrote the screenplay adaption. An oversight I assume and not at his request. It is competently directed by William Asher and produced by Helen Ainsworth for Columbia Pictures. Mischa Bakaleinikoff composed an effective score. It is a solid lead cast though most are not globally known. A misleading poster suggests aliens arrive to attack Earthlings. Again. The film is well-played with a refreshing alien twist.  

Aliens are almost always portrayed by Hollywood as wiser than mere humans. Mankind’s hopeless assumption that it is always greener on the other side of their life. It is not turning out like they had hoped. As representatives of the world's population, five earthlings are taken aboard a spacecraft by an alien, Arnold Moss, the planet’s marketing director. He travels at the speed of light yet waits until the last minute to save his people. The aliens favor Earth as their new home. The problem is all the humans taking up so much space. The subjects are given three capsules, each capable of destroying all human life within a 3,000-mile radius. No trees, wildlife, nor anything constructed by men or women will be harmed. The liberal alien believes the entire human history is one of self-destruction and it will not surprise him if the capsules are used for this purpose. Aliens can be a pessimistic bunch. However, if the humans behave themselves, there will be no invasion on the twenty-seventh day. I assume they will then challenge another planet for rights.

Alien Moss interrupts worldwide broadcasting transmission to reveal the names of the five, becoming the first alien whistle-blower. The media speculates about the “dangerous five” with a fever pitch of personal opinions. It becomes a pandemic of fear. The group gets shorter by one, a suicide. Another, Valerie French, throws her capsules into the ocean relieving her of any relevance in the film. Not making a great deal of sense, she catches the next flight to rejoin top-billed Gene Barry. Now with a new purpose, she becomes the companion and sounding board for his theories. The police have awarded Barry an APB, but not for being a newspaper reporter. Citizens are warned not to take the law into their own hands yet someone fitting his description has already been killed. Quoting Barry, “People hate because they fear and they fear anything they don’t understand.” Relinquishing their three-day hideout at an abandoned horse-race track, they place their bets with the authorities.

Friedrich Ledebur, above, a year after playing the bald, creepy, tattooed Queequeg in "Moby Dick," has a brief role as a brilliant scientist and the most chiseled, aesthetic face in this film. After learning of the alien’s ultimatum, he subjects himself with a lethal dose of gamma radiation just in case they need a guinea pig to test one of the capsules. To his “good fortune” they do! They place him on an inflatable raft—with an irrelevant life vest—in the South Atlantic Ocean. We see him happily wave. The coordinates are given. He vaporizes. Tough go, that one.

On the other side of Earth, the Soviets are relentlessly interrogating the Soviet officer about his capsules. His administered truth serum gives the Soviets knowledge of the capsules’ purpose, but as Moss told each of the five, they alone can access them through their specific mental projection. How the Soviet general opens the capsule case is highly speculative. Headlines are spread globally that the Soviets have claimed world domination. They insist America withdraw all their military from Europe.

EX-TER-MI-NATE! EX-TER-MINATE!!

One of the five, a respected scientist determines a complete set of capsules has a numbered code of “math destruction.” He activates all three capsules and the results indicate they contain the power for both life or death. Confusingly, the screenplay suggests the capsules know who should live or die. The United Nations is all giddy about the prospect of being overrun with aliens. They give Alien Moss fifteen seconds to reply to their friendship broadcast, hoping he has not stepped out on an errand. All broadcasting ceases to provide clear reception of his reply. Millions are pretty peeved they will miss their regularly scheduled programming.