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's 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.
Hollywood almost always portrays aliens as wiser than mere humans.
Mankind’s hopeless assumption is that it is always greener on the
other side of their life, which is not evolving like they had hoped. As representatives of the world's
population, five earthlings (that number is not a typo) 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 from annihilation. 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. Neither the environment nor anything constructed by
men or women will be harmed. Whew! Each of the five can only open the capsule case through their specific mental projection. 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 humans behave themselves, the capsules will be rendered useless, and no invasion on the twenty-seventh day. They will simply challenge another planet for living 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
off-season 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 with the most chiseled, aesthetic face in this film. Once realizing the alien’s ultimatum, he subjects himself to 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. His coordinates are given. He only vaporizes. No one else in a 3,000-mile radius is affected. 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 and death. Confusingly, the screenplay suggests the capsules know which is which.
EX-TER-MI-NATE! EX-TER-MINATE!!
On the other side of Earth, the Soviets are relentlessly interrogating
the Soviet officer about his capsules. His administered truth serum plus mind and physical torture, provides the Soviet's knowledge of the capsules’ purpose. Unable to sustain the atrocities, the officer opens the capsule's lid. The Soviets, somehow, locate the two other capsule cases. Global headlines claim the
Soviets have world domination with the demand that America withdraw
all their military from Europe.
The United Nations is all giddy
about the prospect of being overrun with aliens. They give Alien Moss
fifteen seconds (that is also not a typo) to reply to their friendship broadcast, hoping he has
not stepped out for a supermarket errand. All broadcasting ceases to provide a clear reception of his reply. Millions are pretty peeved they will
miss their regularly scheduled programming.
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