Stranger from Venus :: Education by Design Store

Customer Reviews

Good but not great

2002-12-12
This one definitly has a familiar theme to it. Namely "The Day The Earth Stood Still". While not as good it still has an interesting storyline. My only problem with this film is the lack of sci-fi effects. Only a brief encounter with a flying saucer. Well acted and the transfer to DVD is very good. Like i said, good not great.

"Stranger from Venus" a little known classic.

2002-03-18
This film deserves more attention I think because it deals as much with the response of earth establishment types as it does with the possible aliens themselves...

The plot concerns an alien landing in a remote British village... and how this alien relates to earthly preferences and habits... This alien has compassion and vision and is willing to share it with humanity..but of course the establishment types are not ready for this and soon botch thinks up horribly!

It has a strong anti military flavor to it as well as antinuclear testing... The alien warns that continued testing could cause a destabilized earth orbit which could endanger other worlds... among other things...

The special effects are not unusual or even spectacular... but they managed to create an aura of mystery none the less!

Pure British Dull 2001-03-03
A male visitor from Venus lands in what they say is USA, but in fact is the dullest of English country-sides, populated by people who barely seem to notice his arrival. In fact, they're too busy doing what they've been doing all their lives: uninspired English matinee theatre. If instead of a visitor from Venus the man Helmut Dantine were, say, a visitor from Tonga, the required changes in the script would be minimal, and the locals' astonishment at his speaking impeccable Oxford English might perhaps be even greater. Although one of the most unbearably boring sci-fi movies of all times, "Stranger from Venus" provides first-rate documentary evidence of the profound, meaningful changes which the notion of Alien (both terrestrial and extra-) has undergone in the intervening 50 years. It also shows how even inane sci-fi script-writing has gone a long way...

STRANGER FROM VENUS DVD 2000-09-23
Image Entertainment's release of STRANGER FROM VENUS, as part of their Wade Williams DVD Collection, is an interesting little find for old sci-fi film fans. STRANGER FROM VENUS shares many common elements with the all-time classic THE DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL -- most notably a kind alien who wishes to warn humanity of the consequences of atomic warfare. It also shares a basic plot structure with the infamous 1950s British sci-fi flick DEVIL GIRL FROM MARS: an alien landing in rural England and "hanging out" in and around a local inn/tavern. If you've seen and enjoyed either film, you'll like this one.

STRANGER FROM VENUS has surprisingly strong performances from its lead actors: Patricia Neal and Helmut Dantine. In one well-done sequence, for instance, Dantine demonstrates to a reporter his superior intellect by reading a newspaper article, one paragraph at a time in a different language.

STRANGER FROM VENUS certainly is for genre fans alone. It's very "talky" and, outside of cheap flying saucers at the very end, provides little cheesy special effects to make fun of. The DVD also doesn't have any bonus features, not even a trailer. So you've got to make sure that the price is worth it to you (the transfer is very good however).

"I am drunk or you are dead" 2006-06-24
A no-name stranger (Helmut Dantine) comes from Venus with a message. Naturedly the message is too important to trust to any one country. So he arranges to meet with all the representatives of the world in two days. While waiting for this meeting He interacts with a handful of people at a local English inn. There they get to know each other personally. Some such as Susan north (Patricia Neal) very personally. Will they make the meeting or will greed raise its ugly head and try to use this no names stranger for nefarious purposes?

Of course we know what sort of people attract Susan because when Patricia Neal mad the same choice in the movie "The Day the Earth Stood Still." Now days most people equate Patricia Neal with Anacin commercials.

Helmut is no slacker. He has been in several TV programs and who can forget the movie "Guerrilla Girl" (1953).

The music was well done mix of spooky and sci-fi sounds composed by Eric Spear. Eric composed original music for more than 40 movies and programs.

WARNING - DO NOT EXPECT A LOT OF SPECIAL EFFECTS ! 2005-12-24
I don't know I could be wrong, but it seems to me that movies made today require a ton of special effects ( especially in the Sci Fi - Fantasy genre ) to keep an audience interested. Nothing wrong with this though, as I myself enoy a little escapist entertainment as much as the next person. Having said that though I must confess that it is my opinion that good writing and acting will win out over high tech effects almost everytime with few eceptions and nothing is better if you have both. Which brings me to this film, Stranger From Venus. It has very little in the effects department (Plan 9 From Outer Space has more) but the script and acting are a notch above alot of movies in this genre today or in the 1950's when this film was made.The story is not your average alien invasion plot that dominate most film in this category, which to me is a breath of fresh air. In fact,I'd put Stranger From Venus in a category of Sci Fi films that are a bit different from the rest of the crowd like The Man Who Fell To Earth, Man Facing SouthEast and Signs. So,if you are looking for exploding planets,high tech battle cruisers or strange looking creatures, you won't find it here but if you seek a good well written story from a different angle then your patience will be rewarded.

Stranger from Venus 2005-08-05
I concur with most of the reviews already written.. a "soft" sci-fi story relying on dialogue rather than special effects. Patrica O'Neil definately made this movie.

Funny, in a strange sort of way 2005-05-09
This movie is the most obvious remake of The Day the Earth Stood Still. I like both films, but besides the hilarious special effects and the casting of an American actress as English, I prefer this film. The stranger, played by Helmut Dantine, is very believable in the part, maybe just because of his Austrian accent. Also, the slightly romantic departure from the plot of The Day the Earth Stood Still warmed my unscientific heart. The messages are the same: anti-war, and that was very timely in the early 1950's. Perhaps it's still quite timely....

The Day the Earth...Yawned 2004-04-05
From Image Entertainment and The Wade Williams collection comes the mid 50's British answer to The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951). But where The Day the Earth Stood Still excels and survives as a classic atomic age science fiction thriller, this film fell into the realm of the anti-thriller, nearly putting me to sleep. Starring Patricia Neal as Susan North and Helmut Dantine as 'The Stranger', the story begins with the landing of a craft, which we never actually see, and the crashing of a car driven by Ms. North. I guess the crash was a fatal one, cause she ain't moving, but what's this? A figure comes to her aid...

Soon we cut to a small hotel in a small English village, and news of Susan's wrecked car and her body missing arrives, along with an odd sort of fellow, who raises a few eyebrows. Oh, he's not all alien looking and such, with hideous tentacles and great, bug eyes, but his mannerisms seem a bit off. He soon reveals himself to be from another planet, but this isn't really taken too seriously, until Susan walks in the door. Apparently the stranger revived her from her slight condition of death, and now she's all better. Proof of the strangers alien status is now here, and yet no one seems to bat an eye at the fact that this is a honest to goodness alien in their midst, one from the planet Venus, as the title of the film tells us. Anyway, the government soon gets involved, and the motive of the stranger's arrival on Earth is soon learned, but they are still suspicious and even envious at his people's achievements. His presence seems a peaceful one, but, as they always do, the government manages to screw things up, and loose out on a potentially wonderful opportunity to advance the human race. Does the alien truly 'come in peace', or does he have ulterior motives? Is he a friendly messenger, or a scout ship leading the way of a horde of brain sucking alien fiends from another planet?

Even with its' low budget, The Stranger from Planet Venus does have small charms, playing more like a soap opera episode than a science fiction movie, as Patricia Neal's character struggles with her feelings for her fiancé vs. those for her new space buddy. The story is very slow moving, but at least the run time, 74 minutes, doesn't outstay its' welcome. What makes this film different from The Day the Earth Stood Still is the makes of this film managed to suck all the life energy out of the story, and present a very dry, boring, and un-climatic tale of first contact with aliens on Earth.

Image Entertainment provides a decent looking picture here with some noticeable flaws, and the audio is a bit soft at times, but I'd be hard pressed to recommend this to the casual viewer. There are no special features, other than chapter stops and a snazzy looking box. I did notice that Image has re-released this film as a double feature with The Cosmic Man (1959), for the same price as this release, so if you are really interested, you should look that up version and save yourself a little money.

Cookieman108