Distributed by
Encore Entertainment

Cat.no: EE 1138

Cert: U

Running time: 89 minutes

Sides: 2 (CLV/CAV)

Year: 1951

Pressing: 1998

Chapters: 13 (7/5+1)

Sound: Mono

Presented in Fullscreen

Price: £19.99

Extras : Original Theatrical Trailer

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Director:

Robert Wise (The Andromeda Strain, The Desert Rats, The Haunting, The Sand Pebbles, The Sound Of Music, Star Trek: The Motion Picture, West Side Story)

Producer:

Julian Blaustein

Screenplay:

Edmund H. North (based on a story by Harry Bates)

Cast:

Klaatu: Michael Rennie (Demetrius And The Gladiators, The Robe)
Helen Benson: Patricia Neal (All Quiet On The Western Front, Breakfast At Tiffany's, In Harm's Way, Operation Pacific)
Tom Stevens: Hugh Marlowe (All About Eve, Casanova's Big Night, Twelve O'Clock High)
Gort: Lock Martin

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At that point a metal robot emerges from the craft. Known as Gort, it takes revenge by vanquishing all weapons held by the army and turns tanks and cannons into molten metal. The alien man, known as Klaatu, is here for a reason though: to save mankind before it destroys itself with its own weapons and ignorances. If they don't listen to him, he'll put them out of their own misery and then there'll be no need for the Vogons to make similar threats nearly thirty years down the line.

For a film as old as this, the original print will never be perfect but the only imperfections on display are the occasional scratch or a few flecks on screen - certainly nothing to complain about and the transfer is spot-on, reproducing the print as well as it possibly can do.

The mono sound is functional but effective. Dialogue is clear and the occasional sound effects make their mark without shaking the walls, although chapter 11 does a good job of waking up the neighbours when Klaatu is resurrected - and don't think I'm spoiling anything, since the chapter is named "Rescuing A Dead Man". The theme music is eerily familiar...

The disc has only 12 chapters during the film. A shame there's no more, but on the other hand, the second side is mastered in CAV for still frame-by-frame analysis. The package is rounded off by the intriguing original theatrical trailer.

The Day The Earth Stood Still is nearly fifty years old but continues to have an impact in modern film-making, from the sheer presence of menacing automaton Gort and the famous words, "Klaatu Barada Nikto" to opening theme music which was later copied, to a degree, for Tim Burton's 1996 sci-fi spoof, Mars Attacks!

Overall, this film will prove nostalgic for many and gain a new audience from the younger generation. In NTSC-land, two boxsets were released in 1995 - one costing $70 and one at $150 - containing a variety of extras such as production stills, the shooting script and a 70-minute documentary. For those wanting the film alone the only choice was a $40 extraless all-CLV disc with reprocessed stereo sound. Thankfully, this release costs only a penny under twenty quid, has a trailer and a CAV side so there's much to recommend it over the latter NTSC release.

FILM	 		: ****
PICTURE QUALITY		: ****
SOUND QUALITY		: ***
EXTRAS			: *
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OVERALL			: ***

Review copyright © Dominic Robinson, 1999.