I am not an inhabitant of your planet. There aren't many good stories. Bert Balaban was not yet working in the film industry when Robert Wise’s The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951) came out. Nevertheless, he was not afraid, after only three years, to bring his own work with a similar plot to the audience. Moreover, he invited Patricia Neal to the lead role, in the same role starred in the hit 1951! The result was an excellent film, the internal content of which more than overlaps the meager “space entourage”. By and large, of the “extraterrestrial paraphernalia” in the film, there are only two scenes: a communication device with a spaceship and a tandem of two flying saucers. At the same time, the film looks whole, deep and interesting.
The writers have done a great job on the story, touching on even such a sensitive issue as life on the planet Venus. Of course, in 1954, there were no satellites in orbit, but astronomers knew the conditions on the surface of our cosmic neighbor. Without going into details, the writers put into the mouth of the nameless Venusian an explanation that he underwent a two-week training session before the flight to adapt his respiratory system to the earth’s air. It doesn't sound scientific, but it's laconic. There are many interesting scenes in the film that characterize the inhabitants of Earth and the alien from Venus in different ways.
This is the attitude to our everyday drinks, and the episode with fingerprinting the alien, and the examination of the alien by the doctor: “Either I am drunk or you are dead!” The plot develops smoothly without sagging, gradually showing the true goals from both sides. If a Venusian is honest and candid in his intentions, then “the powers that be” is a real terrarium of scorpions ready to bite off their own sting for profit: “The main thing is not what he needs, but what we can learn from him!” However, to deceive an alien who reads your thoughts is absolutely hopeless. What brilliantly showed the scene of the “high gathering”.
The undoubted plus of the picture is the short but poetic history of the relationship between the Alien (Helmut Dantin) and Susan North (Patricia Neal). Just a few scenes that showed a striking ethical contrast between ordinary people and those who, true and false, climbed the Olympus of Power. Against the background of the pastoral landscape, the alien, without crooking his soul, explains to the girl how he sees her: “You are quiet and gentle.” Your look is soft and sensual. Your character is deep and multifaceted.” This is what makes every girl feel like.
But for the Alien, who on his planet rarely resorts to verbal communication, these are not just words - this is a tracing of his soul, because for a Venusian love is not fleeting, it lasts a lifetime, and they live for hundreds of years. Such a long and powerful feeling could move entire planets. That is why, concerned about the growing nuclear potential of earthlings, the top leadership of Venus sent its emissary to prepare the meeting “at the highest level”. The solar system is not as big as it seems, and a catastrophe on one planet will necessarily affect all other members of the solar family.
This applies primarily to gravitational fields that help Venus travel in space. But this concern of the inhabitants of another planet is not one-sided and not self-serving, because after the “summit of planets” Venus is ready to transfer to earthlings technologies that we will not have for hundreds of years – a meager price to stop biting each other’s throats. But God is always in heaven, and the people on this sinful earth are ruled by the devil. Therefore, all the good intentions of the Alien, which, as is known, paved the road to hell, lead to the finale, which is clear from the first frames of the film. And yet the director managed to intrigue the viewer literally at the last minute - a creature from another world sincerely wanted to bring Harmony of Happiness to our planet. And someone seems to have gotten a piece of it. . .