The Day The Earth Stood Still (1951) on PAL Laserdisc

• 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:

Screenplay:

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

Cast:

(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

The Day The Earth Stood Still is theclassic sci-fi film in which a spaceship appears from nowhere and lands inWashington DC. A suited man walks out, claiming he comes in peace, but offersa gift looking like several knives sticking out at once. An army officer withan itchy trigger finger lets his fears get the better of him and the alien manis forced to the ground.

At that point a metal robot emerges from the craft. Known as Gort, it takesrevenge by vanquishing all weapons held by the army and turns tanks and cannonsinto 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 thenthere’ll be no need for the Vogons to make similar threats nearly thirty yearsdown the line.

For a film as old as this, the original print will never be perfect but theonly imperfections on display are the occasional scratch or a few flecks onscreen – 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 theoccasional sound effects make their mark without shaking the walls, althoughchapter 11 does a good job of waking up the neighbours when Klaatu isresurrected – and don’t think I’m spoiling anything, since the chapter isnamed “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, buton the other hand, the second side is mastered in CAV for still frame-by-frameanalysis. The package is rounded off by the intriguing original theatricaltrailer.

The Day The Earth Stood Still is nearly fifty years old but continuesto have an impact in modern film-making, from the sheer presence of menacingautomaton Gort and the famous words, “Klaatu Barada Nikto” to opening thememusic 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 fromthe younger generation. In NTSC-land, two boxsets were released in 1995 – onecosting $70 and one at $150 – containing a variety of extras such as productionstills, the shooting script and a 70-minute documentary. For those wantingthe film alone the only choice was a $40 extraless all-CLV disc withreprocessed stereo sound. Thankfully, this release costs only a penny undertwenty quid, has a trailer and a CAV side so there’s much to recommend itover the latter NTSC release.

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

Review copyright © Dominic Robinson, 1999.