Sci-fi of the 1950's Week: The Day the Earth Stood Still

Howdy all and as promised we begin our late week with a 1951 Sci-fi classic brought to us from the pulp Sci-fi novelist Harry Bates (Farewell to the Master, Space Hawk: The Greatest of Interplanetary Adventurers, Hawk Carse, The Affair of the Brains, The Bluff of the Hawk and The Passing of Ku Sui) this humble black and white mono recorded number about a humanoid visitor from another world bringing with him a large and powerful robot and a message for all mankind.  So prep the Army, check your weapons and vehicles and by all means shoot profusely at the unknown.  This is The Day the Earth Stood Still.

Wow Gort, they drop some clams on this set, huh?

Klaatu: You must go to Spoiler. You must then recite these three words. Klaatu barada nikto.

A flying saucer lazily approaches the Earth and eventually lands in Washington, D.C.  Naturally the US military completely encamp around it awaiting any sign of life and/or trouble.  A hatch and gangplank opens from the ship and a tall humanoid name of Klaatu (Michael Rennie of The Robe, The Third Man, The Lost World, Lost in Space and The Time Tunnel) exits the craft announcing that he comes in peace, but as he just jets down from the gangway he draws a small cylinder from his side which a twitchy soldier mistakes for a weapon and shoots him.  Yeah we are off to a fine start of intergalactic representation.   Without any warning a large robot name of Gort (7’7” Lock Martin of Lost in a Harem, Lady on a Train, Off Limits, Invaders from Mars and The Snow Creature) pops out of the ship and proceeds to disintegrate every weapon around him with a ray of awesome power from his head visor Cyclops style. 

Optic blast...fire.

Klaatu gets him to cease the destruction and goes on to explain the device he held would allow the President to see other worlds; a sort of an inter-dimensional View Master full of wibbly wobbly timey-wimey stuff.      

Rushed to the hospital he floors the Army medical by applying some healing salve that heals the wound instantly while the Army attempts to get inside his spaceship to no doubt reverse engineer the thing.  So blasting the guy wasn’t insult enough they now move on to the lesser crime of breaking and entering.   

After escaping military personnel, Klaatu snags a suit and calls himself Mr. Carpenter to better blend in and learn of this primitive backwater world that still think atomic power is a neat idea.  Staying at a boarding house under this alias he befriends the residents and listens with great interest on his fellow boarders’ opinions of why the alien is here on Earth. 

From petty fear to typical kneejerk reactions to the unknown, Klaatu is then attacked by the Army yet again as he flees off world stopping his servitor from killing the lot of them and leaves the assembled scientists with these thoughts how the penchant of humanity’s blood lust, harnessing the power of the atom and the exploration of space that the Earth will be viewed as savages of the cosmos and to tread carefully for it could very well mean the end for the planet.

From the paranoia of the Americans only six years after World War II and the Cold War coming to affect; this really is an excellent example of human behavior large and small.  Showing the military’s standing on zero tolerance to the innocence of a small boy befriending a total stranger, director Ray Wise (The Body Snatcher, Born to Kill, The Haunting, The Andromeda Strain and The Hindenberg) and crew go the message across that the jumping to conclusions without clear thinking or rational behavior could lead to devastating consequences. 

No Helen, Scientology is complete and utter crap. 

PSA Week: How to Say No

Hey kids I am back and welcome to Day 4 of PSA Week.  We sure have covered a lot of topics stemming mostly from ignorance so why not have something supercilious crammed down our throats as the adult “get real” with the youngsters?   I am sure if we follow these helpful hints and tips they will enrich our lives and fulfill our hopes and dreams.   Or it will be incredibly Norman Rockwell and I will see some folks whiter than most vampires from Twilight and just about as hip too.  So grab your poodle skirts, have Mom sew on that letter for your jacket and do gosh darn well at debate.  This is How to Say No.

Just say no to plaid, kids.

“How to say no, that’s tricky one to spoiler, but with practice and confidence you can push on ahead.”

Those happenin’ cats from Coronet Instructional Films are at it again babies and don’t you forget it.   Why, these are the fine people that brought us such illustrious titles like: Joan Avoids a Cold, Good Table Manners, Dating: Do’s and Don’ts and my personal favorite, Communism.   Most of these educational shorts try to give ideas or hints how to better behave in polite society, fend off booze and drugs or just be a good little Capitalist.   Occasionally with this film as an example, they did offer some advice but it was all in the delivery that the message is going to be sneered at.  We have a gathering of kids (All white, of course) that deal with peer pressure from being one of the ball players, the boy looking for second base and (Gasp!) smoking. 

 

No Johnny, not a hickey!

Such events will occur in a teenager’s life but the open debate format seems a bit hokey in this light.   The message is being able to say no in any situation that makes you feel uncomfortable and not to your liking.  That importance we can take away from this short is the message is clear but I was thinking some self-defense for girls, maybe show the boys to be more respectful to the girls via sensitivity talks and frankly it felt awkward to watch.  I found myself making too many jokes while watching it but I think that is because of the apple pie and baseball days of Leave It to Beaver land.

The discussion goes around this particular clique of the elite kids so you don’t get a feeling about the nerdy guy that got shoved in his locker yet again or the slightly ugly girl that gets hazed every day.    These feasible scenarios are just completely overlooked and not even mentioned one bit.   They vaguely cover how to avoid that heavy petting with changing the subject or mentioning the latest gossip and I felt myself snickering yet again.   Why not a card trick or the ball in the cup trick for a distraction?  

Car handles better after 12 beers, am I right, fellas?

The lack of realism in this film I guess was to not frighten the young ones watching this short but dammit all if this didn’t need to be more plausible and give them facts.   A real mentorship would have been better for them or establish a peer to talk to. 

PSA Week: Duck and Cover

Well hey there teen gang and welcome to the first round of Public Service Announcement Week or PSA for short. Say let’s start this motif off right with bit of public safety.  Here are a few dos and don’ts on dealing a thermal baric atomic explosion to bring Americans to a safety conscious awareness.    So duck in the basement; get under your desk or just cover eyes from the blast.   This is Duck and Cover.

 

Jeepers Mom, we left Sparky outside during the blast.

Well we don’t all have a spoiler like Bert the turtle that we can duck and cover in.

Let us journey back to a time a large gas guzzling all metal vehicles, no real safety belts and a Norman Rockwell view of society.    The atomic scare is under way due to the rampant spread of Communism and the threat of a high yield explosion that if the sheer concussive force didn’t snap your bones and liquefy your organs, then the concentrated thermonuclear explosion would atomize you where you stand, sit or play.   Rather than be open and honest with the masses the United States National Civil Defense felt a lofty and delightful cartoon describing the unbridled terror of having your flesh fried from your body.

Bert the Turtle is passing the buck on his misinformation.

Commissioned for the National Education Association in 1951, this iconic character Bert the turtle did not wolf down pizza, beat up ninjas or tell you how things were bodacious but in fact taught you what to do in the event of a nuclear blast.   The need to keep calm, keep cool and just let the atomic flames wash over you like a gentle breeze was the appeal apparently.  You are to walk safely and in even files while getting into a basement or shelter that could hold maybe 500 people uncomfortable.  Hiding under a metal desk was also an acceptable barrier to mass levels of shockwaves of pressure and thermo baric pressure and flames generating heat to the magnitude of 1102 degrees Fahrenheit.    I am no rocket scientist but I dare say the levels of lead paint in a house would not shrug off the radiation of these levels.

Here a few fun facts of the hypocrisy of this “educational” film.  While covering the devastation of the initial explosion of an atomic warhead how the concussion force works, they seem to have skipped the 7.5 mile radius spread of extreme heat that would make 3^rd degree burns seem like a day at the beach without sunscreen. Not mention the sheer demolition and defoliation of that area in wide spread disaster.  Not even counting the vast levels of radiation that are omitted around every living thing in the area and taking in account for winds to spread this havoc ensued causing that region of land to be ruined for 80 to 100 years plus. 

Oh good golly this floor needs scrubbing.

Funny, how none of these computations were taken in and handed out to the American households.  So the next time you look to the skies and notice a bright flash, your retinas are not completely burned out.  You too will duck and cover.

PSA Week.

This week we tackle a ridiculous conundrum that swept the nation since the 1950's.  I am speaking of the Public Service Announcement.  Speaking of dangers such as what to do on a date, Atomic War, the worries of homosexuality and of course the trouble with women.   These simple issues are horribly construed and misinterpreted on how to best deal with this trouble scenarios.

Bert enjoys a flower before...the commies win.

With the government standing to keep people safe and free of harm the influences are clearly examples of the creation of the Moral Majority, McCarthyism and general close mindedness that leads to the belief how a girl dresses is the cause for her be raped.  HUH?!!!!  So feel free to enjoy this total lack of tolerance and by all means poke fun at this anal retention.