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The 27th Day - Cold War science fiction film
various

Posted on 05/02/2010 1:35:46 PM PDT by EveningStar

The 27th Day is a 1957 Cold War science fiction B-movie. However, don’t let the B-movie label turn you off. I think it’s quite good. It features an intelligent script and good acting.

It's difficult to find it on Region 1 DVD. However, it has recently been uploaded to YouTube. I don’t know how long it will be there before it gets yanked, so you may wish to download it.

The screenplay is by John Mantley, who adapted it from his novel.

It stars Gene Barry.

The actor with the great voice who plays the alien is Arnold Moss. He played Kodos the Executioner in the Star Trek: TOS episode, The Conscience of the King. Another good voice actor, Paul Frees, makes a brief appearance as the American TV newscaster. This is a rare onscreen role for him. He voiced the unseen John Beresford Tipton, in the 1955-1960 TV series, The Millionaire.

The movie been uploaded to YouTube in eight parts. It runs about 75 minutes:

  1. Part 1
  2. Part 2
  3. Part 3
  4. Part 4
  5. Part 5
  6. Part 6
  7. Part 7
  8. Part 8

IMDb entry (contains spoilers)

Wikipedia entry (contains spoilers)

The synopsis, adapted from IMDb:

Five individuals from the USA, the USSR, Red China, England, and West Germany, suddenly find themselves on an alien spacecraft. An alien gives each a container holding capsules. No power on earth can open a given container except a mental command from the person to whom it is given. Each person has been provided with the power of life and death. Any of these individuals has the capability to instantaneously launch the capsules to whatever coordinates he/she chooses, and each capsule will then eradicate all human life within a 1,500-mile radius of its designated location.



TOPICS: Chit/Chat; History; TV/Movies; UFO's
KEYWORDS: 1957; coldwar; film; genebarry; johnmantley; movies; sciencefiction; scifi; the27thday; williamasher
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1 posted on 05/02/2010 1:35:47 PM PDT by EveningStar
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To: KevinDavis; Borges; DollyCali

ping


2 posted on 05/02/2010 1:36:25 PM PDT by EveningStar (Karl Marx is not one of our Founding Fathers.)
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To: EveningStar

Looks very interesting. And those aliens are like Liberals....getting others to do their dirty work.


3 posted on 05/02/2010 1:51:10 PM PDT by wolfcreek (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lsd7DGqVSIc)
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To: wolfcreek
I saw it in the theater when it first came out in 1957. I read the book shortly thereafter.

It has a good ending.

The movie is anti-communist, and like Red Planet Mars, another favorite of mine, it's mocked by some on the Left.

4 posted on 05/02/2010 2:09:52 PM PDT by EveningStar (Karl Marx is not one of our Founding Fathers.)
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To: FrPR; OriginalChristian; El Sordo; ronnyquest; cizinec; Ronin; HeartlandOfAmerica; ...


A big thanks goes to Visualops for the Banner!!


5 posted on 05/02/2010 2:13:18 PM PDT by KevinDavis (Jesus Saves... Allah Kills...)
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To: wolfcreek
So much SF of the 50's is thinly disguised propaganda like this that allowed the liberal intelligentsia in Hollywood to infiltrate insipid ideas like moral equivalence and man as God into the minds of the youth of the day and provide the underpinnings many of the problems of today.

I do like Panic in Year Zero, an early survivalist flick that showed a nuclear war as survivable and stressed the need to shave, pray and use violence against evil to remain civilized.

6 posted on 05/02/2010 2:16:43 PM PDT by atomic_dog
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To: atomic_dog

Panic in The Year Zero, was good. Ray Milland and Frankie Avalon etc. When i saw it as a kid in the 60s-we all talked
the next day about it at school and what would we do if.


7 posted on 05/02/2010 2:32:04 PM PDT by urtax$@work (The best kind of memorial is a Burning Memorial.........)
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To: EveningStar
Red Planet Mars

Did it have Robert Graves and about these astronomers claiming to detect communications from Mars ? Had religious overtones as well.

8 posted on 05/02/2010 2:34:24 PM PDT by urtax$@work (The best kind of memorial is a Burning Memorial.........)
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To: urtax$@work

Peter Graves. And yes, definite religious overtones.


9 posted on 05/02/2010 2:49:12 PM PDT by EveningStar (Karl Marx is not one of our Founding Fathers.)
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To: atomic_dog; wolfcreek

Have you seen the movie? It didn’t seem liberal to me.


10 posted on 05/02/2010 2:51:08 PM PDT by EveningStar (Karl Marx is not one of our Founding Fathers.)
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To: EveningStar

Will check it out.


11 posted on 05/02/2010 2:53:29 PM PDT by wally_bert (It's sheer elegance in its simplicity! - The Middleman)
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To: atomic_dog

Science Fiction is often anti Man-As-God. Mad Scientist films for instance.


12 posted on 05/02/2010 3:19:33 PM PDT by Borges
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To: EveningStar

It was directed by William Asher who also directed every single episode of Bewitched. He was married to Elizabeth Montgomery.


13 posted on 05/02/2010 3:20:53 PM PDT by Borges
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To: Shimmer1

ping


14 posted on 05/02/2010 3:58:50 PM PDT by null and void (We are now in day 465 of our national holiday from reality. - 0bama really isn't one of US.)
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To: EveningStar

bump


15 posted on 05/02/2010 4:24:30 PM PDT by GeronL (http://libertyfic.proboards.com << Get your science fiction and fiction test marketed)
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To: Borges; atomic_dog
Science Fiction is often anti Man-As-God. Mad Scientist films for instance.

True. And this film doesn't even have a Man-As-God theme in it.

16 posted on 05/02/2010 4:32:44 PM PDT by EveningStar (Karl Marx is not one of our Founding Fathers.)
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To: Borges
It was directed by William Asher who also directed every single episode of Bewitched. He was married to Elizabeth Montgomery.

Wow. He has quite a resume. I should have included him it the initial post.

17 posted on 05/02/2010 4:35:39 PM PDT by EveningStar (Karl Marx is not one of our Founding Fathers.)
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To: urtax$@work
As for Robert Graves, he wrote I, Claudius - among other works.
18 posted on 05/02/2010 4:50:05 PM PDT by EveningStar (Karl Marx is not one of our Founding Fathers.)
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To: AdmSmith; Berosus; bigheadfred; Convert from ECUSA; dervish; Ernest_at_the_Beach; Fred Nerks; ...
Five individuals from the USA, the USSR, Red China, England, and West Germany, suddenly find themselves on an alien spacecraft... Any of these individuals has the capability to instantaneously launch the capsules to whatever coordinates he/she chooses, and each capsule will then eradicate all human life within a 1,500-mile radius of its designated location.
In the remake, all five will pick a location in Pakistan, and most of the Moslem population of the Middle East ceases to exist, while Israel falls just outside the kill zone.
19 posted on 05/02/2010 5:27:52 PM PDT by SunkenCiv ("Fools learn from experience. I prefer to learn from the experience of others." -- Otto von Bismarck)
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To: SunkenCiv
“most of the Moslem population of the Middle East ceases to exist, while Israel falls just outside the kill zone. “

According to the film it would only kill those of evil intent.

That would mean even it it include all the middle east, all those of radical islam would be history.

Most of Israel would survive, anyway at least given the story line of the video. I say do it!

20 posted on 05/02/2010 5:41:37 PM PDT by JSteff (It was ALL about SCOTUS. Most forget about that and HAVE DOOMED us for a generation or more.)
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