I saw this when I was a boy and liked it. I liked the recent remake much more and grabbed this DVD at the dollar store. I viewed this primarily as a glimpse into 1951, or at least the conventions of the time. This is definitely inspired by The Cold War. But I have no idea how faithful it was to the story it was based on. Sci-fi movies based on shorts usually plot well, as did this one, though not as well as the remake.

When the alien emissary lands on the Washington Mall and emerges from his flying saucer he is shot almost immediately! He is then examined, treated, and locked into a recovery room at a military hospital. I loved the scene of the two doctors lighting each other’s cigarettes in the waiting room. A few scenes later people are eating breakfast in a haze of cigarette smoke. Even the U.S. Army high command meets in a smoke-filled room!

The nature of the press is interesting. Outwardly they appear like gangster clowns with their hats. The interesting aspect is that the news anchors are depicted mixing commentary with reportage and fairly worship The President. Roving reporters are also shown fishing for hyperbolic crowd commentary, and rejecting rational responses from concerned citizens. The Cold War American Press is depicted as an arm of presidential opinion shaping.

The message from the alien is that more advanced civilizations have given over their security and policing to omnipotent robots who wipe it aggressors, enforcing peace through assured destruction. The alien does profess a vague monotheistic belief in a higher power. Like most movies of this era it was written to provide a love interest hook for female moviegoers, with plenty of little soap opera nuances. The 1951 U.S. Army equipment was fun, as was the depiction of the army as a bumbling national police force.

The striking scenes in this film were two discussions: one between the alien emissary and the Secretary of State—who holds a bleaker view of humanity than does the Alien; and the other with an Einstein-like character. These were the most culturally dated aspects of the film. The Secretary of State comes off as a real statesman; the representative of an unseen godlike President. The film is rife with overt president worship of the sort that would have appeased a Caesar of pagan Roman.

The most fascinating difference between the 1951 movie and the remake—and which I believe is a reflection of vastly changed mores—is the extremely high status granted to scientists. This film was made in an age when heads of state were literally worshipped [a cult that has recently been the subject of a resurrection attempt], yet, leading scientists are depicted as far more than the faceless elves of today, but as philosophic treasures to be consulted as a kind of national conscience. The Einstein figure in the movie actually organizes his own international convention, and is deferred to by the military. I don’t know enough about the era to be able to tell if this was wishful thinking on the filmmaker’s part, or if Einstein and Oppenheimer were being composited as a scientific conscience for the film.

The Day the Earth Stood Still was dated in interesting ways and holds up pretty well as a view of possible first contact from the more mature science-fiction perspective of the early Cold War.