27th Day (1957)

Cast:

Gene "I fought the Martians in the real War of the Worlds" Barry is Jonathan Clark
Valerie "I was in a Western version of Othello?" French is Eve Wingate
George Voskovec is Prof. Klaus Bechner
Arnold Moss is The Alien
Stefan Schnabel is The Soviet General

What the IMDB says about the plot:

Five individuals from five nations, including the "Superpowers," USA, USSR, and China, suddenly find themselves on an alien spacecraft...

Plot:

An English couple, Harry and Evelyn, is on a beach when she disappears. In LA, reporter, Jonathan Clark, is taken. In China, soldiers have just widowed Su Tan who disappears. A professor, Klaus Venker, and a Russian soldier, Ivan, are taken aboard the UFO.

Foolish human, you can't ignore my intimidating entrance forever...

The alien explains how their home planet is going to be destroyed by a natural disaster in 35 days. He will give them each weapons that only work for 27 days and explains how to activate and use them. Their alien code won't let them kill intelligent life but are able to let humans go ahead and eliminate themselves. The weapon will only destroy humans. He returns them to Earth.

Evelyn tosses hers away. Su Tan commits suicide to disable her weapon. Later, Evelyn calls Jonathan who she plans on seeing.

Later, the alien broadcasts to all Earth about the people he gave the weapons to and even names them off, too. Professor Klaus gets accidentally run over by a car. Russians chase Ivan down. Jonathan and Evelyn manage to get into hiding. The US recovers the capsule of the Professor's.

As a Russian general questions Ivan who denies everything, Evelyn and Jonathan hide out at a horse race track.

A news report announces that Evelyn tossed her capsule into the ocean. The Russians can't figure out how to arm Ivan's. They torture him into catatonia.

US agents question Professor Klaus who wheedles around the answers. Meanwhile, Jonathan and Evelyn are getting on each other's nerves.

Some goons try to kidnap the Professor from the hospital. The feds shoot than and are able to save the Professor.

The weight of the situation preys on Jonathan. Apparently, a non-Herbie love bug has bitten the two. He and Evelyn decide to turn themselves in.

The Russians use a truth serum on Ivan. He opens that box and reveals how to arm the weapon, too.

The Professor has an idea about the capsules. He, Jonathan, and Evelyn demonstrate how the capsule can be opened...Russia announces that the US must evacuate their forces from Europe and Asia and to stay in the US. The military decides to test one of the capsules at sea. Professor Venker's friend, Professor Carl Newhouse, subjects himself to a fatal dose of radiation to be used as the guinea pig in the blast radius.

The 27 days is over in a few hours. Professor Venker realizes that the capsules have a message written on the entire set. He examines Jonathan's to attempt to decipher.

Russia plans to use their capsules to destroy North America. Ivan rushes at the General, but some guards shot Ivan.

Professor Venker starts to activate the capsules which cause the Russian general to collapse.

The radio announces that the radiation killed all the enemies of human freedom.

Everyone is thinking about what has happened. Jonathan thinks about allowing the aliens to move to Earth and inhabit deserts, jungles, etc...Later, at the UN, Earth sends a message to the aliens and is awaiting their response when they accept.

What I say:

Those pesky aliens that always look down on those noisy interplanetary neighbors on Earth. Are we really that irritating? Do we blare our music loud enough to keep them awake? Could aliens just be disturbed by our broadcasting TV into outer space? Nowadays, everyone just pictures all the 50s sci-fi movies as the typical UFOs attacking or aliens infilitrating our societies to conquer us.

If you asked anyone about any 1950s sci-fi movie with barely any aliens or spaceships? People would remember more things like Day the Earth Stood Still, Earth Versus the Flying Saucers, or Plan 9 From Outer Space. So many movies have given us the flying saucer which was just the pie plate on a string. Those amazing or cheezy effects leave indelible marks we don't forget.

27th Day is more focused on the idea of aliens giving a few people weapons that could destroy Earth. That kind of idea does sound like something from the Twilight Zone. We see how a couple of the humans automatically either dispose of the capsules or commit suicide to prevent the weapon from being used. This movie seems more like a long episode of the Twilight Zone or the Outer Limits than an actual movie at a theater. I can't quite think of a bigger Deus Ex Machina than something that wipes out all enemies of human freedom.

We don't have the Cold War in 2009. The thought that Russia was across the world and had ICBMs pointed and wanted to get rid of America was an idea that was drilled into everyone's heads with Mutual Assured Destruction to telling kids to duck and cover under their desks. Get the idea of the movie continually pointing at communist USSR and saying bad? Flat out pointing and saying that a certain country would use the weapon to get their way and then still use it with no reprecussions against them is almost the Snidely Whiplash or Fearless Leader manner of villainy government.

A movie where the aliens who threatened the existence of humanity and gets invited to live on Earth? Most 1950s aliens are automatically evil be they the intellectual carrot type from the Thing From Another World or the Blob. Very few movies have more than good aliens than say Vol in Brain From Planet Arous.

After the past few weeks of reviews with special effects that can best be said at least they mainly can be seen is the high water mark, just a movie without the quite the numerous stock footage shots of Lost Missile has to be an improvement. That said, 27th Day uses the newspaper montage so many times I almost expected to see the banner of the Daily Planet.

Normally, I don't mention the other things the director has done except in special circumstances. The director, William Asher, may be better known for creating a certain sitcom in the 1960s: Bewitched. He did more TV work mainly sitcoms than movies. However, no one should forget his writing accomplishments such as writing How to Stuff a Wild Bikini, Beach Blanket Bingo, Bikini Beach, and Muscle Beach Party.

Quotable Dialogue
"Martians threaten Earth."
"I spent a lot of their time and my money here."
"15 human annihilators."
"Democracies are appeasers."
Morals of the Story
Aliens have ethical standards that only allow them to let others to destroy themselves.
All aliens are bipedal.
Race tracks are great hideouts.
Nuclear radiation exposure is a great way to volunteer.