One of the most enduring and influential science fiction films ever made, and among the first produced by a major studio, The Day the Earth Stood Still is arguably the first sci-fi film that eschewed juvenile whiz-bang shenanigans (even though every kid in the country could proclaim, with appropriate urgency, "Klaatu barada nikto!") in favor of a message directed toward a post-atomic adult audience. Klaatu, an emissary from a "neighboring" planet, travels to earth (Washington, D.C., naturally) to alert its citizens to the threat nuclear weapons pose to the safety of the universe. Acted with ascetic aplomb by Michael Rennie, the Christ-like Klaatu, variously supported by Gort, his golem/robot enforcer; astro-physicist Dr. Barnhardt (Sam Jaffe as a delightfully wide-eyed ersatz Einstein); and a sympathetic human (Patricia Neal), manages to defy Cold War animosities to deliver The Word. A classic.-Albert Kilchesty