Visit to a Small Planet (1960)

User Rating:

5.8/10   

Director:

Norman Taurog

Writers:

Gore Vidal (play)
Edmund Beloin (writer) ...

Release Date:

4 February 1960 (USA)

Genre:

Comedy | Sci-Fi

Plot:

The weirdest alien of the galaxy pays a visit to Earth...

Plot Keywords:

Alien | Planet | Spaceship | Love | Extraterrestrial

Awards:

Nominated for Oscar.

Cast

Jerry Lewis	...	Kreton
Joan Blackman	...	Ellen Spelding
Earl Holliman	...	Conrad
Fred Clark	...	Major Roger Putnam Spelding
John Williams	...	Delton
Jerome Cowan	...	George Abercrombie
Gale Gordon	...	Bob Mayberry
Lee Patrick	...	Rheba Spelding
Milton Frome	...	Police Commissioner
Ellen Corby	...	Mrs. Mabel Mayberry
Barbara Lawson	...	Beatnick dancer Desdemona

Runtime:

85 min | Portugal:95 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Westrex Recording System)

Certification:

Finland:S | Sweden:Btl

Company:

Hal Wallis Productions

Trivia:

Gore Vidal, who wrote the original play, was upset with the choice of Jerry Lewis as the lead in the movie version. On Broadway, Vidal's play ran for 388 performances between Feb 7, 1957 and Jan 11, 1958, and won Cyril Ritchard, originator of the Kreton character, a 1957 Tony Award nomination for Best Actor in Play. But Jerry Lewis was a star, twelve times named to the Top Ten list of Box Office Stars, six times with partner Dean Martin (with whom he was the top star of 1952), and six times solo (ranking as high as #3 in 1958). He got the part.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in "Lost in Space: Visit to a Hostile Planet (#3.2)" (1967)

Soundtrack:

Desdemona's Lament

Dany Saval was great

Dany Saval was the dancer and scat singer in the Beatnik café scene. She is one of the cutest, sexiest women I have ever seen, and this really gave her a chance to show it off. She was a fairly famous singer of the time in France, one of the "Ye-Ye girls". Since she played opposite Jerry Lewis in her other American film (Boing, Boing) and since he ended up in France much of the time, I have wondered what the connection was. Jerry Lewis was much more believable and less irritating than Robin Williams was in the spin-off TV series, Mork and Mindy. If you have watched a lot of Mork and Mindy, it will probably ruin this movie for you, since Mork and Mindy repeated all the same gags, but the movie was much, much better.