Stranger from Venus

Release date(s) 1954

Running time 	75 minutes

Directed by 	Burt Balaban

Produced by 	Burt Balaban
                Gene Martel
                Roy Rich

Written by 	Desmond Leslie (story)
                Hans Jacoby (writer)

Starring        Patricia Neal
                Helmut Dantine
                Derek Bond
                Cyril Luckham
                Willoughby Gray
                Stanley Van Beers


Stranger from Venus (also known as Immediate Disaster and The Venusian) is a 1954 british science fiction film directed by Burt Balaban and starring Patricia Neal (she starred in the day the earth stood still in pretty much the same role).

Amid some reports of a UFO, a stranger arrives at a rural English inn. He has odd behavior, but otherwise looks normal. The ship that dropped him off caused a woman's car to crash (bright lights blinded her), but he has miraculous healing powers, so she survives unhurt. The stranger (who never does give a name) finally tells everyone (about six people) that he is there to prepare the way for messengers from the planet Venus. Everyone believes him, more or less. The woman, Susan, (played by Patricia Neal) has a fiancee who is a bureaucrat. The government cordons off the area so that no one can get in to find out more, or get out to tell what they've seen. This way, the rest of the country is kept ignorant. The government conspires to capture the returning Venusian ship when it comes to pick up the Stranger and deliver the official messengers. They hope to learn of the advanced technology for their own nationalist benefits. Meanwhile, the stranger and Susan begin to have feelings for each other. The meeting with British officials did not go well, as he can read minds and knows of their duplicity. They lay out a magnetic trap to disable the ship when it lands. The stranger warns them that any foul play will mean the mother ship will simply destroy all life on the earth. Susan's scheming fiancee redeems himself by returning the stranger's stolen communication device. The stranger warns off the ship just in time to prevent its capture, but this also strands him on the earth where he cannot stay alive much longer. The movie closes with him sitting alone by a pond, fingering Susan's scarf lovingly.