| Visit to a Small Planet | |
|---|---|
 Theatrical release poster | |
| Directed by | Norman Taurog |
| Written by | Edmund Beloin Henry Garson Gore Vidal (play) |
| Produced by | Hal B. Wallis |
| Starring | Jerry Lewis Joan Blackman Earl Holliman Fred Clark |
| Cinematography | Loyal Griggs |
| Edited by | Frank Bracht |
| Music by | Leigh Harline |
| Distributed by | Paramount Pictures |
Release date |
|
Running time | 85 minutes |
| Language | English |
| Box office | $3,200,000 (US/Canada rentals)[1] 907,280 admissions (France)[2] |
Visit to a Small Planet is a 1960 Americanblack-and-whitescience fictioncomedy film directed byNorman Taurog and starringJerry Lewis,Joan Blackman,Earl Holliman, andFred Clark. Distributed byParamount Pictures, it was produced byHal B. Wallis.
Visit to a Small Planet debuted as an original television production byGore Vidal, then was reworked by Vidal as aBroadway play starringCyril Ritchard andEddie Mayehoff.
The film was released on February 4, 1960. It was re-released in 1966 on adouble bill with anotherJerry Lewis film,The Bellboy.
Kreton is analien from the planet X-47 who is fascinated by human beings. Against the wishes of his teacher, he repeatedly visits Earth. During his latest visit, his teacher reluctantly agrees to allow him to stay and study the humans. Kreton becomes friends with asuburban family and stays with them after they agree to keep his alien status a secret. Along the way, he falls in love with their daughter. However, there is aforce field around him that prevents any physical contact. His race has abolished any form of affection.
Kreton's otherworldly abilities includelevitation; the ability to communicate with the family dog; and forcing people he doesn't like to recite "Mary Had A Little Lamb" in public.
After repeatedly breaking his teacher's rule against getting involved in humans' lives, all Kreton's powers are stripped away. This is so he can discover for himself that being human comes with other, less desired, emotions like pain, sadness, and jealousy. Once his cover is blown on Earth and he is reported to the police, Kreton decides that those emotions are not worth the trouble, so he returns to his own planet.
Visit to a Small Planet was filmed from April 28 through July 3, 1959.
Hal Pereira,Walter Tyler,Samuel M. Comer, andArthur Krams were nominated for the 1960Academy Award for Best Art Direction (Black and White), but lost toAlexandre Trauner andEdward G. Boyle forThe Apartment.[3][4]
Gore Vidal wroteVisit as atelevision play in which form it debuted on May 8, 1955, onGoodyear Television Playhouse. Later, he reworked it for the stage. StarringCyril Ritchard, who also directed, andEddie Mayehoff, the play had tryouts at the Shubert Theatre in New Haven, Connecticut January 16–19, 1957. OnBroadway, it debuted on February 7, 1957, and ran for 388 performances. Ritchard received aTony Award nomination for his performance as Kreton. Mayehoff also received a nomination for Best Performance by a Featured Actor.
Vidal intended the play as asatire on the post-World War II fear ofcommunism in theUnited States,McCarthyism,Cold War military paranoia and the rising importance of television in American life. A major critical success, it was subtitledA Comedy Akin toVaudeville.
The play tells the story of Kreton, an alien from an unnamed planet who lands on Earth intending to view theAmerican Civil War. He miscalculates and lands instead 100 years later. Having missed the opportunity to see conflict first hand, but delighted with all the new playthings the 20th century has invented for war-making, he decides to create a war for himself.
The film was released on DVD and Blu-Ray on August 22, 2017.
The film was selected by Quentin Tarantino for the third Quentin Tarantino Film Fest in Austin, Texas in 1999.
