The 27th Day (1957)

Wow! Such a good movie.

It’s fine. It's literally the definition of a fine movie. You’ve seen it before, you know every beat and outcome before the characters even do. Only question is how much escapism you’re looking for.

There's no way I can possibly love it entirely but I just think its ridiculously bad, but enjoyable at the same time.

An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

Five seemingly random individuals find themselves mysteriously on board an alien craft. The alien gives each person three capsules. Each capsule is capable of wiping out vast sections of the Earth's population, but will not harm anything else. The five are sent back to their homes with their powerful weapons and told that they have 27 days in which to either use their devices to destroy humanity or find a way to live in peace. If they should chose to wipe-out the Earth's population, the aliens will take over the world. If not, the aliens will move on and look for another home. Each of the five is left with a horrible dilemma – how to handle this kind of power?I was going to get into detail on a whole political thing about some of the deeper aspects of The 27th Day, but I've since thought better of it. I usually write about the entertainment value of a film and what I liked and didn't like. I tend to leave the deep thinking for people who are much smarter than me. All I say on the subject is I would hate to see anyone allotted this kind of power given the current state of affairs in the world where words are considered a form of violence. I'd hate to see what someone would do with these capsules just because they felt slighted, etc. The ending of the films is especially troubling. So the people in the film discover how to use their devices to kill only those they consider evil because they do not support freedom? How do you decide who is in favor of freedom and what is your definition of evil? Were all those communists you wiped out really evil? Or were some of them living under a regime they did not agree with? Just a silly, illogical, nonsensical way to end the film. On to other things. So, was The 27th Day an entertaining film? Reading through some of the comments on IMDb, I know it has its fans, but I'm not really one of them. The film is well made, it has a reasonably interesting premise, and it features rock solid acting. But, unfortunately, it is all pretty much a bore. I found most of the movie as dry as dust. I had to fight with myself to stay awake. The relatively short 75 minute runtime just seemed to drag on and on forever. People talking and talking and talking with nothing much happening. Not what I call entertainment. And then there's that ending I've already discussed. What a mess. My one sentence summary: The 27th Day is a well-made film that suffers from a deathly dull script and an ending I find especially troubling. An unfortunate 4/10 from me.

Interesting little movie, a product of the times and rather short at 1h 15m. This is simply an American propaganda movie of the 1950s. Leading man Gene Barry does a workman like job as the conscience of the few chosen to carry the weapons of mass destruction. The rest of the cast provide sufficient background decoration including the always interesting Stefan Schnabel in an early role looking very Stalin like as megalomaniac leader of the USSR. With a face like that, he was made to play the Soviet heavy. Odd casting decisions here and there - leading lady Valerie French is OK to look at but she sounds bizarrely and comically like Princess Diana. I was surprised to see she was actually British as it sounded like she'd been badly voice coached. Clearly some budget problems beset this movie with quite large chunks set inside a stable/tack room at a California race track. Having set themselves a time line involving 27 days (e.g. 27th Day of the title), they had to fill the story up somehow and try and introduce a mechanism for creating romance between the leading man and woman. Worth watching as a movie of the times and as a bit of social history, but I think other movies like "Invasion of the Body Snatchers" do a more entertaining (if tacky) job of providing allegories of good versus evil and democracy versus dictatorships common in movies of the Cold War.

I have been waiting 52 years to see this film again and I wasn't disappointed. I was 13 when I first saw it at a Saturday Matinée and still remembered most of it. At the time I worried about the Russians as they most likely were worried about us, but to me this was a great sci-fi film. I don't remember if I saw 'The Alien' as a bad guy but I remembered those capsules oh so well. The oval, see-through container and the silver capsules inside. I remembered what happened to the Chinese girl but couldn't recall how the Russians got to Ivan's capsule. The only slightly negative factors were the low budget, the ancient special effects technology and propaganda aspects of the script but these were so minor they don't affect the labeling of this film as a classic. The cast was fine, the directing crisp and well-paced, and technically it was more than adequate for its time. I can't wait for the DVD.

Great film! An excellent example of good SF that doesn't focus on special effects and a very engaging story that keeps you glued to the end, not only is it good SF, it's good film making. Even though it's 50 years old I found it to be a new take on the tired alien abduction/invasion "We Are Not Alone" storyline. Even with the 100 million dollar budgets of today's SF films they can't make a story as compelling as this one.I don't recall having seen this before TCM ran it on New Year's day 2007 (and I suspect most of the other voters saw it then as well) but it should take its place next to comparable films such as On the Beach, The Day the Earth Caught Fire, When Worlds Collide, The Magnetic Monster (another lost gem) and Day the Earth Stood Still.