Sometimes, you just have to pay homage to the classics and this week’s TERROR FILLED MONDAY! entry certainly could be considered one of the classics!

Wise’s background in directing horror (his solo directorial debut had come with producer Val Lewton some five years before) lent itself to a “haunted house” feel to the movie’s spookier scenes, with a stark use of deep shadow, often patterned to resemble the bars of a cage (his hospital room, the wallpaper and balustrade of the boarding house, the elevator). High angle shots are often used to create a feeling of vulnerability or isolation; here, they are presumably used to augment the viewer's Klaatu’s separation from the people of Earth, whose warlike ways are alien to him. Low angle shots are believed to give the subject an aura of potency; it can be inferred that shooting Klaatu in low shot was intended to highlight the unlimited power he represents. Theories of cinematography such as the effect of camera angles were, at the time of the making of this film, an art not a science.

The Day the Earth Stood Still another one of those hallmark scifi pics, while last week’s entry could be considered emblematic of the genre as depicted in film in the 50’s, the Day the Earth Stood Still is markedly a cut above. In large part that has to do with the cast and the cinematography.

It may well have been the highpoint of Michael Rennie’s career but, it was another outstanding performance by Patricia Neal, two years off the Fountainhead and 12 years away from an Oscar for Best Actress (HUD).

The other notable performance in the movie was that of Billy Gray who played mostly opposite Rennie as his diminutive tour guide to our planet. Gray would later play (and the thing I remember him most for) Bud on Father Knows Best.

The other thing the flick has going for it, is a haunting score penned by one of film’s great composers, Bernard Herrmann. A score that plays into and emphasizes the wonderful mood of the piece.

While looking around for source material, I came to discover that like other TERROR FILLED MONDAY! entry Colossus, this film is another movie in the process of being remade and updated:

Twentieth Century Fox has set Keanu Reeves to star in “The Day the Earth Stood Still,” its re-imagining of the 1951 Robert Wise-directed sci-fi classic. Reeves committed over the weekend to play Klaatu, a humanoid alien who arrives on Earth accompanied by an indestructible, heavily armed robot and a warning to world leaders that their continued aggression will lead to annihilation by species watching from afar.

Already in production, the movie will also have Jennifer Connelly in the role played by Patricia Neal. I’m just hoping it’s not another Hulk fiasco.