I always find it terribly funny when Helen goes with the all-important message to disarm Gort after Klaatu is shot down in the street & upon entering the enclosure & being confronted by Gort, before she utters the words, she screams & flings herself into a stack of folding chairs! I DO love this movie.
Dale
Well, she's a woman in a 50s B-movie. They had to get a few shots of her screaming for the trailer....
The Day The Earth Stood Still review: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BwrV7bdr2xM
Who told you this was a "B" movie?
shareTrivia states that in interview Patricia Neal said at the time she didn't think this would become a landmark important movie that would be remembered by millions in the future. She just thought it was another trashy B-movie and reported she had trouble keeping a straight face during her lines. This is not that noticeable to me in her performance, though. She's a great actress.
"Cum Grano Salis"
That was a lousy moment of characterization in the writing, IMHO. It had been established by then that Helen was a smart, sophisticated, and brave woman; the kind you want on your side when it hits the fan (and at other times!); hardly a blushing, fainting 1930s Hollywood caricature dame.
Immediately before the scream we see her advance resolutely; her face would have been the envy of John Paul Jones. Then the Hollywood scream-and-collapse moment, followed immediately by a return to resolute (thank goodness).
It's sad, because many women portrayed in the 1950s (and even before) escaped this kind of stereotyping. There were some very strong women characters at this time.
Perhaps even a tough, strong woman of 1950; a career woman and single mother; would have hard put to keep her cool with a giant robot coming at her. Remember, before she said her speech Gort was starting to raise the shield on his visor weapon.
The saddest aspect of life right now is that science gathers knowledge faster than society gathers wisdom.share
— Isaac Asimov
Not gonna lie, I thought the way she reacted was understandable.
Hey there, Johnny Boy, I hope you fry!
Same here. She obviously had a moment of shocking terror seeing a giant 8 foot robot walking towards her (who wouldn't?) but she regained her composure quick enough to disarm him.
~ I've been very lonely in my isolated tower of indecipherable speech.
Seems like you find Helen's terrified reaction to confrontation by an alien robot twice her size, and who is powerful enough to destroy an entire planet, to be funny. Interesting, Dale. That hardly equates to the estimation that "Girls are so Silly!"
Someone's at the door
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The scene needed some drama. If she had just gone up to it and said it, how boring that would have been.
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