20th Century-Fox’s 92-minute science-fiction drama *The Day the Earth Stood Still*, directed by Robert Wise, opened in September 1951 amid Cold War anxieties. Its story uses an alien visitor’s warning about humanity’s political conflicts as a cautionary tale, and the original Hollywood Reporter review praised its suspense, humour and social themes.

Michael Rennie plays the visitor, who arrives in Washington with a powerful robot and seeks to address representatives of all nations. After recovering from a shooting, he befriends a widow and her son, escapes a police search and warns that other planets may destroy Earth if its divisions persist; the review also commended the performances, effects, design, cinematography and Bernard Herrmann’s score. The film premiered at New York’s Mayfair Theatre on 18 September, taking $6,500 that day, and had been acclaimed by 250 attendees at a science-fiction convention earlier that month.