Visit to a Small Planet
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Visit to a Small Planet | |
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| Directed by | Norman Taurog |
| Produced by | Hal B Wallis |
| Written by | Edmund Beloin Henry Garson Gore Vidal (play) |
| Starring | Jerry Lewis Joan Blackman Earl Holliman Fred Clark |
| Distributed by | Paramount Pictures |
| Release date(s) | February 4, 1960 |
| Running time | 85 minutes |
| Language | English |
| IMDb profile | |
Visit to a Small Planet is a 1960 film by Paramount Pictures film starring Jerry Lewis, based on a play by Gore Vidal. It was released on February 4, 1960.
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[edit] Plot
Kreton (Jerry Lewis) is an alien from outer space who is fascinated by human beings. He decides to come to Earth for an extended vacation and becomes friends with a suburban family. Along the way he falls in love with their daughter (Joan Blackman). However, there is a force field around him that prevents any physical contact as his race has abolished any form of affection. After petitioning the superiors of his planet, he is made human. At first he is happy, but he comes to realize that being human isn't always happy: it comes with other less desired emotions such as sadness and jealousy. He decides that those emotions are not worth the trouble and he returns to his own planet.
[edit] Production
Visit to a Small Planet was filmed from April 28 through July 3, 1959.
[edit] Re-release
The film was re-released on a double bill in 1966 with another Jerry Lewis film, The Bellboy.
[edit] Original Television Play and Broadway Production
Gore Vidal wrote this as a television play in which form it debuted on May 8, 1955 on Goodyear Television Playhouse. Later he reworked it for the Broadway stage, where it debuted on February 7, 1957 and ran for 388 performances. Star Cyril Ritchard received a Tony Award for his performance as Kreton. Vidal intended the play as a satire on the post-World War II fear of Communism in the United States, McCarthyism, Cold War military paranoia and the rising importance of television in American life. A major critical success, it was subtitled A Comedy Akin to Vaudeville.
The play tells the story of Kreton, an alien from an unnamed planet who lands on Earth intending to view the American 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 twentieth century has invented for war-making, he decides to create a war for himself.
