The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951)

SmokeScreeners Rating:  

Year of Release: 1951

MPAA Rating: Unrated

Director: Robert Wise

Distributor: 20th Century Fox

In this film 17 smoking incidents occured, 14 of which were inside and 3 of which were outside.

The film was reviewed by Dr. Barry Hummel on 3/1/2009.

Dr. Hummel posted the following additional comments:  "The original sci-fi classic The Day the Earth Stood Still is an efficiently told story about man's violent nature.  The film begins with the arrival of an alien space-craft that lands in the middle of Washington, DC.  A humanoid alien emerges bearing a gift for the President, and he is immediately shot.  The alien's robot protector responds by melting the weapons of the local police and military until the alien stops him.

Realizing their mistake, the humans rush the alien to a nearby hospital.  Meanwhile the silent robot stands guard over the ship.  Of course, the humans cannot resist the chance to peek inside the ship:

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At the hospital, the doctors are amazed at the recuperative powers of the alien:

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It turns out the alien's life expectancy is 130.  'How does he explain that?" asks one of the perplexed doctors.  'Says their medicine is that much more advanced,' replies the other doctor as he shares a cigarette with his colleague. 'He was very nice about it,' continued the tobacco-loving doctor, 'but he made me feel lie a third class witch doctor.'  Neither of these students of modern medicine recognizes the irony; they are fascinated by the alien's longevity even as they smoke a drug that is shortens human life expectancy by an average of 15 years!

The alien quietly slips out of the hospital to hide among humans as a way of studying their behavior.  He ends up renting a room in a boarding house here he befriends a widow and her young son.  Here, the alien (reading the newspaper) shares a meal, and a little secondhand smoke, with the other boarders:

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At least the young boy isn't sitting at the table while that lone boarder shares his smoke with the rest of the group.

This great sci-fi drama was made in an era when smoking was more socially acceptable.  I understand that.  But timeless classics like The Day The Earth Stood Still are still being watched, and we should at least point out how time has changed our understanding of the dangers of tobacco... especially to children and teenagers.