Visit to a Small Planet

Infobox_Film
name = Visit to a Small Planet


director = Norman Taurog
writer = Edmund Beloin
Henry Garson
Gore Vidal (play)
starring = Jerry Lewis
Joan Blackman
Earl Holliman
Fred Clark
producer = Hal B Wallis
distributor = Paramount Pictures
released = February 4, 1960
runtime = 85 minutes
language = English| imdb_id = 0054446

"Visit to a Small Planet" is a 1960 Paramount Pictures film starring Jerry Lewis, based on a play by Gore Vidal. It was released on February 4, 1960.

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.

Production

"Visit to a Small Planet" was filmed from April 28 through July 3, 1959.

Re-release

The film was re-released on a double bill in 1966 with another Jerry Lewis film, "The Bellboy".

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.

Remake?

In 1994 British artist Georgina Starr made Visit to A Small Planet a 5 screen video installation and book. Having seen the film as a 10 year old child Starr tried to find it again but was unable to trace a copy. She began rewriting the script from memory and eventually re-enacted the movie with herself playing the leading role. In her version she tries to gain the special powers which Kreton has in the original film; to become invisible, communicate with a cat, mind read and also sings with Dean Martin. In her memory Dino was in the film with Jerry Lewis and the film was in technicolour. The work has been exhibited in the UK in The British Art Show 4 and at Kunsthalle Zurich in Switzerland.Fact|date=June 2008

External links

*imdb title|id=0054446|title=Visit to a Small Planet (1960 film)
* [http://www.ibdb.com/production.asp?ID=2611 "Visit to a Small Planet" (1957 Broadway production) at Internet Broadway Database]
* [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0591249/ "Visit to a Small Planet" (1955 TV production) at IMDB]