The Day the Earth Stood Still (LXRT)

An alien visitor from a far planet gives mankind a final chance to achieve world peace.

This is a pretty good dramatization of the famous 1951 movie The Day the Earth Stood Still, which is in turn based on the short story Farewell to the Master by Harry Bates. Farewell to the Master was first published in the October 1940 issue of Astounding Science Fiction. The story was later reprinted in the October 1953 issue of the same magazine, which featured a remarkable piece of cover art from the, then unknown, Kelly Freas. The Freas illustration was later modified and used as the album cover for Queen's 1977 News of the World album (featuring We Are the Champions and We Will Rock You).

I've always felt like the movie, while great, stretched the premise a bit thin. It was 92 minutes. (The remake is 104!) I still feel like that with this 60 minute dramatization. I would love to have some of the details pared away and hear this as a 30 minute show that ends with the shooting of Klaatu. In my opinion, that is pretty much the whole point of the show and where all of its dramatic impact lies.

Lux Radio Theatre #862
The Day the Earth Stood Still
4 January 1954
19540104(862)_LXRT_TheDayTheEarthStoodStill.mp3
CBS net. Irving Cummings (host), Ken Carpenter (announcer), Rudy Schrager (music director), Paul Frees (narrator), Herb Butterfield, Lamont Johnson, Tudor Owen, Billy Gray, Edith Evanson, William Conrad, Tyler McVey, Robert Griffin, Tom Brown, Frederick Shields, Marvin Bryan, Shepard Menken, Alastair Duncan, Steven Roberts, Ottola Nesmith, Michael Rennie, Jean Peters, Edward Marr, Edmund North (screenwriter), Henry Bates (author), Milton Geiger (adaptor), Earl Ebi (director), Charlie Forsyth (sound effects).

Kelly Freas illustration for Farewell to the Master