Movies - The 27th Day

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	Movies - The 27th Day

The 27th Day is a 1957 science fiction film from Columbia Pictures. It was directed by William Asher, produced by Helen Ainsworth, and the screenplay was written by John Mantley, who also wrote the original story. The cast includes Gene Barry and Valerie French.

This was a low budget film with few special effects and little action. Instead the story focuses on dialogue. It was filmed in black and white, and runs for 75 minutes.

An alien spacecraft at the Earth arrives and randomly selects five people from different parts of the world. They choose a person from England, the U.S., China, Soviet Union, and Germany. It seems that the alien's home world is doomed and they need a new home world. However their code of ethics will not allow them to conquer the Earth. Instead the five selected individuals are given the means to destroy humans en masse, without harming animals or inflicting other devastation. Humans must decide for themselves whom will live or die. All of the five humans are given a set of three silvery capsules, each of which can slay all human life in a 3,000 mile radius of the specified coordinate. However the capsules must be used within 27 days or they will become inert and so the aliens will die.

The remainder of the film concerns the stories of these five people and what happens to them both before and after the capabilities of the capsules are revealed to all of humankind. Naturally the Soviets gain possession of the capsules and threaten to use them unless the US withdraws all troops from Europe. However the German professor learns how to modify the capsules so that they will slay only the "enemies of human freedom", and he uses them across the globe. The result is the death of the Soviet leader, and all of his ilk, leaving the supposed good guys alive. In the end it is discovered that this was the original intent of the aliens, and thus, with their aid, peace and harmony rule.

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