Visit to a Small Planet (1960) on Netflix

NR19601h 25mComedy Family Sci-Fi

Kreton, a visitor from the planet X-47, is fascinated by human beings. His teacher grudgingly lets him stay on Earth, where a family agrees to keep his identity hidden.

Netflix3.0/5
IMDb5.9/101,614 votes
Rotten TomatoesNot available

Trailer

Plot summary

Kreton comes from the planet X-47 and finds human beings endlessly interesting, so he keeps returning to Earth even though his teacher disapproves. On this visit his teacher gives in and lets him stay to study the humans. A suburban family takes him in and promises not to tell anyone that he is an alien. Kreton can levitate, hold conversations with the family dog, and make people he dislikes recite a nursery rhyme in public. He falls for the family's daughter, Ellen Spelding, but a force field around him blocks any physical contact, because his people gave up affection long ago. His teacher has also told him not to meddle in human lives, a rule he keeps breaking.

Cast

Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Visit to a Small Planet (1960)

Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.

Gore Vidal, whose television play became Visit to a Small Planet, intended it as a satire on the post-World War II fear of communism in the United States, McCarthyism, Cold War military paranoia and the growing importance of television in American life.
Quentin Tarantino picked the Jerry Lewis comedy Visit to a Small Planet for the third Quentin Tarantino Film Fest, held in Austin, Texas, in 1999.