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Picture Parade #6… “Klaatu Barada Nikto”

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Eyes Of A Generation.com

Picture Parade #6… “Klaatu Barada Nikto”

Here’s a rare behind the scenes shot from the 1951 classic ‘The Day The Earth Stood Still”. Coming down the gangway is 7’ 7″ Lock Martin in one of two Gort costumes. Martin was the doorman as Gruaman’s Chines Theater in LA.

To give the appearance of seamlessness to the space ship, the crack around the door was filled with putty, then painted over. When the door opened the putty was torn apart, making the door seem to simply appear. To depict the seamless closing of the ship and its ramp, they just reversed the film of the shot of the ship’s ramp and door appearing. The spaceship was made of wood, wire and plaster of Paris.

This film is ranked #5 on the American Film Institute’s list of the 10 greatest films in the genre “Sci-Fi” in June 2008. As an homage to this film George Lucas named two of the alien bounty hunters in his Star Wars trilogy “Klaatu” and “Barada Nikto”. Enjoy and share! -Bobby Ellerbee

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25 responses to “Picture Parade #6… “Klaatu Barada Nikto””

  1. Kafka Kafka

    Think you meant to say, “Martin was the doorman at Grauman’s Chinese Theater in LA…”

  2. Angelo J Colarusso

    Yes 2 costumes one with zipper in front and one with zipper in back
    Plus when he picks up girl they used wires to pick her up because he could not

  3. Gene Taylor

    I do love this movie. Especially the soundtrack.

  4. Mark Suszko

    This movie is really the re-telling of the story of the arrival of Jesus on Earth, asking: how would we react to Him in contemporary times? The writers couched their story as sci-fi to get it past the censors of the day. The scene with Jaffee as the professor, and
    “Carpenter” at the chalkboard is a riff on John the Baptist. Gort is an angel. The military and cilvi authorites are the Pharisese and the Romans. The spaceship where wounded/dead Carpenter”/Klaatu is re-animated is the tomb. Klaatu re-ascends to heaven after laying down the law. It’s all there, just in pieces you wouldn’t immediately recognize.

  5. Lisa J. Kassner

    This is such a special movie for me… Yes Mr. Carpenter may still be amongst us…

  6. Robert Maslen

    Exteriors done at RKO ranch, Encino, CA

  7. Rose Gasak

    Very interesting to learn

  8. Louis Eales

    My most favorite film

  9. Jerry Kambic

    This is very cool.

  10. Roxanne Relland

    Such a good movie…!!!those were the days
    Sitting in the balcony with ur favorite guy….sweet

  11. Alan Maretsky

    One of my favorite sci-fi films. They should have never allowed it to be remade.

  12. John Kelly

    Director, Robert Wise is from my home town in Connersville, Indiana. Our high school auditorium is named after him. He was one of my inspirations for going into television.

  13. Steve Dichter

    Along w/the original War of the Worlds, this is one of my all time favorite sci-fi films. By the way, the ramp sliding out & being retracted was so noisy, there was no way they could use live sound for those scenes. This magazine, in my collection, from 1976 has a wonderful multi-page article on this film.

  14. Mark Gulbrandsen

    Very cool score by Bernard Hermann using the Theremin as the basis for the score.

  15. Tom Kontizas

    We need another wake up Earth call…now!

  16. Michael Hayne

    quote: we have come to visit you in peace and goodwill.

  17. Jim De Francesco

    Thanks as always, Bobby. You are amazing…

  18. Keith W Wood

    One of my favorite movies of all time!

  19. Connie Ho

    The movie that started my love of sci-fi.

  20. William Ferguson

    Two costumes for Gort . Seam was visible on camera so depending on camera angle , one costume had seam in front and the other had seam in back .

  21. Daniel Cahn

    Another great one Bobby

  22. Christopher Nagel

    Dennis: if you’re referring to the use of the theremin in the music of this film, it’s not the first time it was used in the score of a film. I believe it was used for the first time in the 1945 film “The Lost Weekend”.

  23. Thomas Grassia

    Production history! Still effective. While surfing the Facebook feed I stopped and “Stood Still” to to take this in. Great post Doctor Ellerbee!

  24. Bruce McGee

    Great shot from a great movie.

  25. Dennis Degan

    The film was also the first to use electronic music.

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