The 27th Day 1957

Five individuals from five nations, including the "Superpowers," USA, USSR, and China, suddenly find themselves on an alien spacecraft. An alien gives each a container holding capsules. No power on earth can open a given container except a mental command from the person to whom it is given. Each person has been provided with the power of life and death. Any of these individuals has the capability to instantaneously launch the capsules to whatever coordinates he/she chooses, and each capsule will then eradicate all human life within a 3,000-mile radius of its designated location.

The Cast

Gene Barry-Jonathan Clark
Valerie French-Eve Wingate
George Voskovec-Prof. Klaus Bechner
Arnold Moss-The Alien
Stefan Schnabel-The Soviet General
Ralph Clanton-Mr. Ingram
Friedrich von Ledebur-Dr. Karl Neuhaus
Paul Birch-Admiral

The Director: William Asher
The Writers: John Mantley, John Mantley, Robert M. Fresco
Music by: Mischa Bakaleinikoff

Film Trivia

The glimpse we are given of the spacecraft reveals it to be from another Columbia release, Earth vs. the Flying Saucers (1956). The scene was also used in _Flying Saucer Daffy (1958)_ and an episode of The Twilight Zone (1985).
The beach scene at which Eve Wingate is out with her original boyfriend, and later where she throws away the capsules, is the same location used by Columbia for the famous love scene between Burt Lancaster and Deborah Kerr in "From Here to Eternity."
When the Soviet General and Prof. Beckner launch the capsules the General gives the coordinates for Houston, Texas (29° 45' 26" N, 95° 21' W). Beckner gives the coordinates for Moscow (55° 45' 18" N, 37° 37' 14" E). Beckner is also heard giving partial coordinates for 45° 4' 23" N and 12' 12" E but the degrees are missing. When the US tests one of the "bombs" it is suppose to take place in area more that three thousand miles in diameter off the east coast of South America. The test capsule is activated with the coordinates 71° 25' 13" S, 150° 14' 18" E which is instead in Antarctica.