I did end up buying the DVD, Bruce. My mom picked it up for me at the Indianapolis downtown Borders--when the clerk handed it to her, he said, "Klaatu barada nikto." Later that day she was on the phone with Scott Newman, her former boss at the prosecutor's office, and she happened to mention the errand to him. "Ah," he said. "Klaatu barada nikto." Damn, it's truly a universal saying now!
I also like the newsreel on the DVD--it's a heated Red-scare account of the Soviets behaving badly at a peace conference. Gives you a real sense of what the climate was like when the movie came out.
Yeah, the theremin score is great! Re: THEM, it's another fave of mine from this era (need to get it on DVD as well); in fact, the sound of the cicadas this summer reminds me of THEM all the time!