Fave Sci-Fi Films of the 60s
| ++ | must-see |
| + | good but flawed |
| OK | interesting but not for everybody |
| - | poor, some redeeming features |
| -- | sad, historical interest only |
The Time Machine
1960
Assignment: Outer Space
1960 Ultra Film - Titanus as “Space Men”
| Rik van Nutter | Ray Peterson |
| Gaby Farinon | Lucy |
| Archie Savage | Al |
| Alain Dijon | Commander George |
| David Montresor | |
| Frank Fantasia | Sullivan |
| Joe Pollini | King |
| David Maran | Davis |
| Anita Todesco | Venus Control |
| José Néstor | Venus Commander |
| Director | Antonio Margheriti |
| Screenplay | Ennio De Concini (Vassilij Petrov) |
| Note: Titles in the U.S. release change several names, and reports the director as “Anthony Dawson” | |
Date 2116
Cocky young reporter Peterson is assigned to “a routine check of infra-radiation flux on Galaxy M-12”. What the others are doing is space is not explained, but they are military, under the guidance of the “high council”.
Cool three-stage rocket ship BZ-88, is depicted separating after launch. Many other other intricate rocket ships, space stations, and “space taxis” appear. The rocket models never succeed in giving an impression of size. Stock sounding-rocket film depicts flight over planets. The travel consists in buzzing about the solar system.
An “electronic brain” controls things with its “impulses”. Messages are transmitted by Teletype.
Hibernation “in order to overcome the Earthly gravitation” is “a congealing process simulating an apparent death”. Lots of space walks, whereby cosmonauts just careen from one ship to another. “Weightlessness caused by lack of gravitation” is impressively depicted choreographically. On the space station, the narrator explains “gravitational area is similar to Earth’s”, because “all space stations rotate about a central axis”. Meteorites are deadly; asteroids are scenic.
The station “girl”, Lucy, tends things that convert “hydrogen into breathable oxygen”, when she isn’t being a navigator. She is nearly hit by a meteorite but saved and immediately hit upon by Peterson. He usurps the previous alpha male; she falls in love with him accordingly.
The pilot (and sacrificial hero), Al, is black!
Very badly poetic and philosophical. Lots of dreary moralizing about impertinent issues, e.g. giving people numbers. Space men are mostly dehumanized and depressed, in what appears to be an attempt to set a mood. Plot is awfully complicated, by multiple savings of cosmonauts, various fearful situations, a love-triangle, and a salvation of humanity. The dialog is laden with scientifically confused techno-babble.
Il Pianeta degli Uomini Spenti
"Battle of the Worlds"
1961 Ultra Film - Sicilia Cinematografica
| Claude Rains | Professor Benson |
| Bill Carter | Commander Robert Cole |
| Maya Brent | Eve Barnett |
| Umberto Orsini | Fred Steele |
| Jacqueline Derval | Cathy |
| Renzo Palmer | |
| Carlo d’Angelo | |
| Carol Danell | Mrs. Collins |
| Director | Antonio Margheriti |
| Producer | Turi Vasile |
| Screenplay | Vassilij Petrov |
A Coke-bottle glasses Claude Raines steals the bulk of the dialog as the crusty “Old Man” Benson. He’s the stereotypical sociopathic inveterate scientist (the film doesn’t distinguish his specialty), who can’t understand why they don’t just put him in control, after he has put them into their places verbally.
At least three characters utter the line “will somebody please tell me what’s going on” in the first 20 minutes of the movie. My best guess is, the filmers hadn’t yet figured this out either. But Benson has, by use of mathematics; “I have one advantage over all of you: Calculus!”
There’s a long sequence on Mars Base 3, and a substantial amount of space flight, and space walking (called “self-launching”), but the effects are very like those in Margheriti’s previous Assignment: Outer Space.
So a hollow planet “the Outsider” has come to visit, meaning no good. It launches flying saucers against which Earth rockets are nearly defenseless.
There are insectoidal alien masses inside the planet, but they are meant to be dead. All that remains is the “electronic brains” that control the flying saucers and the planet, which are represented as glowing plastic cylinders.
Women are prominent throughout the film, but often their role is described as “assistant”, and they are explicitly told to fetch coffee. The only non-caucasian I noticed was a Chinese member of the United Commission.
This is very tiresome. Without for Raines’ performance, it would be chokingly dull, and simply a worse repetition of Assignment: Outer Space.
This film provides its own parables:
“What importance does life have, young fella, if to live, means not to know?”
Atlantis, the Lost Continent
1961
Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea
1961
Journey to the Seventh Planet
1962
Планета бурь (Planeta bur)
"Planet of Storms"
1962 Nauchno-Populyarnich (Soviet Union)
| Vladimir Emelyanov | Vershinin |
| Georgi Zhzhenov | Bobrov |
| Gennadi Vernov | Alyosha |
| Yuri Sarantsev | Scherba |
| Kyunna Ignatova | Masha |
| Georgi Teikh | Allan Kern |
| Director | Павел Клушанцев (Pavel Klushantsev) |
| Screenplay | Александр Казанцев (Alexander Kazantsev) |
| Note: Film was bought and cut up by Roger Corman to make Voyage to a Prehistoric Planet (1965), and then Voyage to the Planet of Prehistoric Women (1966), which are of much less value. | |
Soviet rocket ships voyage to Venus: Сириус, Вега, Капелла (Sirus, Vega, Capella, the last of which is immediately destroyed). Sirus goes on to land; Vega remains in orbit of the planet.
Robot "John" plays roles of electronic brain, super-strong big brother, and menacing monster. Much discussion revolves about the question of whether it could replace cosmonauts.
Features meteorites, an excellent robot, an emotive female cosmonaut, man-eating plants, ferocious guys in dinosaur-like suits (also man-eating), a floating car. Not sure about computers... weightlessness is depicted as being lots of fun...the younger guys have the most amazing bouffants... And there’s a hook...
It’s got everything!
The overall quality is better than Western sci-fi of the time. Besides the rockets and props, the atmosphere of Venus is particularly nicely rendered. It’s very colorful, and in many ways very beautiful.
When grabbed by the man-eating plant, the guy pulls out his knife and promptly drops it! Bad move! Cosmonauts shoot the bad guys with conventional hand guns.
Seems to be available with subtitles: http://sepnet.com/rcramer/scifi.htm .
The book (in Russian) by Kazantsev is also available on-line http://www.rusf.ru/books/
Мечте навстречу (Mechtye Navstretsu)
"Toward Meeting a Dream", or A Dream Come True
1963 Odesskoi kinostudii khudozhestvennikh (Soviet Union)
| Николай Тимофеев(Nikolai Timofeyev) | Cosmonaut Krilov |
| Отар Коберидзе(Otar Koberidze) | Cosmonaut Ivan Batalov |
| Лариса Гордейчик(Larisa Gordeichik) | Radio Astronomer Tanya Krilova |
| Б.Борисенок(Boris Borisenok) | Cosmonaut Andrei Sayenko |
| П.Шмаков(Peeter Kard as P.Shmakov) | Commander |
| А.Генесин(A.Genesin) | Cosmonaut Pol |
| Николай Волков(Nikolai Volkov) | Doctor Laungton |
| Т.Почепа(T. Pochepa) | Etaniya |
| and others... |
| Directors | Михаил Карюков (Mikhail Karyukov) |
| Отар Коберидзе (Otar Koberidze) | |
| Screenplay | М.Бердник, Иван Бондин (A. Verdnik, I. Vondin) |
I don’t speak Russian, and I don’t have subtitles on my copy, so I can’t make much out of the plot...
We have: aliens with very cool stuff (but they’re just people), scenes on Earth, Mars (and another planet?), space travel by aliens in a cool space ship and cosmonauts in rockets (that look very much like ICBM’s), a smidgen of comic relief, plenty romantic episodes, lots of depiction of suited cosmonauts walking on Mars, and a small space-car.
Fun Soviet public efforts, heroic scenes, and inspiring speech-giving, A gigantic news-television, to which the crowds turn for Pravda. Other very impressive scenes of titanic Soviet public environments.
Nice clips of Soviet military planes.
No weapons, no robots. Computers?
And a heartbreakingly pretty cosmonaut.
Gorgeous alien settings and devices are the strength of this film. Later sci-fi was certainly influenced. Compare the outdoor Mars scenes to Alien.
The alien spaceship is of a design I have never seen elsewhere. a sphere circled at the base by thick pipes. Very wild and pretty.
What is it with the aliens with the capes and skullcaps?
Rather more narration than should be necessary in such a film, and it breaks out into very silly heroic song at every appearance of Soviet space travel (one is reminded of Japanese manga).
Overall, it is a very pretty thing to watch. It looks as if political forces resulted in a mixed effort.
See http://www.nashekino.ru/data.movies?id=2985
Ikarie XB 1
1963 Barrandov (Czechoslovakia)
| Director | Jindřich Polák |
| Screenplay | Pavel Jurácek, Jindřich Polák (said to be based loosely on a story by Stanislaw Lem) |
| Zdeněk Štěpánek | Captain Vladimir Abajev |
| Frantisěk Smolík | Anthony Hopkins |
| Dana Medřická | Nina Kirova |
| Irena Kačírková | Brigitta |
| Radovan Lukavský | Commander MacDonald |
| Otto Lackovič | Michal |
| Miroslav Macháček | Marcel Bernard |
| Rudolf Deyl | Ervin Herold |
| Martin Ťapák | Petr Kubes |
| Jiří Vršťala | Erik Svenson |
| Jaroslav Mareš | Milek Wertbowsky |
| Marcela Martínková | Steffa |
| Jozef Adamovíc | Zdenek Lorenc |
| Jaroslav Rozsíval | The doctor |
| Růžena Urbanová | |
| Svatava Hubeňáková | Rena, MacDonald’s wife |
| Jan Cmíral | |
| Vjačeslav Irmanov |
Date: 2163
Ikarie is an interstellar craft. “A small space town with 40 inhabitants” It has a Master Computer.
Destination: the planets of Alpha Centauri, where “the existence of life is expected”. This goal is mused over throughout the film, but its realization is disappointing. They will return in 15 years. Due to time dialation, the travelers will have aged only 28 months. (Time dialation is later ruled out as the cause of a crew member’s illness, on account of its “mathematical abstraction”.)
Giant space port, ray-gun weapons. “Old-fashioned” robot “Patrik” is mostly comic relief. Smaller space saucers are launched from main vehicle. Weightlessness is depicted in a few scenes.
B&W. Lavish sets, costumes reminiscent of early Star Trek.
Portrays social aspects of long-term space travel. They have a fancy space ball, and dance a reserved jig to space jazz. Deals with space madness and space sickness.
English-dubbed version released in U.S. as Voyage to the End of the Universe.
Czech DVD’s with English subtitles are available.
H.G. Wells’ First Men in the Moon
1964 Columbia
| Director | Nathan Juran |
| Producer | Charles H. Schneer |
| Associate Producer | Ray Harryhausen |
| Edward Judd | Arnold Bedford |
| Martha Hyer | Kate Callender |
| Lionel Jeffries | Joseph Cavor |
Year: the bulk in 1899, later:
Aliens: moon inhabitants – Selenites
Travel to the moon is made possible by a paint that shields gravity.
Spaceflight: shows weightlessness, but little else of interest. On the moon, they discuss the vacuum, and so wear space suits—to talk, they have to touch helmets-but the suits don’t have gloves.
Kate comes aboard by accident, but proves useful by supplying food. She starts out as a technological woman, driving a jalopy. But her relationship with Bedford makes no sense: he lies to her and cheats her, and she goes back to him no struggle at all.
Bedford and Kate kill selenites indiscriminately, Cavor wants to learn from them and teach them. The selenites are creepy and scary, but it is unclear whether they’re good or bad. Ultimately it doesn’t matter.
Robinson Crusoe on Mars
1964
-- A couple of interesting, quick FX, wrong-headed social moralizing
Dr. Who and the Daleks
1965
Terrore nello spazio / Planet of the Vampires
1965 Italian International Pictures /
| Barry Sullivan | Captain Mark Markary |
| Norma Bengell | Sanya |
| Stelio Candelli | Brad |
| Ángel Aranda | Wes |
| Evi Marandi | Tiona |
| Franco Andrei | Bert |
| Fernando Villeña | Dr. Karan |
| Mario Morales | Eldon |
| Ivan Rassimov | Carter |
| Alberto Cevenini | Toby Markary |
| Frederico (Rico) Boido | Kier |
| Massimo Righi | Sallis |
| Director | Mario Bava |
| Producer | Fulvio Lucisano |
| Screenplay (English) | Ib Melchior and Louis M. Heyward |
| From short story by Renato Pestriniero | One Night of 21 Hours |
Date ?
Ships Argos and Galliott are blue chevron-shaped things. I suspect they are really something something quite different. Sense of size is completely lost—they look like toys.
They are traveling to planet Aura, it seems, to find the source of signals, possibly produced by intelligent life.
Space ship interiors are big and roomy, with steel floors and thick pressure doors and lots of blinky panels and 1960s switches and buttons. No apparent computers or robots.
Two races of aliens are found on Aura. One is dead, found in a creepy deserted alien ship, with sexual suggestions outside, glowing cones inside.
Alien skeletons “three times the size of us … probably belonged to an ancient civilization.” Pretty scary recorded voices of dead crew. But these are not the aliens to be afraid of.
The species “Aurans” native to the planet is non-corporeal and scary. Live on a “vibratory plane different from yours”. Their sun has been dying. They “summoned” the earthlings to take their bodies. They manifest themselves as walking dead or flying lights (luminous globes out the corner of my eye)
Infrared laser to penetrate fog. LOTS of technobabble (time units are “fractions of megon”). A “meteor rejector” (to avoid ship “look like a piece of swiss cheese”) figures heavily in the plot. Rubber suits with high collars, look like motorcycle racing suits. (Their small yellow helmets are kinda cool, really.) Lots of trouble with acceleration effects. Immediately contract space sickness that makes them attack one another. Ships seemed to be powered by “solar batteries”. Crew have wristwatch TV communicators.
Crew is all white, but there is an amusing story about the nationalities of the actors. Women are equal crew members, but who emote more, and look sexier in their suits.
Crew carry “field ray gun”: some sort of heat-ray weapon. Ship carries plutonium detonators for blowing stuff up.
The influence of this movie on Alien is often noted. It’s unmistakable especially in the scenes of the deserted alien spacecraft.
The budget for this film was legendarily low, and given that, its substance is very impressive; the camera work is masterful. Don’t expect splendid special effects, but there are a lot of them, and it does have atmosphere.
Creepy atmosphere is unfortunately wasted by a complete explanation provided by one of the walking (unconvincingly) dead. But have no fear of a Hollywood ending.
Parables:
Don’t turn your back on the unknown
Don’t trust science
Don’t turn your back on your crew members
Don’t trust the walking dead
Don’t trust your crew members when they’re the walking dead
The aliens want our stuffin’s
Watch out for the meteor!
Fahrenheit 451
1966
- fairly pathetic attempt at Bradbury
Fantastic Voyage
1966
+ shrinking people for medicine
Island of Terror
1966
-- awful so awful
Quatermass and the Pit
1967
OK interesting idea, scary monster
Planet of the Apes
1968
+ space and time travel
2001: A Space Odyssey
1968
++ a pinnacle
Barbarella
1968
- not always intentionally funny
The Illustrated Man
1969