1961

While there were more sci-fi films than the year prior, there still weren't many in 1961. Yet, even with a small sample there were two dominant themes. There were three movies that featured Captain Nemo to varying degrees. There were three films which featured a global warming disaster. Since all came from different sources, it makes an intriguing coincidence.

Konga -- A scientist discovers a plant growth hormone that works on animals. He uses it to make a chimp into a gorilla to silence his enemies.

Master of the World -- Two of Jules Verne's novels are blended to produce one story about the rogue genius and peacenik: Robur.

Atlantis: The Lost Continent -- A greek fisherman returns a lost princess to Atlantis but becomes embroiled in palace intrigue and a plot for Atlantis to rule the world.

The Day the Earth Caught Fire -- Nuclear weapons tests bump earth into a decaying orbit into the sun. Oppressive heat, fires, riots. Can similar blasts move earth back into proper orbit?

Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea -- Admiral Nelson, aboard his super-sub "Seaview" must race against balking bureaucrats and on-board saboteurs to save the earth from the burning Van Allen belts.

The Day the Sky Exploded -- English dubbed version of '59 italian film. An errant atomic rocket causes a giant asteroid to head for earth. It's approach causes climate disasters and oppressive heat. Are earth's nuclear missiles enough to stop it?

The Phantom Planet -- An astronaut lands on a mysterious asteroid to find miniature people. He is told he can never return, lest their secret existence be compromised.

Assignment: Outer Space -- A reporter is attached to a routine space mission, which becomes a desperate race to save the earth from a deadly rogue spaceship.

Mysterious Island -- Jules Verne's story of Civil War soldiers cast away on a remote island with giant animals and Captain Nemo. Can they escape a pirate attack and exploding volcano?

Not This Time: -- Two movies that sometimes get listed as sci-fi, (though not especially sci-fi) have been omitted here. They are: The Beast of Yucca Flats and Rocket Attack: USA They will be included in a separate study (coming soon) of nuclear fears movies from the 50s and 60s.

The Day the Sky Exploded

This Italo-French production was actually produced in 1958. The American release did not hit theaters until the autumn of 1961. Even though Il Morte viente dallo spazio (Death Comes From Space) was produced in 1958, the American release came in the autumn of 1961. As The Day the Sky Exploded (DSE), it formed the third version of an intriguing co-incidental theme of sudden global warming. The first (of '61) was the British film, The Day the Earth Caught Fire. The second was an American film, Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea. Like the other two, DSE blames nuclear energy for earth's trouble, and uses nuclear weapons as its savior.

Quick Plot Synopsis
An international space agency is about to launch a manned moon mission using the atomic powered XZ rocket. American astronaut John McLaren is tapped for the job. The launch goes smoothly enough, but when he goes to throttle-up for leaving earth orbit, one of the engines misfires. He cannot correct the errant rocket's course. He ejects the capsule and returns to earth safely, but the atomic powered XZ continues on into space, exploding among some asteroids. The dislodges them into an orbit that will strike earth. Worse yet, they've clumped together to form a giant asteroid. If it hits the earth, all life will be doomed. As the mega-asteroid approaches, it causes climate disasters. Tidal waves, freak winds and oppressive heat. The only hope for earth is to fire all available nuclear missiles at the mega-asteroid in hopes of blowing it up. The nations of earth unite to set all missiles ready. The base at Cape Shark is to supply them all with firing data, but the heat is too much for their super computer. One of the scientists named Randowsky has gone wacko. He shut off the air conditioning to prevent the launches. Everyone should just accept their doom, he says. There's a fight. He kills Herbert, but dies too. The others restore power to the air conditioning, so the computer is able to calculate all the data. All earth's missiles are fired. They do the job and blow up the asteroid into small bits. Earth's climate pretty quickly returns to normal. All are happy. The End.

Why is this movie fun?
It was interesting to yet another global-warming disaster film in the same year. Again, it was oppressive heat caused by improper nuclear power.

Cold War Angle
The sometimes contradictory attitude towards nuclear power (and weapons) is captured in DSE. They threaten to destroy the world (as in the XZ causing the mess in the first place), yet they can save the world (all the missiles that blast the asteroid). Note the subtle details. Mishandled nukes cause trouble. Rightly-applied nukes save the world.

Notes
Internationalism -- A recurring trope in later Cold War films, was the international team. Here, the mission team includes an American, a Russian, and a smattering of other nationalities. The future was imagined to have moved beyond the caustic nationalism of the day.

Mad Scientist(s) -- It was interesting that the scientist named Randowsky loses his cool (pun intended) and rants about people getting the fate they deserve for messing with nuclear power. He sabotages the rescue effort. In this, he is reminiscent to the two saboteurs in Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea. There, the religious zealot Alvarez does the ranting, but it was the scientist Dr. Hiller who actually sabotaged the missile firing to save earth.

Acting Odd -- As an Italian film, the acting and direction can look a bit odd to American eyes. Paul Hubschmid plays a strangely wooden astronaut. He gets better when back on earth. The developing love between Katy and Peter comes across as dysfunctional, at best.

Safe for Boys and Dogs -- The heavily symbolic ending asserts that all is well again on the earth. Young Dennis runs through a tranquil meadow, chasing the dog named Geiger. The earth (trees, grass, sky) recovered almost instantly from the massive heat. Oh, that global warming could so quickly be reverse, eh?

Bottom line? DSE makes a good triple feature with Voyage and Caught-Fire. It is the lesser of the three, in terms of quality. Yet, it is also an ancestor to the modern "Deep Impact" type disaster movies of later decades. Not great, but worth watching.

Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea

Irwin Allen did not let disappointment over Lost World get him down. Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea (VBS) was a hit. It spawned a TV series that brought sci-fi adventure in "inner space" into millions of mid-60s living rooms. Allen provided a mix of classic Jules Verne style travel adventures with techno-gadget appeal. The story turns out to be more of a human drama than sci-fi, but the sci-fi element at least still fairly visible. There is a visual slickness to the production which heralds the coming flavor of second-generation sci-fi. VBS was also the American edition of a world cast into sudden global warming. The first was the British film The Day the Earth Caught Fire.

Quick Plot Synopsis
The new atomic submarine USOS Seaview has completed it's trial voyages. A congressman and Dr. Hiller, a psychiatrist, come aboard for a demonstration voyage under the polar ice cap. The ensuing tour of the ship is as much for their benefit as for the viewers to marvel at Seaview's coolness. After a couple of days, Seaview is being gently bombarded by falling chunks of sea ice. Seaview surfaces. The crew see that the sky is on fire. Meteorites have somehow ignited the Van Allen Belts. The earth is being scorched. Top scientists are convening at the UN to find a solution. Admiral Nelson is ordered to attend. Before they leave, they find a lone man on the ice. They take Alvarez aboard. At the UN, Nelson proposes firing a nuclear missile at the belts to "pop" them. A rival scientist says the belts will burn themselves out. The UN body likes the do-nothing plan, so Nelson storms out. They rush aboard the Seaview and speed off. Nelson plans to fire the missile anyway. The trip around South America is long enough to build some sub plots. The men are growing restive with worry about loved ones. Alvarez talks of accepting doom if that's God's will. Captain Crane is often at odds with Nelson over the men. Nelson gets death threats. Dr.Hiller suggests that Nelson is delusional and faked the threats. Crane is conflicted. A UN sub tries to sink them, but blows up trying to match Seaview's diving ability. It turns out that Dr. Hiller is actually the saboteur, but she is eaten by a shark and her damage repaired. Just as the savior missile is about to be launched, Alvarez holds everyone hostage with a bomb. Crane dons scuba gear and triggers the missile manually. In the jolt of launch, Alvarez is overpowered. All are safe. The missile does the job. The fires are poofed out. Everyone reconciles their differences and sail happily for home. The End.

Why is this movie fun?
There is ample action and no shortage of subplots. Walter Pigeon (Morbius of Forbidden Planet ('56) ) gives a good show as the misunderstood champion. Barbara Eden (I Dream of Jeanie) does surprisingly well as more than just eye candy.

Cold War Angle
While commies aren't present, there is the metaphor of the burning radiation belts which will soon destroy the earth. The solution is a well-placed atomic warhead. Add in some spy story sabotage, and the Cold War is well represented.

Notes
The Neo-Nemo -- Allen positions VBS as the modern replacement for the 19th century's 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. Like Nemo, Admiral Nelson is lauded as the brilliant (one man) inventor/scientist and builder of the amazing submarine. Like Nemo, Nelson pursues his own inner vision of what must be done to save the world. Like Nemo, the world is out to stop him. Having Peter Lorrie among the cast makes for an unmistakable tie to Disney's 1954 film version of the Nemo story. In VBS, his role is peripheral, but the connection works. In the TV series, Nelson's adventures in Seaview become a modern Nemo & Nautilus for the 20th century.

Super Sub II -- Just two years after Atomic Submarine, the notion of a high-tech nuclear submarine, on adventures to save the earth, still had legs. What a difference two years made too. Where 50s films were rife with war surplus equipment, Allen's Seaview represented more of a forward looking design.

Early Global Warming -- A few movies before have suggested climate upheavals due to space phenomena. When Worlds Collide had this in 1951. The Lost Missile ('58) had a rogue missile burning up swaths of earth as it orbited. This was more of moving a local problem than global, but still... Also from 1958 was an Italo-French production, "La Morte viente dallo spazio" (Death comes from space) which had a mass of asteroids raising global temperatures. In an interesting coincidence, the english dubbed version, entitled The Day the Sky Exploded will be released only a few months after VBS. Then, there is The Day the Earth Caught Fire (' ) which also features a scorched earth. A cooked earth was becoming, (dare I say it?) a hot topic. (sorry) These early looks at extreme global warming have an intriguing relevance again.

TV Trump -- The television series based upon VBS would buck the trend. Often enough, TV series based on a movie would not live up the film's magic. Not so with VBS-TV. The series was, in many ways, better. For gadet-crazed young boys, the Flying Sub was too cool for words. The crew of Seaview, much like Roddenberry's Enterprise crew a few years later, would take their wonderful ship on many amazing adventures. After all that, the original movie seems tame.

Prop Watch -- Note the wall of blinking square "computer" lights in the control room of Seaview. It was not new, but recycled. In the age before personal computers, someone had gone to a lot of trouble make the light-bank blink its lights in such an artful, almost thoughtful, way. It was too cool of a prop to leave in storage. It was part of the evil super computer set in Invisible Boy ('57). The light-bank appeared again in Return of the Fly ('59).

Bottom line? VBS is well worth the time. It may be a bit light on the science (or just plain wrong, such as sinking ice), but it is briskly told story that avoids predictable traps.

Mysterious Island

Columbia released yet another adaptation of a Jules Verne story in late 1961. Mysterious Island (MI) tries to follow Verne's novel as much as Hollywood tended to. Variations aside, the big screen, bigger budget production has more special effects and even some Ray Harryhausen animation to provide an almost modern level of eye candy. Even though the science part of the fiction is pretty thin, there is more than enough action to make up for it.

Quick Plot Synopsis
Three Union soldiers, a war correspondent and an unwilling Southern soldier flee a Richmond prison in 1865. A huge storm blows them far out into the Pacific. The balloon tears and they land on an island. They are joined by Lady Mary and her niece Elena, shipwrecked. The seven set up a camp and begin work on a boat. They encounter a giant crab and a giant bird chick. Both provide ample food. Elena and Herbert develop a love interest and become trapped in a giant bee honeycomb. Some pirates arrive to replenish supplies. A gun fight ensues until the pirate ship blows up and sinks. Captain Nemo is revealed as the cause of the sinking and other mysterious events on the island. He reports that the volcano will soon blow up. Everyone's only hope is to repair the sunken ship, pump it full of air from the Nautilus and refloat it. Everyone sets to their chores to do so, but the volcano erupts sooner than expected. Nemo despairs, but Captain X suggests they repair their balloon and use it to quickly float the ship. While arranging all this, Pencroft is grabbed by a giant squid beast. Herbert uses Nemo's electric gun to make it retreat. Nemo turns on the pumps. The ship refloats. Everyone climbs aboard, but the eruption traps Nemo aboard the Nautilus as the volcano causes massive damage. The seven sail away, vowing to work for a peaceful world as Nemo would have wanted. The End.

Why is this movie fun?
Despite deviations from Verne's novel, MI has a well crafted and action packed screenplay. The special effects are still effective, even in today's CGI world.

Cold War Angle
The message via Nemo is clearly anti-war, though nothing is particularly nuclear.

Notes
Nemo III -- MI marks the third appearance of Nemo references in 1961 films. It is also the most clearly Nemo. The first was Master of the World which featured Robur as a sort of airborne Nemo, opposing war as well. The second was Atlantis which featured a Nautilus-like submarine. Interestingly, MI included some submerged Greek ruins as an unnamed reference to Atlantis. MI was the most blatant of the three Nemo films in featuring Nemo himself.

Typical Nemo -- The writers paid homage to 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea by making their Nemo (Herbert Lom) very similarly to Disney's Nemo (James Mason). They even have their Nemo play Bach's Toccata and Fuge in D minor on the pipe organ.

Gotta Have Women -- As with most Hollywood adaptations, the writers inserted two female characters which Verne did not have. The young and voluptuous Elena (Beth Rogan) provides the usual love-interest for young Herbert, who are then the modern movie demographic interest. Elena gets to wear a very short goatskin dress with a cleavage enhancing neckline -- a ticket-selling scheme in the Hollywood tradition. Young Herbert, just to be fair, gets to run around in just shorts so the ladies can enjoy his shirtlessness.

Naive Peacenik -- MI's Nemo monologues about stopping war by solving world hunger via his huge animal technology. The assumption is that people fight wars over food. Yet, even the Civil War, which Verne used as a background, had nothing to do with anyone's lack of food. Even with Nemo's giant chickens, men would still find things to fight over.

Second Go-Round --Ten years earlier, in 1951, Columbia produced a theatrical serial of "Mysterious Island." This, too, followed the novel to various degrees, although it added some aliens from the planet Mercury, who had ray guns. It starred Richard Crane as Captain Harding. Crane would go on to star as Rocky Jones, Space Ranger. Gene Roth, who often played the villain in early 50s serials, did so here too, as the pirate captain.

All Hail Harryhausen! -- Ray Harryhausen lends his talent to make the various giant creatures come to life. His unmistakable touch can be seen in the giant crab, the giant chick and of course, the sinister squid-beast near the end.

Bottom line? MI is entertaining and captivating, even today. It is well worth the effort to find a copy.

Assignment: Outer Space

Originally a 1960 Italian sci-fi movie called "Space Men", Assignment: Outer Space (AOS) is the title given to the english dubbed version released by Four Crowns. The film has a strong visual flavor of the late 50s. The winged rocket has a Bonstell style ala Conquest of Space and the interior sets are replete with surplus 50s electronics. The copy I watched had such washed out color that it was nearly a black and white movie. The story amounts to three loosely connected acts centered around a reporter sent on a routine space mission to get a story. The routine mission is cancelled, first for a rescue and then a mission to save the earth from destruction. This was Antonio Margheriti's first solo directing effort. He would go on to direct many more 60s Italian sci-fi space dramas.

Quick Plot Synopsis
Ray Peterson, reporter, is assigned to the crew of rocket BZ88, which is on a fairly mundane mission. He is smug and abrasive. The crew and commander already resent having a "leech" aboard. During a refueling stop, Ray saves a crewman from death by meteorite, but causes a huge fuel leak. The tension worsens. Ray finds out that the crewman he saved was the only female: Lucy. Romance develops. The routine mission is shelved as the BZ88 is called to effect a rescue. Rocket MS13 has engine trouble is going to crash on Mars. Ray uses pull in high places force his inclusion in the rescue. Tensions get worse yet. BZ88 cannot get to MS13 in time. One crewman bails out and falls onto Phobos. The rest die when MS13 hits the Martian atmosphere. BZ88 lands on Phobos and retrieves the bailed out crewman. The BZ88 must then rush off to Venus to help stop a rogue spaceship, the Alpha 2. For some reason, the Alpha 2's two "Photonic units" have set up a 5000 mile diameter heat sphere around the ship. The pilot is dead and the autopilot is set to bring Alpha 2 into earth orbit. This will incinerate anyone beneath it as it orbits, eventually killing all life on earth. Missiles fired at Alpha 2 blow up when they reach the heat sphere. Al deduces that there is a gap between the two hemispheres. He tries to fly his ship in the gap, but blows up. Ray volunteers to fly the space taxi in the gap. He reaches the pilotless ship and deactivates the autopilot and the heat spheres. This also traps him aboard. The others come save him before the Alpha 2 hits earth's atmosphere. The rocket BZ88 powers up with all aboard, to safety. The End.

Why is this movie fun?
The 50s flavor of cheap sets and minimal effects pervade the film, so fans of 50s B-grade sci-fi get a big nostalgia dose. The writer had evident ambition for attempting a serious space opera. This echos the "hard" sci-fi of the 50s, but with a farther-future scope, as would become more common in the 60s.

Cold War Angle
Lethal radiation from an errant man-made device threatens to destroy all life on the earth. The primary message in AOS has more to do with mankind's sense of character. The radiation threat has almost become a conventional trope for the characters to solve while engaged in drama.

Notes
Chevy In Space! -- AOS is famous for its low low budget effects. At one point, when the crippled rocket MS-13 is supposed to have crashed into Mars, the film cuts to an explosion. Trouble was, there was no matte. It's clearly just a fireball explosion in a parking lot. There is a building in the background, and the back end of 1958 Chevrolet Bel Air convertible in the right-foreground. It is a famous non sequitur.

Slow Talker -- The script is very slow paced and talky, especially in the first half. Action picks up in the second half, but a fair mount of the time, the camera is focused on two or more talking heads.

Say What? -- It may be that the english dubbing used contorted phrasing to better match the lip movements of the Italian actors. It may be that the original Italian dialogue assumed an Italian audience's perspective. Either way, the dialogue is at time bizarre and/or nonsensical. At one point, Al, gives a soliloquy: "Man, even in space, changes his position, but not his character. He is what he is, wherever he goes." Ray does not understand, so George tries to clarify. "To himself, every man is a whole world." What? Maybe it made more sense in the Italian. Later, when Ray is trapped aboard the Alpha 2, he can't regulate his oxygen tank, so begins to hyperventilate. "Too much air. My lungs are running wild. An orgy of air." Sakes man, get a grip.

Talk About EgoCentric... -- At one point, while Ray is trapped aboard the Alpha 2. He has shut down the ship's radiation sphere, so earth is saved, but also trapped himself aboard the doomed ship. He begins to weep like a big pansy. He utters a most un-heroic line. "What's the use of saving the world, if I'm going to be lost myself?" Now there's hero talk. He was only saving the word...for himself? Sakes again.

Inhuman Numbers -- A more pervasive theme in AOS is struggle the human spirit against the dehumanizing forces of modern technology. In AOS, people have numbers primarily. Life is presumed to be of secondary importance to whatever the mission is. For instance, the Commander upbraids Ray for saving cosmonaut Y13 because he spilled 500 gallons of fuel. Crewmen are expendible. In the end, however, the Commander, George, changes. At first, he's by-the-book and stoic. In the end, he defies high council orders to rescue Ray. Humanity triumphs over the dehumanizing future.

Bottom line? The pace of AOS can be agonizingly slow at times. The plot can seem fragmented (if not outright confused). Yet, the film has a 50s charm in its simple (crude) sets and models. It may be a movie only 50s sci-fi fans could like.