Valley of the Dragons

I closed out 1961 just a bit too quickly. There was one more "sci-fi" film of '61, though like many B-grade sci-fi, it only just barely qualified.
Columbia Studios' B-wing put out a low-budget film based on lesser known Jules Verne story: "Career of a Comet." Edward Bernds directed and wrote the screenplay. Bernds made a mark for himself in 50s sci-fi with such films as World Without End ('56) and Spacemaster X-7 ('58) and others. Valley of the Dragons (VoD) is part Robinson Crusoe, part caveman/dinosaur flick, and only marginally a sci-fi tale. In all this, it is throughly a "50's" era style of film.

Quick Plot Synopsis
It is 1881, outside of Tangiers. An Irishman named Michael Denning and a French Captain Servadac are about to fight a duel with pistols over some fracas involving a woman. The duel is interrupted when a comet rushes in, narrowly missing, or perhaps grazing the earth. Everyone but Denning and Servadac are swept away in a windstorm. The two duelists find themselves alone in a changed landscape. The sahara had become a lush jungle. They are attacked by brutish Neanderthals. They watch "dinosaurs" fight. They find a tribe of cave-dwelling people (Cro-magnon?). When a "mammoth" attacks, the two are separated. Servadac fell over a cliff and is swept far down river. A pretty blonde cave-babe finds him and takes him home to her tribal camp as "hers". While recovering from his injuries, Servadac teaches her english. Meanwhile, Denning helps the cave people's leader after a failed ox hunt. Denning is taken to the cave where he becomes the fancy of a pretty brunette cave-babe. Both Denning and Servadac go through similar exploits as modern men in cave society. While exploring a cave with Servadac, the blonde Deena is captured by Morlock-like cavemen. She escapes but is lost. Men from the cave tribe find her. Denning hears her broken english and knows Servadac is alive. While en route to restore Deena to Servadac, the volcano erupts and causes an earthquake. The rest of the cave tribe are trapped in their cave by dinosaurs displaced by the lava. The part of cave tribesmen and hut tribesmen must work together to save them. Servadac finds the ingredients to make gunpowder and his men set charges on the ridge above the cave. The ensuing landslide buries or frightens off the dinosaurs. The two tribes learn to be friends. Servadac figures the comet will pass by earth again in seven years. In the meantime, they'll enjoy their pretty mates. The End.

Why is this movie fun?
Several of the tried-and-true plot devices and tropes are trotted out once again, with predictable results. There is something familiar and comfortable (to a 50s fan) about them.

Cold War Angle
As an adaptation of a Verne story, there is little of the usual Cold War symbolism. Only the two rivals setting aside their difference for a common defense, might be seen as a soft Cold War message.

Notes
Semi-Verne -- As with most film adaptations of Verne novels, Hollywood tweaked things heavily. In Verne's novel, many people were taken by the comet, not just two. Like other disaster film plots, the band of castaways must survive both the elements and interpersonal friction. Verne's novel was more of a spotlight on Anglo-French tension, with a dash of anti-semitism. Bernds cast the story in more traditional Hollywood tones of boy-meets-babe.

Ancient Recycling -- VoD contains a good deal of footage recycled from One Million B.C., a 1940 dinosaur-caveman film by Hal Roach. Aside from the oft-reused scene of the alligator (with fins) battling a large lizard, the earthquake and lava footage was reused too. Bernds even reused the basic plot elements: a member one tribe is lost and taken in by rival tribe. The lost man and beautiful blonde girl of the other tribe fall in love. This romance becomes the key to intertribal peace.

Fanciful "Science" -- At one point, Servadac theorizes what happened to them. They are riding on a "comet" which periodically has visited earth over the millennia, each time, it snatched off some hunk of earth bringing with it some flora, fauna and atmosphere. This handily explains the co-existence of dinosaurs and cave men, as well as themselves. Servadacguesses that evolution would be 'frozen' with such isolated samples. Therefore both dinos and cavefolk did not advance during the thousands of years. Handy.

Cave Brutes, Cave Babes -- It is interesting that in the film, cave men (not the Neanderthals) are brutish and not too bright. Cave women, on the other hand, are exactly as we idealize them today -- beautiful, shapely, and hungry for love. Oh, and they can learn english pretty quickly, while the men are stuck with grunting and pointing. Much food for musing in all this stereotyping.

Morlock Ancestors -- One intriguing short scene is when the Morlock-like subterranean men try to capture Deena. Clearly not just more Neanderthals, these white-haired brutes were some other form of humanoid. Did the comet take them off the earth at some point too? Did they come off some other planet? No explanation is given, so the pre-Morlocks are just a fun tangent in VoD.

Bottom line? VoD amounts to a semi-remake of One Million B.C. with some help from Jules Verne. In that, it is yet another caveman & dinosaur movie with little "science". A fan of saucers and aliens will not find much to like. Yet, there are some minor points of interest for the hard core sci-fi fan.

Merry Christmas

Just a quick note of thanks to my readers. Time has been short during the holiday preparation period, so I got a bit behind on the movies. I will have a missed 1961 film, "Valley of the Dragons" to post right after Christmas, and then it's on to 1962, which has fun low-budget fare, but also some samples of big budget eastern European films which became low-budget American movies.

Merry Christmas!

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?

The Giant of Metropolis -- Italian film about a leader of Atlantis who seeks to transplant the brain of his father into his son's head, so he can rule forever, runs afoul of "the gods."

The Beast of Yucca Flats -- More of an atomic angst film than sci-fi. Tor Johnson becomes a killing brute after exposed to an atomic test.

Rocket Attack: USA -- Another atomic angst film, not really sci-fi. Low-budget spy drama where the Russian's launch a nuke at New York.

Valley of the Dragons -- Loosely based on a Jules Verne tale. Two men about to fight a duel are swept up by a comet, which is inhabited by cavemen and dinosaurs.

The Most Dangerous Man Alive -- A criminal, framed by his cohorts, escapes onto a nuclear test site. The blast makes him invincible. Revenge ensues.
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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.