1966

Mash-ups, imports, remakes and adaptations from (or to) television dominate the sci-fi movies of 1966. Fantastic Voyage is the stand-out big movie of the year. For influence of television increases, both as source material (e.g. Dr. Who movies) and a market for 50s remakes (the many A.I.P./Buchanan movies). Here are the year's movies, in roughly chronological order.

Queen of Blood -- Recycled soviet sci-fi footage mixed with new. An alien woman, rescued from crash on Phobos, feeds on the blood the rescue crew.

Planet of the Prehistoric Women -- Low-budget tale of a ship crashed on a prehistoric planet and the dawn of civilization.

War of the Planets -- English dubbed version of second in the Gamma One series. Energy beings take over humans.

War Between the Planets -- English dub of the third in the Gamma One series. Commander Jackson must stop a rogue planet whose gravity is harming Earth.

Dr. Who and the Daleks -- Movie version of several Dr. Who television episodes. Peter Cushing stars as the Doctor, battling the robot-like Daleks.

Daleks: Invasion Earth 2150 -- Second movie version of Dr. Who. Travel to Earth's future to find Dalek domination. He must thwart their plan to steal the planet.

Fantastic Voyage -- A team and a mini-sub are shrunk to perform micro-laser surgery inside the brain of a defecting scientist. Sabotage and treachery threaten the mission.

The Navy vs. the Night Monsters -- Plant samples from Antarctica grow into man-eating trees, threatening to eat everyone on a remote island naval base.

Cyborg 2087 -- A Terminator-like tale of a cyborg sent from the future to earth's past (1966) to prevent a professor inventing a mind-control tool.

Dimension 5 -- A secret agent with short-jump time shifting belt, battles Chinese spies trying to assembled an A-Bomb in Los Angeles.

Destination Inner Space -- An undersea base is beset by a saucer carrying frozen gillman creatures. The earthlings must stop this spearhead of an invasion.

Zontar: Thing From Venus -- AIP/Buchanan remake of 1956 Roger Corman film It Conquered the World. John Agar stars.

Way...Way Out -- Jerry Lewis comedy about a shirker astronaut trainee, drafted to replace crew on a moon base. For propriety, he must marry astronaut Connie Stevens.

Fahrenheit 451 -- British production, based on Ray Bradbury's novel about Earth's authoritarian future, in which books are burned and independent thought is treason.

The Bubble -- A man and wife are trapped in weird town, beneath a clear dome. Is it the work of aliens? a 3D extravaganza by Arch Oboler.

Invasion -- A mysterious man lies hurt in a hospital. Two mysterious women are after him. Is HE a space criminal, or are THEY?

Sting of Death -- Young people on a research spring break in the Everglades are being killed off one at a time by a monster jellyfish-man-thing.
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The Ambushers

The mid 60s saw many spy movie spoofs. The Ambushers (TA) was Columbia Picturers' contribution. TA was the third in their series of four Matt Helm films, starring Dean Martin. All four were based (very loosely) on novels by Donald Hamilton. TA only barely qualifies as a sci-fi movie, and even then, only because it features a flying saucer as the MacGuffin. As a Bond parody, the Matt Helm movies pushed the boozing, womanizing, innuendo and crazy gadgets to absurd degrees. Such parodies are the foundations for later parodies, such as "Austin Powers." Senta Berger and Janice Rule star as the lead females.

Quick Plot Synopsis
I.C.E (Intelligence Counter Espionage) launches their experimental flying saucer, which uses electromagnetic levitation which is fatal to men. It flies off successfully, but is hijacked by a controlling ray from deep in the Mexican jungle. The pilot, Sheila Sommers, wanders out of the jungle in a catatonic state of shock. She was abused by the evil Leopold Caselius, pretending to be a beer company owner. He plans to sell the saucer to the highest bidder. Back at I.C.E. Sheila suddenly comes to, but thinks she's married to Matt. (they were in the dim past). Mac sends Matt and Sheila, posing as honeymooners, to Acupulco to investigate Ortega and his beer company. Amid much scenery and shots of scantily clad women, Matt eventually gets a tour of the beer factory. Caselius is onto Matt. A fez-wearing baddie named Nassim and a pretty foreign agent named Francesca, are also following Matt. Through plot twists and turns, Matt finally learns that the saucer is hidden in one of Caselius' remote haciendas. Matt sends Francesca in first, to play the loyal buyer. Matt lets himself get captured and brought in. Nassim captures Sheila and brings her in. Both Nassim and Francesca put in bids for the saucer, but it's already sold. Caselius orders Matt shot by firing squad. He escapes this by blowing laughing gas from a specially tainted cigarette. Nassim and Francesca each escape murder too. Francesca finds the saucer first, but Nassim kills her. He goes inside to steal it, but the radiation it emits kills men. He emerges screaming. Sheila escapes being ravaged by Caselius via drugged lipstick. She gets to the saucer, but Caselius recovered and traps her inside, again attempting a ravage. Sheila kicks the power on and Caselius is radiated. Scream and die. The brakes on the railway flat car are released, so the saucer begins a long careen through the jungle. Matt chases it on a motorcycle. He catches up, lifts Sheila off the speeding flatcar with a levitation ray gun, and places her on the back of the motorcycle. The flatcar flies off the end of the obligatory cliff moments later. The saucer explodes, obligingly, at the bottom. Everyone returns stateside. Matt resumes his boozy playboy spy role. The End.

Why is this movie fun?
It's a comedy. It's supposed to be fun. Granted, most of the humor is fairly low, but some jokes are okay. The saucer itself is classic 50s stuff.

Cold War Angle
Most spy movies involve infiltrator and evil despots, but not necessarily in the Cold War angst category.

Notes
Based on the Book? -- David Hamilton's Matt Helm novels were not high literature, but were at least serious spy fiction. Hamilton must have been embarrassed at Columbia's action-comedy "spoof" adaptations. Imagine Ian Fleming's Bond stories set as a Muppet Movie, with Kermit playing James Bond. It would be hard to follow the book very closely. The 1963 novel, "The Ambushers," did feature his super spy Matt Helm, and was set in Central America (Mexico is close enough, I suppose). There were a few characters borrowed, such as Sheila and Mac, but there is little affinity beyond that. In lieu of a stolen Soviet missile, the movie has a stolen flying saucer. Beyond that, the movie is packed with innuendos and boob jokes.

Got Boots? -- Note the very 60s costuming of the ladies. Tall boots and very short skirts are aplenty. Sheila goes through several outfits with tall matching boots. The white outfit is for the beer factory shoot out only. The orange outfit is for getting captured. Francesca (Berger) has her own tall boots outfits, as do many of the "Slaygirls".

1950 Dejavu -- The plot of TA is reminiscent of the 1950 film The Flying Saucer, written, directed and produced by Mikel Conrad. TFS had a secret government saucer which was stolen by enemy agents. They planned to sell it to the highest bidder. A hard-drinking secret agent and his female sidekick (who pretends to be a non-agent), track down the stolen saucer in a remote location. Multiple bad guys emerge and almost succeed. The saucer is destroyed in the end. Sound familiar? Hamilton's novel wasn't this close to TFS. It's Herbert Baker's screenplay that was.

Wasted Mod-Mustang -- Nassim, the vaguely
arabic sinister agent, drives a modified '65 Mustang fastback. It has some winged antennae thing and a taller roof, open in the back. Other than getting Nassim from A to B, this special Mustang does nothing special. Perhaps there were car gizmo scenes or a gimmick-charged chase scene that showed off what the car could do, but they were cut. A pity. The car looks like it had potential.

Joke Samples -- The humor and sex references in TA are, for the most part, aimed at a pretty low common denominator. Typical example: (Sheila wants to 'carry on' with Matt while they watch Caselius' hacienda). Matt: "In broad daylight?" Sheila: "What's wrong with a broad in daylight?" Example of the better ones: (Matt faces the firing squad. His requests for a last meal or a blindfold were turned down with a simple "no".) Matt: "Can't I have a last cigarette?" Quintana: "No, they're bad for you."

Rat Pack Inside Joke -- The "Rat Pack" of the 60s included Dean Martin, Sammy Davis Jr., Frank Sinatra, Joey Bishop and a few peripherals. They regularly spoofed each other. At the end of TA, Matt is instructing a new recruit on how to make out. He puts on music -- his own "Everybody loves somebody sometime..." tune. This puts the recruit out of the mood. He then plays Sinatra's "Strangers in the night..." and the recruit turns nympho. Matt says: "I had no idea you were such a Perry Como fan." (barrroom ching) (For those not familiar with 60s culture, Perry Como was the clean-cut, good-taste crooner counterpart to the booze-n-women Rat Pack crooner, Sinatra.)

Bottom line? TA is a comedy spoof of the Bond-style action spy thriller movie genre. As such, there is little sci-fi in it. It does have a flying saucer. If Bond parodies, with lots of cleavage and innuendo, are not what you're after, but you do like flying saucer movies, you could watch the first 10 minutes and the last 10 minutes. That is all that has the saucer.

Night Fright

This low-budget indie production was probably aimed at the television market rather than the usual theatrical release. Television programming is normally outside the scope of this study, but since Night Fright (NF) starred John Agar -- a familiar name in 50s B movie-land -- and since NF follows the 50s idiom for monster-horror-scifi stories, it has earned a spot here. In fact, if the cars had been older, and it shot in black and white, it could pass for a 50s B movie without question. NF is said to have been released in the UK with the title E.T.N. (ExtraTerrestrial Nasty).

Quick Plot Synopsis
A couple of "teens" are necking on a remote dirt road with the catchy name: Satan's Hollow. They hear a radio report of a flaming object that fell from the sky nearby. They resume necking and are attacked by a lurking monster we don't get to see. The victims are discovered by Chris and Judy. The sheriff's (Agar) murder investigation is hampered by federal investigators who have sealed off the area. The flaming object was a returned space agency rocket. There is some extended time spent on good teens vs. bad teens and a couple of weak but interlocking love triangles. The bad teens all decide to go have "a blast" out by the lake, even though that was where the murders took place. Bad teens don't listen. A professor friend of the sheriff tells him of a space project called "Noah's Ark" that sent animals into space. It was lost of six months, then suddenly crashed just outside of town. Lots of radiation-mutants in the wreckage. Some were half eaten by a larger mutant they never found. Chris and Judy try to warn Rex and the bad teens of their danger. A show of egos turns into a fight which the good teen wins. Everyone leaves except the ego-damaged Rex and his girlfriend Darlene. The monster arrives (a gorilla suit and mutant bald gorilla demon mask). The monster chases Darlene through the woods. She meets up with her sister Joan (girlfriend of the sheriff). The monster almost gets them, but the sheriff gets them to safety. Darlene was scared stiff like a manikin, Joan says. This gives sheriff Clint an idea. He has Chris get him a bunch of stuff and meet them at the danger zone. He does, and several men begin a lot of waiting in the woods. Clint fashions a decoy out of Joan's nurse uniform on a manikin. The monster eventually comes chasing Chris and Judy, (who were not making out, btw). The monster goes for the seated manikin. Clint pushes the plunger, setting off the dynamite. Blamo. No more monster. Everyone is happy. Clint and Joan kiss. The End.

Why is this movie fun?
The story is so typically 50s that it has nostalgia value. The acting is amusingly flat or erratic. The "hip" teen lingo brings a smile. The monster is like Robot Monster turned Sith. Rocket science is fraught with danger, but good triumphs over evil.

Cold War Angle
This is peripheral, but there is the customary (if not cliche, by the mid-60s) warnings about the nasty things radiation can do to living creatures.

Notes
Aging Agar -- John Agar had been in B movies throughout the 50s. His high points were probably Revenge of the Creature ('55) and Tarantula (also '55). He had the lead in many lesser films, such as The Brain from Planet Arous (57) and Journey to the Seventh Planet ('62). By 1967 he was in his mid 40s and looking a bit less hunky. Nonetheless, Agar gives a fairly good effort as sheriff Clint.

Teen Monster -- The sub-genre of teens (often dancing) and a rogue monster had perking along for several years. Not that the movie featured teens or "teens" played by twenty-somethings. (e.g. The Blob or Teenagers From Outer Space).The movies with dancing / partying teens typicallly fall victim to the monster. In this odd sub-genre are: The Giant Gila Monster ('59), The Horror of Party Beach ('64), The Creeping Terror ('64) and Monster A-Go-Go ('65). These, and NF, featured extended footage of "teens" dancing their crazy kid dances. Often, the dancing scenes have a hint of voyeurism to them, with close ups of girls' gyrating backsides. NF upholds this tradition with multiple shots of Carla's plaid dancing butt. It should also be mentioned that writer Russ Marker's other screenplay, The Yesterday Machine ('63) opened with a long look at short-skirted baton twirler dancing to pop rock. It was a 60s thing.

Traditional Evil -- A regular feature in 50s B sci-fi was the danger of radiation. It turned some hapless sea creature into Godzilla. It mutated humans, and wasps (Green Hell) and causes untold damage. By the mid-60s, space exploration was pulling back the veil somewhat on the mysteries of space. This makes NF more of an anachronism.

Cars Aplenty -- NF offers a nice sampler platter of mid-60s Detroit cars. There are several mainstream staples, like Chevy Impala, and Biscane, and Ford Galaxy and a tidy '66 Mustang fastback. There is a "vintage" '63 Chrysler Newport wagon as the ambulance. It gets lots of screen time. The ill-fated neckers were in a '67 Pontiac Firebird. The good teen, Chris, drove around a hulking (but interesting) Oldsmobile Toronado. Not your typical teen boy choice.

TNT: Man's Best Friend -- Dynamite has been the monster-fighting weapon of choice in many B movies. Sometimes it hasn't worked, but often enough, it does. To keep from being too obvious, Russ Marker did not let the cat out of the bag too soon. Clint just handed Chris a note of some supplies he needed. If he had said "get me some dynamite," viewers would have known too soon. It's always dynamite. Nor did Marker give it away with the manikin. Only the quick cut of the detonator at the last second let viewers know that mankind's best anti-monster tool had saved us all again.

Bottom line? NF is sometimes called one of the "worst movies ever," and not without cause. It has a plot that was a decade old when released, lower-teir actors (Agar excluded), a cheesy monster costume, pointless love triangles and alpha-teen rivalries, and way too much footage of men walking through woods, or sitting in woods. Yet, for fans of movies with monsters and dancing teens, NF has both.

The Frozen Dead

Yet another British import of 1967 was another Gold Star Production, written and directed by Herbert J. Leder (of "It!" fame). The Frozen Dead (TFD), avoids some of the pitfalls of one-man-band projects, but not all. Star Dana Andrews lifts TFD from the sea of B-movie obscurity, though not too high above the waves. The story is a horror / sci-fi hybrid, in the Frankenstein mode, made up from a combination of traditional tropes. TFD is another installment in the head-in-a-box subgenre.

Quick Plot Synopsis
Dr. Norberg is former Nazi doctor leading a quiet life in a rural english mansion. His clandestine project is trying to revive frozen Nazi party elite. His work has only been partially successful. Of the dozen frozen men he had, the first seven suffered brain damage. They're kept in his basement like prisoners. The eighth, Joseph, is an expressionless mute who serves as Norberg's butler. Norberg's financial backer (and shadow Nazi party boss) drops in to witness the successful reviving of the 9th man. If successful, it will be the start of thawing 1500 loyal Nazis. The revival fails when Norberg's assistant, Karl, interrupts with news. Norberg's niece, Jean, and her friend, Elsa, dropped in. Norberg laments that he wished he had a fresh brain to study so he could figure out why prior attempts failed. Karl takes this as an assignment. He drugs and strangles Elsa, but blames Prisoner #3 (who happens to be Norberg's brother and Jean's father) who when unfrozen suffers violent outbursts. Karl coaxes Norberg into taking the opportunity. Elsa's head is kept alive in a box. Karl fakes Elsa's sudden departure, but Jean is suspicious. Norberg invites a Dr.Roberts to help him. They fail to get the head to control a wall of severed arms. Roberts becomes conflicted between his devotion to science (the head project) and his developing love for Jean. Meanwhile, Elsa's head (now inexplicably blue) develops telepathic powers. The prisoners are fearful. Karl is obsessed. Jean has bad dreams. She also keeps investigating Elsa disappearance, This eventually involves a police inspector. Turns out that Karl was not fetching body parts from the morgue, but killing people for the parts, so everyone has a lot to hide. Norberg's Nazi bosses grow impatient. Misbehaving Karl is tossed in the freezer. Lubeck is about to shoot Jean for knowing too much. Norberg struggles with him for the gun. They stray too close to the wall of arms. Elsa's head controls the arms to strangle Norberg and Lubeck. Jean rushes to the basement cell to see her father (Prisoner 3), but he starts to strangle her. The police inspector shoots Prisoner 3. Jean, Roberts and the inspector go to Elsa's head, which whispers over and over, "Bury me....bury me..." The End.

Why is this movie fun?
Dana Andrews does a reasonable job of portraying Dr. Norberg as both a dedicated scientist and a man with some scruples. Alan Tilvern plays the role of minion with a bit more depth than minions usually get.

Cold War Angle
Aside from the customary science-is-dangerous theme, TFD pushes the older Nazi Boogey Man buttons. There's nothing particularly Cold War about it.

Notes
Best Fiends -- As memories of WWII continued to morph into legend, film Nazis became more and more a caricature. TFD dabbles in that legend mode. The only German word Karl ever says is: "Schnell!" to his line of "prisoners." The frozen nazis wore full uniforms (with medals!). Clothes make the nazi. Tirpiz and Lubeck indulge in some stereotypic beating/torture of Karl. Mean, cruel, ruthless Nazis. The ideal film villains. So easy to write. The implication of a potential shadow threat of 1500 nazis waiting to emerge and resume their quest, is more of this legendary role.

Getting A Head -- Leder was writing on familiar ground with his head-kept-alive trope. Prior examples of the living head include Man Without a Body ('57), The Brain That Wouldn't Die ('62) and demonstrating that living-heads and nazis are a natural, Madmen of Mandoras ('63) Why Elsa's head had to be blue, is a bit of a mystery. Perhaps she could not be a girlish pink and still inspire fear. She was made up to look older and more haggard.

Brain Power -- Another retread trope in TFD is the notion that a brain separated from its body will most likely develop telekinetic and telepathic powers. This featured in Donovan's Brain back in '53 -- there, just a brain in a jar. The phenomenon appeared in Colossus of New York too, with Jeremy's brain inside the robot. Of course, Jan in the Pan in The Brain That Wouldn't Die started developing psychic powers. So, it's not too surprising that Elsa's head does the same. Interestingly, the brain prop showed a pulsating brain, is it were a heart.

Traditional Desert -- Customary in sci-fi / horror hybrids, is for the misguided (or mad) scientist to be killed by his monster. It is the traditional just-deserts for the hubris of playing God. The man who caused the problem is himself killed by it. In TFD, Elsa's head and the wall of arms make a sort of disassembled Frankenstein monster. They work together to extract just revenge -- not only on Norberg, but the shadow Nazi Lubeck too. TFD also has a subtle bit of cultural catharsis in that Norberg's "work" amounts to Nazis being maimed and killed by experiments by a Nazi doctor. More just deserts.

Low Rent Space -- Another well-worn trope is that the mad scientist lives in a big old house with his lab downstairs in the medieval-looking stone basement. Perhaps this is a legacy of that first Frankenstein movie. Good science takes place is well-lit modern campuses. Evil science takes place underground in dim rooms with stone walls. It's easier to track that white hats and black hats.

Bottom line? TFD is somewhat slow paced and constructed of many prior tropes. As such, it won't impress much of anyone familiar with the genre. Beyond Andrews and Tilvern, the acting is quite flat, except for a few rare, but well done, little moments. TFD is old-school rehash, but fairly watchable, if you're patient.

It!

Even though, It! is listed in some places as a sci-fi, there is really no sci-fi in it. Perhaps the science of archeology is the rationale, but there is little of this. Instead, this low-budget British film is a horror or monster story. Copyright 1966, It! showed in America in '67. Herbert J. Leder is the one-man-band of writer, producer, director. Roddy McDowell stars as the imbalanced assistant curator. The other 'star' is the invincible rustic statue: The Golem. This fact is tactfully avoided in the posters.

Quick Plot Synopsis
After a fire at a warehouse that contained a museum's storage, a big ugly statue is found unscathed. The statue kills the curator (for no apparent reason). Assistant curator, Arthur Pimm, (played by McDowell) hopes to be promoted. Pimm lives alone with the mummified corpse of his mother. He talks to it as if she was alive. Pimm keen on the pretty blonde Ellen, but she's indifferent to him. Pimm does not get promotion.The statue kills a disrespectful electrician. Pimm figures out that the statue is doing it. An American museum man arrives, telling legend of Golems. Jewish guardians, controlled by whoever put a special little scroll under its tongue. Pimm takes rubbing of inscription on statue to an old jewish librarian. He reads that it can be controlled by the scroll, but cannot be destroyed. Pimm finds the scroll in the toe of the statue. Pimm's new boss is an annoying pedant who fires him. Pimm impulsively tells statue to kill his new boss. It does. The police are starting to suspect Pimm. Pimm is keen on the buxom Ellen, but she's keen on the American. Pimm boasts to Ellen about his power. He has the statue wreck a bridge to prove it. Police suspicions grow.He tries to burn the statue to be rid of it, but it is fire proof and returns to its pedestal. Off camera, Pimm kidnaps Ellen from her bed and steals a hearse. He drives the statue, Ellen and his dead mother to rural cloister. The caretaker woman can tell things are bad, but Pimm forces her compliance. Pimm has the statue guard the gate, but has no other real plan. The army tries bazookas and artillery, but the statue cannot be blasted. The only course of action left is to use a tactical nuke. Meanwhile, Pimm has grown angry at Ellen when she calls him mad. He orders the statue to get rid of Ellen. While carrying her across the lawn, he drops her. With only a minute before bomb time, the American sees Ellen run free. He grabs a handy motorcycle and races in. He grabs up Ellen and rushes back to the sandbag barrier just in time. Cue stock footage of a nuclear test. The old brick building is just flaming rubble. But, the statue walks along undamaged. It walks to the sea, wades in, and disappears. The End.

Why is this movie fun?
Even though It! is not really sci-fi, it is a fairly briskly told tale. A statue as monster different enough. Roddy McDowell puts in a colorful performance.

Cold War Angle
Unstoppable destructive power tends to corrupt. This is the cautionary moral.

Notes
Psycho Brother -- Arthur Pimm seems patterned after Norman Bates in Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho. Both are peculiar nervous types who live alone with the dead bodies of their mothers seated in rocking chairs. Both take a juvenile liking to a pretty blonde. Pimm, as a sort of British brother to Bates, puts a strange spin into the story. His imbalance makes misuse of the Golem's power far more likely and takes less rational forms.

Juvenile Anti-Hero -- The Pimm character is written with some sympathy, almost as an anti-hero, designed for young male audiences to identify with. He's a capable enough young man at this job, but frustrated in his career, having to endure oppressive elders. He has 'bipolar' relationship with his mother. He is keen on a pretty young woman, but she's not interested in him. Thus far, Pimm is an Everyman for teen guys. Into those inexperienced emotional hands is given great power. Understandably (but not commendably) he uses that power for selfish gain -- the promotion, to impress the girl, to silence an enemy. Also typical of youth was to never once consider the larger stage he was acting upon. He kidnaps the pretty girl (another juvenile male fantasy solution to their dilemma), but had no larger plan than that. Eventually, the world comes crashing back in on him.

Plot Gap or Commentary? -- Near the end, Pimm is holed up in the cloister with his pretty captive. He has the indestructible statue guard the gate. The British army try blasting it with a bazooka. (strange, that usually works) Then with an artillery piece. When the nuke is about to fall, Perkins races up to the house on a motorcycle to rescue Ellen. Couldn't the army have done that all along? It was just one lumbering statue. Was the writer this sloppy? Perhaps not. A hint to a possible reason comes when the inspector says that the army is going to drop a nuke on it. The earlier failures were blows to their pride. That's the key. Stopping the unstoppable (by military means) became an obsession. Herein lurks another Cold War commentary. This also fits the ambiguous ending. When the statue stomps off into the sea, its immediate controller (Pimm) might have been neutralized, but the lingering threat of that unstoppable power remains.

Bottom line? It! is not really sci-fi. It is a low-budget horror/monster film crafted to resemble the more famous Hammer films. Much of the action is told via dialogue rather than shown (a feature of a low-budget). Despite these shortcomings, as a story, it has some redeeming qualities.

Planet of the Invading Women

Estudios Americas, produced a sort of sequel to Planetary Giants, in 1966. La Planeta de las Mujeres Invasoras, (Planet of the Invading Women) (PIW), is more of a "continuing adventures" than a true sequel. It opened in Mexico in 1966, in the United States in 1967. PIW stars the same four stars from the prior film, playing the same characters: Professor Daniel Wolff, rocket scientist, Sylvia, his pretty secretary, Marcos the boxer and Taquito, his trainer. Shot in black and white, and with the opening footage of a blinking flying saucer, PIW has a very 50s look to it. The plot, too, is very 50s, owing much to Catwomen of the Moon, and others in the "Planet of Beautiful Women" sub-genre.

Quick Plot Synopsis
A flying saucer lands near an amusement park at night. Two pretty female invaders incapacitate two men who operate a saucer-shaped 'moon' ride. Cut to a parallel story of Marcos the boxer. Professor Wolff and Sylvia urge him to win (not throw the fight like last time). Marcos wants a date with pretty Sylvia. She agrees, provided he wins. A shadowy gangster, Toño, reminds him he agreed to lose. In the ring, Marcos wins Sylvia agrees to a date. Later, Toño's thugs ambush Marcos, but they're poor shots. Macros takes Sylvia to the carnival and board the very saucer ride the aliens had commandeered. Toño and his thugs follow them in. They're all kidnapped when the saucer flies off. On the planet Sibila, a planet of only young women, Queen Adestrea smiles but tells them they're prisoners. Obey all commands. In a scuffle, on thug is killed. He's taken to a lab where the Sibilians remove lung tissue. They can only breathe earth's air for a few hours. The earth tissue will create breathing a apparatus. The other thug escapes, but is blinded by the intense Sibilian sun. He is taken for lung surgery too. The queen's twin sister, Alburnia, is good, so helps the earthlings. She sends back her servant, Fitia, to earth to give professor Wolff a "send help" message. Adestrea sends two of her women to stop Fitia. They have the new lung filters. Fitia does not, so she dies before delivering her message. However, Wolff figures out enough that he and Taquito take Dr. Walters' rocket and fly to Sibila. Once there, they pretend to be rogues interested in selling humans to Adestrea. The two women report that the new lung filters wear out fast. Adult lung tissue is worn. Adestrea orders them to kidnap 20 school children. She has a mirror weapon that can kill only adults. They do this, and the saucer has its load of kids. Adestrea is captured by the good guys. Alburnia trades clothes with her. Wolff and the others gain control of the mirror. They kill the alien guards, freeing the children. They then use the mirror on Adestrea's guards too. As they all head for the rocket to leave, Adestrea stops them. Toño shoots Alburnia, but since they're special twins, both Adestrea and Alburnia die at the same time. The earthlings take Alburnia's body to earth for a proper burial. The End.

Why is this movie fun?
The Planet of Beautiful Women trope is amusing in itself. PIW is a worthy member of the group. The format, sets, props and photography are all very reminiscent of 40s and early-50s serials, so there is some nostalgia value.

Cold War Angle
Such themes are secondary at best. You do have a 'heartless' despot with agents operating in "our" land. She might intend to invade. (unclear) The bulk of the film is more adventure than angst.

Notes
Women! -- PIW is a solid example of the time-honored 50s sub-genre featuring planets inhabited by only 20-something pretty women. Others include Catwomen of the Moon, Abbott and Costello Go to Mars, Missile to the Moon, and Queen of Outer Space. PIW offers no reason why there are only pretty young women on the planet. It's just a fact.

Good Girl, Bad Girl -- PIW also employs the dualism featured in several of the other Planet of Women stories. There's a bad girl who doesn't like men and a good girl who does. PIW does the dualism one better by having them be identical twins! Queen Adestrea is the heartless, scheming and vain bad side of womanhood. Her twin sister Alburnia is kind and compassionate. An interesting twist is the lightly metaphysical notion that evil cannot exist without good, and wherever there is good, there will be evil, is that if one of the twins dies, the other will immediately die too.

Night and Day -- In the spirit of dualism, viewers may note that the alien planet in the first movie, Planetary Giants, was referred to as the "planet of eternal night." Sibila, the planet of beautiful women, was referred to as the "planet of eternal day." This makes the two movies a sort of film diptych.

Prop Watch -- As sister films, Planetary Giants and PIW share props and scenery. The conehead helmet of El Protector is duplicated as headgear for all of Adestrea's minions. The saucer is the same -- and even makes the same beeping sound. Of course Walters' rocket is the same, as it's a carryover too. Note the alien planet landscapes of the two movies. It's the same rocky barrens -- perhaps the Mexican equivalent of Bronson Canyon.

Pre-Jaffa -- Fans of the Stargate SG1 television series will note with some smile the spear weapons of Queen Adestrea's guards. They don't throw them, but use like Klingon pain sticks to subdue (or kill) their victims. Ruthless Queen Adestrea, flanked by her spear-toting guards looks like a retro-prototype of a Stargate Goa'uld "system lord" and her Jaffa.

Bottom line? PIW has all the faults and foibles of a low-budget production, capitalizing on the appeal of leggy young women. The special effects are vintage 40s, but therein lies some of its charm. Watch PIW, not as the best the mid 60s could do, but as a lost episode of the Planet-Of-Beautiful-Women series.

Planetary Giants

This Mexican production is said to have played in the US in 1967. An english-dubbed version of Gigantes planetarios doesn't seem to exist, so perhaps it played in primarily spanish-speaking markets. Planetary Giants (PG) is the first of two sibling films by Director Alfredo B. Crevenna. Apparently patterned after tastes in populist Mexican television, the film's fabric is a mix of serious sci-fi, comedy (Marcos and Taquito) and "pro" fighting. (q.v. Santo and Neutron serials). The mix is definitely not in the Hollywood formula.

Quick Plot Synopsis
Flying saucers are landing at various spots around the world. People are killed with a beam weapon. Evidence suggests that the aliens are completely human in appearance, so undetectable. They are sabotaging key earth installations. Professor Daniel Wolff seeks the advice of Dr. Walters (dismissed by the scientific community as a crack pot).Walters tells of receiving transmissions from a "planet of eternal night," about a dictator there named El Protector. Walters suspects El Protector plans to invade Earth. First comes sabotage, then bribing vulnerable earth scientists to help. Finally, the invasion. Walters has one rocket for space travel. He says Daniel should use the plans to build a defense fleet. Daniel's pretty secretary Sylvia is pestered by a brash boxer named Marcos. Walters is killed by a ray gun blast. Sylvia suggests Daniel pretend a playboy gambler's lifestyle and complain of debts to attract an alien bribe, to gain access to the aliens. He does this, attracting the busty blonde Mara and her bald sidekick. Baldy wants Walters' rocket plans. He and Daniel fight. Baldy falls into a tub of water, fizzes and dies. Daneil must take Walters' rocket to the alien planet to defeat them. Marcos, the champion, boxes a contender. He bet against himself, then throws the fight in the first round. While fleeing a mob of bet losers, Marcos and his trainer, Taquito hide in the hotel room of the other two astronauts. They put on the space suits as disguises, but are put into hibernation and aboard the rocket. Sylvia joins Daniel too. The four zoom to the planet of eternal night. Once there, El Protector demands the rocket plans. He intends to invade and be the Emperor of Earth. Daniel refuses. They become embroiled in a palace coup that goes awry. Marcos escapes. With the help of the coup leader's daughter, Alice, manage to upset El Protector's plans. He takes Sylvia hostage, intending to flee to earth in Daniel's rocket, but is stopped. The planet is free to live peacefully. The four earth people zoom away. The End.

Why is this movie fun?
Even though filmed in 1965 (or '63?), PG is a thoroughly 50s B-grade sci-fi. At times, it's even a 40s style sci-fi. Saucers, ray guns, pointy rockets, pretty alien women, PG is a nostalgic pleasure cruise.

Cold War Angle
It is uncertain how much the Mexicans worried about commie spies, so the themes of fifth columnist saboteurs and oppressive dictators may have had a more conventional intent. Yet, those elements were common to American sci-fi's Cold War themes too.

Notes
Unexpectedly Timely -- Watching PG in the early months of 2011, made some unexpected parallels to current international events in Egypt and Libya. El Protector was a dictator who ruled with an iron hand and had no qualms about turning his weaponry on his own people if it suited him. His people were happy to see him overthrown. Life imitating art.

Plot Medley -- Fans of 50s sci-fi will note some familiar plot tropes. The first half of PG, set on earth with alien agents (who look like us) engaged in sabotage, was a frequent theme. Not of this Earth ('57), War of the Satellites ('58), Planets Against Us ('62) and The Human Duplicators ('65), to name a few. The second half is a close parallel to Flight to Mars ('51) More on that below. The format of PG is akin to a variety show. There are moments of serious sci-fi, with shadowy alien agents, death by ray gun, etc. Then there are moments of extended comedy (such as Taquito's budding romance with Alice's plumpish maid named Frijo (bean). This is not just the Hollywood notion of comic relief. It is like sections of an Abbott and Costello movie were intercut into Crash of the Moons. Then too, there are many minutes of boxing, almost for its own type of entertainment value. The result is an odd mix by Hollywood's yardstick, but perhaps the way Mexican audiences liked their entertainment.

Serial Redux -- Much about PG's second half resembles the old Buck Rogers, or Flash Gordon serials of the 40s. Likewise, a resembles to the early 50s' Video Ranger episodes. All have: cigar-shaped rockets that take-off and land on a dime, and fly slow, alien worlds just a few days journey by rocket, alien civilizations somehow stuck in an era of earth's past, and aliens who are all plain ol' people. Oh, and ray guns.

Viva Aelita! -- The plot of the second half of PG is a close parallel to Flight To Mars. FTM was itself an adaptation of the 1924 Russian film, Aelita, Queen of Mars. Both PG and FTM have a planetary despot intent on invading earth if/when he can get the secret of the earthlings' rocket. In both, the alien planet is (or is supposedly) doomed. Both have a ranking cabinet minster who is the clandestine opposition leader. Both ministers have beautiful daughters who aid the humans. The coup succeeds. Aelita lives on in yet another retelling.

Galactic Lingo -- A common scoff for American sci-fi films is that the aliens, wherever and whoever they are, always managed to speak pretty good english. So it was amusing and refreshing to see that the people on the Planet of Eternal Night, spoke pretty good spanish.

Bottom line? PG is far from a slick production with cool sets or models. Nor does it have a thoughtful plot. PG is old fashioned low-budget sci-fi like it used to be done in the 40s and early 50s. Fans of Flash Gordon, et al. can enjoy the homage.

Rocket to the Moon

Yet another British import for 1967, was Rocket to the Moon (R2M). While not a big studio production, (Jules Verne Productions did only this one film) R2M is a bigger budget production. It seems patterned after the successful star-sudded, retro-Victorian comedy epics of the mid-60s:: 20th Century Fox's Those Magnificent Men and Their Flying Machines ('65) and Warner Bros.' The Great Race ('65). R2M features many comedic character actors, such as Lionel Jeffries, Terry-Thomas and Gert Frobe. R2M was later re-released in America with more farcical title of Those Fantastic Flying Fools. R2M's claim to science fiction rests only in its tenuous connection to Jules Verne. It is otherwise an earthbound comedy romp.

Quick Plot Synopsis
The film opens to a montage of failed technological "triumphs". P.T. Barnum flees to England to escape the collapse of a business deal. At an Academy of Sciences lecture, he hears Professor von Bulow suggest his explosive could send a projectile to the moon. PT suggests they do more: send a man to the moon. A committee is formed. Dillworthy (Jeffries) will design the projectile. Bulow (Frobe) will design the propellant. The Duke will supply the land. PT (Burl Ives) will be fundraiser. Washington-Smythe (Thomas) will be treasurer. Gaylord Sullivan (Troy Donahue) is the American engineer. Madeline (Laliah Levi) is his fickle love interest. Through a complex web of subplots interspersed with gag vignettes, we learn that Smythe has embezzled all the funds. Dillowrthy's design is rejected so he's miffed. They team up to sabotage the project, wagering heavily on its failure. When the accounts are discovered to be empty, Madeline's other fiance steps up as investor. Despite bumbling and foolery, the project is ready to launch. Gaylord is strapped in, but gets his arm stuck, so cannot pull the launch lever. A spy of the Tsar is aboard, but knocks him out with chloroform. Gaylord is extracted. Dillworthy and Smythe sneak aboard to do more sabotage. The spy launches the Moon Ship, which sails into the sky. Everyone is sad at first, at the loss of the ship, but cheer up when coal rains down from the explosion. The Duke is now a wealthy mine owner. Meanwhile, Dillworthy and Smythe are at the head of a line of slaves pulling the Moon Ship along a country road. Dillworthy and Smythe argue about whether they are in Russia or on the Moon. Could be the moon if the Russians got there first. The End.

Why is this movie fun?
Well, it's a comedy. It's fun by design. There are some amusing gags and a few cute lines. Lionel Jeffries plays his usual nervous, befuddled Englishman. Thomas does an excellent job with his scoundrel character: Smythe.

Cold War Angle
In lieu of a Cold War spin, R2M has a Space Race spin with the apparent contest being who will get to the moon first, the Americans or the Russians.

Notes
Once Again -- Verne's story, "From the Earth to the Moon" (1865) had already been adapted to film in 1958. RKO's From the Earth to the Moon used Verne's basic plot, but wove in some Cold War cautionary themes. Peter Welbeck's story, ( and David Freeman's script) for R2M was only very a loose adaptation, with little in common with Verne's book.

Comedy Epic Pattern -- R2M fits into the comedy epic sub-genre of the mid-60s. It's not a strong example of a sub-genre, but it fits. The pattern was to have a cast of many stars (usually comedy actors) and a complex plot which allowed for many gags. It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World ('63) is one of the best. A subset cast in Victorian times include:. The Great Race and Those Magnificent Men and Their Flying Machines (both '65), which were well done examples. R2M tries to follow the pattern, but falls short. It lacks the energy of the previous examples. It may be that Director Don Sharp was just not as skilled at directing comedy.

Missing Mockery
-- Making fun of Kaiser Wilhelm II had once been almost a cottage industry for the first two decades of the twentieth century -- especially in England. Wilhelm was typically mocked for his pomposity, fondness for ostentatious uniforms and his signature upturned mustache. By 1967, the contempt must have faded. Don Sharp (or his producers) portrayed Wilhelm as rather ordinary, apart from the fancy dress uniform. It is a bit puzzling why a British production passed up an opportunity to make fun of Willy. They used to be quite fond of the sport.

Moonless Mission -- Almost all of R2M's plot consists of getting the Moon Ship built. Only the last several minutes involve any "rocket" travel. The Moon Ship never leave's Earth, but is flown to Siberia by the Tsar's spy. This sets up one of the amusing (and final) gags, in which Smythe thinks they've landed on the moon. The fact that the other slaves sing the Russian labor song, "Volga Boatmen" is because the Russians got to the moon first.

Bottom line? R2M has its funny moments, but other films of the comedy epic sub-genre are funnier. For sci-fi fans, there is very little in the way of sci-fi elements, beyond a wee bit of steampunk. R2M is adequate as entertainment. Though the plot lags in many places, some parts are amusing.