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Saturday, October 8, 2011

Seeking Missing Movies

Occasionally, readers of this blog will write in, looking for help identifying a movie they remember, but not well enough. Sometimes, their Lost Movie can be identified from their clues. Other times, it remains a mystery.

Note to people seeking a Lost Movie: Try to include all the details you can remember, even if they don't seem crucial to the scene you remember. Black and White or Color? Daytime? Night? Was the room a bedroom? conference room, living room, control room? Were the other men in the room in suits? uniforms? space suits? Seemingly stray details can help.

Can You Help?
Below are some queries from readers, trying to track down a mystery film from their childhood. Have a read through. See if any of these descriptions ring a bell. Post comments. Help a poor movie lover be reunited with a part of their past.

 Ryan: Basically I am trying to track down an old movie.  Something I saw when I was really young, maybe 7. I'm now 31. The imagery has really stuck with me.  But unfortunately I do not know the title and have not had much luck internet searching. It is an old Black White movie.  A Middle aged man, likely wearing a suit, appropriate for the time. boards a commercial airliner, everything is normal.   The plane takes off and he falls asleep.  When he wakes up the plane is completely deserted, it is apparently flying itself.  From there all I remember is him just perplexed walking around plane trying to figure out what is going Generic commercial airliner. I saw it on tv but it looked like a movie aired on tv. But I am almost certain it was a movie. The imagery was so good.  Just a simple clean eerie movie.

 C: I'm looking for a sci-fi film, maybe 60's (or 70's) All I remember is a scene at a beach with a guy in a suit running from giant bouncing balls (like weather balloons) that kill. Any idea ?

 Billodot: I saw a movie in 1962 or 3 that opened with the view of a clock... everyone on earth was gone, and the camera looks out on to the street below to see robots with rays coming out of their visors destroying everything I was 8, it was a B/W matinee anyone have a clue? I think 'day' was in the title?

 David T: I too am looking for one I enjoyed years ago. It's a color film, as I recall, from my teen years, quite grainy. I don't recall much of the plot but do recall enjoying it. The best details I remember: The hero flew in an unusually shaped spaceship, kind of like the claw of a scorpion. And, the real thing that I recall that sets it apart, during a war of aliens vs. aliens, one of ships on the good guy size was a classic flying saucer. I recall the bad guy captured one of the almost all white aliens from the saucer. He had a habit of taking limbs from those he captured and had a mad doctor that tried to keep them alive so they could endure the emotional pain of seeing their appendage stolen. This turned bad for the bad guy because the aliens in the saucer had zero tolerance for pain and the victim died. Further, the aliens were able to use telepathy to control the stolen arm and used it to choke the bad guy - who managed to have it cut off before it killed him.

12 comments:

Ivan said...

1) Not sure of, but it sounds like a Twilight Zone episode also

2)Patrick McGoohan's The Prisoner TV series

3) Target: Earth (1954)

4) Roger Corman's Battle Beyond the Stars (1980)

Anonymous said...

The show C is looking for with the beach ball is the tv series the Prisoner.

Aloarjr said...

Billodot movie should be Target Earth.

Anonymous said...

C that was a tv show not a movie. it was the prisoner, come to think of it there was a woody Allen movie with bouncing balls on a beach but that was not Sy fy

Anonymous said...

Billodot - I think this is the film TARGET EARTH; which opened with a clock and of a woman on a bed who had just failed at an attempt at susicide who wakes up to find the city desolate and under attack from robots - she later joins up with a man played by Richard Denning and another couple and they do their best to stay ahead of the robots.

It's slow, talky and more people than robots - but!; the idea is sound and there are several moments of tension and atmosphere that help elevate the film.

It was released a few years ago on DVD in widescreen, with extra features by vcientertainment.com - well worth picking up. Hope that helps.

Anonymous said...

C- The Scene he is describing sound like the The Prisoner TV series

David T- The movie he's looking for is Roger Cormen's Battle Beyond The Stars which is available right now on Bluray and DVD.

Anonymous said...

C- It sound like "The Prisoner" TV series

David T- That movie he's looking for is "Battle Beyond the Stars"

AtomicTiki said...

C - The film you are looking for is probably the British television series "The Prisoner"

David T - The film you are looking for is likely the 1980 Roger Corman Magnificent Seven sci-fi remake called "Battle Beyond the Stars"

Anonymous said...

Ryan -- I think that is a Twilight Zone episode. I'll look through them and see if I can find it.

hurricane51 said...

Ryan -- I went back through my Twilight Zone episodes and I can't find one with that exact plot. The very first episode has Earl Holliman wandering into a town where everyone seems to have disapperead in an instant, and "Odyssey of Flight 33 (S2E18) has a commerical airline mysteriously flying back into the Jurassic period. Nothing with both scenarios.

Unknown said...

David T.'s movie must be Battle Beyond the Stars (1980) - Roger Corman's. The film, intended as a "Magnificent Seven in outer space," is an imitation of "The Magnificent Seven."

Darci said...

The "passengers missing from the airplane" sounds like "The Langoliers"?