Terror Beneath the Sea

This bit of digression is actually pretty apt, following Latutude Zero. Released originally as "Kaitei daisensô" in 1966, it too, features a largely western cast, mostly speaking english, but dubbed into Japanese. It also featured amazing submarines and an undersea city. When released internationally, the film had many titles, including: Water Cyborg, UX Bluthund, I Mostri Della Città Sommersa, Robots 2000, and Terror Beneath the Sea (TBS). This last iteration probably did not have an American theatrical release, since no poster seems evident. There were German and Italian posters, however. TBS more than likely went direct to television, hence the VHS cover art in lieu of a poster. This also makes TBS a good bridge in this study to sci-fi movies of the 70s, as the early 70s was most likely when it aired. TBS stars a young Sonny Chiba, one of the first martial arts "stars".

Quick Plot Synopsis
A high tech sub tracks a target sub. It's all demonstration by the navy for a super homing torpedo. During the tests, the silhouette of a swimming man flashes across the monitors. Journalist duo, Ken (Chiba) and Jenny (Peggy Neal), go scuba diving to check it out. Jenny encounters a silvery gillman, takes a picture, but drops her camera. The navy doesn't believe her. Ken and Jenny go looking for the camera, but find an undersea cave full of air. They also find several sliver gillmen who capture them. They awaken in the modernistic lab of the sinister Dr. Moore who always wears sunglasses. He bombasts about the world of the future starting with his city under the sea and his army of water cyborgs. He demonstrates how humans are transformed into the aquatic cyborgs. Some gas, some colored lights, some time-lapse photography and finally a lung-gill transplant. Viola. WaterCyborg. Meanwhile, the navy found Jenny's camera and the picture of the gillman. Now the search is on. Dr. Moore wants Ken to join his new world order, but he and Jenny try to escape. For that, Dr. Moore sentences them to becoming his next WaterCyborg. They start the process enough to give both Ken and Jenny some waxy patches on their hands and faces. Further morphing is interrupted when the navy's sub has found Moore's hidden city. A battle ensues between Moore's clever seeking missiles and the sub's also clever moves and devices. In a last desperate move, the sub's commander launches his super torpedo. This manages to cause enough damage that Moore's city begins to fail. The damaged equipment means the water cyborgs go nuts, turning on their human masters. Many fights ensue. The atomic reactor goes critical AND has a handy countdown timer to doom. Moore and his henchmen prepare to escape in a pod, but Ken stops them for some hand-to-hand combat. Just when it looks like Moore will kill Ken, Moore is killed by Professor Howard (another abductee). Ken, Jenny and the professor don't know how to launch the escape pod, but a not-quite-dead Moore tries to kick them out and escape, thereby revealing the hidden panel. This time Moore is really dead. Ken, Jenny and Howard are rocketed to safety just as the city blows up. The navy finds them. Jenny is distraught over her disfigurement, but while she was unconscious, professor Howard reversed the early gillman-ism and she's pretty again. She and Ken walk the beach in the sunset (in their scuba gear). The End.

Why is this movie fun?
This film makes a nice companion piece to Toho's larger budget Latitude Zero. The sets, costumes and effects are all lower budget, but the similarities in the stories make for amusing watching. Super subs, Subsea cities, Smirking villains. They're sister films.

Cold War Angle
There are few of the usual Cold War motifs. Of course, the large demonstration of sub-tracking weaponry suggests a not-quite-peaceful world. The non-sequitur seabed field of dumped atomic waste carries the customary nuclear caution message.

Notes
Process Mann? Cyborg? -- The gillmen (sometimes called Water Cyborgs) appear to be purely biological and not a mixture of man and machine. The sinister Dr. Mann converts humans into gillmen with chemical treatments. Apparently the lungs don't convert well enough, as gill-lungs (grown separately) need to be transplanted into them before they're complete. The gillmen's near-imperviousness to bullets is never explained. Perhaps it's the scales.

  Failed Feminist -- The writers made a feeble attempt to write Jenny as the tough liberated woman reporter. When Commander Brown suggests that maybe she didn't really see the gillman, she gets all snarky. "You think it's just the wild hysterical imagination of a WOMAN, don't you." After that opening bit of attitude, however, Jenny settles back into the comfortable stereotype. She screams at pretty much anything. She regularly cowers behind her boyfriend's shoulder while HE takes on the bad guys. When Sonny is fighting, she stands aside gasping "oh no". At the end, her shallow vanity is blatant. She'd rather die than not be pretty. Her tough-girl feminist mode did not last long.


Dub Fest -- TBS featured many actors from a pool of lesser-grade western actors who worked for Japanese studios. Peggy Neal, who plays Jenny, goes on to star in X From Outer Space (a B-grade rubber-suit monster kaiju film). Franz Gruber (Commander Brown) would also feature in "X" and others. While they apparently speak english during the filming, either their voices were not "right" or their diction is off. Their lips sometimes match up with the voices, but often not quite. They even had their english lines dubbed into english.

  Ultimate Weapon? -- When the navy's super sub having trouble fending off all of Dr. Moore's insidious torpedo-missiles, Captain Bob decides he's going to launch their big missile -- the one that makes up most of the bow of the submarine. "No, you can't" another officer objects. "You'll blow up half the ocean." Captain Bob launches it anyway, and sure enough it does breach Moore's defenses. But, "blow up half the ocean?" Why would people design a whole submarine around a weapon they don't dare fire? Now, it turns out the super missile did not blow up half the ocean, so was that just over-acting hype? Or, was it an allusion to nuclear weapons? Hard to say.

 Shades of Evil -- In B-grade Japanese films, anyone wearing sunglasses all the time, MUST be a bad guy. Dr. Moore is clearly cast in that trope. He also does what many screen villains do, he laughs disdainfully a lot.

 Bottom line? TBS is fairly "lite" entertainment. It makes an interesting companion film to Toho's more polished Latitude Zero. The sets, models and acting in TBS are modest at best. The film is a step up from the campy "Star Man" style of Japanese fighting-hero stories, such as "Iron Sharp" -- a space hero in tights and a cape, played by Sonny Chiba a few years earlier. TBS is rainy Saturday matinee material, but not much more.

Latitude Zero

Toho Studios tried another "international" sci-fi film starring American actors and Japanese Toho regulars. Latitude Zero (LZ) was written by an American and starred names like Joseph Cotten and Cesar Romero. It was filmed with the actors speaking English, then reverse dubbed into Japanese for the home market. Several regular Toho folk were in the production, such as director Ishiro Honda (of Godzilla fame). The tale is essentially Captain Nemo updated for the late 60s in a Toho flavor.

  Quick Plot Synopsis
(The plot is so full of miscellaneous bits, it's hard to be brief) Three men descend to the Pacific sea floor to study deep currents. Commander Ken, scientist Jules and journalist Perry. Their diving bell breaks loose when an undersea volcano erupts nearby. All three are wounded and unconscious when scuba divers (?) from a sub rescue them. The lady doctor (scantily clad 22 year old blond) tends to seriously hurt Jules. Perry and Ken learn from the genial Captain MacKenzie, of his marvelous sub, the Alpha, and his undersea commune, Latitude Zero. MacKenzie's rival and villain-of-the-tale, Malic (Romero) orders his sub, the Black Shark to stop MacKenzie. This fails and Alpha gets to base okay. The underwater city of Latitude Zero is a utopia where everyone lives for hundreds of years. Everyone is happy because all their needs are met. Diamonds are used as houseplant mulch. Perry scoops up some in his tobacco pouch. Meanwhile, Malic has kidnapped a Dr. Okada and his daughter, supposedly because Okada has a formula that will make people immune to radiation. Okada has a tracking device which let's MacKenzie know his whereabouts. Malic doesn't mind, because his real intent was to use Okada as bait to lure in his rival MacKenzie so he could kill him. MacKenzie, Ken, Jules, Perry, the babe doctor and sturdy Koubo take Alpha to Malic's lair, Blood Rock. Once there, the men all don golden jumpsuits with jet packs and laser-flamethrower gloves. Ann stays with Alpha. The men jet pack up the cliff and begin searching. Meanwhile, Malic's secret weapon is that he is going to create a griffon from a real lion, a real condor and using the brain of KuroiGa (the former captain of the Black Shark). The griffon is supposed to kill MacKenzie. Bat men hold Okada and his daughter. Malic completes his griffen and sends it looking for MacKenzie. Next up is Okada's turn on the operating table. Malic says he can extract the secret from Okada's brain. MacKenzie and crew burst into the lab, interrupting the brain removal. The golden men fight the bat men, many of whom are shot down with MacKenzie's laser glove. Malic escapes. MacKenzie and the golden men jet out with Okada and his daughter. They return to the Alpha. Before they can sail away, the Black Shark appears again. Malic fires lasers at the cliff above the Alpha to bury it in rocks. Ultimately, this fails when MacKenzie makes the Alpha fly and escape. The griffen, now giant sized because of a growth serum Malic injected, attacks Malic in the Black Shark. Malic mistakenly hits the cliff with an errant laser blast, burying the Black Shark in rock and sparking huge explosions. Huge. The whole island of Blood Rock explodes. Back at LZ, Perry is the only one who wants to return. MacKenzie allows it. Perry is picked up by a naval ship. Aboard is an American captain who is named MacKenzie (also played by Cotten), and a Lt. doctor (played by Romero). Perry's film is all blank and his tobacco pouch contains only tobacco. Was it all a dream? A telegram arrives on the ship, telling Perry that a shipment of diamonds was deposited in his bank. The End.

  Why is this movie fun?
As a modernized variant on the sturdy Jules Verne story of Captain Nemo, LZ has its interesting points. The rubber-suit-monster, which apparently all Toho movies must have, is an eyebrow raiser. Of some interest, too, are the bizarre costume designs by two people had not worked on any other movie, before or after.

  Cold War Angle
For the most part, LZ is an eclectic adventure dating before the atomic age. One rewrite for the Cold War audience was that Dr. Okada's formula would make people immune to the effects of radiation. MacKenzie cautions about what a powerful "weapon" it would be. If one side's population was immune to radiation, the other side's nukes would be no deterrent. When Okada is kidnapped, the Americans and Russians blame each other for trying to steal that secret. This, however, is a very minor part of the story and pretty much inconsequential.

  Notes
Atragon 2? -- MacKenzie's super sub, "Alpha" is not purported to be another Atragon, but the movie serves as a loose sequel. Toho Studios' Atragon ('63) featured a super sub that could also fly. It also featured an underwater city (though an evil empire version) and the idealist scientist-inventor-pacifist and captain of the super sub. Rather than an actual sequel (picking up the story from where the other left off), LZ is more like a cousin. "Atragon" bt Shunro Oshikawa (original creator of "Atragon" in 1899) and Ted Sherdeman (creator of Latitude Zero's "Alpha" in 1941) were both inspired by Jules Verne's 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea.


Radio Roots -- Ted Sherdeman wrote "Latitude Zero" originally as a radio serial adventure. It ran only one season in 1941 -- before America had entered World War II, but tensions were mounting in the Pacific. It was crafted for juvenile audiences. That trait still comes through the modernized version, filtered through Japanese hands. The many undeveloped elements in FZ may have been better explained in the various radio show episodes.

  Nemo & Nemesis -- The whole (militarist) world, more or less, was the enemy of Verne's Nemo. Atragon's captain Jinguchi was ascetic, like Nemo, but the evil Mu Empire became his enemy (not the world, per se). LZ's MacKenzie is also the reclusive (and cynical) genius in the Nemo mould. His enemy list is much shorter. Not the world, nor an evil empire. MacKenzie's nemesis is a cartoonish, small-scale villain (Malic) who has an entourage of the usual cinematic minions.

  Materialist Dream -- Idealists of the late 1800s and early 1900s liked to imagine that violence and crime were primarily the struggles over material things. Greed, envy and strife stemmed from the unequal distribution of "stuff". Sherdeman's utopian Latitude Zero commune-under-the-sea is a prefect example of this. With the god-like MacKenzie providing all their material needs, the inhabitants were free to frolic and laugh (you'll notice that they laugh a lot). Idealists turn a blind eye to mankind's propensity to evil and violence, even if well-stocked with "stuff". (Rich people don't do evil?)

  A Woman Scorned -- Malic's supposed master stroke is to create a special monster to "get" MacKenzie. He creates a "griffin" from a male lion and a condor. A human brain would give it the facility of taking (his) orders. A major flaw in his plan is his choice of brain. Malic's selects the petite Kuroi Ga, woman captain of his evil sub. All she wants is a little love from Malic. He betrays her affection, making HER the brain donor. And Malic wonders why his KuroiGa-brained Griffin doesn't obey him, but attacks him instead? Are arch-villains really that stupid?

  Dubbing Irony -- LZ was filmed with all actors speaking english. Even the japanese actors who did not speak english, learned their lines phonetically. This led to lines like, "I hear you rowd an crier". Viewing the Japanese version carries the amusing irony of Japanese actors lips not matching the Japanese words.

  Super Charger -- A curious automotive bit, was MacKenzie showing off his model (not too well done of a model) of a 1969 Dodge Charger. It had a special extra canopy and its wheels folded up inside, so it could be a submarine too. This was how the various "missing" scientists were brought to Latitude Zero by LZ agents. Of course, the budget would only allow film clips of agents walking up to actual '69 Chargers and nothing more, but it was an interesting teaser bit.

 Bottom line? LZ is, at least, a more sci-fi offering than Toho had been offering in the mid-to-late 60s. The acting is flat or melodramatic. The sets and model work were modest, given Toho's reputation. There are far too many plot elements for any of them to get developed or incorporated. (like aqua cars, finger lasers, bat men, giant rats, etc.) This may be a legacy of a season's worth of the radio serial being condensed into a single movie. As long as viewers don't take the film too seriously -- more akin to a juvenile comic book -- it has some entertainment value.

The Red Menace

While Republic Pictures' The Red Menace (RM) is in no way a science fiction film, it is surprisingly relevant to many 1950s sci-fi films. It was filmed and released (1949) when fears of communist subterfuge was ramping up. (more on this in the Notes section). Hollywood was criticized for making films that were soft on (if not favoring) communism. Several studios created anti-communist films. None of them were well regarded by the critics as being much more than B-grade propaganda (an easy epithet to sling around). RM is not a particularly deep film, and filled with preachy moments. Yet, an astute sci-fi fan can see the framework of later hidden-invader sci-fi films.

  Quick Plot Synopsis
The movie opens with Bill and Nina driving at night to escape someone. They stop for gas, but race off when they suspect the gas station attendant is tipping off one of "them." The narrator then takes the story into flashback. >> Bill Jones is a former G.I. complaining (angrily) to a bank employee about being swindled out of his GI bonus money by a shady real estate deal. He rants about the little guy being a victim, etc. A man named Jack overhears and befriends Bill, inviting him to a drink in a cozy bar he knows. The the bar are several operatives of the communist party, there to process recruits. A perky blonde named Molly moves in, inviting Bill up to her apartment. There is some talk of communism, but Bill is mostly keen on getting lucky. Playing the Party floozy upsets Henry, who has feelings for Molly. Molly's mother, then her priest, try to talk her out of her party loyalty and return home. She stands firm. Little by little, Bill lets himself get swept deeper into his new circle of friends' political agenda. He attends basement lectures and takes part in a demonstration outside a real estate office. Party zealot Yvonne urges the group to violence at a picket line. Bill, dismayed, is whisked away by Party veteran, Nina. Bill thinks he's going to get lucky again, but no. He gets slapped. Eventually, he and Nina slowly develop a bond as non-zealots. Yvonne, ever suspicious of any wavering in loyalty, gets frustrated Party poet, Henry in trouble for a poem that was not blindly, gushing about Marx. (In a nod to Orwell, Henry insisted on citing facts. The Party insisted on re-writing history.) Henry is outcast and ostracized. Molly gets in trouble for speaking to him. Henry kills himself by jumping out a window. Yvonne next gets Nina under a cloud of suspicion. The increasing violence and lies have both Bill and Nina questioning Party membership. Later, Molly decides to return to her church, where Father Leary and her mother welcome her back. Sam, the african-american copy writer for the communist newspaper (The Toiler), is urged by his father to come back home. He does. Yvonne is picked up by Immigration agents. Her stolen identity unravels. Her unhinged psyche does too, and she's taken away laughing maniacally that the revolution will get them all. Meanwhile, Bill talks Nina into running away with him that night. Two Party thugs watching her apartment try to stop them, but Bill beats them up. They drive away into the night. (Now the flashback has caught up to where the movie began.) They stop in a small (old-west style) town of Talbot, Texas to give themselves up. The ol' west sheriff listens to their tale, but tells them they're not criminals. Instead, they should settle down together and have good ol' American babies. Bill and Nina like the idea, agree to get married and share a long kiss. The End (with footage of the Statue of Liberty under a few lines of "My Country Tis of Thee")

  Insidious Invaders
The power of the story in RM is that "They" are among us, quietly converting normal citizens into one of Them. "They" are rising into positions of power. The insidious invaders seek to overthrow all that is normal and "good". In its place, they seek to install a cold and emotionless dictatorship, for the "good" of the people. This theme permeates many 50s and early 60s sci-fi films. In RM, you see it in openly political terms without the usual allegory.

  Cold War Spotlight
RM is not so much atomic angst as it is Commie Angst. At the time RM was in production, the USSR had not yet exploded its first atomic bomb. Yet, commie angst is the whole reason for atomic angst in the Cold War. The end of WWII did not usher in a new dawn of freedom. Many smaller nations, freed from the clutches of the Nazi empire, were immediately absorbed into the Soviet empire. The second "Red Scare" began. Could American freedom be the next to fall?

  Notes
HUAC Attack -- RM exists as a film, primarily because of the congressional House Committee on Un-American Activities. The HUAC is famous (or infamous) for its "Black List" of Hollywood folk suspected of being communists. It's easy, from the vantage point of 60 years later, to ridicule the committee as paranoid vigilantes, but this ignores the zeitgeist of the era. The majority of Americans shared the committee's concerns. The HUAC accused Hollywood of producing subversive pro-soviet, or pro-communist films. Many studios sought to disprove the allegation by producing rampantly ANTI-communist films. Warner Bros. had Big Jim McLain. RKO had I Married a Communist, etc. RM was Republic Pictures' venture to prove they weren't tools of "Them."

  In Hiss' Shadow -- Validating fears of communist infiltration, were the Alger Hiss hearings and trials. In 1948, Alger Hiss, a State Department official, was called to testify before the HUAC. He was accused of being a communist and a spy for the Soviet Union. Later, he was convicted of perjury. His conviction seemed to prove that Communist spies really were among us, and out to get us!

  Ad Absurdum -- Senator Joe McCarthy was not on the HUAC, but operated independently. He pushed anti-communist rhetoric to a fever pitch, starting in February 1950. McCarthy claimed to have a list of 205 people in the State Department who are members of the Communist Party. Given HIss's recent conviction, the claim seemed plausible, even if it remained unsubstantiated. McCarthy's demagoguery pushed red fears and black listing to absurd lengths.

  Enemy Substitute -- It seems plausible that a major impetus behind 50s sci-fi was expressing commie-angst without being as flagrant as McCarthy. Middle class sensibilities were uncomfortable with McCarthyism's strident histrionics. But middle America was still worried about communists (both their spies and their nukes). Enter science fiction as an alternate form of expression of red fears. A careful watching of RM reveals many parallels to later sci-fi films. The most classic is Invasion of the Body Snatchers ('56). A parallel worth noting is how many good-guys in sci-fi films deliver moralizing speeches too. They defend peoples' right to a "normal" free life. They defy the alien powers' plans for a heartless, unfeeling world without love, (such as Claire's final rant to "It" in It Conquered the World ('56) ). They're very similar speeches to those in RM. Note how the commies in RM are cold-hearted and ruthless. No individuality is tolerated. No mercy is given. Many sci-fi heros fight to retain their human individuality. It's as if the movie industry, and indeed the movie watching public, continued to indulge in Red Fears, but did so via sci-fi, after Senator Joe had made it ridiculous to do so openly.

  Black List Irony -- Note how, in RM, the character of Henry is shunned by his fellow communists for leaving the Party. He is an outcast, denied contact with his former friends, even his love interest, Molly. He loses job after lob when his employers find out who he is. Henry's plight as an outcast former-communist is an ironic parallel to the many actors and screenwriters of that day, Black Listed for being (or suspected of being) members of the communist party.

 Bottom line? RM is not high cinematic art. It's talky at times, and flagrantly preachy about American freedom vs. the evils of communism. But look past that. See in RM's characterizations (good guys & bad guys) a pattern that would be repeated in many Golden Age sci-fi. The sci-fi films would swap out commies for aliens, but much of the format would be the same -- champions of humanity and freedom vs. the iron fist of heartless alien oppressors. RM is ideologically "thick", but it is a good window into the soul of Cold War feelings, both of the people who produced the film AND the people who bought tickets.

1968

This is one of those benchmark years in sci-fi. While not a rigid boundary, 1968 marks a sort of watershed in style. In some ways, it marks the end of the Golden Era of 50s sci-fi. Stanley Kubrik's 2001 would change and influence the nature of sci-fi for nearly a decade, until the next big benchmark: Star Wars. 1968 would also be the beginning of the long-running Planet of the Apes series. But, for all that modern-era spin, there were still plenty of low-budget films carrying the 50s torch. Here are the films in roughly chronologic order.

  Five Million Miles to Earth -- Titled "Quatermass and the Pit" in the UK version in '67. An alien craft is unearthed during construction on a subway, awakening dormant alien consciousness in many people.

  The Countdown -- A NASA mission to the moon is rushed, in order to beat the Russians. It means a one-way rocket, however. Can the Americans be first and survive?

  Planet of the Apes -- First film of many. Starring Charlton Heston, astronaut who lands on a planet ruled by sentient apes. Humans are the mute beasts.

  2001: A Space Odyssey -- Stanley Kubrik's pivotal epic, from the dawn of man, to man's "evolution" to star-child. Features the HAL-9000.

  Astro-Zombies -- A mad doctor uses synthetic body parts and computer programmed brains to create astro-men. The first of an army for conquering the world.

  Wild in the Streets -- A young "bad boy" becomes a rock idol, and translates his popularity into becoming president. Once in power, Congress is fed LSD and anti-Over-30 laws are passed.

  Voyage to the Planet of the Prehistoric Women -- Yet another reworking of footage from the Russian film Planeta Bur. Told as flashback, but focusing on the Venusian babes hinted at in the original.

  The Power -- A group of ESP researchers discover that one of them has amazing mind powers. They are being killed off, one by one, by someone else with that power.

  The Omegans -- A vengeful husband brings his cheating wife and her scheming lover to a remote jungle with a radiated river and glowing nocturnal natives, intending do them in.

  Thunderbird 6 -- Second "Supermarionation" film by Gerry Anderson. A super air-ship is hijacked by evil men. The newest, 6th, Thunderbird machine saves the day.

  Mission Mars -- A NASA mission to Mars follows a failed Russian mission. The Americans land on Mars and find deadly solar powered aliens.

  The Destructors -- A band of international criminals try to steal the special-rubies which power a super laser weapon. Can the good guys stop them and save world peace?

  The Bamboo Saucer -- A real flying saucer is discovered, hidden in a village inside Communist China. US and Soviet teams combine efforts to keep the Red Chinese from finding it.

  Barbarella -- Jane Fonda's leap into sex-kittendom. A bizarre, semi-comedic comic book tale of Barbarella's attempt to stop evil Durand-Durand from taking over the universe.

  Mission Stardust -- Based on Perry Rhodan novels. Men find a disabled alien ship (and a beautiful alien) on the moon. Perry tries to help them repair the ship. Shadowy criminals try to hijack it.

Battle Beneath the Earth -- Scientists discover that a rogue Chinese general is tunneling under the USA, planting A-bombs under major cities.

Project X -- A dead spy is kept alive and revived in hopes of learning the key to a Chinese plot to destroy the West.

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Marooned

"Hard" science fiction was not common, but Marooned proved it was still a viable sub-genre. Given the then-current advances in manned space flight, the story seems less fictional. it is certainly less "fantastic" than stories with aliens or monsters. Marooned was a big-budget "A" production by Columbia. It starred A-level talent such as Gregory Peck, Richard Crenna, David Janssen, James Franciscus, and Gene Hackman.

  Quick Plot Synopsis
Three astronauts are launched into orbit to man an orbiting space station. Commander Jim Pruett (Crenna), Buzz Lloyd (Hackman) and Clayton Stone (Franciscus). All seems routine and going well enough. The goal was to test man's endurance for prolonged space flight, for future interplanetary missions. After five of the seven months, however, the men as showing degraded abilities. They are ordered back to earth two months early. Strapped in their Apollo command module, their retro-engine fails to fire. Many efforts are made in the ship and on the ground, to solve the mysterious failure, but nothing seems to work. The crew have only enough oxygen for 42 hours. While launch director Keith (Peck) is stoically resigned to their slow deaths, astronaut Ted Dougherty (Janssen) insists on mounting a rescue mission using an untried shuttle craft. Keith resists the risky plan until the President tells him ALL efforts must be made to rescue the men. A booster slated for a later launch is set up. The "Lift Body" prototype is airlifted in. To add to the tension, a hurricane is bearing down on Florida, due to make landfall at launch. The crew of the ill-fated Ironman One are conserving their oxygen as best they can, but their nerves are beginning to crack. Lloyd, especially, is the loose cannon. High winds force cancellation of the rescue flight. Again, Keith is resigned to their loss. The crew say their veiled goodbyes to their wives. Meteorologists bring word that the "eye" of the hurricane will pass over the cape. All readiness is made to launch during the calm of the eye. Rescue One launches successfully, but late. There isn't enough oxygen aboard Ironman One for all three of them to survive to the rendezvous time. After tense talk about who will be the odd man out, Pruett bravely insists he will go EVA and fix the engine. His space suit gets ripped on the antenna. He dies and drifts off into space. Stone and Lloyd deteriorate more. A Russian cosmonaut steers his Soyuz nearby to help. Dilerious Lloyd blows the hatch, which pushes Ironman One too far away for the Russian to reach them. Stone pushes the semi-conscious Lloyd over, but the Russian can't catch him. He drifts away. Dougherty arrives on the scene. He jet-packs over to retrieve Lloyd. The Russian is helping Stone when Dougherty arrives with spare oxygen. They're saved. At mission control, there is much rejoicing. Rescue One fires its engines for re-entry. The End.

 Why is this movie fun?
The visuals were luscious, even if not on a par with Kubrik's. The acting was solid enough to forget they were actors. Knowing that Apollo 13 would happen just four months later is the stuff of goosebumps.

Cold War Angle
It seems that Cold War hysteria was cooling somewhat by the late 60s. The Russians (via the anonymous cosmonaut) are the good samaritan, not the evil empire.

  Notes
A Tale of Two Novels -- Science fiction writer Martin Caidin wrote his original "Marooned" novel in 1964. It was a similar story to the movie, except that it was a Mercury capsule (one man). The (then) untried two-man Gemini capsule was the rescue craft. When the movie was in the works in the late 60s, the NASA technology was upgraded to a stricken Apollo module. The rescue craft by then, was the cutting-edge "Lift Body" type of craft. Caidin rewrote his story in '69, to align with the screenplay and released this second version when the movie went public.

  "Hard" SciFi -- A small portion of sci-fi films dealt with space travel in practical (if still future-tech), not the fanciful stuff of saucers and aliens. The first such film of the Golden Era was Destination Moon ('50). Marooned has some affinities to DM in that it is also a drama about astronauts almost facing death in outer space. Other films in this sub-genre include: Magnetic Monster ('53), Riders to the Stars ('54), Conquest of Space ('55), the Soviet version of Nebo Zovyot ('60), not the Corman adaptations, and the middle portion of Kubrik's 2001.

Lost in Space -- Note how Marooned and 2001 both include an extended scene in which an astronaut is lost, drifting off into the void of space, and his fellow astronaut free-flights over to retrieve him. Lesser films, from Riders to the Stars ('54) to Mission Mars ('68) include a lost, dead astronaut too. Apparently, the thought of being lost forever in space carried a special horror in the early days of space travel.

  Prophetic Tale -- It is interesting to note that the premise of Marooned got played out in reality in the Apollo 13 mission just four months after the movie came out. Granted, there we deviations from the script. Reality is like that. But both film and reality had a three-man Apollo crew potentially trapped in space due to a malfunction. In both cases, they were in danger of running out of oxygen before the "rescue" could happen. With just a little artistic license, the Apollo 13 LEM served as a parallel "Rescue One", though not in exactly the same way.

  Shuttle Seeds -- The "LIft Body" rescue craft in Marooned, and the somewhat similar "Lift Body" used in "Journey to the Far Side of the Sun," were studio prop makers expressions of the cutting-edge thinking of the late 60s for space craft. Re-usable re-entry craft had always been part of NASA research thinking, but lost out to the more practical "ballistic" style re-entry approach. Still technology and materials kept advancing. NASA had several configurations. In 1969, President Nixon formed a task force that eventually shaped a program that culminated in America's Space Shuttle fleet.

  Tough Women -- Also worth noting is how the three wives were portrayed. They were not the usual movie sex-objects, nor the traditional damsel in distress to be rescued, nor the saucy shew to be tamed by the hero. Instead, they were the stoic wives -- brave women of brave men. They added pathos to the screenplay, but were thankfully not interjected beyond that.

 Bottom line? Marooned is somewhat slow paced for modern audience tastes, but gets more conventionally active in the last quarter. In the late 60s, anything to do with NASA had a fascination of its own that could bridge the longer scenes. Modern audiences without that fascination will feel the pace drags. Yet, Marooned is a well told drama of danger, entrapment and daring rescue. They could have been miners, or sailors on an experimental sub, or any number of other scenarios. With that, and some patience, the film can be enjoyed, even by people not normal fond of sci-fi.

Panic in the City

Producer Harold Goldman started out the mid 60s in sci-fi titles, but shifted into crime dramas. Panic in the City (PIC) is firmly a euro-spy / FBI agent story, but with atomic angst at its core. The title is a bit off, as no one (let alone the city) ever panics. It deals with a secret communist plot to assemble nuclear bombs in major American cities. Howard Duff stars as the federal agent. Nehemiah Pershoff stars as the rogue spy. The production values suggest a TV movie, but the presence of a rare poster suggests PIC had at least a brief theatrical release.

Quick Plot Synopsis
A sick man collapses on a Los Angeles street. Doctors discover that he is highly radioactive. A shadowy man named Dean hires a hit man to kill the sick man. It turns out he was a european atomic scientist. The high dosage of radiation and the murder gets the National Bureau of Investigation involved. Agent Dave Pomeroy is on the case. Dave meets Dr. Paula Stevens and thus begins a thin sub plot of budding romance. Dean recruits another atomic scientist to replace the dead one. The NBI take out Dr. Cerbo's house. One of Cerbo's men is trying to get some parts made at machine shops. The drawings are for an unassuming carburetor, but with some odd extra brackets. Those brackets turn out to be part of a "W" device used in nuclear bombs. Some of Dean's operatives die fleeing the police. Dave figures a zone in which the bomb must be. They start searching house to house, disguised as telephone repairmen. Meanwhile, Dean is berated by his spy boss for exceeding his authority in actually building a bomb instead of just planning and preparing to do so. He is to be sent home for discipline. Dean shoots his boss and goes to his basement bomb works. Cerbo finishes the bomb except for the trigger. Dean shoots Cerbo to get the trigger. Click! But the bomb only smokes. Dave finally gets to the right house. He heard Dean shoot Cerbo. Dave shoots and kills Dean. Cerbo (not quite dead yet) says it happens sometimes. Might take an hour or so, but will go off. Dave calls HQ to have streets blocked off and a helicopter brought in. He muscles the smoldering bomb up the stairs and out to the street. Now Dave is weak from radiation sickness. Dr. Paula says he doesn't have much longer to live. Dave hooks the bomb up to the helicopter and flies far out to sea. He dies at the controls. The bomb goes off. Cue footage of the Baker Event explosion of 1946. Paula weeps, but as she sees the city of LA going on about its business, she is comforted that Dave gave his life to save the city. The End.

Apocalypse Avoided
Even though the bomb does go off, the hero saves the unsuspecting city. The sinister enemy had planned mass destruction, but not by the expected means of missiles and bombers. Instead, it would be an inside job. Only the skill and determination of the heroic "authorities" uncovers the plot in time.

Cold War Spotlight
PIC is the tale of insidious invaders. In this, it shares a mood with many sci-fi movies, such as Invasion of the Body Snatchers. Instead of allegorical pod people, we have a communist enemy with many operatives living and working among the oblivious citizenry. The intended master plan was apparently only to set up the workings of such a bombs-from-within scheme. It was the over-zealous communist, Dean, who pushed the plan into action in order to destroy communism's enemy.

Notes
Post 9/11 Relevance -- PIC actually plays better post-9/11 than it probably had for decades. As the Cold War was losing its hysterical edge, the premise of communists building weapons of mass destruction within American cities, may have seemed like over-active conspiracy theory glands. But, in post-9/11 America, with terrorist cells proven to be working their subterfuge among civilian life, the scheme seems like far fetched.

Hypocrites for Peace -- Of some interest is the press conference speech delivered by Dr. Cerbo (Oscar Beregi). He denounces weapons-use of nuclear energy and preaches about needs for nations to disarm. Yet, even before this, Cerbo was an underground operative of the communists, and apparently loathed American life. He was quite willing to finish building a nuclear bomb in Dean's basement. Was this hypocritical speech a dig (by the screenwriters) at peaceniks and disarmament advocates? The thought being, only enemies tell you to lay down your weapons?

Star Gazing -- Howard Duff stars as agent Pomeroy. Duff was usually cast in authority roles, seldom in sci-fi films. But in 1953, he played astronaut Mitchell in the british space-drama Spaceways. Nehemiah Persoff, who plays the rogue communist spy, was also a busy TV actor in most of the usual TV genre except science fiction. He did play the ill-fated Dr. Meiniker in 1968's The Power. John Hoyt plays a small role as a Dr. Becker. Hoyt, too, was a busy TV actor, but did play the tragic villain, Mr. Franz, in The Puppet People ('58) and Dr. Varno in The Time Travelers ('64).

Pre-Star Gazing -- Watch for a young Dennis Hopper as "Goff" the hit man. Hopper played many TV roles or bit parts. One for sci-fi fans was his role as Paul, one of the early victims of the blood-drinking alien in Queen of Blood ('66). Look for a young Mike Farrell early in the show, as a minor hospital worker. Farrell would go on to "fame" as B.J. Hunnicut in TV's M.A.S.H. series.

For Car Nuts -- There are many late 60s cars to enjoy amid the many street scenes. Two that get a bit more screen time than others are the little red 1967 Sunbeam convertible and Cerbo's big gray yacht-like '67 Chrysler 300 convertible.

Bottom line? PIC is a workmanlike crime/spy drama with a Cold War spin. It has the middling production values of a late 60s television series. The story plays out a sort of authorities-angst about enemy agents. PIC has some cultural value as an atomic angst view (from the government's point of view) of the danger of communist spies in the nuclear age.