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Retro SciFi Film of the Week…
Voyage to the Prehistoric Planet (1965)
Shortly after Sputnik but before astronauts walked on the Moon, the Soviets made a science fiction film called Paneta Bur (1962). Roger Corman bought the rights to the film, sliced and diced it, dubbed it, added a few scenes and the result was Voyage to the Prehistoric Planet, released in ‘65.
The plot, the pace, just about everything is incomprehensible in this mess, but the cool part is all the 1960’s scifi props from the original Soviet film (which is probably what Corman was after when he bought it). It’s got a 60’s concept car with big fins, a Robbie Robot knockoff, reel-to-reel tape recorders, astronauts with fishbowl helmets using gunpowder pistols… it’s got just about everything you’d expect from a 60’s scifi film (see the parody trailer for some examples). ...and of course all of the factual science errors like gravity in a spaceship, campfires and animals on a planet with little oxygen, Venus is 200 million miles away, sounds in space and much more.
Corman made a sequel to this film, Voyage to the Planet of Prehistoric Women (1968), which used much of the scenes from this film, but also added some women on the planet.
You don’t want to miss this one (unless you have anything else to do).
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Accessible video description:
Parody trailer opens with title graphic, color is extremely under-saturated, almost black and white; a space station with astronauts walking on the outside like there’s gravity; a meteor whistles in space and crashes into one of the spaceships; guys walk around inside a space ship like there’s gravity, their lips are out of sync because the voices are dubbed; a 1960’s style concept car drives up with huge fins and a bubble top; a brunette woman with a beehive hairdo tries to reach guys on the radio; a robot opens the helmet visor of an astronaut who is in distress and puts a tablet in his mouth and pours water on his face and clumsily closes his helmet; an aquarium with a little turtle and goldfish, the concept car is behind the aquarium (pretending to be underwater), the astronauts are carrying the concept car; an old astronaut with a fishbowl helmet talks to a robot; the robot carries two astronauts on his shoulders through lava; a brontosaurus; an astronaut gets attacked by an fake alien monster puppet that looks like the one from The Little Shop of Horrors; the astronauts build a campfire on the planet with little oxygen; another brontosaurus with an astronaut playing with his tail; the astronauts fly the concept car and get attacked by a goofy-looking pterodactyl; an astronaut hurries into the rocket ship, they kick away the ladder, close the door and blast off from the planet.
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