Voyage to the Prehistoric Planet
Voyage to the Prehistoric Planet | |
---|---|
Directed by | Pavel Klushantsev Curtis Harrington |
Written by | Aleksandr Kazantsev Curtis Harrington |
Produced by | George Edwards Roger Corman Stephanie Rothman |
Starring | Basil Rathbone Faith Domergue Vladimir Yemelyanov Georgiy Zhzhonov Gennadi Vernov Georgiy Teich Yuri Sarantsev |
Cinematography | Arkadi Klimov Vilis Lapenieks |
Edited by | Leo H. Shreve |
Music by | Ronald Stein |
Production company | |
Distributed by | American International Television |
Release date | 1 August 1965 |
Running time | 78 minutes |
Country | USSR / USA |
Language | English |
Voyage to the Prehistoric Planet is a 1965 American science fiction film, one of two versions adapted for Roger Corman from the Soviet science fiction movie Planeta Bur (Planet of Storms), scripted by Aleksandr Kazantsev from his novel and directed by Pavel Klushantsev. Curtis Harrington oversaw the editing and dubbing of principal portions of the source film, and directed new principal scenes featuring Basil Rathbone and Faith Domergue. The resulting new film was then syndicated to television by American-International Television Inc.
Plot
The film essentially follows the story of the Soviet original, with Rathbone and Domergue replacing two Soviet actors in roles as space-station monitors of the primary action. The rest of the film stars the remaining Soviet players, dubbed.
In the revised telling, it is 2020 and the Moon has been colonized. After traveling 200,000,000 miles, the first group of men land on Venus, where they find a prehistoric world in which the crew are attacked by various monsters, plants, etc.
Cast
- Basil Rathbone as Professor Hartman
- Faith Domergue as Dr. Marsha Evans
- Vladimir Yemelyanov (miscredited) as Cmdr. Brendan Lockhart
- Georgiy Zhzhonov (miscredited as "Kurt Boden") as Hans Walters
- Gennadi Vernov (miscredited as "Robert Chantal") as Andre Ferneau
- Georgiy Teich (miscredited) as Kern
- Yuri Sarantsev (miscredited) as Sherman
- Boris Prudkovsky[Note 1] (uncredited) as Robot John
Production
Roger Corman purchased the rights to Planet of Storms (a Soviet film Planeta Bur) and used footage from that movie to make this movie and Voyage to the Planet of Prehistoric Women.
The American-made scenes were shot at the same time as Queen of Blood, another film directed by Harrington that was developed around the story of, and footage from, Soviet science fiction films. Basil Rathbone and Faith Domergue shot their scenes in half a day using the same costumes and on the same set as Queen of Blood.[1]
Harrington later recalled, "It had to do with a couple of people orbiting the planet Venus. So, I had, instead of the Soviet actors. Faith Domergue orbiting the planet Venus. Then all the scenes with the Russians were dubbed in English. She was in touch with Basil Rathbone who was supposedly on a moon station. That’s all I shot. I shot about a day or two with her as she was in that ship orbiting around planet Venus. All the rest of it was just dubbed stuff."[2]
While Harrington considered Queen of Blood good enough to keep his name on, he is credited in this film as "John Sebastian", derived from Johann Sebastian Bach.
Reception
In a retrospective on Soviet science fiction film, British director Alex Cox called Voyage to the Prehistoric Planet "an act of cinematic cannibalism."[3] Creature Feature gave the movie two out of 5 stars, saying that it looked like it was spliced together with Elmer's Glue.[4]
See also
- Voyage to the Planet of Prehistoric Women the other film adapted from material from Planeta Bur for Roger Corman
- List of American films of 1965
Notes
- ^ 1964 USSR free wrestling champion.
References
- ^ Ray, Fred Olen (1991). The New Poverty Row: Independent Filmmakers as Distributors. McFarland. pp. 53–55.
- ^ Madenwald, Marc (Fall 1993). "Who Slew Curtis Harrington?". Psychotronic Video. No. 16. p. 42.
- ^ Cox, Alex (June 30, 2011). "Rockets from Russia: great Eastern Bloc science-fiction films". The Guardian. Guardian Media Group. Retrieved August 22, 2016.
- ^ Stanley, J. (20000 Creature Feature 3rd Edition
External links
- Voyage to the Prehistoric Planet at IMDb
- Voyage to the Prehistoric Planet is available for free viewing and download at the Internet Archive
- 1965 films
- 1960s science fiction films
- American International Pictures films
- American independent films
- American space adventure films
- American films
- English-language films
- Fiction set on Venus
- Moon in film
- Venus in film
- Films about astronauts
- Films about extraterrestrial life
- Films directed by Curtis Harrington
- Films produced by Roger Corman
- Films set in 2020
- Dinosaur films
- Films scored by Ronald Stein