Movie review - "Solaris" (1972) **

 A great story made really confusing. Took forever to get going, lots of chat, I had trouble following it, 167 minutes. I'm a philistine, sure. But this is an emotionally powerful tale rendered without emotion.

Movie review - "Waterloo" (1970) ***

 Expensive, full of detail for the military nerd. The spectacle impresses. I actually felt this might've been better in a longer version - you would've gotten to know the characters more. Mistake I think to start with Napoleon abdicating - better to start with him coming from Elba. 

Rod Steiger hams it up as Napoleon. Hell, why not. Chris Plummer has dry fun as Wellington. They look at each other through glasses. We hear their thoughts - I've never liked that method.

Best bit apart from the spectacular stuff: death of Michael Wilding. That of Jack Hawkins would mean more if we'd gotten to know him. Dan O'Herily yells entertainingly as Ney. Ian Ogilvy gets quite a number of close ups.

Movie review - "Voyage to the Planet of Prehistoric Women" (1968) **1/2 (re watching)

 The grade is too high objectively speaking but I took into account the circumstances under which it was made: a Soviet film bought by Roger Corman to cut up without sound. Curtis Harrington had a go but this one, done by Peter Bogdanovich and Polly Platt, is better.

It's frustrating that the characters cant talk. Yes there's a Soviet section but also one on Venus with Mamie Van Doren. The sexy Venus women promise more than they deliver. They clamber through the surf in shells, trying to hang on to dignity. It is silly and fun and you can sense Bogdanovich and Platt really trying hard.

Movie review - "Queen of Blood" (1966) ** (re-watching)

I love this poster - have fond recollections for the movie, but really it's not that good. It's cute and has some genuinely creepy moments. It takes too long for the ship to get to the planet and for the alien to go amok. The alien is creepy.

Basil Rathbone looks as though he's about to drop dead. John Saxon and Dennis Hopper are fine. Creepy open credit titles.

Movie review - "Burial of the Rats" (1995) *

Roger Corman kind of returns to the world of Poe, with this tale set in the 19th Century. It actually has more in common with those 1950s sci fi movies where astronauts/pilots stumbled upon planets/islands consisting entirely of women.

The hero is Bram Stoker, who is kidnapped by a cult led by Adrienne Barbeau, who hate men. One of them falls in love with him. He becomes an unofficial woman and gets involved in a fight against corrupt locals.

This is terrible. It looks cheap, it's badly acted. There's some attractive women wearing not much but the sex scenes aren't that erotic - one has Stoker thrusting away while the rats watch. It's not scary. It's not funny. It's awful.

I hated that there was a sequence where Stoker was tortured with a pendulum - it was as if Corman was invoking an actual decent movie.

It was shot in Russia but we don't get cool scenery or anything. Adrienne Barbeau adds some B film class in the lead but that's about it. Kevin Alber, who plays Stoker, is a drip.

Movie review – “The Magic Voyage of Sinbad” (1962) **

Having arranged for a Soviet Science fiction film to be re-cut into Battle Beyond the Sun, Roger Corman tried his luck again re-working another big budget Soviet production, in this case the 1953 opera Sadko. He again used Francis Ford Coppola to do his work for him, changing the hero’s name to “Sinbad”, cutting out the songs, and making the film about the search for the Blue Bird of happiness. There's plenty of production value – big ships, a fighting bear, great costumes and colour - and it should be liked by kids who enjoy fantasy films and don't mind dubbing.

Movie review - “Battle Beyond the Sun” (1962) *

Francis Ford Coppola’s early film career stands as a shining example for other emerging directors. It’s underlying theme: just make something. He wrote his own scripts, directed some “nudies”, and worked for Roger Corman doing a whole bunch of things, of which this was one. Corman bought a Soviet science fiction film and had Coppola recut it. I think all aspiring directors at film school should have to recut a foreign film into English. (Coppola is credited as “associate producer” and his dad is down as composer – the other credits have been Americanised”.) 

 

This is set in a post-World War Three society where the world has been divided into North and South Hemisphere. Astronauts from one country get into trouble so ones from another go to help. I think there were other plots along the way but to be honest I kind of zoned out – it was a little dull. When they land at the planet at the end there’s a real good old fashioned crappy late 50s AIP style monster cut into the film – it does look like an angry vagina with teeth as the urban legend says.

Movie review – “Queen of Blood” (1966) **1/2

A number of American films were made in the 60s using footage from Russian science fiction movies. This was one of the best ones, mainly because they made a decent attempt to create a new film. It also has a pretty good cast, including Basil Rathbone, Dennis Hopper and John Saxon, and a great credit sequence with some weird music over some odd paintings.

This really is a two parter – part one is a mission to rescue a foreign space ship on Mars, involving two expeditions. Part two has them find one survivor and take them back to Earth – only to realise that survivor lives off human blood (just like Alien). The second part is the strongest and is genuinely spooky, especially the discovery that she has left eggs all over the ship.

I recognise this isn’t the best movie in the world – all those awkward segues to cover major plot points (eg discovery of life on another planet), all that set up to get the people to Mars (there's an incredible amount of plot in order to justify John Saxon and his mate joining the expedition) – but it has a unique atmosphere; there’s just something about it. Florence Marley has genuine creepiness as the alien, the eggs are effective, there's surprising feminism (the lead women is a scientist and full part of the expedition and the other cast members don't go on about it incessantly and/or sexually harass her constantly).

NB I saw this again on DVD at one in the morning – it’s totally the way to see it. In a quiet house, flicking image on a television, no one to judge you for watching it…

Movie review - "Battleship Potemkin" (1925) ***

One of those movies every film student should see. I'm confident enough in my film tastes now to admit that I find it boring and wish there were some characters I could follow. Also, the ship looks too bright and clean to want to inspire mutiny (apart from the maggots in the meat of course). Clearly the work of a director of awesome talent, and the Odessa Steps sequence is great but yeah, whatever.

Movie review – “Voyage to the Planet of Prehistoric Women” (1968) * 1/2

Another version of Planet of Storms but a lot more impressive than Voyage to the Prehistoric Planet mainly because Peter Bogdanovich is a better director than Curtis Harrington.

For instance, although both films start with the same plot and have new sequences, Bogdanovich spends the first section of his film using voice over and stuffing in as many of the special effects as he could (the film’s real strength); whereas the Harrington version went to scenes of Rathbone at the beginning. OK yes Rathbone is a better actor than Mamie Van Doren but I think this shows a better appreciation for the film’s strengths and weaknesses.

It’s also a good idea to have one character narrate the whole thing (Bogdanovich does the job), making the story easy to follow, and to have humans on the planet – Mamie and a bunch of girls on the beach. But the film loses points by not doing anything much with them. Telepathy was clever I guess but mostly the girls are just rolling around in the water and sand and after a while it just gets boring.

Movie review – “Voyage to the Prehistoric Planet” (1965) *

In the 50s it became popular to buy Japanese and Italian films and recut/dub them for US audiences, sometimes even throwing in some new footage. In the 60s the Cold War had cooled down sufficiently for Hollywood to turn its eye to Russia – the Soviets were churning out some space flicks with some pretty nifty effects, and the fact the lead characters spent a lot of time in space ships and space suits made dubbing a bit easier.

Writer director Pavel Klushantsev made a film in the early 60s called Planet of Storms which has been recut here. It’s about two rocket ships which crash on Venus and the attempts of the crew members to hook up, fighting various creatures (including dinosaurs) and the elements. The effects are fairly impressive; the rest of it isn’t too crash hot.

There was some formidable names on the film: Curtis Harrington was the new “director” (under a nom de plume); Stephanie Rothman worked as a producer and Roger Corman was involved in a producing capacity. In addition, Basil Rathbone and Faith Domerge appear in new (not very good) sequences – their acting isn’t much better than the dubbed Russians. Corman later used the footage on Queen of Blood (also directed by Harrington) and Voyage to the Planet of Prehistoric Women.