Assignment Outer Space

[excoriator]

Another low budget SF turkey for you Aubrey. Made in the 1950, no expense has been spared from being saved in the making!

At one point a couple of meters were shown with wildly swinging needles. Sadly the attempt to increase the dramatic tension was somewhat spoiled by the fact that one carried the word "Volume" and the other "Wow".

They were on their way to the Galaxy M31 but went to Mars instead. A wise decision given the relative distances and the fact the rocket was largely constructed of cardboard. It is available free on Amazon Prime, and probably at a landfill site near you.

It did brighten an otherwise rather boring lockdown Sunday evening however, provided you have a powerfiul sense of humour.

PS. The credits at the end included (after the Executive Producer) a screen carrying the words "With Rik von Nutter". You couldn't make it up!

[aubrey]

It's Italian!


Encyclopaedia of Science Fiction:

By far the best sf film from director Margheriti, this is distinguished not only by his trademark special effects but by an almost-plausible plot and a rare instance of impressive acting in his films, as dancer-choreographer Savage is remarkably persuasive as a seasoned space pilot. This is also one of the few films that explores the standard sf conceit that the people who live in space will come to feel different from, and hostile to, residents of Earth, though tensions are defused in the film as Peterson romances Lucy and demonstrates his good qualities while the denizens of space admit to a lingering attachment to planetary life. The film's story, involving a trip to a Space Station followed by a confrontation with a maddened Computer, is understandably regarded as an influence on 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) – especially since director Stanley Kubrick was familiar with Margheriti's work, having originally asked him to handle the special effects for his space epic.

[excoriator]

Well if that's his best...

What others has he produced, dare I ask?

There are places where the science is a little shaky. At one point, working outside in space, someone shouts "Look out, a meteorite!" Our quick-thinking hero pushes a spacesuited figure out of the way of a fiery ball moving at a few feet a second, saving a life (of the heroine as it turns out).

I was not impressed.

[jonjel]

Feb 15, 2021 16:05:26 GMT excoriator said:

Well if that's his best...

What others has he produced, dare I ask?

There are places where the science is a little shaky. At one point, working outside in space, someone shouts "Look out, a meteorite!" Our quick-thinking hero pushes a spacesuited figure out of the way of a fiery ball moving at a few feet a second, saving a life (of the heroine as it turns out).

I was not impressed.

That made me smile Exco. Similar to the hero ducking out of the way of a rifle bullet travelling at several thousand feet per second.

[aubrey]

He did a great one called Seven Dead in the Cat’s Eye, which has Serge Gainsbourg playing a Scottish policeman, only speaking with his back to the camera.

Otherwise, a jobbing b movie director - SF, Peplum, Giallo - he did the first Giallo I ever saw, called Naked You Die - which is pretty good, though the title's a bit of a chiz.

[excoriator]

Indeed, Jonjel!

And why was it a flaming ball?^* They don't actually get hot until they hit the atmosphere.


*. So the audience can see it

[aubrey]

Like lasers in space.

And I was struck afresh recently by the tag line for the original Alien: while it's true that in space no one can hear you scream, in that film at least they can hear pretty much everything else.

[excoriator]

I have to laugh at lasers and ray guns which seem to be de rigeur in SF movies. In space, it seems to me that the boring old gun is probably pretty near the ideal weapon. Air resistance is zero, so its range is effectively infinite and gravitaional compensation is as accurate as you can measure the gravitational field which is pretty good.

The only disadvantage is the recoil as the bullet ( or I suppose you'd have to call it the LKM or 'Lead Kinetic Missile' rather than bullet) leaves the DLT (deployable Launch Tube) or muzzle!

[aubrey]

I remember in the 50s there was a vogue for swords in SF, used for the same kind of reason as you give here. Then of course, the light sabre.

[excoriator]

Yes. And Alien warriors tended to wear armour peculiarly similar to that of the Romans.

Most SF movies of the day have a strong military presence anyway. I suppose it was a postwar period when the only rockets were left-over V2s captured from the Germans. The Americans had a 'space exploration' program using these run by the Army? Airforce?. I think they stuck a second stage on rather than the payload and called them 'Viking' rockets.

In later years, the military involvement has been when they want a bloody idiot to argue with the wise scientists and propose an outstandingly stupid course of action like nuking the menace. It doesn't work, of course, and it is left to the clever scientists to defeat the attackers and save the Earth with a tablespoonful of bicarb or similar.

I watched Quatermass and the pit some time back; the movie. That had a Colonel Bonehead who got fried for his troubles. I say fried, but I don't know how the Marians did it, but he didn't look too good after it. Serve him right too.

[jonjel]

I suppose we all watch some of this junk, a bit like moving wallpaper. 'what did you watch last night' Cant remember.

I like the ones where some dear sweet innocent finds an old isolated house in the woods, covered in ivy in the middle of a thunderstorm, at night. And the front door is of course unlocked and they open it accompanied by the creaking of the hinges. And so on..... Reality is that the dear sweet innocent would be crapping themselves and moving in the opposite direction as fast as possible.

[aubrey]

Feb 17, 2021 15:45:00 GMT jonjel said:

I suppose we all watch some of this junk, a bit like moving wallpaper. 'what did you watch last night' Cant remember.

I like the ones where some dear sweet innocent finds an old isolated house in the woods, covered in ivy in the middle of a thunderstorm, at night. And the front door is of course unlocked and they open it accompanied by the creaking of the hinges. And so on..... Reality is that the dear sweet innocent would be crapping themselves and moving in the opposite direction as fast as possible.

No, JJ!

We all must have done things that - even as we did them, made us think of something a character in a horror film did just before he got his. People really do go upstairs to see what that bump was. They're not in a horror film, so why wouldn't they?

The film you're describing might be The Old Dark House - a great film, based on a novel by JB Priestley and made by James Whale, with Ernest Thesiger, Boris Karloff, Charles Laughton - a bit of the 30s gay London theatre scene transplanted to Hollywood.

[excoriator]

I have to say I watched a movie with the, to me, irresistible title "Cowboys and Aliens".

Much to my surprise I found it not at all bad either. Cowboys and Indians cooperate in order to defeat some very nasty aliens. They are forced to do it without atom bombs too, but having located their ship manage to despatch them with rifles, six shooters and bows and arrows.

I expect the two allies then go back to their previous disagreements with the Cowboys driving the Indians off their land, killing them and sticking them into 'reservations' but the film draws a veil over all that.

It was a lot better than 'Mars attacks' for instance, where the aliens were discouraged by the discovery that yodelling caused their heads to explode.

[aubrey]

I really disliked Mars Attacks.

[jonjel]

Feb 18, 2021 16:00:17 GMT aubrey said:

I really disliked Mars Attacks.

Snickers attacks are better.