ALL SCI-FI

[Bud Brewster]

THE BUBBLE - (1966) [Also released as: "Fantastic Invasion of Planet Earth"]

Director Arch Oboler ("The Twonky") pioneered a new 3-D process called "Spacevision" which used polarized glasses to separate the right-and-left images for the audience. The 3-D effect works remarkably well, especially in a scene involving a serving tray which floats out of the screen and (apparently) right up to the viewer's face.

Oboler obviously made "The Bubble" just to show off "Spacevision"; the plot is practically nonexistent, and the film is littered with scenes that poke objects out of the screen at the audience. In Deborah Walley's first scene, she holds her arms out to the audience and exclaims "Darling!" to husband Michael Cole.

The token plot is about a small town which alien invaders have isolated inside a spherical force field (the bubble of the title). A small plane piloted by Johnny Desmond and carrying newlyweds Michael and Deborah is forced to land during a storm, and the trio end up trapped in the town. The town's citizens act like broken robots, repeating routine tasks over and over, oblivious to everything around them. Olan Soule has a small role as one of the automaton Earthlings. The alleged alien invaders are never shown.



Music by Paul Sawtell and Bert Schefter (the team which provided music for "It! The Terror from Beyond Space" and many other 1950s classics). Arch Oboler served as producer, screenwriter, and director -- so he has nobody to blame but himself.

Click on this wonderful poster (which bears no resemblance to events in the movie) to watch the YouTube trailer.


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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)

[Pow]

Never knew about this film. Reminds me of The Dome tv series.

[Bud Brewster]

Click on the poster above and watch the trailer! But it's only 2D of course.

Hey, maybe if you cross your eyes and give yourself double vision, it will be in 4D!
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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)

[Pow]

That'll work. There was a comedian who had crossed eyes.

[Brent Gair]

I want to add that this movie has JUST been released in 3D on Blu-ray...a mere 5 days before this posting. My copy is on order but isn't here yet.

Fans of 3D should be delighted to know that this movie has been transferred under the EXTREMELY capable guidance of Mr. Bob Furmanek who is probably the world's foremost authority on classic 3D as well an expert on film presentation in general. Bob is THE guy you want caring for these old 3D movies.

From a Blu-ray review:

"The true calling card here, of course, is the 3D presentation, and that is aces, with some of the best "in your face" emergent visuals you're likely to see in any vintage 3D film. As with 3-D Archive's restoration of Dragonfly Squadron 3D, there's occasional negative dirt that shows up as glints of white or silver, usually floating in front of the image, and that can serve as a minor distraction from time to time. But the consistency of the dimensionality in this presentation is really outstanding, and not necessarily limited to the frankly gimmicky shots that Oboler stuffs into the film. "

In Bob Furmanek's own words (from Home Theater Forum):

"For the past 30 years, these elements have been handled very poorly. The last time they were stored in an actual film vault was in the late 1970's when Monarch held the rights. Since then, the cans have been in warehouses and public storage lockers. In fact, when we finally rescued the negative a few years ago, it was stored in an outdoor storage unit in California with no temperature or climate control...

The cans were banged up and rusty with masking tape labels identifying it as "Fantastic Invasion of Planet Earth." The tape was falling off several of the cans and the film was filthy.

Before transferring, the negative had multiple ultra-sonic cleanings. When we finally had it scanned, we found that much of it was faded from the years of bad storage. Thankfully, there was no shrinkage or vinegar syndrome.

Greg Kintz (Technical Director for the Archive) has painstakingly gone through every optical one frame at a time in order to minimize the dirt and damage.

More than anything else, Greg has optimized the alignment from shot to shot for flawless 3-D. As Peter mentioned, it's now very easy on the eyes and truly demonstrates Charles F. Wheeler's superb stereoscopic cinematography."

[Bud Brewster]

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Here's what Deborah Walley didn't get to show in The Bubble or any of her Disney movies, but I'm sure we saw this in Gidget Goes Hawaiian. Not bad . . . not bad at all.



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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)

[orzel-w]

[Rick]

I saw this in the theater in its retitled, re-edited, re-release version, THE FANTASTIC INVASION OF PLANET EARTH. It was in 3-D.

And it was the single most boring, mind-numbing, butt-numbing afternoon I ever spent in a theater, or anywhere else.

I've never walked out on a movie in my life, no matter how terrible, but I came pretty close on this thing, I felt like screaming -- truthfully -- thinking I might just lose my mind from sheer, utter, unimaginable boredom.

I didn't like it.
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Man need not kneel before the angels,
Nor lie in death forever,
But for the weakness of his feeble will.

[Bud Brewster]

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While browsing our Multi-Board Alphabetical Index (something I wish more of our members would do) I found an interesting post by the late Bill Warren on the Classic Horror Film Board.
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I saw this at a theater on Ivar St. (Blvd.?) in Hollywood; evidently, Oboler booked the theater himself. The audience was really excited to see a movie in 3D, and applauded in an early shot when an airplane wing protrudes from the screen. The later floating tray shot also got some applause--but by that time, some of the audience had left. By the final, long-overdue end of the film, I think about half the audience was left. Most of them booed.
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This is interesting, because my wife and I went to see a re-release of this movie around 1979, and we were amazed by the 3D effects.

The movie sucked . . . but the 3D knocked our socks off!

The late Mr. Warren's experience mentions two of the most memorable moments from the movie, and the audience's reaction to them were identical to ours.

The fact that I could explore the CHFB thread for this movie and find Mr. Warren's comment brings up and interesting point. Folks, please start exploring the Multi-Board Alphabetical Index and sharing your discovers with us here the way I just did. Butch has been doing it, and he's added several interesting new posts to All Sci-Fi by doing so!

It took me several months to create the Multi-Board Alphabetical Index back in 2014 and place if on the Science Fiction Message Board. I was shocked when Tapatalk took over the Yuku boards and ruined all the work I had done.

Now it will take me several weeks to restore it and place the Multi-Board Alphabetical Index safely here on All Sci-Fi after it was destroyed by the conversion of the Yuku boards to the dreaded Tapatalk version!

Meanwhile, All Sci-Fi has been around for eleven years in the same format, completely unchanged in spite of being wiped out by the crash of two "free forum" web hosts in both 2008 and 2014, along with nasty people like Sean Everett who tried to kill it late last year.

Sean failed. And I won. It wasn't easy, but I'm proud to say that I beat that silly jackass and All Sci-Fi survived!

I've managed to maintain this current version with no loss of data since March 2014, and we're now safely located on a reputable server in my name (the same one Randy Everett chose for us in 2013), with our rent paid up for the next two years!

Come on, guys! Please keep on having fun by adding interesting original posts to All Sci-Fi! I promise we aren't going anywhere again, and I'm very proud of the fact that we've always been the most well-organized and user-friendly message board on the web!

Absolutely no other message board has Alphabetic Indexes which make it easy to find existing threads for movies on THIS board, and the Multi-Board Alphabetical Index allows you to find threads for any movie you want on OTHER boards!

All I ask in return is for all you intelligent and creative people to add your own brilliant contributions to All Sci-Fi so we can attract new and interesting members whose own contributions we can enjoy!

So, get to work, folks! Thinking up new ideas is fun! And we love it when you dazzle us with your intelligence.

Bud
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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)

[Bogmeister]

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Unusual (but not very interesting) little sf feature from director Arch Oboler about a small community encased in an impenetrable bubble and the citizens behaving like robotized zombies.

Is it the work of aliens? That would be my guess. The main characters are a young couple (Michael Cole and Deborah Walley) who end up inside the bubble after making an emergency landing in a single-engine airplane late at night.

The wife is pregnant and gives birth right after the landing. Though everyone in the township behaves totally 'out of it,' it seems that the doctors are still competent enough to deliver the baby. Thereafter, the husband encounters very puzzling behavior, frustrating him to no end — it's as if everyone is "stoned" as he puts it, just repeating short statements.



When I first watched this, I thought it was an early TV movie. It does remind me of an extended, colorized Outer Limits episode.

Originally intended as a 3-D feature, a lot of footage was removed from later versions, cutting the length down to about 90 minutes. I have a DVD from Rhino Video and there are 3-D glasses inside but I don't remember if these glasses came with the case or I put them in there; the DVD version does need to be watched with the glasses. The glasses are not superfluous now because even though it is assumed that all the 3-D footage of something going at the camera is gone, there are still numerous 3-D effects.

The movie is also of interest to those who want to see actor Cole pre-The Mod Squad. Overall, I found it to be slow.

BoG's Score: 5 out of 10

______________ THE BUBBLE - Original Trailer


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Bubble Trivia: Over 40 years later, horror writer Stephen King utilized a very similar premise for his very long novel, Under The Dome.

Star Trek TOS actor alert: Actor Vic Perrin appears as a cab driver who just says "Cab, Mister?" for the whole film. He appeared in the episode Mirror, Mirror and also supplied his voice in several episodes.


BoG
Galaxy Overlord Galactus

[Bud Brewster]

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I have no doubt that the info about the restoration which Brent provided is absolutely accurate, so I wonder just how true this IMDB trivia item is. It conflicts with the above comments Brent provided.

~ The footage removed and supposedly junked, when the movie was cut down from 112 mins. to 91 mins. in 1968, has been located thanks to the late Deborah Wally's own personal copy of the original print. A re-restoration is planned.

Then again, perhaps the print from Miss Wally is the one being described in Brent's post.
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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)

[Krel]

I saw this in a movie theater in the late 70's, and it was in 3-D. I don't remember much about it, just that it was slow and kind of boring.

I guess it was re-released to jump on the science fiction revival because of "Star Wars".

David.

[Bud Brewster]

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YouTube has a good copy of this movie, but without the 3D there's little reason to watch it. Come to think of it, there's not much reason even with the 3D.

__ THE BUBBLE- Fantastic Invasion of Planet Earth


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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)

[Pow]

Wikipedia:

Deborah Walley (1941~2001) was the daughter of Nathan and Edith Walley. Her parents were Ice capade skating stars and choreographers.

Deborah studied at the prestigious New York City's American Academy of Dramatic Arts.

She appeared in the 1963 Disney film Summer Magic with Hayley Mills.

Deborah was married and divorced to actor/producer John Ashley (1934~1997.) John was one of the producers of the wildly successful The A-Team TV series.

John provided the memorable opening narration to that show: "In 1972, a crack commando unit was sent to prison by a military court for a crime they didn't commit. These men promptly escaped from a maximum security stockade to the Los Angeles underground. Today, still wanted by the government, they survive as soldiers of fortune. If you have a problem, if no one else can help, and if you can find them, maybe you can hire...The A-Team."

Michael Cole is best remembered as undercover detective Pete Cochran on The Mod Squad that ran on ABC from 1968 until 1973.

Producer Marvin J. Chomsky (1929~2022) was a prolific director. Among some of his many credits for directing were The Wild, Wild West, Star Trek, Mission Impossible, the memorable 1978 TV miniseries The Holocaust and one-episode of the 1985 TV miniseries Robert Kennedy and His Times.

[Maurice]

The Space Vision process was patented. Here are the patent drawings.

The film and 3D process are described on the 3-D Film Archive page: RESTORING A LANDMARK 3-D MOTION PICTURE
By Bob Furmanek

An excerpt...

Arch Oboler’s landmark 1966 production THE BUBBLE was the first stereoscopic motion picture filmed in 4-D Space-Vision - a revolutionary new lens and projection system that enabled high-quality polarized widescreen projection from a single-strip of 35mm film.

One of the selling points with 4-D Space-Vision was its ability to make objects in the scene actually appear to leave the screen and float into the audience – completely detached from the screen.

But how new was Space-Vision in 1966? The truth is rather surprising for it had been on the drawing boards for many years, predating the 3-D boom of 1953.

Unless otherwise noted, all of the films and lens systems described in the following article were projected with polarized light. Also, while single-strip 3-D work was ongoing in Europe and Russia during this period, my article focuses on the work that was done in the United States.

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"The absence of limitations is the enemy of art."
― Orson Welles