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Planet of the Vampires (1965)
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Bongopete
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Joined: 17 Dec 2013
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Location: Dallas

PostPosted: Thu Dec 19, 2013 2:51 pm    Post subject: Planet of the Vampires (1965) Reply with quote



Goofy title . . . but great atmospheric movie. Supposedly a rather low budget but Mario Bava makes that money go miles!!!! Few if any post camera SFX, most was done in camera using techniques going back to Metropolis days.

Two sister spaceships survey a planet from which a mysterious signal is coming from. When they attempt to land they are both overpowered by some extremely strong tractor beam like force and dragged down.

As the crews awake from unconsciousness each crew member finds themselves attacking and being attacked by each other in an attempt to kill. Eventually it turns out that our heroes ship, the Galliot is intact, crew alive only needing some repairs . . . its sister ship the Argos is not so lucky.

I saw this in the theater when it came out and as a total package I think that this movie is striking!! No old Air Force flight suites, no office chairs, no V2 or Atlas of other early spaceflight rocket.

If you haven't seen this movie, you should . . . it has loads of atmospheric scenes.
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Bud Brewster
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PostPosted: Thu Dec 19, 2013 2:59 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I saw this wild movie years ago and was very impressed by it. The cast, sets, FX, and concepts are very original. It's partly American (Barry Sullivan), but mostly Italian -- with strange concepts and images which seem to have inspired "Alien", years later.

Anyway, I now have a nice DVD-R from TCM (or somebody else) and I've enjoyed it often. It's a fun movie in many ways.

Bogmeister and Butch have great posts about this movie on the other ASF. I hope they copy them to this thread. Very Happy

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Last edited by Bud Brewster on Sat Apr 06, 2019 8:11 am; edited 1 time in total
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Bongopete
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PostPosted: Fri Dec 20, 2013 12:48 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

If I'm not mistaken, you have an American (Sullivan), Spanish (what was his name..Wes I think) and Sonya (Brazilian). I read that while filming, pretty much all the actors spoke their own language and that was taken care of during post.

Very few scifi films are as atmospheric as this one.
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Bongopete
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PostPosted: Fri Dec 20, 2013 3:49 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I would have loved to be behind the scenes while they were filming scenes with the mixed cast and heard how it sounded....it certainly looks like they are all speaking English though.
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Bongopete
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PostPosted: Fri Dec 20, 2013 3:50 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Anyone here ever read the source material (One Night of 21 Hours) or know what similarity (if any) it had with the movie?
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Brent Gair
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Joined: 21 Nov 2014
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PostPosted: Sat Nov 22, 2014 1:11 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

As I see so many of my favorite old classics in this forum, I thought I might occassionally update the home video status of them. In particular, I'm a fan and collector of things on the high def Blu-ray format.

PLANET OF THE VAMPIRES seemed like a good title to begin with because it has just been released on Blu-ray.

I will also note that I do own this disc.

This was released by Kino on October 28. It is a very well reviewed disc and it is presented in the proper 1.85:1 matted widescreen aspect ratio. It's transferred at a rather impressive 31.92mbps (as measured by Blu-ray.com) on a dual layer 50GB disc so there are no compression issues. Sound is lossless DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0.

The disc has plenty of extras (courtesy of Blu-ray.com because I'm too lazy to type it out myself):

Commentary features Mario Bava biographer Tim Lucas.

Still Gallery contains 44 images, covering VHS box art, press kit stills, and BTS snaps.

"Night of the Id" is the original short story that inspired "Planet of the Vampires," written by Renato Pestriniero.

Alternate Music Score Highlights (20:31, SD) details a different approach to the sound of "Planet of the Vampires."

Original Italian Opening Credits (2:48, SD) display a more stark commencement for the picture, with black and white main titles.

"Trailers from Hell" featuring Joe Dante (3:47, HD) discusses the director's love of Bava and the picture, commenting over the original theatrical trailer.

"Trailers from Hell" featuring Josh Olson (2:28, HD) follows Dante's lead, though Olson is a bit more open about the picture's shortcomings.

And a Theatrical Trailer (2:17, SD) is included


Last edited by Brent Gair on Sat Nov 22, 2014 10:08 am; edited 1 time in total
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Eadie
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PostPosted: Sat Nov 22, 2014 8:44 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Wasn't the original title One Night of 21 Hours written by Renato Pestriniero?

That's what it says in the copy of the movie my Godfather owns and is repeated on IMDb and Wikipedia.
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Bud Brewster
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PostPosted: Sat Nov 22, 2014 6:23 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I have an old DVD-R from a Dish channel that looks pretty good, but this new BD will look much better, naturally.

I'll need to order this one from Amazon after reading about all those extras. Sounds like I could spend several happy hours wallowing in this movie, exploring those special features you mentioned.

Much appreciated, Brent!

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


Last edited by Bud Brewster on Wed Jul 20, 2022 12:25 pm; edited 2 times in total
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Bud Brewster
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PostPosted: Thu Jun 02, 2016 10:16 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

________________________________

This was our feature for All Sci-Fi's Friday Live Chat on March 25th, 2016, and I couldn't resist placing the links here which we posted for that event, along with the enhanced poster I did to promote it.

Notice the extra rocket I added (and greatly enlarged), in the foreground! (Compare it to the original poster at the top of this thread.) Very Happy






Enjoy this original trailer from the film's initial release.


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And this fan-made version is described as a "Prometheus-style Trailer".


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


Last edited by Bud Brewster on Sun Oct 02, 2022 3:04 pm; edited 7 times in total
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Pye-Rate
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PostPosted: Thu Jun 02, 2016 2:54 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Loved the spaceships in this.
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Eadie
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PostPosted: Fri Apr 05, 2019 9:44 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Publicity photo of the Krell-like alien's ship:


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Bogmeister
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PostPosted: Mon Sep 09, 2019 12:45 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

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Ah, yes, this is one spooky frightfest in outer space. I would get a little agitated watching this as a kid even before they land on that infernal, mist-enshrouded planet. Those dark uniforms (spacesuits) looked like they were trying to ensnare the space travelers right from the outset, with those extra-high collars. This is all dark . . . just all dark. Someone was really depressed when they wrote this, I think. Or ate one Italian meatball too many.

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And then they find all this bizarre stuff down on the planet, not the least of which are those giant skeletons. This is definitely not the bright aspect of space travel. What's really amazing to me, though, is that this film preceded Night of the Living Dead and all the zombie films that followed.

That's what this really is — Planet of the Zombies. This manages to be quite disturbing in that sense — the raising of the dead, the atmosphere of unrelenting doom. Bava is acknowledged as a great horror director, and it almost seems like he anticipated the more modern style of Sci-Fi Horror here, way before Alien (1979) and the like.

But more than anything, this functions as a prequel to Night of the Living Dead (1968); think about the unexpected ending here — then think about the news reports & rumors in the later film. It all fits very well, doesn't it?

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BoG's Score: 7 out of 10



BoG
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scotpens
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PostPosted: Tue Sep 10, 2019 2:50 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Pye-Rate wrote:
Loved the spaceships in this.

Not to mention the outfits. They may not be the most practical space uniforms, but they look great. You can always count on the Italians to give good wardrobe!
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Krel
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PostPosted: Tue Sep 10, 2019 5:13 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I love the spacesuits and helmets in this movie. The spacesuits fit the model for the 60's. NASA was working on a skintight spacesuit called a Space Activity Suit. This type of suit relied on the tension of the fabric to maintain pressure. It would allow normal movement, as the Astronaut wouldn't be fighting the air pressure in their spacesuit. Also if the suit were punctured, or cut, then it wouldn't mean the death of the Astronaut, just a bruise. The "Star Trek" and "Silent Running" space suits were based on the SAS.

NASA abandoned the project because the proper materials hadn't been invented yet. Dava Newman is working on a modern version at MIT named the Biosuit Spacesuit.
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Bud Brewster
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PostPosted: Thu Oct 26, 2023 10:08 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Krel wrote:
NASA abandoned the project because the proper materials hadn't been invented yet. Dava Newman is working on a modern version at MIT named the Biosuit Spacesuit.

I wonder if they could be perfected today. Confused
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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)
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