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Journey to the Seventh Planet (1962 Denmark)
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Bud Brewster
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PostPosted: Thu Apr 02, 2015 8:37 pm    Post subject: Journey to the Seventh Planet (1962 Denmark) Reply with quote




Why do the worst sci-fi movies have the best posters? Shocked

This cheesy Danish science fiction film about a space mission to the planet Uranus is pretty dreadful, but there are a few things about it worth mentioning.

The screenplay is by sci-fi veterans Ib Melchior ("Angry Red Planet") and Sidney Pink (who also directed). There's a brief (and poorly done) scene involving a cyclops-dinosaur-rat monster, animated by Jim Danforth, and a claymation-like scene of the Uranian landscape being miraculously transformed from desert to forest.








The plot involves an alien entity which causes the exploring astronauts to experience various hallucinations, including several gorgeous women (who were prominently featured in the ads, of course). Last but not least; the star of the show is the one-and-only John Agar (the king of cheap sci fi).





If you manage to sit through the whole film without seeing anything amusing, take heart -- the closing credits are a real hoot. A paper-cut-out of an Atlas rocket with a cartoon flame cruises repeatedly across the screen, while a mellow-voiced crooner sings "Joooour -- ney . . . to the Seventh Plaaaa -- net".

No, seriously. Don't believe it? Here it is on Youtube. It must be seen to be believed!



________


Oh, what the hell! Why not watch the whole movie? Just enjoy this cheesy Danish while you order it from Amazon at the link below.


________

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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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Randy
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PostPosted: Thu Apr 02, 2015 9:30 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

"Jour__Knee___to the seventh___plah___net"

What a bee___you___tee___full love song
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orzel-w
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PostPosted: Thu Apr 02, 2015 10:23 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I was chuckling over the computer-like beeping notes in the musical accompaniment.
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scotpens
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PostPosted: Thu Apr 02, 2015 11:05 pm    Post subject: Re: Journey to the Seventh Planet - (1962 Sweden) Reply with quote

Bud Brewster wrote:
This Swedish science fiction film about a space mission to the planet Uranus is pretty dreadful, but there are a few things about it worth mentioning.

It's Danish, not Swedish. Made at the same small Copenhagen studio where Reptilicus was filmed, I believe. (I'll refrain from making any more "cheesy Danish" jokes.)

I first saw this movie on a double bill with First Spaceship on Venus, and I thought it was pretty good. (Of course, it helps that I was ten years old at the time.)

Did Ikea design the spacesuits?




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Bud Brewster
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PostPosted: Mon Jan 09, 2017 11:32 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

____________________________________

Thanks, Scotpens! I had to be corrected concerning Reptilicus too!

I made the change in my original post. And I'll throw in a nice trailer for this wacky little movie.

__________________________________


______ Journey To The Seventh Planet - Trailer


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orzel-w
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PostPosted: Wed Jan 11, 2017 4:57 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Bud Brewster wrote:
Journey To The Seventh Planet - Trailer

Prophetic trailer...


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Bud Brewster
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PostPosted: Wed Jul 19, 2017 7:54 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

____________________________

"Your eyes will glaze!"

"And your mouth will yawn!"

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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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Maurice
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PostPosted: Fri Jul 21, 2017 2:58 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Sadly, again, the link to the film above no longer functions.

But I found it here:

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x29t9kj

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Bud Brewster
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PostPosted: Fri Jul 21, 2017 8:24 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

________________________________

Thanks, Maurice! We should warn the members, however, that the Dailymotion video image is stretched horizontally (a 4:3 image which is stretch to 16:9), while the Vidzi version is just a cropped 4:3.

By the way, sir, if you'll send me a PM with your avatar (the one Photobucket blocked), I'll restore it here on All Sci-Fi! Very Happy

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Maurice
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PostPosted: Sat Jul 22, 2017 7:32 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Bud Brewster wrote:
Thanks, Maurice! ...By the way, sir, if you'll send me a PM with your avatar (the one Photobucket blocked), I'll restore it here on All Sci-Fi! Very Happy

I don't even recall what my avatar was!
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Bud Brewster
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PostPosted: Sun Jul 23, 2017 9:34 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Maurice wrote:
Bud Brewster wrote:
Thanks, Maurice! ...By the way, sir, if you'll send me a PM with your avatar (the one Photobucket blocked), I'll restore it here on All Sci-Fi! Very Happy

I don't even recall what my avatar was!

If you think of what it was, let me know. I restored the avatars belonging to Butch, orzel-w, and Eadie. Very Happy
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~ The Space Children (1958)
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Bud Brewster
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PostPosted: Sat Dec 09, 2017 2:40 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

________________________________

IMDB has 7 trivia items for this movie. Here's a few of the ones I found the most interesting. Very Happy
________________________________

The Earth is run by the UN and there are no more wars. The date on the letter John Agar reads is 10th September, 2001 one day before 9/11.

Note from me: This is an interesting (although sad) commentary on the how we used to have such high hopes for a gleaming future . . . which didn't materialize. No spinning space stations . . . and certainly no world peace.

When officials at American International viewed the completed film, they decided that some of the Danish-produced special effects were so poor that they needed to be replaced. Two members of the independent special effects company Project Unlimited, Jim Danforth and Wah Chang, shot new footage to replace some of the Danish special effects. Some of the deleted footage was also replaced with tinted black-and-white monster footage from The Spider (1958).

Note from me: Clearly I have not given this movie the respect it deserves. If the producers cared enough about the final film to make these improvements, I shouldn't judge it quite so harshly for the aspects of it I've always ridiculed.

In other words . . . it could have been much worse!

Among the replacement footage used in the American International version was a brief special effects shot from The Angry Red Planet (1959).

Note from me: The next time I watch this movie I can have a little fun spotted the borrow footage from The Angry Red Planet. Since I've never noticed it before, perhaps it was combined well with the original footage.

The major contribution made to the American International version by Jim Danforth and Wah Chang was the giant cyclopean rodent monster. The monster's roar was actually Rodan's roar taken from Rodan (1956) (US title: "Rodan").

Note from me: Danforth and Chang's stop motion monster certainly doesn't represent their best work, but it's still fun to watch. There was even a little animated astronaut in one quick scene with the monster.

As for the roar borrowed from Rodan, I'd describe Rodan's sound as being more like a "bending metal screech" than a "roar". The monster's sound in Journey to the Seventh Planet sounds like a combination of a screech and a roar.

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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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PostPosted: Sun Dec 10, 2017 10:35 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

________________________________

After watching this crazy little flick (and enjoying it more than I expected) with Bulldogtrekker recently while we chatted on Facebook, I noticed some very interesting aspects of the plot that I'd overlooked for decades!

There's a complexity to the story I'd never appreciated before, and when these aspects are considered carefully, they suggest some concepts that give the plot more depth than I'd ever realized.

If you've never seen this movie, be forewarned: THIS POST HAS MORE SPOILERS THAN ALL THE CARS IN THE INDY 500!

That said, here's what I mean about this neglected sci-fi film.

The story takes place in 2001, when the Earth is ruled by a world government, and manned missions have been sent to all the planets except Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto. But mysterious signals from Uranus have been received, so a manned mission is sent to investigate.

When I watched this movie I was impressed by aspects of the production quality. The spaceship's interior is surprisingly good, a vertical cabin with the floor located "down" towards the engines, as it should be — and it's equipped with a one-man "elevator" like the one aboard the C-57-D!

How cool is that? Cool



__________________





The story is also impressive. The spaceship with its five-man crew arrives at Uranus and goes into orbit, but suddenly an unseen alien with powerful mental abilities causes the crew to become frozen in time for several days until they finally wake up and realize how much time has past, based on a fresh apple a crewmen had been holding a moment earlier before the blackout.

When they awaken, the apple has become black and shriveled while the men were frozen in time!

The rest of the story concerns the plans of the alien (hidden in a frozen cave on Uranus) to learn the strengths and weakness of the humans so it can eventually transport itself to Earth and destroy mankind. We eventually learn that the alien is able to survive on Uranus despite the sub-zero environment by using its incredible mental abilities to alter the physical conditions around it.

However, the alien wants to relocate to a less hostile planet.

In short: it doesn't need people, but it would love to retire to Miami and lay out on the sunny beach. Cool

Before the alien can make the planned move to its new digs, it needs to find out just what human beings can-and-cannot-do to prevent its plan to relocate to more desirable real estate. And to do this, it creates a series of highly emotional situations for the astronauts, studying their reactions and learning about their nature.

But here's the kicker, guys. Very Happy

Contrary to what seems to be happening in the early stages of the story, the alien is NOT just presenting the astronauts with illusions of an Earth-like environment and gorgeous women, just to see how they respond. The alien is actually creating the physical objects and the lovely ladies the men see, including a large wooded area based on one astronaut's childhood memories of the area in which he grew up.

The brief stop motion FX that shows a miniature rocket sitting on frozen Uranian landscape which miraculously changes (Claymation style) to a forested area is actually pretty good.






But wait! There's more!

Most of lovely ladies are mere puppets that the alien uses to mislead the guys and cloud their thinking with lustful thoughts which channel the blood flow from their brains to lower areas in their bodies (if you'll pardon my anatomical bluntness). Wink

However, one of the hot babes the alien creates turns out to be a bit more real and intelligent than the alien intended. She actually seems to be sentient and capable of independent thinking! She tells John Agar exactly what the alien is and what it plans to do to the Earth's population when it relocates to our planet.

By doing so, she's giving him the information he and his colleagues need to plan a defense against this alien threat!

I admire this aspect of the plot, because it suggests that the alien created a woman who was supposed to be so convincing and real that the captain of the crew (from whose memory she is taken by the alien) would fall in love with her. Unbeknownst to the alien (who was learning about humans by reading their thought), the alien's creation was more intelligent and independent than it realized!






This is the element of the plot which threw me for a loop! Shocked

The alien did such a good job of creating a living creature, based on the captain's vivid memories and the alien's growing understanding of human beings, that the lady actually shared her knowledge of the evil alien's true nature to warn the humans about its dastardly plans!

Further evidence that the alien created physical objects which were eventually used against it is the fact that a complete blacksmith's shop was created as part of the "hometown" one of astronauts grew up in. And the astronauts successfully used the blacksmith's shop to create a large acetylene torch to burn up the alien in his hidden cave! Shocked

Unfortunately, the alien figures out the plan to use the torch to kill it. So, the alien sends one of its artificial bimbos to steal a vital component of the weapon before the attack, and then the alien creates the illusion that the missing component is still there!

However, the alien foolishly leaves another vital component, the liquid oxygen tank, in the blacksmith's shop, and when our heroes discover that their acetylene torch is incomplete during their attack on the alien, they use the tank of liquid oxygen to freeze the alien's brain . . . and then blow it to pieces with their blasters!

After succeeding in destroying the alien, the gorgeous lady who proved herself to be smarter than the alien intended begs the captain to take her back to Earth after the guys defeat the alien and prepare to blast off!

The captain grants her request, and they all board the rocket. But as they leave orbit and travel away from Uranus, the lovely lady suddenly fades away, proving that even though the alien created her and made her real in many respects . . . her existence was not permanent. Sad

I was impressed with the imagination of this story after I realized how badly I had misunderstood it for decades. It's a low budget movie with expensive taste, and I had a great time rediscovering it after watching it at the East Point Theater when I was 14 years old in 1962, along with other favorites like the one on the marquee below. Very Happy




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~ The Space Children (1958)
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PostPosted: Fri Jul 31, 2020 2:08 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

________________________________

Thinking Outside the "Plot"!
________________________________

As I stated in my post above, this movie displays a lot more intelligence than I realize when I first saw it in 1962. Important elements of the plot sailed right over my young head, and it wasn't until my recent viewing that it dawned on me that the story was really pretty good!

Today I reread my post from December 2017 and wondered if I could come up with a TOtP question for you guys.

And by gum, I did! Very Happy

The story is about an alien who can survive in the subzero environment on Uranus by using its mental powers to alter the conditions around it. It even creates an Earth-like environment over a large area so the astronauts can survive without wearing spacesuits.

Furthermore it can create objects — and even living humans — as part of its plan to deceive the astronauts.

In short; the alien is kind of a living Krell machine!

I wondered briefly if I could make a case for the idea that the alien was actually a Krell survivor! Confused

But I've always argued against the mistaken notion that the Krell themselves could "wish" objects into existence without the Krell machine — so I quickly gave up that idea.

The "Being", as it's called in the movie, has a physical body (a sort of spongy mass with one big eye), and the astronauts kill it by spraying it with liquid oxygen to freeze it, and then shooting it with their weapons.

The Being's fabricated environment begins to deteriorate, and the astronauts flee back to their ship.

Despite the fact that the alien has a physical form, it tells the humans (in an earlier scene) that it will inhabit one of their bodies and travel back to Earth, where it will "destroy man, and bring a new race into being".

Frankly, I can't make that work with any concepts I've come up with. The idea that the alien can just leave it's big old spongy brain on Uranus and hitch a ride back to earth in an "inhabited body" doesn't really work! Rolling Eyes

But how about this instead.

~ A Question for the Members: If the alien could create living humans with its mental powers, could it create replicas of all the crewmen (and then destroy the originals), after which it would pilot the rocket back to Earth and use these "surrogates" as it's eyes and ears while it took over the minds of mankind and bring its "new race into being"?

~ My Theory: Assuming the alien could do that, eventually it would direct its "new race" to send a ship to Uranus and bring the alien's physical body back to Earth.

What do you think, guys! Very Happy

I wish the fine copy of this movie was still on YouTube so you folks could watch it and refresh your memories. I'm certainly glad that I downloaded it back when I had the chance! Very Happy)

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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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Morbius
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PostPosted: Fri Aug 07, 2020 8:46 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Wasn't that the basic premise in preventing "The Thing" from getting off Antarctica?
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