ALL SCI-FI

[Bud Brewster]

This was originally a Russian film called "Nebo Zovyot" (1959), about rival missions to Mars -- Russian and American.

Sidebar: God, I miss the days when the Ruskies kept us on our toes! We haven't done anything really great in space since Apollo 17 -- except for the space shuttle -- which has been retired.



Anyway, in the Russian movie both nations desperately want to be first to reach Mars, so both spacecraft rush their departures, and one of them doesn't have the necessary fuel for the round trip (guess which one). There's plenty of scenes involving rockets and space stations, and the special effects are fairly good.





Enterprising Roger Corman bought the Russian movie and refashioned it, removing the plot elements that portrayed the Russian astronauts as heroes struggling against villainous American astronauts.



In the new version the competing astronauts are from fictitious countries. A battle scene between two monsters on a Martian moon was filmed and inserted by young Francis Ford Coppola. A penis-shaped monster fights a vagina-shaped monster!



They even featured them in the poster!

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

[Robert (Butch) Day]

Notice that Mars is made to resemble the Mars of Percival Lowell.'
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Common Sense ISN'T Common

[Bud Brewster]

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In the late 1950s and early 1960s, the sci-fi movies being made in America where not exactly the cream of the crop. Compared to this movie . . . well, there was nothing that compared with this movie.

The sets, costumes, and special effects are top-notch. But naturally all existing prints are poor in quality (and heavily edited by Roger Cormen), so we'll never be able to fully appreciate the original movie.

However, the YouTube video below is certainly better some others I've seen, but the picture is 4:3 unfortunately.

Enjoy!
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______________ Battle Beyond the Sun (1963)


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

[ralfy]

Feature, Coppola and Corman cut, 720p:

Battle Beyond the Sun (1959) Adventure, Sci-Fi Film - The 1962 Coppola & Corman cut


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[Bud Brewster]

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Hey, look what I found! I guess I was wrong when I said this in the post above!