ALL SCI-FI

[Pow]

Catherine Schell was a beautiful & charming actress.

I always felt that the make~up she was plastered under as Maya on the second season of Space:1999 was a real shame.

[Bud Brewster]

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Happy 50th Anniversary of the Apollo 11 landing!
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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)

[Bud Brewster]

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IMDB has several interesting trivia items for this production.
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~ The film was described by the producers and director as a "western in space", complete with claim jumpers, showdown-type gunfights, a hired gunslinger and even dancing saloon girls.

Note from me: The idea of making a science fiction story with a distinctly Western flavor was done well (and seriously) in Firefly. Here, it's just for the humor . . . and not overly successful in that regard.

~ The film takes place in May 2021.

Note from me: Well, I'll be blue-nosed horny toad with radioactive testicles if this ain't the gall-darndest coincidink I ever seen in all my born days!

~ Although the women's fashions were somewhat influenced by then-current couturiers, very similar fashions — and colored wigs — appeared in Gerry Anderson's live-action television series, UFO (1970), shot contemporaneously. "Moon Zero Two" lead Catherine Schell wore an outfit very similar to that of Kemp in this film when she stars in the second series of Anderson's Space: 1999 (1975) as the alien shapeshifter Maya.

Note from me: I hadn't realized Miss Schell was in both productions.

~ The film was released as a double bill with When Dinosaurs Ruled the Earth (1970)

Note from me: Although neither of the films are very impressive, that would have made a nice night at a drive-in with the right teenage date.

~ Among the signs held up by the crowd in the animated intro sequence are "Bang It," "Ban It," "Love It," "Chase It," "Knickers," "Resist Everybody," "Down with Everything," "Step Ins Are Drop Outs," "Ban Bagrites," "Kastro for King," and "Sing Jellied Eels Altogether."

Note from me: The cartoon title work is well done, but it certainly pops your bubble if you were hoping to see a serious science fiction film. Then again, after setting up the viewer for a comedy, it doesn't really deliver on that either!

Here's the full movie. Watch it and judge for yourself.

____________________ Moon Zero Two 1969


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

[Gord Green]

Another bit of trivia.

The chief protagonist J.J. Hubbard was a jab to pulp hack, and founder of Scientology, L Ron Hubbard.
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There comes a time, thief, when gold loses its lustre, and the gems cease to sparkle, and the throne room becomes a prison; and all that is left is a father's love for his child.

[Bud Brewster]

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While working at Eastern Air Lines for 16 years, loading freight and luggage onto baggage carts and airplanes, I kept sane by reading books (and writing four of them, as well).

Somewhere around 1985 got hold a copy of Battlefield Earth and absolutely loved it! I knew nothing about Hubbard, so my enjoyment was untainted by any knowledge of his other endeavors, such as creating strange religions.

I called a friend I'd know for years, a fellow sci-fi fan who was much better informed about practically everything than I was, and when I told him how much I'd loved the book, he chuckled and filled me in on Mr. Hubbard's other contributions to humanity.

Still, I must admit, the novel is pretty good. I've got it in a box in my storage closet, and I might dig it out and read it again. What the hell, eh?
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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 guess I'm alone in my love for this movie. I have the DVD, but I'm not counting on a Blu-ray release.

It has all the trappings of a western. A new, fairly lawless frontier. A young woman new to the frontier looking for her Brother. The handsome maverick and his sidekick who take the girl under their protection. Miners and claim jumping with killings. A barroom brawl*. A frontier town with western facades. The evil land baron and his hired gun. Gunfights with six-gun looking gyrojet pistols. The land baron and his henchmen dying in the stampede...Well asteroid crash. The girl getting her claim, and fortune. The hero getting the girl.

This was Hammer Films only movie to take place in the future. The actor's space helmets were held on with screws. The actors sweated off weight wearing the plastic space and moon suits. Jame Olsen said he had to quit his daily runs because of it.

Both the space and moon suits life support packs plugged into the back of the suits. Oxygen packs plugged into the top of the LS packs.

When it became obvious that Apollo 11 was going to land on the moon before the movie was released, they added the Apollo 11 monument to the model moon city.

Except for a couple of scenes there is no sound in the space scenes, they used music cues. There were no stars in the space scenes.

Catherine Schell on a Moon Fargo/bug wheel holding a western style gyrojet pistol.


David.

* The novelization also had a jail break after the brawl, but I guess they never filmed that.

[Gord Green]

Actually I read the novelization long before I saw the movie and did really like it! I visualized it as going to be somewhat like 2001 ASO as far as the effects.

I didn't see it at the theatre, so the first I got to view it was when it was on MST3K, and of course it was cut and the hosts mocked it and pointed out all its' flaws. When I finally was able to see it in its' original context I kind of enjoyed it.
I thought the Hubbard character was a bit "over the top", but this was in the day of exaggerated villains in James Bond films etc.

The effects didn't live up to expectations, but still not a terrible film. Another "space western" movie of the era was OUTLAND which was touted as HIGH NOON in space.
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There comes a time, thief, when gold loses its lustre, and the gems cease to sparkle, and the throne room becomes a prison; and all that is left is a father's love for his child.

[Krel]

[Bud Brewster]

[Krel]

To me, it's a bubblegum movie. Something I can watch and relax to if I've had a bad day, or just want to watch something light.

I like the actors, the production design, the model work. I even like the story. I think it's a fun little movie.

David.

[johnnybear]

I wish there had been more scenes with the dancing girls!
JB