ALL SCI-FI

[Bud Brewster]

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Even a James Bond movie in this trio of films can't elevate it very much. The Gamma People is deadly dull, and the The Giant from the Unknown has a plot which moves as slowly the resurrected conquistador who is allegedly so frightening.

I don't think I would have been impressed by it if I'd seen in 1958 at the Roosevelt Drive-in —





— even if my Dad and I had gotten the car fixed in time to take the family on a Saturday night.


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From Russia With Love (1963 England)

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Sean Connery's second outing as 007 exhibits a bigger budget and slicker production values than Dr. No. Although the producers still hadn't realized how gadget crazy the fans of James Bond were, they did appreciate the importance of action and girls in the world of 007.

With those key ingredients in mind, From Russia With Love gives us Daniela Bianchi as a Russian defector who falls for Bond's charms, and Robert Shaw as a trained-to-kill-Bond assassin. The fight between Connery and Shaw on the Orient Express is perhaps the most exciting scene in the entire Bond series.

Although From Russia With Love lacks the trademark Big Battle Scene that capped off several of the later Bond films, it does have several unforgettable one-on-one fights -- such as Bond-versus-Shaw, Bond-versus-a-helicopter, and Bond-versus-Rosa-Klebb (the gnarly little SPECTRE agent played by Lotte Lenya).

The overall feel of From Russia With Love is typified by the appealing title theme, so different from the gutsy themes for Goldfinger and Thunderball.

Directed by Terence Young. ____________________________________________________________________

The Gamma People (1959 English)



The setting is a little town in a fictitious European country, and the plot of this small-scale sci-fi tale involves a mad communist scientist (Walter Rilla) who is using a gamma ray treatment on children; some of the kids are turned into artificial geniuses, others become automaton slaves.

Two visitors (Paul Douglas, Leslie Phillips) stumble onto the evil scheme. Eva Bartok (The Crimson Pirate) plays the lady in distress.

The film offers few special effects or electronic gizmos to amuse sci fi fans, but writer-director John Gilling includes an effective mixture of humor. Music by George Melachrino, who later became well known for his "easy listening" albums.

This movie was originally co-billed with 1984.
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Giant from the Unknown (1958)