ALL SCI-FI

[Bud Brewster]

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Rick Pruitt

__ I saw this when it was first shown during the first season of Saturday Night at the Movies.

April 7, 1962, right around the beginning of the 1962 baseball season, which ended with Willie McCovey's wicked line drive disappearing into Bobby Richardson's glove. The last great World Series of my youth, because it was the last time my beloved Yankees won when I was a kid.

We watched several of the Saturday night movies during that first season, but fewer and fewer in later years. The irresistible lure of GUNSMOKE, I suppose.

Looking at Bud Brewster's list, I saw 8 of those movies on those Saturday night broadcasts. My favorite was, of course, THE DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL.

It wasn't enough to see that one great movie, though. That night after Klaatu, came our 15 minute local news, followed by Shock Theatre. That night I saw BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN for the first time. THE DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL and BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN...still the greatest double feature ever.

But back to IT HAPPENS EVERY SPRING.

I loved the movie. I loved the comedy, I loved the sci-fi, I loved the effects, I loved the baseball scenes. Five months later, when it was rerun, I told everybody I knew to be sure to watch it, and I loved it all over again.

But . . . despite the love, it always bothered me that the whole story was about cheating. Even at 12 years of age, I knew that was just such a cheat, just so wrong. It was clear to me that, once the truth was known, the guy would be barred from baseball, the team would be fined and otherwise punished. If nothing else, they'd have to forfeit their World Series.

Funny, clever, lovable movie. Big cheat.
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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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Rick Pruitt

__This is one of those problem, never-settled-in-my-brain movies.

I've seen it, I guess, half a dozen, maybe 8, times. I've never liked it. I've always been royally disappointed. So why watch it over and over again?

Simple. It should be a barrel of '50s sci-fi fun. It should be. Every time I think about it, I figure I need to watch it again because it's just got to be fun. It's just got to be.



But it never is. However, I know full well that I'll trudge back to those sad sixty minutes again. Hoping, always hoping. Never to see that hope fulfilled.

But, you know, even as I type these unkind comments, I'm thinking, "I need to watch that again."


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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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Rick Pruitt

__I saw CLOSE ENCOUNTERS in Denver on the day it opened in 1977. It was a morning screening, 9 am, 10 am, something like that. It was one of only two occasions when I did that thing where you arrive hours early and stand in a long line in order to grab a seat. The other occasion was for RETURN OF THE JEDI (also stood in long lines for ANDY WARHOL'S FRANKENSTEIN and POPEYE, but those were surprises to me and I didn't know I'd be arriving to a long queue.)

It's hard to imagine or remember now, but in 1977 this was a really BIG deal. Everybody was STAR WARS-ed and wanted more, even if it was somehow different. And we only really knew Steven Spielberg from one movie but that movie was . . . JAWS.

My God, the anticipation was overwhelming.

My friend and I made it into the theater after about a two or three hour wait in a line that seemed to snake forever through a huge parking lot. We grabbed seats in the front row of the balcony which my friend insisted were absolutely the best seats possible. How he knew that, I don't know. He wasn't from Denver (nor was I), had never been to this theater, and knew as little about the upcoming movie as I did.

And we knew so little. The trailer managed to show us some exciting stuff without really giving any of the biggies away at all.

As the end of the movie neared, I was totally satisfied. I figured those colored lights zooming around were all we were going to see and that was fine with me. They were lively and beautiful and wonderfully well-done. I was thrilled with it. And I think the entire audience was. That colorful "dance" of the lights, was greeted with continuous cheers and applause. We had all more than gotten our money's worth.





Then came the mothership. Totally unexpected.



I don't think I've ever been part of an audience reaction like that one. I can't really call it a "gasp", but it's hard to describe. It was as if all the air was sucked out of the theater in an instant. There was an moment of oxygen-free silence, followed by a gigantic roar which just wouldn't stop. Maybe the most exciting minute or two I ever spent in a movie theater.

So, did I love it? Oh, God, yes I did. And I still do.

As for your questions, Bud....hey, chill, dude. It's a movie. I can honestly say that, while I understand what you're asking, none of that ever occurred to me. I was lost in the movie. If I absolutely had to explain to myself or anyone else why the aliens behaved that way, I would answer..."how the hell do I know? They're aliens, who knows what's up with those guys?"

I highly recommend the book, CLOSE ENCOUNTERS OF THE THIRD KIND DIARY by Bob Balaban, who plays the translator/former cartographer. It's probably one of the two or three best "making-of" books I've ever read. Fascinating stuff.

I can't say that I ever met Bob Balaban, but I do remember the day, around 1991 or '92, when my wife and I toured a hoity-toity Manhattan pre-school in preparation for our son's approaching school career. Also on the tour that day were Balaban and his missus. We didn't care for the school and scratched it off the list. Don't know where mini-Balaban went to school.

I also saw Bob Balaban onstage once, but didn't connect the dots till years later. In 1967, when Balaban was known only to his immediate family, I saw him Off-Broadway playing Linus in YOU'RE A GOOD MAN, CHARLIE BROWN. I can't honestly say that I remember anything about his performance.

One more thing. The reason I saw the movie in Denver was that I was doing a show there at the time. Every night a van would pick up cast members at the hotel and drive us 20 minutes outside the city to the theater. That night I sat in the van, not thinking about much at all, when I heard someone mention CLOSE ENCOUNTERS. Only then did I realize what I had been doing. I'd been staring out the van's window, trying to spot a UFO or three. I was still so under the movie's spell that I was convinced that I would surely see a flying saucer.

I mean, didn't everyone?

I still love this movie. Haven't seen it in a couple of years. Must correct that.
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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]

[Bud Brewster]

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Rick Pruitt

__

[Bud Brewster]

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Rick, this is one of your best posts!

Not only does it tell a very enjoyable personal story, your prose is terrific.

"My bride-to-be was beginning to catch the extent of my obsession, so we retreated from the sea and the sand in time to tune in the TV in our hotel room. She napped, while I reveled in my 22-year-tardy delight."

Awesome . . .
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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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Rick Pruitt

__I wrote this about a year and a half back, but my love for it has only grown since then.

It's actually been on my mind lately, so I may have to give it another spin.

I wouldn't claim it as one of the best of the '50s, but it's certainly one of the most fun of that decade.

I've lately been catching up with movies which I've seen only once or twice and, often, movies I haven't seen in decades. Today, though, I watched KRONOS, which I've seen at least 9 or 10 times before and which I last watched no more than four or five years ago.

Checking my old records, I see that I first saw KRONOS on the 4 pm movie in October of 1962. That same month, of course, saw the Cuban Missile Crisis and, on a more positive note, Johnny Carson assuming the host chair on The Tonight Show.

I love KRONOS, and I always have. Looking at it from an entertainment viewpoint and not worrying too much about the science — it seems smart. The science may not pass reasonable inspection, but on casual viewing, it almost all seems sensible and acceptable. Far-fetched, yes, but not just plucked from fantasy-land. It seems like smart stuff is being said and, mostly, done.

It's also very ambitious. Not just a walking tree, or a teenage monster, or soapsuds creatures. Here we have a massive, ambulatory robot from space, lumbering across the countryside, soaking up power plants and H-bombs. Many of the effects don't look exactly real, but they all look great. Probably Rabin, Block, and DeWitt's masterpiece. Stunningly fake much of it, but they promised us a big ol' robot and that's exactly what they gave us. And, real-looking or fakey-fake, Kronos is one beautiful beast.















It's funny to see, amidst all the super-science, just how low-tech the TV news broadcasts are. They play part of a recorded conversation — recorded not on video, not on film, not even on audio tape. No, it's been recorded on a massive record, which the technician uses by, you know, dropping the needle onto the disc.

This is another '50s film which uses H-bomb stock footage, this time as if it's happening right now. Nowadays, you couldn't get away with this sort of thing. With YouTube and thousands of TV channels, everybody's already seen everything. In the '50s, there were only newsreels and evening news broadcasts, so these images were, while not unseen, not that familiar.

Also interesting that they're not too worried about an asteroid hitting earth because it will miss populated areas. Nowadays we know that if an asteroid crashes anywhere on earth, we're all likely sunk.

In that same unlikely vein, it's fun how they watch the ultimate explosive destruction of Kronos from a vantage point where it can be observed with the naked eye. When it blows up real good, there's not even a suggestion of a shockwave, even of a breeze blowing by.

And, truthfully, Jeff Morrow's explanation of how they could defeat Kronos had me scratching my head. Maybe it passed muster with me as a 12 year old, but now, even trying my best to not get too picky, I found myself thinking, "What? What the hell are you talking about?"

A few days back I watched BRAIN FROM PLANET AROUS. That one is fun despite its shortcomings, often because of its shortcomings. However, KRONOS is fun as entertaining, exciting (if somewhat juvenile) science-fiction.

Much as I loved it on afternoon TV when I was 12, I dearly wish I could have seen it at about the same time at a Saturday matinee down at the local bijou. I'm sure that viewing KRONOS on the big screen would have permanently burned itself into my brain.




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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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Rick, your comments above are both an entertaining anecdote and a superb review of Kronos.

THIS is why I'm glad I decided to archive your All Sci-Fi posts in a thread dedicated to them.
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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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Rick Pruitt

__Almost ten years ago my brilliant and ultra-cool then-sixteen-year-old son was over for dinner. He's a huge fan of Japanese films, and especially Akira Kurosawa, so I'd gotten a tape of DRUNKEN ANGEL from the library. After we finished watching that, he said, "What else you got?"

I looked and thought and finally, without telling him what it was, I put the DVD of DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL on.

As soon as he saw the black and white and the title, and heard the music ("theremin" he said), he chuckled. I could tell he was expecting some more of Dad's schlock, but I just kept my mouth shut. The first saucer shots got another reflexive giggle, but then he shut up.





About twenty minutes in he said, "I like this." I think he expected me to say, "You LIKE this junk?" But I just kept quiet. A few minutes later he said, "You know, this is good."

A short time later —"Who directed this?"

By the end of the movie he was saying, "Cool . . . cool . . . "

When it finished, he jumped up, got on the computer and added "Klaatu barada nikto" to his MySpace page. Or Facebook. Or whatever sixteen-year-olds were doing then.

His only semi-critical comment was, "That is one cocky alien." He was referring to Klaatu's bemused reactions to all the silly, stupid earthlings and what they don't know or understand. And he was right. Rennie does smirk quite a bit. Only Abraham Lincoln and Billy Gray avoid his condescension. Still, it was awfully gratifying to see that this classic still works, at least on the more intelligent (MY SON!) of today's youth.
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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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Rick Pruitt

__This movie promised me a jungle monster and reneged on the deal. Broke my ten-year-old's heart and I've never forgiven it.

Saw it once again a few years later on TV. Thought maybe knowing the disappointment ahead of time would put me in a more receptive frame of mind. Didn't. All I could think of was that terrible afternoon at the LeRose Theatre in 1960 and I got furious all over again, staring at the TV.

There are lots of movies I don't like, lots that bore me, lots that I consider terrible pieces of filmmaking. But...I've always considered it a waste of good emotion to hate a movie. This is the exception. This is the movie I truly despise.
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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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Rick Pruitt

__It's amazing to me, in retrospect, how little I knew about STAR WARS in advance. Though I was a pretty regular moviegoer in those days, I'm almost positive that I hadn't even seen the trailer. Most old-timers say that they had seen that trailer and were all hepped-up to see the movie.

Not me.

I subscribed to Variety in those days, and I knew that George Lucas (at the time, he was "the guy who made AMERICAN GRAFFITI") was making an s-f film. I remember the series of titles the movie went through, as listed in Variety's Production Chart. Each title seemed sillier than the last one. Things like ADVENTURES OF A STAR-KILLER and ADVENTURES OF A SKYWALKER.

Based purely on the titles, I was not hopeful or even very interested.

But, despite my ignorance and disinterest, I still managed to see it at the first showing on the day it opened, May 25, 1977, only because my girlfriend was, as usual, running late.

We were going to go see some movie (can't remember what) that afternoon. I was in the living room, waiting. She was in the bedroom, primping.

I heard the mailbox clang outside and went out to get the mail. There was my subscription copy of TIME magazine.





In the upper right-hand corner of the cover was a little banner reading "The Year's Best Movie!" I flipped to that story and found a two-or-four-page article on STAR WARS. I skimmed the article which huffed and puffed about how much fun the film was, that it was Flash Gordon for the seventies, etc.

I yelled out to my g.f., "how about if we saw a different movie?"

"What movie?" she asked.

"Uhh, TIME says it's the year's best movie."

"What is it?"

"There's a great article here . . . "

"Rick, what is the movie called?"

Pause. "Uhh . . . STAR WARS . . . "

She stuck her head out of the bedroom and said, "Oh, Rick, no . . . "

"Please."

Another pause, big sigh, "Oh, okay."

And thus I saw STAR WARS in a theatre that was no more than half-filled. So I guess "the word" had eluded not just me, but most of Louisville

Loved it, of course, and it's a great movie-going memory.
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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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Rick Pruitt

__I can't disagree with any of the terrible things y'all have had to say about THE ASTOUNDING SHE-MONSTER. It is bad. It is a bad movie. Yep, no doubt about it.

And I love it.

I saw it at the LeRose Theater in my hometown in August of 1960, almost exactly 56 years ago. I was ten years old and barely scratching the surface of the monster movie world.







The weird thing is that, even that day, sitting in that theater, I knew immediately that it was a crummy movie. I rated movies in those days on a 1-10 basis and this one earned a rating of 2 from me. Doesn't get much worse than that.

But I love it. And it's not exactly nostalgia, nor is it exactly love for all things terrible. It's some of both of those, of course. It would have to be. But it's also that the movie has a weirdness to it which makes it pretty darn irresistible to me.

That stark cabin out in nowhere, with that one lonely road outside. The small cast, the glowing lady . . . it simply has a weird and wonderful feel to it. I'm sure that was all unintentional, just a byproduct of a tiny budget and limited talent. But however it got there and whatever it is . . . I love it.
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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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Rick Pruitt

__One of my last holy grail movies has been announced for Blu-ray Disc release in early March.

I'm a huge XANADU fan and had almost given up on a BD release but Universal has it penciled in for this Spring.



XANADU was a flop and it was the victim of a few unfortunate events. The detractors will say it was just a bad movie.

Fair enough . . . everybody has their taste in movies, and if somebody doesn't like this, there's no point in arguing about it.

Certainly a significant strike against XANADU was awful timing. Developed at the height of the disco craze, XANADU was released in 1980 when disco was not only on it's last legs but was suffering from a major backlash.

In 1979, XANADU may have been cutting edge pop-culture. But, a few months later in 1980, everything about it seemed comically dated. It was the quintessential 1970's movie . . . released in 1980.

But the years have been kinder to XANADU. No longer judged against the "futuristic" 1980s, the movie has a stalwart following of born-again 1970s fans.

And, whatever shortcomings this production had as a movie, it was a musical masterwork of 1970's pop with Olivia Newton-John and ELO.
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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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Rick Pruitt

__ A few things dealing with this movie.

1. I first saw Forbidden Planet on a TV late movie in June of 1962, unfortunately in black and white. My friends also had their first look at the film that night. One of those childhood friends was REALLY affected by it.

His name is Steve and I've known him since 5th Grade. As a kid he was always attacking resistors and ... stuff, soldering them to peg boards, creating circuits of odd sorts, homemade radios, all that jazz.

I never knew what he was doing, but when he was in his room you always had to watch out that you didn't sit on a spool of solder or a roll of wire or some sort of meter or tool.

When he grew up he became a college professor (and he still is), teaching — I don't know, don't quote me, probably physics, or maybe engineering. It's all Greek to me. He even wrote a college-level textbook and patented a doohickey which was a part of the Space Shuttle equipment!

So . . . he's like, you know, a scientist or sumpin'

Anyway, Forbidden Planet was an obsession with him from that first TV viewing. But that was as a kid, of course.

I haven't seen Steve in almost 45 years, but we do exchange Christmas cards — and last holiday season, he included a long, chatty letter about what he's been up to.

He went on and on about Forbidden Planet, and he says it's still his favorite movie of any type. And— most amazing of all— he said he still watches it at least once a month.

He must have a very understanding wife.

2. When Forbidden Planet came out I was six years old and I knew nothing about it. But I certainly DID know about Robby the Robot. I must have seen commercials or heard other kids talking him or something.

Anyway, I desperately wanted a Robby toy for Christmas. Desperately. And come Christmas morning, I got . . . a fake Robby. It was a toy robot all right — but it wasn't Robby.

I've scoured books and websites for years, trying to identify what the toy was that I did receive, and I just can't be sure. My memory of it is not clear. Just that it was a fake Robby. My best guess is that it was "Robert the Robot."



But it's still just a guess. I'm thinking I didn't have the toy very long. I clearly remember receiving it, but I have no long term memories of it being around. I figure it probably was broken and discarded fairly soon.

3. If anyone around here is in the New York City area, The Museum of Modern Art will be showing Forbidden Planet on the big screen on Monday, October 24th at 4:30 pm. I'll probably try to make it, but I've seen the movie in theaters at least twice, so I don't feel it's a desperate need.
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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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Rick, this is the most amazing story of all that you've posted on All Sci-Fi!

And wonder-of-wonders, we both have some remarkable memories connected with our first experience with this incredible movie.
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I actually saw Forbidden Planet at a theater in Atlanta in 1956 when my wonderful mother took me to see it — seen here in an image I created to show how much she looked like Mrs. Watchet in The Time Machine.



She also took me to see The Time Machine in a downtown theater in 1960.

And like you, I also received Robert the Robot on Christmas morning in the late 1950s. I was not impressed with the toy, but I appreciated the sentiment from my loving parents.

Amazingly enough, in 1962 a local Atlanta station also aired Forbidden Planet, and I used my Kodak Starmite camera to shoot pictures right off our black & white TV.



Unfortunately the TV station used a CinemaScope print without the proper lens. So, the TV image looked like this.



However, I also made a reel-to-reel recording from that airing, and I listened to it my room many time!

A few months later the same TV station scheduled the movie again! But with my father's help, we used the controls in the back to our TV to squeeze the picture horizontally — so, I actually watched Forbidden Planet in "letterbox"!

This was perhaps the fist time anyone ever did this at home!

Rick, I used Paint.net to modify the photo above to show what it would have looked like if my Dad and I had made those adjustments during the first airing.



And so, Rick, you and I have many beloved experiences which are connected with Forbidden Planet.
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Rick, your last post on All Sci-Fi was on December 10th, 2017 — which was seven years ago.

I think it's time you came back to us. We really miss you . . . and we need you.
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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)