ALL SCI-FI

[Bud Brewster]

If you're not a member of All Sci-Fi, registration is easy. Just use the registration password, which is —

gort



Attention members! If you've forgotten your password, just email me at brucecook1@yahoo.com.
____________________________________________________________________

Yes, I know. All the titles begin with the letter P.

The only explanation for these recurring patterns is a computer virus. Or gremlins.

All I know is, this is not my fault . . .
____________________________________________________________________

Prehistoric Women (1950)




Imagine "One Million B.C." (1940) with fewer dinosaurs but more pretty girls.

Presto! "Prehistoric Women". And of course tradition demands that none of the characters speak English.

Trivia note: Only two out the six "prehistoric" movies ever made allows the characters to speak English — one of which is the 1967 Hammer production, "Prehistoric Women".

At least this seldom-scene 1950 production provides a narrator to tell us interesting things about evolution that our school text books neglected.

The plot is so easy to understand, a caveman can do it: An oversized prehistoric fella develops an interest in Mara Lynn and Luarette Luez, the principle females. (This was eons before subplots were invented.)

Directed by Greg Tallas. This is a recommended second feature for "Mesa of Lost Women" for obvious reasons. And Allan Nixon stars in both films! ____________________________________________________________________

The President's Analyst (1967)

______________________

Wild satire starring James Coburn ("Our Man Flint") as a psychiatrist whose professional services are required by a troubled President. When the President unloads his Cold War anxieties on Coburn, it makes the Chief Executive feel much better but it drives Coburn crazy, turning him into a raving paranoid. After suffering a breakdown, Coburn escapes from Washington when he starts imagining spies everywhere.

The right-wing conservative head of the FBR (Federal Bureau of Regulations) orders Coburn killed because he's now a security risk. The left-wing liberal head of the CEA (Central Enquiries Agency) wants to bring him back alive. The film's parodies are ruthless: all the FBR agents look like "Jack Webb" clones, and all the CEA agents look like hippies and college students.

Coburn is eventually kidnapped by Canadian secret agents, rescued by a friendly Russian agent (Severn Darden), and kidnapped again by the real villains of this wild story agents of TPC (The Phone Company!). A smiling, cour??teous robot (Pat Harrington) explains The Phone Company's frightening plan to implant microscopic phone circuits in everybody's brain so people can make telepathic phone calls.

Think about it: cell phones are just a short hop away from this creepy idea. Beware, America!

If you're old enough to remember those great Bell Telephone Hour science shows from the 1950s, you'll recognize the slick, cartoon-assisted lecture which Harrington uses to reveal Ma Bell's Master Plan.

Watch for the futurist sets and matte paintings of The Phone Company's master control center. Fine comic performances by all concerned, including Godfrey Cambridge and Will Geer. One reviewer stated that parts of the plot originally belonged to an unmade third "Flint" film. Seems unlikely, since "Flint" is from 20th Century Fox, and "The President's Analyst" is from Paramount.

Written and directed by Theodore J. Flicker. ____________________________________________________________________

The Projected Man (1966 England)




England's answer to "The Fly" makes energetic use of the concept. Bryant Halliday and Ronald Allen are working on a laser-powered matter transporter.

The device works, but it isn't perfected yet. Test animals acquire a massive electrical charge when they are teleported. The researchers' employer (Norman Woodland) is opposed to their work for personal reasons, and they have to conduct their experiments in secret.

Lovely lady scientist Mary Peach is brought into the project to help solve some of the technical problems, and romance develops between her and Ronald. Woodland learns what they're doing and he sabotages the mechanism just before a demonstration given for two interested colleagues, causing the researchers to lose professional creditability.

The failed test gives Woodland an excuse to order a halt to the project. Desperate to prove his device a success, Halliday puts himself through it -- and emerges with the left side of his face horribly mutilated (great makeup, almost too good).

And no, that's not a spoiler because the poster gives it away.

He also possesses a high-voltage touch which he uses on Woodland and others he perceives to be the cause of his misfortune. (Okay, THAT'S spoiler. ) The climax takes place at a London power station where the police corner Halliday.

Directed by Ian Curteis.
_________________
____________
Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)