ALL SCI-FI

[Bud Brewster]

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If you’re in the mood to a bit of traveling, today’s threads while give a few ideas for several colorful destinations.

Join Lloyd Bridges and his fiends as they go Around the World Under the Sea. One low price covers everything, inciuding fresh sea food meas every day.

Prehaps a more distance distination would interest you. Hook a ride with the
Flying Disc Man from Mars and visit the Red Planet!

Once you’ve had a taste or the beautiful cosmos, join the Space Force and experience the trill of a Battle in Outer Space.



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Around the World Under the Sea (1966)



A group of oceanographers headed by Lloyd Bridges comprise the crew of an atomic submarine on a mission to plant electronic sensors on the sea floor around the world which transmit seismic data to a world earthquake prediction center.

The good news is, the special effects and the set designs are (mostly) competently done, although they're deliberately intended to look realistic rather than aesthetic. The bad news is, the plot is slow and unexciting, even when the sub is attacked by a giant moray eel. The "suspenseful climax" (the sub is trapped by an undersea landslide) suffers from a lack of suspense, and the audience has a tough time figure out just exactly what's going on.

The cast includes only one female, but when the female is Shirley Eaton (Goldfinger's gilded lily) no one is complaining.



Marshal Thompson ("It! The Terror from Beyond Space", among others) is on hand to give this 1960s production a slightly 1950s look.

Also starring Gary Merrill, Keenan Wynn ("The Absent Minded Professor"), and U.N.C.L.E. veteran David McCallum. Directed by Andrew Marton. Co-producer Ivan Tors was the man behind "The Magnetic Monster" and TV's "Science Fiction Theatre".
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Flying Disc Man from Mars (1950)

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This is the sequel to the Republic serial, "The Purple Monster Strikes". I've never seen it, but it sounds interesting -- but then, they all do, on paper.

Mota the Martian threatens Earth again when he returns in his bat-winged spacecraft and establishes a base in a volcano. Watch for cribbed scenes from "King of the Rocket Men" (1949).

I read that we should beware of a badly edited feature version released in 1958, entitle "Missile Monsters". Directed by Fred Brannon. Starring Lois Collier, James Craven, Gregory Gay, and Walter Reed.

Can anybody recommend it?
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Battle in Outer Space (1960)



~ All the posters for this movie suck, so I made one myself.
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From director Inoshiro Honda (Japan's answer to George Pal, in some ways), comes this slam-bang, special-effects-laden war of the worlds.

Honda is the man behind "Godzilla", "Rodan", "The H-Man", and many others. This one was intended to top "The Mysterians", the previous year's successful sci-fi bonanza.

In Battle in Outer Space we get to see a wheel-shaped space station, fleets of Earth rockets and alien saucers, laser-filled shoot 'em ups, and other marvels. Much of the action takes place on the Moon.

Click on the image below to see a larger version with more detail.





The designs of the sets and props are well above average for their time. The Earth spaceships are modified X-15's, a very dynamic design.





The effects in this movie are extremely good. Here's a few examples.







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