ALL SCI-FI

[Bud Brewster]

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Hey, have you seen the movie about the monster that could no longer be tolerated?

How about the one that was the seqel to Project W?

Or perhaps the one about the space explorer who had very little enthusiasm?

Don’t recognize these movies from my descriptions. See below for further details.
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Frankenstein Must be Destroyed (1969 England)

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The 5th Hammer Frankenstein film, after Frankenstein Created Woman (67).

This one has a strange plot, propelled by Frankenstein's (Peter Cushing) need to get information from a former colleague who has lost his mind due to pressures and is confined to an insane asylum. Frankenstein involves a young couple (Simon Ward & Veronica Carlson) in his plans, blackmailing them because he knows about their illegal measures for the young woman's mother.

The young man is a psychiatrist working at the asylum and can help Frankenstein in breaking out the target. From that point on, it's more brain transplant surgery, now an old trope in this film series and child's play for the mad doctor.



Cushing as Frankenstein is more ruthless than ever in this installment, recalling the Baron of the first film, The Curse of Frankenstein. He thinks nothing of using the body of another psychiatrist — killing him in effect — as his former colleague's new body. He is very cold to the young couple, ruining their lives for his own gains.

There's also a bizarre scene of Frankenstein giving in to his carnal desires at one point, apparently raping the young woman!

The young people here, however, while presented as having their innocence crushed by the evil doctor, also seem very apt at stabbing people in that 'I didn't mean to do it' fashion. Frankenstein also provides a final scene of brutality in regards to the young woman, proving himself as irredeemable and thoroughly evil.



The final act provides for some intriguing scenes involving the man with a new body (Freddie Jones), visiting his wife. He's not really a monster, just the victim of a brain transplant. She seems to have no comprehension of the situation, however, having buried her husband days before.

The finale offers some spectacle as the key characters confront each other in a burning mansion, a fiery climax. Thorley Walters, in the role of Frankenstein's confederate in the previous film, here plays the police chief.

BoG's Score: 7 out of 10



Frank Trivia: The next film in the series was Horror of Frankenstein, featuring a new, younger Victor Frankenstein and without Peter Cushing.




BoG
Galaxy Overlord Galactus
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Project X (1968)

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An ambitious but low-budget, labored and talky sci-fi pic taking place a little over a hundred years from now. The plot involves the strained relations between the two super powers of this future era, the U.S. and China.

Christopher George plays a genius of the era named Hagen who went on a secret mission to the Orien. His last words before losing his memory and konking out was that the U.S. would be destroyed by some Sino-Chinese plot in 14 days.

The U.S. military and some scientists (headed by Henry Jones, along with Philip Pine and Lee Delano) concoct an elaborate plan to place Hagen in a recreation of a sixties farm, and role-play him as a bank robber on the lam, hoping that this will somehow trigger his buried memories.

A couple of hitches pop up: a modern female (Greta Baldwin) from a nearby factory strolls in, ruining the 1960's feel of the whole play, and then the mysterious Gregory Gallea (Monte Markham) shows up suddenly, being the other agent who had escaped China with Hagen.




Some of this is tough to follow, and the irony here is that if Gallea hadn't bothered to intrude on this set-up, the eventual revelation of China's plot probably would have never been revealed. All Gallea had to do was stay out of it and the plot would have succeeded.

As the hero, George is required to be in a fitful sleep or dazed during much of his role. He is essentially a pawn during the whole film.

The FX, such as they are, usually involve severe cost-cutting measures. Many images are representations of memories, having a surreal feel, including Hagen's mission to China. It's similar to the imagery in Angry Red Planet (1960), including the use of animation. Much of the plot also involves wiping the memories of a person and then creating a new template, an artificial person as a result.

BoG's Score: 5 out of 10





BoG
Galaxy Overlord Galactus
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The Reluctant Astronaut (1966)

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A comedy about the space program and going up into Earth orbit - it's not so much science fiction as just a humorous way of looking at our real Space Agency, NASA.

But because Don Knotts is the central figure, many of his antics turn the premise into a slightly fantastic and warped take on all of it.

Knotts plays his usual weak, timid, and regressed male — still living with his parents as a 35-year-old. He operates the outer space kiddie ride in his hometown, and he has an unreasonable fear of heights (even four feet off the ground is too much for him).

His clueless dad (Arthur O'Connell) gets him accepted at NASA, but only as a janitor. Leslie Nielsen, who played similar dopey characters much later in the eighties, here plays it straight as a real astronaut who befriends Knotts' character.

The sci-fi elements come into play during the final act, when Knotts ends up as NASA's civilian selection to beat the Russians into orbit.

The concept is very absurd in that sending such an inept bumbler into orbit is — or should be — very dangerous both for Knotts and for the further continuation of the space program.

Since this was aimed mostly at children, we can surmise that Knotts would not end up dead in orbit. I thought this was pretty entertaining when I watched it as a kid. There are great bits with Knotts pretending to be an astronaut when attempting to fool his dad and his friends, as well as the moments when his folks find out that he really is going into orbit.

Knotts is still a funny dude even now, seeing this as an adult. I root for him even as I cringe at his foibles.

BoG's Score: 6.5 out of 10

Astro Trivia: There was unfortunate timing involved back then. This comedy was released soon after the real-life Apollo 1 tragedy, in which a fire killed 3 astronauts.


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