Unsold TV Pilot

DESTINATION SPACE-1959-In the future a space station nicknamed "Benedict's Billions" is ready to launch a manned rocket ship when it's hit by a meteor. No one is killed but this gives a headline seeking senator (Robert Cornthwaite) another reason to criticize it. Jim Benedict (Harry Townes) head of the project comes under a lot of personal criticism especially from Kim (Gail Kobe), the wife of the station's captain (Charles Aidman). John Agar is his associate Col. Matthews. Cecil Kellaway is the outspoken Dr. Andrews. Dr. Logan (John Lormer) is also aboard. After Jim gives a nice speech that kind of wins everyone over, a scientist Dr. Easton (Edward Platt) is sent along as an independent observer. Jim's girlfriend June (Whitney Blake) fits into a love triangle Jim gets caught in while trying to clean the ice build up preventing the launch. 

There's not a lot of info available on DESTINATION SPACE but now it's pretty much agreed this was actually an unsold pilot before it was released as a feature film. It certainly has that feel to it although former actor Joseph Pevney had directed many feature films (like THE MAN OF A THOUSAND FACES in 1957) by the time this was made he had already take “the leap” into TV (where he worked on many TV shows for many years to come). 

Producer/writer Rip Van Ronkel had written the screenplay for the excellent DESTINATION MOON in 1950. Much stock footage from 1955's CONQUEST OF SPACE was used too.

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Space Fungus

MUTINY IN OUTER SPACE-1965-Major Towers (William Leslie) and Captain Webber (Carl Crow) are two yobs returning to a space station after collecting samples on an asteroid. Head of the station is Cromwell (Richard Garland). The first 30 minutes is all talk then Webber dies after being infected by an unknown fungus. Towers wants to warn everyone but Cromwell wants it kept secret. Even after the fungus takes over the lab of Towers' girlfriend Faith (Dolores Faith) a botanist. It seems Cromwell is suffering from "space rapture" and won't see the truth. When Towers rebels Cromwell has him locked up as well as Faith and other crew members Dr. Hoffman (James Dobson) and Lt. Engstrom (Patricia Curran) but the crew turn the tables and sedate Cromwell. The deadly fungi eventually shows up everywhere, including outside the ship but on Earth Gen. Knowland (Glenn Langan, THE AMAZING COLOSSAL MAN) has a giant CO2 cloud created which destroys the stuff (like in The Blob). 

Francine York (CURSE OF THE SWAMP CREATURE) appears in a few scenes as Knowland's aide de camp. I suppose an argument could be made that this talky cheap sci-fi space drama influenced 2001 and Star trek (and THE GREEN SLIME!) but I have my doubts ...Director Hugo Grimaldi made this cheap science fiction melodrama the same year as the much more entertaining THE HUMAN DUPLICATORS (also with Dolores Faith)

https://www.blogger.com/blog/post/edit/4609335177952045780/6758274239790318029

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The Terrornauts

THE TERRORNAUTS-1967-For several years a trio of scientists have been working on a government funded project to communicate with life in outer space. Their project director Dr. Shore (Max Adrian) wants to shut them down. They finally hear an unusual transmission but the group head Dr. Burke (Simon Oates) heard them before when he was a child and believes them to be an SOS. They try to make contact with the aliens and their whole building is whisked away with Burke, his two assistants Sandy (Zena Marshall) and Ben (Stanley Meadows) and comical characters Mrs. Jones (Patricia Hayes), a coffee vendor and Mr. Yellowtees, an accountant (Charles Hawtrey from CARRY ON movies) in tow. They wind up on a spaceship which is actually a space fortress build by long dead aliens to protect Earth from enemies to are heading to Earth. A robot meets them and they figure out through strange cubes and a headset that looks like a bathing cap with wires on it how to stop the invaders. At one point Burke and Sandy are transported to a planet of green people where Sandy is almost made into a sacrifice! The beginning is pretty talky but once the story gets on the spaceship it gets funnier. There's lots of cheap effects including "PLAN 9" like UFOs  but that makes it all the more enjoyable. 

This Amicus production is based on an novel by American Sci-Fi writer Murray Leinster and the screenplay is by English S.F. writer John Brunner.  Irish born director Montgomery Tully later made BATTLE BENEATH THE EARTH.



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Out of Order Review!

Of course since this blog is messed up I have the review for the first installment of this series after two later installments!

WAR OF THE PLANETS-1966-A mysterious signal disrupts the New Year's Eve party on space station Gamma One. Commandeer Halstead (Tony Russel) sends a crew to investigate another space station where the landing party is alive but in a kind of suspended animation ("dead like lightening"...???). The landing party soon joins them. Lt. Jacowitx (Franco Nero,the same year he starred in DJANGO) and Lt. Gomez (Lisa Gastoni) help with the investigation and discover there is an invasion by aliens who are smoky green mist and take over humans. "It's a nightmare and we're all dreaming it...together". The aliens want to relocate to Earth and take over all humans. A lot of time is wasted on a ritual called "The Hosting". It's pretty boring but occasionally funny. Some fire extinguishers become deadly weapon's in the hero's hands. 

The sets and SFX in this Italian space drama look like something out of FIREBALL XL-5! Russel, Nero, Gastoni and Giustini had played the same characters in director Antonio Margheriti's THE WILD WILD PLANET the year before. Margheriti (usually credited as Anthony Dawson on US prints) had already made HORROR CASTLE (with Christopher Lee) and CASTLE OF BLOOD (with Barbara Steele) and went on to make many more. He died in 2002 at 72.

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The Wild Wild Review

THE WILD WILD PLANET-1965-In this crazy Sci-Fi space adventure from Italy, a mad scientist (Massimo Serato) is conducting mysterious experiments using human beings while strange aliens disguised as humans kill scientists (and little kids). Most are women have beehive hairdos but one is a bald headed guy with a killer trench coat! American born Tony Russel is Commander Mike Halstead in charge of the Gamma One space station where the action takes place. Lisa Gastoni is Lt. Connie Gomez, Halstead's kind of girlfriend. Franco Nero is Jake, another Lieutenant who helps Halstead go after the mad doc (who has some weird plan to create his own race) and rescue Connie who has fallen into his clutches. It's all very funny with toy cars and rockets, people turned doll sized, female aliens beating up men and lines like “You Helium head”. 

Directed by Antonio Margheriti, it's part of the Gamma One series of space movies. Ruggero Deodato (CANNIBAL HOLOHAUST) was an assistant director.

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