This is the father of the two bastard films, Voyage to the Prehistoric Planet
and Voyage to the Planet of Prehistoric Women. Both derived from this film
by Corman and mangled like a serial killer with his victims. Take out the
bad dubbing, the blondes, the soundtrack and add back the parts that were
cut out and you actually have a very decent film. A much more thoughtful,
smart and poetic film. The astronauts talk about Darwin, a World Government,
philosophy, how did life get to this planet, did it start here on Venus first
and then go to earth? At one point the Robot is asked to help its masters.
It replies "They are not my masters. We are all free". A bit of Soviet propaganda
is sprinkled throughout but not a lot. Corman dumbed down his two films so
much it makes me hurt. The Russian female astronaut Masha was cut out entirely
in both films though Curtis Harrington replaced her with Faith Domergue which
is a shame - nothing against Faith but the Russian actress gives it so much
more emotion. Since this is longer than both those bastard films and even
more so if you take out the added film, there are many more scenes. The colors
are lovely, the visuals are fabulous, the soundtrack is terrific with a couple
songs thrown in and the actors are entirely serious. They could admittedly
use help with the monsters which are not very convincing. I am glad I went
on to watch this one - I thought it would just regurgitate the same scenes
except in Russian but it feels like an entirely different film in some ways.
The Soviet Union is kicking America's ass in space exploration. The moon,
Mars and they are on their way to Venus. There are three space ships but
one gets destroyed by a meteor. One lands but loses radio communication.
The other goes down to rescue them. Masha who is in love with one of the
astronauts stays above circling the planet - waiting for word. They can not
breathe on Venus without their space suits and it is unstable with earthquakes
and volcanic eruptions but it has life - the prehistoric animals, a lizard
and perhaps something closer to a human. Up on YouTube in a decent quality
print.
