Another of the five dubbed UFO compilation films made in the 1970s for the Italian market. This does have a little more coherence than most in that it is mostly focused on the character of Paul Foster but typically for any compilation film made from unrelated TV episodes the narrative is far from seamless.
The official synopsis (translated from Italian) gives a very misleading impression of the film's actual content while showing some inventiveness. It implies that it is about Foster facing charges of treason for allegedly helping an alien on the lunar surface after the latter had attacked Moonbase. In fact this section of the narrative comprises at most three minutes of the entire film. So what does the "film" contain?
It starts with the opening title and credits rolling over footage from "Identified" of Straker and Henderson landing in the UK with the vital evidence of the existence of UFOs and then the Rolls Royce transporting them and a Cabinet minister being attacked by a UFO. We see Straker survive and then jump forward to SHADO in operation and a scene of Straker passing through SHADO HQ taken from "Ordeal". This low-key way of doing the opening title and credits without resorting to new music or new graphics / images (as occurred on ITC's 1980 compilation "Invasion: UFO") is wise. There is a narration in Italian which presumably provides more background and this is the only area where a non-Italian speaker who has seen the original episodes would be at disadvantage.
"Exposed" is the first main selection. This is the episode where the then civilian pilot Paul Foster discovered about UFOs and SHADO and other than "Identified" this is a good episode to introduce these things as well as the character of Foster. After just over twenty minutes the narrative then switches to Moonbase where Foster is now Commander and extensive footage from "Survival". There is nothing to link these two narratives and the new or uninitiated viewer would be very surprised at Foster's remarkable ascent. While the film implies this was almost immediate even within the broadcast series he rose to Moonbase Commander very quickly, just that the gap between episodes might suggest more passage of time. Most of the episode footage is of Foster searching for the alien on the lunar surface and then after an attack and the destruction of his Moonmobile finding himself stranded. It is actually the alien who finds him and with both men stranded they form an unlikely partnership trying to reach Moonbase.
This lasts up to around the one hour mark and then the film turns events on its end. The next clips are from "Court Martial" in which Foster was wrongly accused of leaking SHADO information and sentenced to death. However the blurb on the DVD (less so what is seen on screen) implies that Foster was on trial for treason, accused of helping the enemy by helping the alien. This has no basis in either of the broadcast episodes. It's clear to the viewer in "Survival" that Foster did nothing wrong - initially he was forced at gunpoint to help the alien who later helps him to survive after damage to his oxygen supply and spacesuit. Both men help each other when each would likely have died had they acted alone. There is no suggestion that Foster is trying to undermine SHADO. The motives of the alien are unclear. Were his actions purely altruistic or was he simply acting out of self-preservation, willing to throw himself on SHADO's mercy and in effect become a prisoner of war? Or did he ultimately have sinister motives of posing as a friend in order to infiltrate SHADO? Although this narrative twist has no basis in the original series it's still an intriguing one. Viewers know that Foster is entirely innocent and a victim of circumstances. Foster could explain his predicament but there maybe is the slim possibility that other members of SHADO may believe all is not what it seemed and that the two were colluding in a sinister way or even just that bringing the alien back to Moonbase - which he has already attacked - could be dangerous.
In any event the trial and suspicion of Foster is dispelled extremely quickly. "Normal service" is resumed and we see three UFOs landing in different locations (and from different episodes). For no obvious reason we then switch to footage from "Sub-Smash" and this takes up the remainder of the "film". This is an odd choice because although Foster is present on the beleaguered Skydiver he is far from being the central character. Other episodes could have provided much more focus on him. More couldn't really be shown from "Court Martial" as this would make clear that the charges against Foster had nothing to do with the events in "Survival". "Kill Straker!" would certainly have showcased Foster but again on the wrong side of SHADO. "Conflict" might have been the best choice to show him as a key and valued member of SHADO. Perhaps "Sub-Smash" was chosen just because it's often seen as one of the very best episodes or because its submarine action offered a literal change of scene after excerpts set on Earth and then ones predominantly set on the Moon. The narrative is momentarily broken to show the unrelated UFOs shown earlier being destroyed but otherwise the "Sub-Smash" excerpts play out before a final scene of the Lunar Module returning to the Moon and a final narration in Italian about Paul Foster. The end credits then roll and these include a large number of actors who didn't feature in the "film", mostly playing characters from ""Destruction" and "The Sound of Silence". This may have been a result of confusion with the credits from one of the other compilation movies "Prendeteli Vivi" which did draw on those episodes and was released the same year.
Altogether an intriguing if obviously flawed part of the history of UFO. As always the original episodes are the best way to explore the show but these compilation movies show us how many viewers experienced it all those years ago.
