The War of the Planets

Tony Russel returns to his role of brave astronaut Commander Mike Halstead, in this follow- up to "Wild, Wild Planet", which had been the first entry in this "Gamma One" series of groovy Spaghetti Sci-Fi productions. Mike and associates such as Ken (Carlo Giustini) and Jake (the always welcome Franco Nero) must do battle with an alien race. Their natural form is of a green light / mist, and they possess other humans in order to enslave them and fulfill some unknown purpose.

"War of the Planets" is okay. This viewer clearly sees it more favorably than some people, but he still admits that it's something of a comedown. There's just not as much of the general weirdness and neat ideas as in "Wild, Wild Planet". There is also not a great deal in terms of genuinely surreal and colorful environments. The story (by Ivan Reiner and Renato Moretti) is more by the numbers, overall.

The actors, too, don't appear too enthused. One standout is Michel Lemoine, who plays the possessed Captain Dubois. He has a most amusing look on his face the entire time. Handsome Russel is still a decent hero, but Lisa Gastoni as his love interest / fellow astronaut Connie isn't given anything truly substantial to do. It's also a hoot to see Mike taking orders from a general, who is his father, to boot!

There may not be a lot to praise with this one, but if you're like me and fancy this sort of entertainment, you could do worse.

Six out of 10.

(aka: WAR OF THE PLANETS)

Caught this one on TCM and it's typical for Italian space operas of the time, with the notable exception of Mario Bava's PLANET OF THE VAMPIRES (1966).

The main problems are that the script is so poorly thought out, that it was probably written as they filmed each scene on the spot. And the sets look so low budget that even Ed Wood did a more credible job with PLAN 9 FROM OUTER SPACE. At least Ed's film was 'entertaining', unlike this boredom.

Aliens in the form of green smoke and flashing lights take over orbiting space stations around the Earth. It brainwashes some people into committing acts of sabotage while others are just left immobile with a little green tinge to their skin. I guess they did this to keep the film budget down.

It's up to the Earth space forces led by Tony Russell to save the world from the aliens and with pretty Lisa Gastoni (as well as dumb #2, Franco Nero) by his side, we are treated to one of the cheapest looking space battles in cinema history.

I also notice that this film has the MGM logo at the beginning of it. They must have been so desperate for product in 1965 that they had to resort to importing Euro turkeys like this one. Besides which, Anthony Margheriti did much so much better in the horror genre that he should have stuck to it.

So if you're into MST3K-type effluent (which I'm not), then this is the film for you.

2 out of 10

One of the four GAMMA series SF films from Italy's Antonio Margheriti. Not as "wild" as WILD WILD PLANET, but still fun in colorful low-budget vein. This time, the space crew has to battle a race of aliens who turn men into mindless slaves via a green gas. Reminiscent of stuff going back to INVADERS FROM MARS and IT CONQUERED THE WORLD, not to mention the loosely concurrent STAR TREK pilot "THE CAGE", it has a visual flair that helps it move past a very slow middle act.

But, all cult film fans will at least want to tune into the First act with what is certainly cinema's most bizarre New Year's Eve celebration with space-walking astronauts literally spinning and floating in formation! And wait 'til you see the big finale! All this to Italian 60's lounge rock courtesy of Angelo Francesco Lavagnino. The film shares with other Euro SF films of the period decidedly 'mod' music sequences (the famous STAR WARS 'Cantina' sequence has nothing on this stuff) - I.E. Germany's SPACE PATROL and even something as sober as the Czech classic VOYAGE TO THE END OF THE UNIVERSE.

Far from classic, but it was a fun period in Italian SF. Though one has to be careful when attributing dialog to the dubbed USA versions, this one has a doozy -- An astronaut has been "taken over" by the aliens, which sparks the comment: "He's gone Galactic!" Too bad the TCM print you are most likely to see isn't Letterboxed (as so much of their vault is). (the closing credits are letterboxed)

Antonio Margheriti's second entry in the GAMMA ONE series of Italian Spaghetti Science Fiction movies is a marvel of form over substance. I love the ultra low budget production design, at times histrionic or wooden acting, the funky 1960s color schemes, and the brooding, mind-boggling sense of pending cosmic doom that infuses nearly every minute of the production. It is almost a perfect translation of the Spaghetti Western to SciFi terms: A good looking film composed of individual moments, some of which are actually quite evocative.

The story is a different matter. I have absolutely no idea what is going on here in terms of the specifics, but as far as the broader premise I will hazard to try: Mankind is threatened by disembodied phantom beings from another galaxy who want to inhabit the bodies of "perfect specimens" of humanity in an ongoing effort to dominate the cosmos. United Democracies space soldiers Tony Russell, Franco Nero and good old Enzo Fiermonte do battle with them on an abandoned space station invaded by the Diafanoids during a New Year's eve celebration.

So far so good, but there is almost a dizzying myriad of subplots, background stories, romantic interludes, poignant discussions, awkward spacewalk scenes, intense space battles, shootouts with flaming pistols, space meals with space food served in modular containers and dined on from ergonomically designed eating stations, hard-nosed space commanders barking orders at pretty female subordinates, and lots of footage of Margheriti's trademark spaceships with their propane special effects afterburners.

It gets a bit too much to keep track of, which is also a quality shared by Spaghetti Westerns, and if Margheriti & his scriptwriters can be faulted for anything it is perhaps being more ambitious with their plotting than their production is capable of fulfilling. Contemporary viewers without a background in ultra low budget genre films will probably be annoyed by the miniature work with models in particular, which are more complicated but not much more advanced in their execution than what is seen in Margheriti's first two SciFi movies, 1960's ASSIGNMENT: OUTER SPACE and 1961's BATTLE OF THE WORLDS. The spacewalk scenes are also somewhat limited in their effectiveness by their depiction in the form of actors in wire harnesses being swung back & forth on a sound stage by off-camera technicians.

Considerations like those weren't important to Margheriti, however, who simultaneously made four films that together amount to far more than the sum of their parts. 1964 was actually a remarkable year for Margheriti, who made no less than eight movies including his undisputed masterpiece CASTLE OF BLOOD (DANSE MACABRE) and the Peplum classic GIANTS OF ROME in addition to the four Gamma One films. However he found the energy he had the verve to extend himself and take chances, creating a diverse body of work in only 12 months that put him at the forefront of the emerging Italian B movie circuit.

Mario Bava may have been more of a visionary director (and his 1965 film PLANET OF THE VAMPIRES remains the single most impressive bit of Italian science fiction from the period) but Margheriti was a craftsman who was able to churn out product that pleased audiences in abundance. Perhaps it can be stated that where Bava was the more consummate artiste, Margheriti ran a production line studio which went for a bulk-rate approach. Instead of making just one movie with careful didactic attention he made four that together have more imagination, guile and sheer celebration of the act of making movies than all of the 3 contemporary Star Wars movies films put together.

6/10, for being what it is.

The first rule of a plot is that it should make some sense. There are so many holes in this thing that it defies any sort of credibility. The first half hour is endless, as there is so much talk and little action. Also, the ridiculous New Year's Eve party is laughable. Those space walks make no sense since the propulsion is non existent. Then we have the aliens from Mars. It's never clear why they are so clumsy in their methods. Why didn't they just do away with the guys who are causing them problems? Oh well. I learned long ago not to expect every film to be Citizen Kane.