The War of the Planets

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)

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.

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.

(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

It's not even close to being the best spaghetti science-fiction film ever made - far from it, in fact - but Antonio Margheriti's War of the Planets is another refugee from TNT's 100% Weird that recently popped up commercial free (and sadly pan and scan) on Turner Classic Movies. Starring American expat Tony Russel - who got his screen start as a bartender in Elvis' King Creole - as the commander of Earth's space forces, War of the Planets is a very low-budget story of alien invaders attacking our solar system from their base on Mars. The aliens, ever mindful of the filmmakers' need to keep costs down, are represented by dry ice and flashing green lights. The great Franco Nero co-stars and there's a suitably spacey Angelo Francesco Lavagnino score.