War Between the Planets

Something in space is causing disaster on earth.

An unexpected thrill to find this is 2022. The last time I saw a 60s Italian science fiction film was back in the 70s on a box shaped TV screen. Now it was in widescreen with lots of red and orange (my favourite colours) all over the place - mainly in the climax.

I am fully aware this movie pinched things from other Italian films but because this screening came before the other movies - I had a ball with this flick!

The dialogue is far from perfect but because War Between The Planets is such a visual delight (the sets, props, hardware, the red) I can forgive the wooden conversations.

Well worth watching but only with a quality widescreen print.

Natural disasters on Earth herald the approach of a seemingly living planet in this, the third of Antonio Margheriti's 'Gamma One' space-opera tetralogy (so named because of the ubiquitous spinning space-station). Once again, the future seems to be a high-tech version of the groovy 1960s as Margheriti recycles or repurposes sets, props, and miniatures from the first two films (notably, the futuristic city, the 'Jetsons-esque' cars, and the space-bases from which the mighty 'Jupitar' rockets are launched). These scenes are colourful and well-done (for the budget) but no longer novel; whereas, the second half of the film, in which the heroic astronauts, led by Cmdr. Rod Jackson (Jack Stuart aka Giacomo Rossi Stuart) and equipped with anti-matter bombs, arrive on the errant planet, is a gaudy, over-the-top, cheesy delight. I especially like the scenes of the space-suited explorers carefully picking their way through a morass of gurgling, bright-red ooze with their rocketships floating in space above them (although the shots of them as stiff little dolls 'flying' like pendulums above the planet's surface undermine the illusion somewhat). Despite being made in the mid-1960s, the 'finned-spindle' design of the spaceships are reminiscent of the illustrations in the popular 50's 'space books' by Willy Ley or covers of pulp magazines from the same era. Visual splendor aside, the film is not particularly good. The 'rogue planet' premise is a retread of the tokusatsu adventures 'Warning From Space (1956) and 'Gorath' (1962) but makes even less sense. The script is artificial and contrived, and the acting wooden, bordering on amateurish at times (but some of the Italian actors may have been speaking English by rote). While the special-effects set-pieces are well-done (for the budget) and entertaining, Margheriti's direction in the 'human' scenes is pretty trite, with most reactions being accentuated by a sudden 'dramatic' close-up, and the last reel drags a bit as the demolition team trudges through the interior of the strange planet. New to this entry in the series, there is an annoying voice-over explaining events and what the characters are thinking; a cheap pretense that is often the sign of a rushed production or lack of faith in the actors, direction, or storyline (or a patch on an incoherent final product). For genre-fans, the colourful, eye-catching visuals will be remembered long after the film's myriad weakness are forgotten (non-genre fans are unlikely to stick around long enough to see the 'good bits'). Followed by the final installment in the heroic exploits of the Gamma One personnel, the strange abominable-snowman/space-alien hybrid 'The Snow Devils' (1967), which features the same leads although (oddly) not always playing the same characters.

The plot summary is accurate. The film is titles 'PLanet on the Prowl' in the US, but also as 'War between the Planets'. What the first reviewer is describing is 'War of the Planets', a film of this "series", but with a different cast. The series is called (in the US) 'The Gamma I Quadrilogy', and they are *gems*. So bad, they are GREAT. My favourite is 'Wild, Wild Planet'. If you love old or campy Sci-Fi, you will fall in love with that charmer.

As far as 'Planet on the Prowl/War Between the Planets" goes, it is boring. Not bad enough to be good, and not good enough to watch it again.

Ken

1965's "War Between the Planets" (Missione Planeto Errante or The Errant Planet) was the third in director Antonio Margheriti's ambitious 'Gamma 1 Quadrilogy,' four features commissioned outside Italy and completed over a period of three months, his last return to epic science fiction since starting out with "Assignment: Outer Space" and "Battle of the Worlds" (among the authors involved were Bill Finger and Charles Sinclair, collaborators with Bob Kane on Batman). "The Wild Wild Planet" and "War of the Planets" came first, its theatrical title eventually changed to "Planet on the Prowl" to avoid being confused with its predecessor, a new cast aboard for this third entry (held over for the finale "Snow Devils"). Giacomo Rossi Stuart as Commander Ron Jackson is dispatched by orbiting space station Gamma 1 to investigate the possibility of gravitational forces responsible for a rash of tidal waves and earthquakes afflicting the earth. The script gets bogged down in personal relationships and wobbly scientific jargon, only taking flight during the final reels, when the asteroid is revealed as a gaseous planet with blowing wind, interior brain cells, and solid arteries that bleed crimson grue when cut. Costs were kept down by reusing costumes and sets, a completely antiseptic, dust free world of bright colors set around the year 2000, this plotline already worn out since George Pal's "When Worlds Collide" or even "Battle of the Worlds." Critics never had anything positive to say about these films, played dead serious by the entire cast, but the climax here does foreshadow the STAR TREK episode "The Immunity Syndrome," depicting an energy eating single celled organism that can only be destroyed by antimatter (James Doohan's Scotty beautifully exhales: "aye, it couldn't swallow that!"). Giacomo Rossi Stuart was quite a familiar face from eclectic titles like "The Day the Sky Exploded," "Caltiki the Immortal Monster," "The Last Man on Earth," "Kill Baby Kill," "The Night Evelyn Came Out of the Grave," and "Death Smiles on a Murderer."

If televisions were still blessed with rabbit ears, this movie would have driven me to a tug-of-war between man and machine--ending with the loser embarking on a hasty trip to outer space. An asteroid of less than mammoth proportions is released from its intergalactic moorings and is sent hurtling toward Earth. Needless to say, havoc and chaos ensues. It usually does. And a crack crew is sent up to investigate and advise on the situation. The sets and props have an old "Tommorrowland" feel about them. I can't tell if any of the actors are giving good performances. They're all dubbed. And poorly at that. I do recognize the lead actor as the fellow who played Vincent Price's nemesis in Last Man on Earth. But just when you think all is lost, the final scene arrives like a wayward rescue craft. The movie, in need of repair, saves itself with a scene so well shot, so well staged, and so well scored, it will leave you speechless. And later it will leave you muttering to yourself..."what could have been...what could have been." Blast off!