Voyage to the Prehistoric Planet (1965)

In the year 2020, a team of researchers are sent to search for life on Venus, which they find teeming with alien creatures. The rugged terrain produces discoveries both astonishing and deadly - tentacled plants that feed on human flesh, savage lizard men Product Description

Marsha Is Still In Orbit!

In the mid-1960s Roger Corman, who specialized in drive-in drivel, ran across a USSR-made film that was so bad not even the Soviets would watch it. He bought it, cut it, redubbed what what was left, and then coaxed Basil Rathbone and Faith Domergue into shooting a few scenes to provide names for the movie marque. Then he called the thing VOYAGE TO THE PREHISTORIC PLANET.

Now and then a bad movie is SO bad it becomes entertaining--but most bad movies are simply bad, and VOYAGE TO THE PREHISTORIC PLANET is all of that and a side of fries. Dr. Marsha (Faith Domergue) is in orbit around Venus, has the beehive hairdo from hell, and doesn't know what do. She keeps receiving transmissions from Professor Hartman (Basil Rathbone), but he's not much help. So she waits while five explorers and a robot run around the planet looking for each other. What they find are a lot of bad special effects.

There are exactly two things of interest in this movie. The first is Dr. Marsha's beehive hairdo, which is beyond description. The second is the robot, which is a little like Robbie from FORBIDDEN PLANET but with less personality, fewer skills, and really big toenails. Unfortunately, neither hairdo nor robot are enough to elevate this flick above the emphatically dire. The print is poor and the color is worse. Do Faith and Basil a favor and give it a miss.

GFT, Amazon Reviewer April 9, 2007

Only a fan...

Another old movie using the effects of the time that are not the best. One of Basil Rathbones last movies. February 12, 2007

Vintage Roger Corman, even though most of it isn't even his

Making bad movies can be tiring work, especially when you're Roger Corman and make a practice of filming a second film, usually made up entirely on the spot, at each shooting location. One fateful day Roger had an epiphany - why make a completely new bad movie when he could just steal someone else's? So it was that, in 1965, Corman bought the rights to a 1962 Russian film called Planeta Burg. Add a few new scenes, mix in a lot of bad dubbing, and slap some fake credits on that puppy - and Voila! you've got yourself another Roger Corman masterpiece - and all without breaking a sweat. (Personally, I would have edited out the big CCCP logo on the main spaceship, but Corman chose not to.) Who cares if the Soviets don't like your mucking around with their movie? What are they gonna do - declare a Cold War over it? Set up missiles in Cuba? Of course, continuing his 2-for-1 moviemaking practice, Corman didn't stop there, scavenging Planeta Burg once again to make Voyage to the Planet of Prehistoric Women in 1968. Here's what really gets my goat, though. I actually sort of enjoyed Voyage to the Prehistoric Planet. I can't imagine why, but I did.

This film takes us back to the good old days, when you didn't have to worry about weightlessness in space and you could gallivant around Venus in a space suit. Watch out for those meteors, though, as one-third of the potential cast learns just after the fake opening credits. Fortunately (or not), the other ships make it to Venusian orbit and decide to head on down without waiting for the go-ahead from Professor Hartmann (Basil Rathbone) back on Lunar Base 7. The first ship apparently crashes, leaving our three burly Russian friends in the second ship to execute a rescue mission upon landing. Meanwhile, Marcia (Faith Domergue) remains alone in orbit, so that she can perform such crucial functions as forgetting to tell the search party where the lost astronauts are located on the planet.

You'll cheer as Andre (who really belongs on a short leash) is attacked by a gigantic spider-plant, but all too soon you realize that nothing is going to happen to any of these annoying characters (Andre even jabs a needle into a brontosaurus at one point, without the big guy even noticing). But what of our lost astronauts, you ask? Well, they have Robot John (obviously a cousin to Robbie the Robot) to look after their puny hides while they wait to be rescued. Personally, I would rather have the hovercar that the second crew of astronauts uses to traverse the planet. The Soviets really did a good job on the special effects for this thing, as it looks just as good as Luke's hovercar in the original theatrical version of Star Wars.

Indulge me as I insert my MST3K-inspired John! Marsha! John!! Marsha!! non sequitur here. Thanks. Well, Robot John pretty much gets the shaft toward the end of this thing, while Marsha almost ruins everything yet comes out smiling. The only reason she's even in the movie is Roger Corman, who chose to add her and an aging Basil Rathbone to the film he ripped off to make it look like his own. Neither character serves any real purpose, which is sort of sad in Rathbone's case, as he deserved better.

The only thing missing from this Corman classic is a few buxom blondes, an oversight Corman corrected in 1968 when he used the same Russian footage to show us what was on the other side of the "red city" that attracted Andre's attention in particular - Mamie Van Doren and friends. If you're going to watch Voyage to the Prehistoric Planet, you might as well check out Voyage to the Planet of Prehistoric Women, too. After all, Roger would have wanted it that way. September 4, 2006

Roger Corman, you've done better

The bulk of this movie is a Russian piece of dreck that Roger Corman brought over and dubbed in the dialog. Then he filmed new scenes with Basil Rathbone and some woman with a bee hive hairdo and spliced it all together to make a new movie. The new scenes add nothing and just leave you disoriented as you go from a dubbed scene to a non-dubbed scene.

Two ships of astronauts land on Venus to explore the planet. One of the ships crashes, so the when the other lands, they have to rescue the first crew. Along the way they run into prehistoric animal life and a volcanic eruption. The first crew also has a robot named of all things, John. The robot talks and walks very slowly and I have no idea what good he is for anything.

The biggest problem with this movie is it's boring as all get-out. Nothing happens. One scene runs into another but they never achieve any real coherence or relevance. The effects are classic. A pterodactyl attacks in one scene. It looks like it was made out of papier mache or something as it has no moveable parts. It just flies like a big lump. My favorites are the lizards which are obviously guys in rubber suits jumping up and down. Hilarious. August 15, 2006

Caution: Giant Sand Octopus!

This is a true wonder of the cinematic world. Roger Corman took the remnants of a lame Soviet sci-fi movie, "Planeta Burg," dubbed it into English, added a couple of western actors including Basil Rathbone, and called it a movie. This film is essentially a bunch of often-seen stock footage shown in glorious sepia and gray. (The box says the film is in color, but the reality is generally otherwise.) This is a real chore to get through even for devoted fans of bad movies.

The plot, as much of it as there is, concerns three groups of voyagers to Venus. One of the ships crashes outright, one has great difficulty landing, and the third lands successfully. I am fond of the endless scenes of the third group of astronauts pondering what the red lights below the clouds of Venus are, as that's where they are going to land. The conclusion seems to be some type of lava and that they would all be burned up. Bearing in mind that discretion is the greater part of valor, does it make a lot of sense to try to land on lava after the first two ships to attempt the landing have utterly failed?

The intrepid explorers land safely in a non-lava area, and begin hiking, whereupon they find giant man-eating octopus flowers, and the most ridiculous six foot tall tyrannosaurus creatures ever seen, which, it develops, have a propensity for wrestling around in mud with the astronauts. There is also an extremely lame robot named, creatively enough, "Robot John." There are endless scenes about women who sing like Sirens, and much cross-Venusian trekking. The astronauts have particularly silly and incongruous equipment, especially their atomic powered flying car, and are dubbed into English with some of the worst dialogue in film history.

The general directorial premise of this film seemed to be "throw a bunch of movies in a blender and press the mix button." The bewildering array of footage, impossible color matching, and ridiculous yet predictable plot make this film a tough slog. As a mind-numbing bad film, this is tough to beat. I give it two stars for the audacious compilation of film from so many sources into a finished work that almost makes sense. Watch it at your own risk, because only the strong survive.

As a further warning, this film was later recut yet again a year later with even more jarring and disjointed scenes (featuring Mamie Van Doren) and released as "Voyage to the Planet of Prehistoric Women." In case you may be wondering, it failed to improve "Voyage to the Prehistoric Planet," and that's saying something.
February 16, 2006

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