Star Crash (1979)

During the 1930's, 40's, and 50's, films set in space were truly something to behold.  There were such serials as Flash Gordon, Buck Rogers, and countless others.  Kids marveled at their heroes, often made in the same mold as cowboys or swashbuckling heroes and pirates, only set in space.  But by the 1970's, space-themed science fiction films had devolved into a sort of dry, almost depressing genre.  With examples such as 2001: Space Oddysey, Silent Running, and THX1138, audiences often saw a future that was sterile and, well, sort of boring.  It wasn't until the writer/director of the latter film helmed Star Wars that space adventures could be fun again.  After the unquestionable success of Star Wars in 1977, production companies quickly sought ways to cash in on the popularity of the new film. Perhaps this was the dawn of the era of Mock-busters; films intended to look and sound like some already immensely popular movie, only to pull a bait-and-switch on the audience.  Following Star Wars, we were deluged with many similarly-themed movies, with varying degrees of success.  Some were so bad your eyeballs may bleed (see my review of War of the Robots for a painful example), and some were pretty good facsimiles of the original, such as Battlestar Galactica (the 1979 version by Glen Larson, not the recent reboot/remake).  Somewhere in the middle lies a modest little film from producer Roger Cormen, entitled Star Crash.

The Plot

Star Crash follows the exploits of space outlaws Stella Star and her faithful companion Akton.  Stella Star is played by Caroline Munroe, who fans of Ray Herryhausen's Golden Voyage of Sinbad will recognize.  She plays Stella with unbridled enthusiasm and gusto, kicking lots of butt and taking names. Stella could probably win in a fight with Princess Leia.  Akton is played by Marjoe Gortner, a guy whose real-life story is almost as colorful as the pseudo-jedi character he plays here, but more on that later.  In the opening sequence, we see some ship get attacked by odd red blobs in space. The exact nature of the blobs is mysterious, but is bad enough to warrant launching three escape pods. Afterward, we meet our main stars of the movie, already in trouble.

We find them in the beginning of the film trying to outrun the Space Police, who work for the Emperor of the Galaxy, played with regal presence by the awesome Christopher Plummer.  Star Wars fans take note: the Emperor is a good guy this time around.  Anyway, our smugglers are caught and sentenced to separate penal colonies. Stella decides minutes after arriving at hers that working in a prison camp sucks, and that she is going to escape.  With the aid of a few prisoners, she stages an escape, which results in the deaths of pretty much every prisoner but her, along with the guards. After this mass genocide, we see that her efforts and the deaths of countless innocent people were pretty much in vain, because she is quickly picked up by the Emperor's men, who had a change of heart and need her and Akton to retrieve his son, Prince Simon, and discover the Evil Count Zarth Arn's hidden planet and his super-weapon.
 

She is given two assistants, the guys who captured them initially.  We have the faithful robot Elle (pronounced like the letter "L"), and the bald imposing alien cop Thor.  Elle is kind of an odd character. He looks like the love child of Darth Vader and C-3PO and speaks with a cartoonish southern drawl, kind of along the lines of Yosemite Sam.  He has some of the cheesiest lines in the movie, but is at least useful, such as when Stella is marooned on a Hoth-like planet, freezing to death and Elle uses his technologies to slow her heart rate down or some nonsense. Thor becomes a traitor, and is stopped by Akton, who reveals the depth of his jedi-like powers for the first time.  Their fight scene is hilarious, although that was unintentional, I'm sure.

Our heroes track down three escape pods from the first scene and finally locate Prince Simon.  After a battle with troglodyte cave-men, Stella is rescued by Akton, who now is brandishing a strangely familiar weapon I'm going to refer to from now on as a TNL (Totally Not a Lightsaber).  Once the cave-men are dealt with, we also meet the Prince, played by a pre-Knight Rider David Hasselhoff.  Akton reveals to Stella and The Hoff that they are now on the Unknown Planet, the location of Zarth Arn's super-weapon. How he knows it is an unknown planet is not known. Anyway....

They go deeper into the caverns and locate the machines that Zarth Arn has been using to create the giant red space-blob monsters, and find that they have walked into a trap. See, if only they had also stolen Admiral Akbar from Star Wars they would have known it was a trap, but I digress.  Zarth Arn shows up with his men and two awesome stop-motion robots with swords, explains everything to them, and instead of killing them leaves them alone with the two robots. Akton battles them with his TNL, but is mortally wounded. The Hoff, sorry, Prince Fluffy-hair or whatever the crap his name is, takes up the TNL and finishes off the robots.

Then the Emperor shows up, stops the flow of time for three minutes, and rescues them from the planet, which is about to be destroyed by Zarth Arn.  Yes, I said he stopped the flow of time, and that Zarth Arn's evil plan is to destroy his own flipping planet and super-weapon. Believe it or not, this is where the story gets a little weird.

The emperor and his men launch a spectacular attack on Zarth Arn's space station, I'll call TNAD, for Totally Not a DeathStar...OK, I'll admit that joke has run its course.  At any rate, the Emperor's ship shoots missles which break through the windows of the enemy strong-hold without creating any depressurization issues, but that's not the awesome part. Men pop up out of these torpedoes and do battle with Zarth Arn's army. This movie has so much epic-ness.

Sadly, all the good guys die despite the totally awesome human torpedo plan.  So in a last bid for success, the Emperor reveals that Stella has one last chance to save the day by flying a friggin' city into Zarth Arn's space station. It might have proven helpful to know that was an option sooner, lest your men might live, there, Mister Emperor. Who cares, this movie is awesome, and not to be pondered or ruined by things like logic. Stella saved the day, makes out some with the Hoff, and the movie ends. Wow. OK, there's lots to talk about with this one, so pay attention. There will be a test.

Visuals

One thing this movie has going for it is the visual quality. No, it's not up to Star Wars standards obviously, but it has a tremendous visual style that makes it fun to watch.  Everything available for the day was used. You have bluescreen work, matte paintings, stop motion, models, and more. I'm not simply praising the technical level, but the artistic level. Space shots are unique, with multi-colored stars all around.  A viewer on one forum described this approach by saying in this movie, "Space looks like Christmas," and since I can't describe it any better, I'll steal that statement.

Stop-motion characters abound in this film, from the freaky squid-tentacled thing that sentences our heroes to labor camp, the giant female robot guard (complete with giant metal breasts), to the two robot swordsmen who battle our heroes in the end.  The movie is not only copying, but paying loving homage to the stop-motion film of Harryhausen, to include the Sinbad franchise and others.  If some parts of the movie were amateurish, at least the stop-motion effects were well-conceived and tediously crafted.

Dogfights in space are not bad. The movie gets credit from me for the camera work here. Most films of the era depicted ships from the side only, and have the background plate with stars moving quickly past. Here, the backgrounds are mostly stationary, and ships move toward the viewer at a forced perspective angle, fly overhead, and even bank and turn as they would in much bigger productions.  Lots of model work is used, and blown up with sadistic glee in Star Crash. While some shots were directly copied from the Death Star Run in Star Wars, I think of it as more of a tip of the hat than a direct ripoff.

Sets and costumes are intricate and beautifully crafted as well.  Simply put, this is a gorgeous movie to watch.  The color palette, the set design, and overall look put this Star Wars Knockoff above the rest.

Acting

I give praise to Christopher Plummer because he is grandiose in everything he does. He has played Captain Von Trapp in The Sound of Music, a Klingon general in Star Trek: The Undiscovered Country, and many other memorable roles.  He delivers even the most bizarre dialog in this film with the strong presence and eloquent sincerity that he brings every role, and keeps this film from slipping into self-aware goofiness.  David Hasselhoff is not in this enough to really say too much about. He did alright, playing a heroic character without being too hammy or trying to steal scenes.  Caroline Munroe is pretty good in this, although she is not really required to show much range.  Her character is sort of a blend of Han Solo and Princess Leia. The producers of the film wanted her to wear less and less, but to keep the film marketable, the production company thankfully kept her clothed.

She is pretty, and it is always nice to see characters that show you can be nice-looking and tough, and not need a man to save her. The only complaint with her, acting-wise, is how she seems so darn happy all the time. Everyone goes around with a huge grin in fact. Akton, Zarth Arn, Stella...the only ones who do not are Plummer, who is always focused and serious, and the silly southern-talking robot.  The tone of the movie is just so dog-gone light everyone seems to be having a good time, which you will, too. Keep Star Crash handy for when you are in a bad mood. It will perk you up.

Akton is played with flamboyant energy by the great Marjoe Gortner. Marjoe seemed awfully familiar to me, so I did some research on him and turned up a documentary from the 1970's in which he shows film makers a behind-the-scenes look at traveling evangelicals.  The documentary is highly unsympathetic to people in this trade, focusing on the types who are only in it for the money, making no distinction between seedy fakes and those who genuinely want to share God's love.  It was on this circuit that Gortner honed his stage presence and his ability to keep the interest of anyone watching him. It shows in his performance in Star Crash, as you'll find yourself almost transfixed on him whenever he is on-screen. He is a dynamic presence who commands your attention at all times.  It's a pity he didn't go on and do more movies and television than he did.

Distribution

When this was released in the United States, everyone re-dubbed their lines.  This is not uncommon for a variety of reasons. Many older films were shot without sound, and had to be mixed later. Sometimes, a film is shot with sound, but conditions keep the actors from being clear, so loop recording happens later as well. Everyone dubbed their own lines except Munroe, who producers did not want to spend the money on to fly her to America.  Instead, all of her dialog is recorded by Candy Clark, who was Marjoe Gortner's wife at the time.  Subsequently, on occasion, Stella exclaims things with a slight American Southern twang.

The film is available on DVD as part of Roger Cormen's Cult Classics, sometimes packaged with Battle Beyond the Stars, an inferior Star Wars clone.  This one is highly recommended for lovers of B-Movie sci-fi fare, and may whet your appetite for badly-directed space films until J.J. Abrams finishes the new Star Wars film. Final rating: Four out of four-a perfect blend of science fiction, cheese, and sincerity.

Battle Beyond The Sun (1959) aka. Nebo Zovyot (Russia)

The late 1950's represented something of a cross-roads in human history. The US was past World War 2, rock and roll began to surface, and a new dawn in scientific discovery was just around the corner.  Now that the world had defeated the Nazis, there would be a new threat to peace: The Atomic Age. This was due in no small part to the race to be the first country to explore space.  The first moon landing would not be complete until 1969 (that is, unless you are part of the conspiracy movement who believes we were never there, but that's another blog).  President Kennedy challenged the U.S. to be the nation leading the way to this new frontier of scientific achievement. While we were told that the advancement of knowledge was the endgame, make no mistake: It was about defense.  And at the moment, the Russians were whipping our tails. 

I really will get to the movie; bear with me :-)

In 1957, the Soviets launched Sputnik, officially kicking off the Space Race.  The same year, they also launched Sputnik 2, the first spacecraft with a living animal on board, the ill-fated dog Laika.  I've said before that B-movies, and in particular science fiction B-movies, often reflect cultural and social issues that people don't like to discuss.  For some reason, against the backdrop of space and set in the future, the issues are much more palpable. Film makers give the best social commentary, a fact still true today. I would make the case, for example, that Bryan Singer's X-Men is just as much about gay rights as it is a series about mutants fighting the bad guys, but I digress.

Enter Battle Beyond the Sun.  This Russian-made science fiction movie came out in 1959 in the U.S.S.R. and was brought to America in 1964.  The story is about two superpowers racing to the planet Mars. The two political factions presented to us are separated by hemispheres.  They go by the very creative North Hemis, and South Hemis.  The North Hemis sent a team of astronauts to their space station to prepare for the first flight to Mars. While there, they notice another ship coming in. They identify it as a South Hemis ship, which is in need of repair.  The two astronauts get permission to land, and we learn that their ship is in a state of disrepair.  The North Hemis scientists decide that science is above politics, and they help them repair the ship.  While there the South Hemis scientists learn that their political adversaries might be the first to get to Mars, and national pride takes over.

They decide to take their ship out despite the fact it's not 100% ready for the flight. They choose to take the risk of certain death in order to be the first team to Mars.  Naturally, they experience difficulty, discovering that their boosters are inadequate to counter the sun's gravitational pull.  It is up to the South Hemis team to rescue them.  They do manage to extract them from their doomed ship, and they all try to make it to Mars. They do, sort of, by landing on a moon or planetoid orbiting the Red Planet, but lack the fuel to make it to Mars itself.  Still, the scenes on the rocky moon are the best in the film. The sets are large, atmospheric, and moody.  The scene that sticks out in my mind the most is the one in which the men watch the horizon as Mars rises, much like we would watch the sun come up here, except they are right next to Mars, so the planet is large and overwhelming. For a movie from the late 1950's, the scene is well-done, and for a geek like me, kind of moving.

They also discover two monsters (one shaped like a giant space vagina and the other sort of phallic looking) on the moon which battle each other, but from what I can tell, were not a threat to the humans.  There was also a sub-plot about them needing a fuel ship to come and deliver rocket fuel which crashes on the surface.  One of the astronauts ventures out by himself and is critically injured somehow.  The plot here, believe it or not, gets a little weird.  He dies, but one of the scientists speaks of how he "gave his life up for them".  The print of the movie that I observed is missing some scenes, so it is never clear what the guy did to save the crew, or how they miraculously now have fuel to get back home, despite it being established that the fuel ship crashed and was useless to them.  Anyway, they return home to a glorious heroes welcome, roll credits.  OK. Grab a glass of wine and get comfortable, I have lots to say about this one.

The first thing I noticed about Battle Beyond the Sun is the pace of the movie.  Today, we like our movies with quick, stylized cuts and a fast beat with the dialog.  This movie will absolutely try your patience if you are part of the MTV generation who enjoy fast pacing.  They absolutely take their time to deliver dialog and exposition. The scenes which involve the NASA-like commander have a woman talking on the radio at a very slow, deliberate pace.  Another odd thing to Americans now would be the uncomfortable distance between the male leads.  Today, especially in America, we have a very solid concept of personal space. You stay in your space, this is my space, don't come near my freaking space.  In this movie, everyone seems like they are inches away from each other, especially during emotional scenes.  Also, there are several instances of older mentor types talking to their younger counterparts.  During these segments, you see things like the younger guy sitting, while the older father-figure type seems to hover over them in an uncomfortable way.

This will make American viewers today a little uncomfortable.  There is no need to be though, as it's a cultural thing.  In much of Eastern Europe, it is acceptable to invade someone's space like that, showing trust and friendship.  Another interesting thing about this story that struck me is how the protagonists place science above nationalism.  This seems counter intuitive for the time, given the condition of the U.S.-Soviet space race.  The idea that they could work together with the whole being greater than the sum of the parts was highly progressive.  It makes you wonder what we could have achieved in the 1950's and 1960's had the superpowers shared everything.  Maybe we really would have a base at Mars by now, who knows?

From a technical standpoint, the movie is full of very large holes.  They perform space walks out on their ships without flying out into space.  There is no explanation, not even a mention of magnetic boots.  They make the trip to mars very quickly, without so much as a nap.  They do earn points for detail, however.  The space station, rocket interiors, and the space command headquarters are all large and  very believable.  Lots of techno-babble at least makes them sound like they know what they are doing, and given the probable lack of common knowledge about space in 1959, it likely seemed pretty advanced. 

Special effects range from pretty decent to very good.  Unfortunately, to show rockets flying they always rely on the sideways still of the ship with stars flying by quickly shots. Every single shot is a profile like that; no views of a rocket flying toward or away from the viewer.  The set of the Martian moon is pretty amazing.  The monsters are okay, but I can't really credit the original makers as that was tacked-on for the American release.

The editing for this film in the version I saw was very heavy-handed.  A character would be talking, and in mid-sentence the movie would jump to the next scene.  Entire scenes are missing, making for a sometimes-awkward plot.  As I said previously, the pace is very different from what most people are used to.  About the most popular example of something similarly-paced is 2001: Space Odyssey.  While that film was superior in other ways, it had a similar slow beat to it.

Overall, it was a decent movie experience.  I enjoyed it for its themes, and, uh, well...I like the themes of cooperative exploration and sacrifice.  Visuals are above average for 1950's space fare, the music was wonderfully eerie and mysterious, and the  acting was pretty good. I rate it two out of four.

DIDJA KNOW?

Thomas Colchart was credited with creating the two space monsters for the American release.  Colchart has another professional name: Francis Ford Coppola.

The Mysterians (1957)

"Some escaped. The nations of the world must now stay united in the struggle against unknown forces instead of fighting each other." ~ Dr. Tanjiro Adachi (Takashi Shimura)

 

(Review by Dax and Seth Bradley)

It was the Atomic Age of movies. In the 1950's, film makers were determined to show us that playing with nuclear weapons would only result in our doom. Besides the obvious result of being vaporized, we were warned that radiation would create our next nightmare: Giant monsters! These movies, known collectively as kaiju, began with the most recognizable fictional reptile in the world, Godzilla. The Big G rose to fame first as an over sized tyrannosaurus, given his enormous size because of atomic testing. He was soon joined by Rodan, Mothra, and many others. One thing the Japanese know how to do is beat a horse until it is really and truly dead. 

Japanese film company Toho became synonymous with giant atomic monsters, and as the genre grew in popularity, they began marketing them toward children. Gamera always had that goofy Japanese kid following him around for no reason, there was the creepy twins who could summon Mothra to vanquish Tokyo's monstrous threat of the week, and even Godzilla had a young-un, bizarre little Minya.

 

Before the genre devolved into childrens' fare, Toho made a statement not only with atomic testing, but also against Zionism with 1957's "The Mysterians". This tale, aimed at grown-ups, involved a group of aliens who visit Earth after their home is destroyed by nuclear war.  They promise all they want to do is occupy 3 kilometers of land, oh and one more thing; intermarry with Earth women.  The leaders listened to their proposition in a meeting that went something like this:

 

 

"We would like to occupy only 3 kilometers of your land."

 

"Hmmm...ok, go on."

 

"We are advanced, and could share amazing technology."

 

"Well, doesn't sound so bad..."

 

"And...marry some of your women to propagate our species. Who's hungry?"

 

"Wait, wait, what? What did you say? What was that last thing?"

 

"Hungry, who's hungry?"

 

OK, so it didn't go exactly like that. At any rate, the scientists and military leaders were not too hip to give up their women, and the fight was on.  Actually, it was on before any negotiations took place.  The aliens presented their mecha-Godzilla knock-off, known as Moguera. He is a Giant Robot With Frickin' Lasers, which didn't sit too well with the military. Obviously, they had to fight back, only to be quickly as the kids say now, "pwned". Interestingly, Moguera would be brought back to the movies in 1994's Godzilla vs. Space Godzilla as a protagonist.

In films of this genre, generally one of two things happen to resolve the threat:  One, you can summon another giant atomic monster to kill the threat.  Or, two, you have a crack team of scientists build some advanced weaponry, stat. Since this isn't one of the monster vs. monster movies, we have the scientists built stuff now scenario.

The team puts together an electronic ray which has been on the drawing board for a while. The weapon, combined with the Air Force fleet, stages an all-out battle that saves mankind. There is also a sort-of romantic sub-plot involving a young science guy and his love-starved fiance. He is aloof, and basically brushes her off for reasons we don't fully understand until later. It seems he has been in contact with the Mysterians this whole time, and now has to help defeat them from the inside, kind of like a sleeper cell.

I won't tell the whole story, but suffice to say there is more than enough action to keep you watching.  If this genre isn't your cup of saki, you might not want to check it out. However, if you are a fan of Toho films, especially the ones that were just a little darker than the many Godzilla vs. Whatever movies, you'll have a rollicking good time.

If you watch the movie for the first time, and feel that it is familiar all the same, there is a reason.  The Mysterians was directed by none other than Ishiro Honda. He is the director of the original Godzilla, as well as Godzilla's Revenge, King Kong vs. Godzilla, Rodan, and too many others to list here. His films all follow a set of rules, so if you love one you'll love them all.
The score is better than expected, giving just the amount of tension and drama without going overboard. Special effects were outstanding for a movie made in 1957. Rather than using solely toy cars and planes, the makers opted to use real vehicles as often as possible. In a twist of irony involving a movie about the dangers of occupation by powers with the pretense of peace, they got much of their military footage filming planes and other vehicles at an American military installation!  Scenes involving destruction of buildings and natural environments were especially well done. The scale is often a dead giveaway, but the attention to detail was such that I never felt I was looking at miniatures.

I thought I heard familiar sound effects in the scenes where the giant robot and the scientists' 'ray gun' would shoot lasers. It seems to be lifted right from the soundtrack of the U.S. film War of the Worlds (1953). It isn't unheard of, especially in films made overseas, then re-dubbed and redistributed in the States.

If I had one bone to pick with the movie, it would be that the Giant Robot With Frickin' Lasers didn't seem to be in the movie enough. I'm used to movies in which the mecha is the main focus, creating havoc, and destroying Tokyo like a live-action Rampage video game. Yes, I worked an 80's game reference into my review.

Overall, I found the movie to be a nice distraction. Its effects, story, music, and acting are above its peers. There was plenty of action, though as I said I would like to see more of the awesome mecha. Check it out if you enjoy giant monsters as much as I do! I give this: 2 1/2 out of 4.

Didja Know?

When Toho was only allowed one hour to film footage of the Military Air Transport Service cargo plane unloading, producers shut down production of the film and used all available cameras to shoot the operation from different angles. By hiding the plane number, it appears that multiple planes have landed. Toho did a similar thing in "Gojira/Godzilla." Only allowed to film the movement of one military convoy, producers simply put their cameras in jeeps and raced ahead of each section of the convoy to make it seem as if the convoy was massive. (Source: www.imdb.com)