The years 1965 and '66 were busy times for Italian director Antonio Margheriti, working, as he was, on no less than three shlock classics in the spaghetti sci-fi genre (amongst other projects!). Those three films were "The Wild, Wild Planet," "The War of the Planets" and "War Between the Planets," and for those who prefer their spaghetti covered with loads of grated cheese, these films will surely fit the bill. "War Between the Planets" (1966) is fairly representative of the lot. In this one, a 25-mile-wide rogue asteroid (hardly a planet at all) approaches Earth and causes widespread catastrophes due to its gravitational fluctuations, so a United Democracies space team, under the command of granite-jawed Rod Jackson, sets out from the Gamma 1 spacewheel to destroy the darn thing. Typical for these rigatoni space operas, the FX on display are cheaply realized and often laffable, but that is not the problem here; tacky FX can often be endearing. More problematic is the lackluster script and the often confusing, often boring "action" sequences. Half the dialogue of the film seems to be comprised of technobabble (such as "Checker feed is a constant 100 propulsion," "Recon Gamma, keep your flight course on 0800," "Come in on gyro," "Correct our position by 22 degrees on your quadrant 6"), and that sort of gobbledygook gets old pretty quickly. Even worse, many of the film's plot points (such as a love triangle of sorts that Jackson is involved in, and that switched-helmet confusion at the picture's end) fizzle out to nothingness, and the matter of the rogue asteroid being, apparently, a living thing, a la Solaris, with a breathing, jellylike surface and cablelike arteries that bleed when cut, is never even discussed! In the lead role, Giacomo Rossi-Stuart is thoroughly unlikable as the butt-clenched Jackson, a factor that might have torpedoed this film all on its ownsome; the actor would be much more sympathetic that same year in the Mario Bava masterpiece "Kill, Baby, Kill." So is there ANYTHING that I did enjoy about this deep-space pasta? Well, I suppose some of the background music was kinda freaky, and Ombretta Colli (as Gamma 1's resident redheaded space babe, Terry Sanchez) was sorta hot, and that antimatter explosion at the end, all two seconds of it, looked pretty cool. And that's really about it! Basically, "War Between the Planets" is as stultifying as sci-fi gets, and is best observed by those under the influence of some ergot-based concoction....
28 Reviews
very mediocre movie, with bits of charm offset by major slips and poor acting
r-c-s9 July 2007
Warning: Spoilers
This movie is basically a remake of Japanese Yosei Gorasu, and quite a few moments are literally copied & pasted (EG the spaceship succumbing to the gravitation ): mysterious planetoid and its gravitational influence wreck havoc on earth, thus space probes are sent to investigate. Giacomo Rossi-Stuart looks less credible than elsewhere, with his all-macho, wooden acting pushed to the farcical extreme, EG the scene in which he poses as "pissed off" at the LT Sanchez, who in turn still drools over him. Women spot the typical hydrogen 1960s hair styles, and (with minor adjustments ) could be from some Italian C series parody like the countless "Franco&Ciccio" movies. They try hard to recreate the "american" atmosphere: the Mexican femme fatale, the east-European Jew second in command, whatever, but fail miserably. Considering its year of release, the sci-fi element (EG the "united democracies" angle ) is not a complete waste, and considering this is a low-budget C series Italian movie, results are fair. SFX are decent, with major slips (EG when the "second in command" sinks into magma to his demise, they superpose close-up video footage of the actor's face onto a toy soldier's body...laughable ). Acting ability is slim to negligible, with a few iconic characters, notably "telecommunication officer" LT Sanchez ( Star Trek Uhura anyone? But Star Trek was still to come ); the homesick first-mate; the bada$$ commander, etc. The score is fully fledged 1960s Italian B movie, reminiscent of say "Hercules against Zorro", "Hitler versus Hannibal" or whatever low-budget "colossal" they were milling in those days. All in all a very mediocre movie, with bits of charm offset by major slips and poor acting.
You think this is Boring? Ha!
michaeldukey200024 March 2010
So Glad I finally caught this on the DVD double bill with Creation Of The Humanoids . I saw the trailer for this at a grindhouse in the seventies after the release of Star Wars. Obviously some cheap distributor dusted it off the shelf and reissued it with a Star Wars like title to pair up with another sci-fi. I remember the audience howling at the preview especially when the astronuts start hacking up the a.liens which are nothing more than plastic tubes filled with strawberry Jello. Ever since I've been trying to find it. As Space operas go it's not the best and it's not the worst. It's certainly a time capsule of everything sixties .AnTonio Marghetti seemed to be the go to guy for these psychedelic mash ups of James Bond and George Jetson starting in 1960 with Space Men and ending in the early seventies(I think) with The SNow Devils AKA The Blue Devils. My favorite in the series is Wild Wild Planet with it's four armed assassins and biosphere of blood. Most of these would grace the late night air waves when the insomniacs and users of contraband were up and wanting something different. If you like em cheap and Campy you could do worse, As for really boring cinema try The Dead Talk,The Incredible Petrified World, Treasure Of El Cortez, Or That Man From Harlem.
The color is OK.
sfos-354641 September 2017
Remember that sci-fi skit you and your buddies made up and performed in front of your third grade class? Someone made it into a movie. Minus the good parts. This is one of those films you keep watching because you expect it to get better. It never does. If you go out for refreshment you may not want to come back.
This film is easy to mix up with another....
kwinland31 March 2004
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
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
Just plain boring
vigilante407-117 January 2007
Warning: Spoilers
This movie commits the only cardinal sin, in my book at least, that makes a movie bad - it is boring.
The movie's basically a slow version of Gorath, using sets and equipment that appear to be culled from Battle of the Worlds or Assignment Space. The effects are pretty laughable compared to either of those two movies (which don't rate too high in the scheme of things themselves).
The acting's pretty bad, and I don't think the dubbing contributes to that ... everyone's performance looks as though they were phoned in.
Great film if you are an Italian Sci-Fi completist ... otherwise rent Battle of the Worlds or Day the Sky Exploded instead.
The movie's basically a slow version of Gorath, using sets and equipment that appear to be culled from Battle of the Worlds or Assignment Space. The effects are pretty laughable compared to either of those two movies (which don't rate too high in the scheme of things themselves).
The acting's pretty bad, and I don't think the dubbing contributes to that ... everyone's performance looks as though they were phoned in.
Great film if you are an Italian Sci-Fi completist ... otherwise rent Battle of the Worlds or Day the Sky Exploded instead.
Third entry in the Gamma 1 series features the shopworn plot of Earth in peril
kevinolzak2 November 2021
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."
The war between me and my television set.
copper196318 January 2007
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!
An oldie...
zymbo6 October 2000
As you can see from the time when it's made you can't expect very good special effects but the movie himself isn't that bad. It's about natural disasters on earth which already destroyed many big cities. As the origin of this scientists figured out a moon or planet far away. Now the crew of a space shuttle should go there and solve the problem...
Star Trek Meets Diabolik in Rocky Jones' Neighborhood
strausbaugh25 July 2006
Wow. If you're a psychotronics lover you've probably seen this one, but if not, check it out. Where a lot of psychotronics is Bad Cinema in an aggressive, assaultive way that makes your face hurt after 10 minutes (eg, Diabolik, Manos the Hands of Fate, et al), this one is B-A-D in that adorably, lovably, absurdly silly way that just makes you smile and think, "Wow, adults made this." For an old duffer like me, who grew up watching Rocky Jones and Diver Dan and Fireball XL5 and finally Star Trek, this is manna. Everything about it--the cars, the buildings, the toy rockets, the toy space station, the queeny Z-grade Italian actors and the visible wires holding them up when they go "weightless in space"--is wonderful. Lots of hipsters have worked very hard to make sci-fi and monster movies this miraculously cheesy, and failed utterly, because this kind of stoopit genius cannot be faked or imitated. It must simply be appreciated.
Dull, dull, dull, dull...and also, rather dull.
planktonrules12 April 2013
Ken's review is right--easy to mix this film up with "War of the Planets"--another boring Italian sci-fi film. Both films have been dubbed into English and both are amazingly bland pictures.
This film is about some crazy planet that has no orbit and is apparently headed for a collision course with Earth. Such things were clearly handled better in films like "When Worlds Collide"--mostly because this and other Earth collision films had very good special effects and interesting characters. In contrast, "Il Pianeta Errante" has wooden characters and cheap plastic cars and rockets--the sorts you might expect to see in a Godzilla film. You also can see the wires on the spacemen as they supposedly float in zero g.
This film is about some crazy planet that has no orbit and is apparently headed for a collision course with Earth. Such things were clearly handled better in films like "When Worlds Collide"--mostly because this and other Earth collision films had very good special effects and interesting characters. In contrast, "Il Pianeta Errante" has wooden characters and cheap plastic cars and rockets--the sorts you might expect to see in a Godzilla film. You also can see the wires on the spacemen as they supposedly float in zero g.
An enjoyably silly mid 60's Italian low-budget sci-fi hoot
Woodyanders13 July 2006
Warning: Spoilers
A destructive series of freakish natural disasters decimate the earth. The cause of said disasters turns out to be a barren, yet lethal, living and breathing asteroid that's hurtling through space on a collision course with our world. It's up to an intrepid team of astronauts led by courageous ramrod Commander Jackson (a suitably stiff'n'stalwart Giacomo Rossi-Stuart) to destroy the asteroid before it's too late. The fate of our planet depends on Jackson and his team successfully accomplishing their desperate mission. Director Antonio Margheriti keeps the pace moving along at a steady, speedy clip and plays the utterly absurd story ludicrously straight. Moreover, all the necessary winningly crummy ingredients for an entertainingly asinine piece of unmitigated drivel are present and accounted for: cruddy dubbing, wooden acting, cardboard characters, a corny stock film library score, and wonderfully rinky-dink (far from) special effects (I especially dug the Tonka toy miniatures). Sure, this admittedly schlocky flick is dumb, chintzy and totally ridiculous, but this engagingly inane and immaterial piffle nonetheless is still tons better and more enjoyable than the abominable "Armegeddon."
Best left to die hard sci-fi lovers.
Hey_Sweden19 February 2017
"War Between the Planets" is the third film in the Spaghetti Sci-Fi series known as "Gamma One". It stars Giacomo Rossi Stuart as the ramrod-straight commander Rod Jackson, just one of a handful of astronauts who will be called upon to save the day. Various natural disasters are plaguing the Earth, and it would seem that a newly discovered rogue planet is the culprit. Rod and company have to destroy it before it collides with our planet.
If you're like this viewer and enjoy this sort of thing to begin with, "War Between the Planets" yields adequate entertainment. It's pretty colorful, like the other films in the series, with so- so direction by Antonio Margheriti, who guided most of these features. The problem is, it threatens to choke on its dialogue, with not enough incident to sustain it through a fairly uninteresting first sixty minutes. It only starts getting fun when our heroes land on the planet, and find that it has a life of its own. It's even got arteries and lungs! The landscapes on this planet are pretty cool, as is the creation of some enjoyable atmosphere. The special effects are very damn crude, but charmingly so. You can clearly see most of the strings used to manipulate actors and objects.
Rossi Stuart is a stiff plank of wood in the lead role. Ombretta Colli is appealing eye candy as his leading lady, Lt. Terry Sanchez. Series regular Enzo Fiermonte is fine as the concerned General Norton. And Goffredo Unger and Pietro Martellanza are acceptable as other key characters. You do miss the presence of the almighty Franco Nero, who co-starred in the first two films.
Entertaining enough but also rather forgettable.
Six out of 10.
If you're like this viewer and enjoy this sort of thing to begin with, "War Between the Planets" yields adequate entertainment. It's pretty colorful, like the other films in the series, with so- so direction by Antonio Margheriti, who guided most of these features. The problem is, it threatens to choke on its dialogue, with not enough incident to sustain it through a fairly uninteresting first sixty minutes. It only starts getting fun when our heroes land on the planet, and find that it has a life of its own. It's even got arteries and lungs! The landscapes on this planet are pretty cool, as is the creation of some enjoyable atmosphere. The special effects are very damn crude, but charmingly so. You can clearly see most of the strings used to manipulate actors and objects.
Rossi Stuart is a stiff plank of wood in the lead role. Ombretta Colli is appealing eye candy as his leading lady, Lt. Terry Sanchez. Series regular Enzo Fiermonte is fine as the concerned General Norton. And Goffredo Unger and Pietro Martellanza are acceptable as other key characters. You do miss the presence of the almighty Franco Nero, who co-starred in the first two films.
Entertaining enough but also rather forgettable.
Six out of 10.
Typical '60s Italian space opera: garish, imaginative, silly fun
jamesrupert201410 October 2020
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.
Dull and overlong
Tyypo24 October 2022
Warning: Spoilers
First off, let me just say, I love Italian sci-fi. Planet of the Vampires is one of my favorite films, and I love The Green Slime. I could go on. This film started reasonably strong, yet very heavy on the technogibberish (like technobabble but more nonsensical). There was the obligatory romance with the "hero", and love triangle that those Italians seem to love so much. Yet that went terribly undeveloped - I wanted to see more about the Janet character but she was barely there.
The space walk scenes were some of the worst ever filmed. Their awfulness was somewhat distracting, especially towards the end of the film where people just seemed to hover and swing back and forth over this allegedly high gravity asteroid thing. They should have explored the notion of it being alive; that could have been much more interesting. I really started losing interest in the last 30 minutes.
Still, very glad I watched it. Next up are The War of the Planets and The Wild, Wild Planet, which apparently are sister movies of sorts to this one.
The space walk scenes were some of the worst ever filmed. Their awfulness was somewhat distracting, especially towards the end of the film where people just seemed to hover and swing back and forth over this allegedly high gravity asteroid thing. They should have explored the notion of it being alive; that could have been much more interesting. I really started losing interest in the last 30 minutes.
Still, very glad I watched it. Next up are The War of the Planets and The Wild, Wild Planet, which apparently are sister movies of sorts to this one.
War Between The Planets
StuOz7 May 2022
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.
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.
Mamma Mia! This Is A Boring Sci-Fi Flick
ccthemovieman-124 October 2008
Warning: Spoilers
All the reviewers here aren't kidding; this is Italian-made science-fiction movie from 1966 is a stinker. It will bore you do death. It's really tough to watch the entire 80 minutes, it's so dull.
I had high hopes in the beginning because the DVD transfer was good, the color was good and even the sets and special-effects were better than I anticipated. The little toy space ships and other artifacts looked cool! But then, it's just talk, talk, and more talk for a long period....and not even interesting talk. Later, there are a few action scenes but they are extremely short. The color in this film remains very strong and kudos to the people responsible for the DVD transfer. This is a colorful, devoid-of-grain picture. The problem is the weak story.
It's a futuristic story and we see a bunch of people observing that earth is being pummeled with environmental problems due to something, but what? No, this is not some global warming goobledy-gook but something odd going on in space that is affecting Earth. The commander yells several times at his subordinate because he doesn't want fellow space station workers depressed watching the TV showing what's happening back home (tidal waves, etc.).
"Something is disturbing Gamma One's gravity quadrant," is typical of the dialog. "We have a gyro disturbance," says someone else moments later. Huh? Three astronauts went beyond the gravitational pull and have to be rescued. Those scenes go slowly like "2001: A Space Odyssey," but without the realism of the latter. Then, afterward comes more bickering as to whether than operation could have been more successful. These are like immature kids, and they are running this operation? It's all very dumb.
Much of the time is spent with inane dialog that isn't cheesy-funny, it's just boring which, as one other viewer puts it, is the ultimate sin of any movie. Every time these astronauts attempt to do anything (except at the end) they mostly fail and then wind up arguing all the time. Imagine if that happened in real life; nothing would have ever been accomplished.
Why was the Earth in trouble? The problem was that an asteroid was on a collision course with it, and that was causing the problems. If the thing isn't destroyed, it will totally ruin our planet, so that's the mission of our heroes here - take that asteroid out. It seems to be a familiar story in the genre. One wonders then about the USA title to this film - "War Between The Planets" - since there is no war between the planets.
This was part of a double feature DVD and thank goodness, the other movie was a lot better.
I had high hopes in the beginning because the DVD transfer was good, the color was good and even the sets and special-effects were better than I anticipated. The little toy space ships and other artifacts looked cool! But then, it's just talk, talk, and more talk for a long period....and not even interesting talk. Later, there are a few action scenes but they are extremely short. The color in this film remains very strong and kudos to the people responsible for the DVD transfer. This is a colorful, devoid-of-grain picture. The problem is the weak story.
It's a futuristic story and we see a bunch of people observing that earth is being pummeled with environmental problems due to something, but what? No, this is not some global warming goobledy-gook but something odd going on in space that is affecting Earth. The commander yells several times at his subordinate because he doesn't want fellow space station workers depressed watching the TV showing what's happening back home (tidal waves, etc.).
"Something is disturbing Gamma One's gravity quadrant," is typical of the dialog. "We have a gyro disturbance," says someone else moments later. Huh? Three astronauts went beyond the gravitational pull and have to be rescued. Those scenes go slowly like "2001: A Space Odyssey," but without the realism of the latter. Then, afterward comes more bickering as to whether than operation could have been more successful. These are like immature kids, and they are running this operation? It's all very dumb.
Much of the time is spent with inane dialog that isn't cheesy-funny, it's just boring which, as one other viewer puts it, is the ultimate sin of any movie. Every time these astronauts attempt to do anything (except at the end) they mostly fail and then wind up arguing all the time. Imagine if that happened in real life; nothing would have ever been accomplished.
Why was the Earth in trouble? The problem was that an asteroid was on a collision course with it, and that was causing the problems. If the thing isn't destroyed, it will totally ruin our planet, so that's the mission of our heroes here - take that asteroid out. It seems to be a familiar story in the genre. One wonders then about the USA title to this film - "War Between The Planets" - since there is no war between the planets.
This was part of a double feature DVD and thank goodness, the other movie was a lot better.
Dull Italian grade Z space opera
alphawoolf200126 January 2003
The plot as listed in the description is inaccurate. It's really about energy beings (well, green lights and smoke) trying to take over the Earth's space patrol on New Year's Eve. After some space stations and their zombified crews disappear, an emissary zombie invites the hero and his men back to their base on Mars for no apparent reason. Once there, the aliens give the humans every opportunity to defeat them, which they eventually do by breaking a window and running away. The whole place goes up like a model with gasoline poured on it, which is exactly what it is. Our heroes make it back to a posh hotel lobby to laugh about it all over drinks. Phew! Stinkaroonie!
That brief description leaves out some of the funnier details: the actors' endless knob-twiddling on the goofy sets, attempts to suggest weightlessness by walking funny, and demonstrating high-G forces by grimacing or merely sinking a bit lower in their chairs. Oh, and don't miss the New Year's Eve TV special featuring space dancing in the first few minutes!
The model special effects are sparse but passable by the standards of the time - at least there aren't any visible wires on the spaceships. The actors appear to be speaking English but are dubbed, presumably due to their Italian accents. Even then the dialogue seems to have been written with a flawed understanding of English ("Retro! Retro! Retro!"). If you watch this in the right frame of mind (i.e. MST3K) with friends, you may extract some enjoyment from it. Otherwise, this makes "The Green Slime" look like "Lawrence of Arabia"!
Interesting note: The stated goal of the aliens to take everyone over "For the good of the whole" is a fore-runner of the Star Trek's Borg "You will be assimilated" threat.
That brief description leaves out some of the funnier details: the actors' endless knob-twiddling on the goofy sets, attempts to suggest weightlessness by walking funny, and demonstrating high-G forces by grimacing or merely sinking a bit lower in their chairs. Oh, and don't miss the New Year's Eve TV special featuring space dancing in the first few minutes!
The model special effects are sparse but passable by the standards of the time - at least there aren't any visible wires on the spaceships. The actors appear to be speaking English but are dubbed, presumably due to their Italian accents. Even then the dialogue seems to have been written with a flawed understanding of English ("Retro! Retro! Retro!"). If you watch this in the right frame of mind (i.e. MST3K) with friends, you may extract some enjoyment from it. Otherwise, this makes "The Green Slime" look like "Lawrence of Arabia"!
Interesting note: The stated goal of the aliens to take everyone over "For the good of the whole" is a fore-runner of the Star Trek's Borg "You will be assimilated" threat.
60s mega trash, lovingly made
ein-highlander20 December 2021
Italian space opera with the tackiest special effects imaginable
Leofwine_draca30 November 2016
Warning: Spoilers
A hilariously cheesy Italian science fiction film, commonly known as a "space opera", in which overacting astro-nuts bite and chew their lips in fear whilst surrounded by appalling special effects work. The man behind this madness is Antonio Margheriti, one of Italy's most prolific cult movie directors and the man who gave us SPACE MEN and the same year's superior sci-fi effort, WILD WILD PLANET. This movie's charm comes from the horrendously tacky special effects, which really are poor even for the year in which this film was made, and the melodramatic acting of the participants involved which is all sweaty earnest and deadly seriousness without a hint of humour anywhere. This is a film where two rival macho men duke it out in the confines of a spaceship, where men are broken by news of their loved ones' death, where stock footage of natural disasters is sure to pop up in an instant to remind us of the danger that Earth is supposedly in.
Opening with a hilarious mock-serious voice-over explaining the plot's events to us, our first sight is of a couple of model spaceships lifting off with the aid of what appears to be a sparkler. Immediately after this we're treated to a shot of one of Margheriti's favourite film elements, the miniature city, a space-port full of Matchbox cars driving to and fro and a spaceship circling around overhead as if spun by a wire - Margheriti probably stole some toys from his kids for 'models'. A furrow-browed scientist says "We've got to get at the explanation for these astroloidal manifestations" (just one of the movie's many humorous lines of dialogue, other priceless examples being "I'm a light year ahead of you!" and one of the nastiest outer-space insults out there - the dreaded "HELIUM HEAD!") so this is basically an excuse to send a bunch of stuffy actors out into space. Headed by the so-wooden-it's-untrue Giacomo Rossi-Stuart (or Jack Stuart, as the English-speaking version calls him), himself a regular in Italian cinema but usually unnoticed, you won't recognise any of these Italian stars and for good reason. Let's just say that these guys make the actors in Bava's PLANET OF THE VAMPIRES look like they deserve Oscar nods.
After lots of padding and larking about in space, in which space-suited men are propelled around on visible wires and elastic to give the impression of zero gravity, an evil planet (!) is pinpointed as the cause of Earth's destruction so the toy spaceships land. Oops, one crashes into what looks like a bowl of raspberry jam (I think it's supposed to be magma) and sinks, soon followed by a toy action-man who also loses his footing and dies in the dessert. In the film's funniest scene, toy men zoom around in space unrealistically and at a fair speed. Finally they land on the surface and decide to set charges on the planet to blow it to smithereens in a plot point later "borrowed" in 1998's Armageddon. In a weird, dream-like sequence, the astronauts venture into a red-lit underground chasm full of bits of tubing and pipes which splatter blood-like liquid when axed (somehow this planet is supposed to be "alive") Actually this sequence deserves a recommendation as being pretty spooky and it has a distinct visual style all of its own; a cut-price vision of Hell that almost works.
After being repeatedly menaced by dry-ice at every interval, one man is attacked by a tube and fatally wounded, leaving the others to escape just in time as he blows the place (not before lots of tension-inducing shots of the big-wigs sweating back on Earth, debating whether to give the command or not) in another spectacularly bad special effects shot. Things are closed off by an epilogue brimming with pathos, in which Stuart tells the orphaned boy of one of the deceased space men not to forget that his dad was responsible for "saving our Universe". It nearly brings a tear to the eye - of mirth that is. I've not been very kind to this movie's special effects but to be honest they're what makes it mostly watchable - without them it certainly would be a lot stuffier and lacking in interest. With them, it's just another in a long line of unintentionally funny Italian epics from an era sadly long-gone.
Opening with a hilarious mock-serious voice-over explaining the plot's events to us, our first sight is of a couple of model spaceships lifting off with the aid of what appears to be a sparkler. Immediately after this we're treated to a shot of one of Margheriti's favourite film elements, the miniature city, a space-port full of Matchbox cars driving to and fro and a spaceship circling around overhead as if spun by a wire - Margheriti probably stole some toys from his kids for 'models'. A furrow-browed scientist says "We've got to get at the explanation for these astroloidal manifestations" (just one of the movie's many humorous lines of dialogue, other priceless examples being "I'm a light year ahead of you!" and one of the nastiest outer-space insults out there - the dreaded "HELIUM HEAD!") so this is basically an excuse to send a bunch of stuffy actors out into space. Headed by the so-wooden-it's-untrue Giacomo Rossi-Stuart (or Jack Stuart, as the English-speaking version calls him), himself a regular in Italian cinema but usually unnoticed, you won't recognise any of these Italian stars and for good reason. Let's just say that these guys make the actors in Bava's PLANET OF THE VAMPIRES look like they deserve Oscar nods.
After lots of padding and larking about in space, in which space-suited men are propelled around on visible wires and elastic to give the impression of zero gravity, an evil planet (!) is pinpointed as the cause of Earth's destruction so the toy spaceships land. Oops, one crashes into what looks like a bowl of raspberry jam (I think it's supposed to be magma) and sinks, soon followed by a toy action-man who also loses his footing and dies in the dessert. In the film's funniest scene, toy men zoom around in space unrealistically and at a fair speed. Finally they land on the surface and decide to set charges on the planet to blow it to smithereens in a plot point later "borrowed" in 1998's Armageddon. In a weird, dream-like sequence, the astronauts venture into a red-lit underground chasm full of bits of tubing and pipes which splatter blood-like liquid when axed (somehow this planet is supposed to be "alive") Actually this sequence deserves a recommendation as being pretty spooky and it has a distinct visual style all of its own; a cut-price vision of Hell that almost works.
After being repeatedly menaced by dry-ice at every interval, one man is attacked by a tube and fatally wounded, leaving the others to escape just in time as he blows the place (not before lots of tension-inducing shots of the big-wigs sweating back on Earth, debating whether to give the command or not) in another spectacularly bad special effects shot. Things are closed off by an epilogue brimming with pathos, in which Stuart tells the orphaned boy of one of the deceased space men not to forget that his dad was responsible for "saving our Universe". It nearly brings a tear to the eye - of mirth that is. I've not been very kind to this movie's special effects but to be honest they're what makes it mostly watchable - without them it certainly would be a lot stuffier and lacking in interest. With them, it's just another in a long line of unintentionally funny Italian epics from an era sadly long-gone.
How come it looks so good and ends up being so darn bad?
mark.waltz8 January 2021
Warning: Spoilers
Perfect 60's style color. Really good miniatures utilized for some of the set. A truly frightening premise of a giant meteor heading earth's way causing all sorts of natural disasters. Even really good dubbing for the extremely attractive Italian cast and some good interpersonal conflicts on earth and in space. Can you really manage to deal with the issue that this is one of the most sleep enducing science fiction films I've ever seen? And manage to sit through 80 minutes of boring explanatory conversation that just repeats, repeats, repeats.
The jet like spaceships are really cool to look at, and that color is so vividly presented it's a work of art all its own. The leading lady is a 60's version of Kate Mulgrew's Captain Janeway and quite commanding. The asteroids manage to barely look a bit more realistic than pieces of giant granola painted and have strings stuck through as they role around what looks like a giant berry representing the huge meteor. That leads to the one barely funny moment when one of the jets begins to sink into the big tub of Smuckers jelly. Obviously this will be more appealing to the very serious science fiction fans, but don't expect monsters or funny fey aliens. Even the uniforms are boring. Santa Claus may have conquered the Martians, but he got his long winters nap sitting through this after returning to earth.
The jet like spaceships are really cool to look at, and that color is so vividly presented it's a work of art all its own. The leading lady is a 60's version of Kate Mulgrew's Captain Janeway and quite commanding. The asteroids manage to barely look a bit more realistic than pieces of giant granola painted and have strings stuck through as they role around what looks like a giant berry representing the huge meteor. That leads to the one barely funny moment when one of the jets begins to sink into the big tub of Smuckers jelly. Obviously this will be more appealing to the very serious science fiction fans, but don't expect monsters or funny fey aliens. Even the uniforms are boring. Santa Claus may have conquered the Martians, but he got his long winters nap sitting through this after returning to earth.
The War of the Planets, one of the worst sci-fi movie ever made, couldn't wait till it was over, that bad
tomod3411 December 2021
Warning: Spoilers
Giacomo Rossi Stuart king of the Z movies, B would have been to good for him, all he did was grit his new dentures, was one of the worst actors I have ever seen, the whole movie was a mess from beginning to end. No special effects just something that looked like burned spaghetti sauce on the surface of the planet that people and space ships would sink into never to be seen again, lots of steam and people floating around aimlessly in outer space. You never actually see who was at war with the earth. What a waste of time.
This film is a travesty
oscar-3519 September 2013
Warning: Spoilers
*Spoiler/plot- War between the planets (Il Pianeta Errante), 1966. When a series of Earthly disasters plague the planet, scientists learn that the cause is a rogue barren planet set on a collision course with Earth. Astronaut teams are sent up to investigate and stop the planet's trajectory. Once landing on the planet, they find out the world has a life of it's own.
*Special Stars- Giacomo Rossi-Stuart, Ombretta Colli, Enzo Fiermonte, Halina Zalexska, Goffredo Unger, Peitro Matellanza, John Bartha.
*Theme- Courage and gallantry in the face of death is important to save lives.
*Trivia/location/goofs- Italian. Midway through the landing on the space station 'Gamma", the station's doors change from automatic doors that open horizontally sideways to vertical ones. In the spacewalk scenes you can clearly see the hip-wire harness that simulates weightlessness in space. Also in the vacuum of space, the characters keep talking about wind and it's effects on floating astronauts and spacecrafts. There is no wind in space.
*Emotion- This film is a travesty of many inter cut space scenes with little connective plot points to make any interesting sense to the viewer. Once the space team gets aboard the revolving space station, the plot then goes dead fully slow and takes too much time for anything to move the plot along. This film is a waste of your attention, but is a good film for other filmmakers to 'smash-up' into a better sci-fi movie because of it's good production values. The dubbed English dialog is laughable in it's ridiculous comments.
*Special Stars- Giacomo Rossi-Stuart, Ombretta Colli, Enzo Fiermonte, Halina Zalexska, Goffredo Unger, Peitro Matellanza, John Bartha.
*Theme- Courage and gallantry in the face of death is important to save lives.
*Trivia/location/goofs- Italian. Midway through the landing on the space station 'Gamma", the station's doors change from automatic doors that open horizontally sideways to vertical ones. In the spacewalk scenes you can clearly see the hip-wire harness that simulates weightlessness in space. Also in the vacuum of space, the characters keep talking about wind and it's effects on floating astronauts and spacecrafts. There is no wind in space.
*Emotion- This film is a travesty of many inter cut space scenes with little connective plot points to make any interesting sense to the viewer. Once the space team gets aboard the revolving space station, the plot then goes dead fully slow and takes too much time for anything to move the plot along. This film is a waste of your attention, but is a good film for other filmmakers to 'smash-up' into a better sci-fi movie because of it's good production values. The dubbed English dialog is laughable in it's ridiculous comments.
How many times will there be war among the planets?
michaelRokeefe26 December 2012
Warning: Spoilers
This is Italian Sci-Fi; but no matter where WAR BETWEEN the PLANETS comes from...this low-budget feature is bad enough to be laughable. Some movies are bad enough to be good; this one leaves a lot to be desired. Scientists discover an unknown planet that seems to be on route to collide with Earth. It of course will take collective efforts to save mankind. The hackneyed story line is way too familiar. The toy rockets, toy space station and the visible wires holding things in place have you asking yourself "Shouldn't mid 60s special effects be a tad better than this?" The actors are not much better than the props around them. If you like your Sci-Fi cheesy, you'll enjoy. I don't think it fair to blame any disappointment on director Antonio Margheriti. The cast lists: Jack Stuart, Enzo Fiermonte, Alina Zalewska and Amber Collins.
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