Destination Moon - Once Again!

The poem that follows was inspired by the film that really opened the classic age of sci-fi films of the 1950s, George Pal’s somewhat eerily prescient, Destination Moon (1950). I also had in mind President Trump’s recent directive to NASA to have Americans return to the moon supposedly as a stepping stone to Mars and beyond. NASA has had its sights firmly set on missions to Mars and I wonder what impact this directive will have on NASA and the future course of space exploration. A lot will depend on finding the right answer to the questions posed in the last stanza of the poem I suppose. That may have been an important factor in the previous manned missions to the moon….finding the right answer.

Anyway, I close this year with my little poem and wish you A Happy New Year! Never stop wondering…..What If?

Once more unto the Moon, dear friends, once more!

We chose to go to the moon…..

In a George Pal sci-fi spectacular

Just a mere five years after The War,

When Truman was President of these here United States

And H-bomb production pushed up the stakes.

We chose to go to the moon….

In glorious Technicolor and mono sound

As Korea became yet another battleground,

While industry grew fatter with profit,

And a baby boom got set to sky-rocket.

We chose to go to the moon….

Committed and depicted up on the screen,

Beating them Commies so evil and mean!

While winds of a Cold War made us shake and shiver,

And we warmed up with sessions of duck and cover.

We chose to go to the moon….

Believing that we were in a race,

In which we had to set the pace,

To be first to put a man on the moon,

And get it done and done real soon.

We chose to go to the moon…..

With faith in our industry and enterprise

Asking: What’s the payoff? What’s our prize?

Knowing: the race is on and we’d better win it;

Control the moon and all others will submit!

We chose to go to the moon…..

Not yet ready to catch and match the fiction,

Of a Woody Woodpecker demonstration,

Filled with optimism and basic principles,

And all kinds of kids’ cute cartoon visuals.

We chose to go to the moon….

When Kennedy set out a nation’s challenge,

One that would not be easy to manage

And one that would be hard to achieve

But one in which all could believe.

We chose to go to the moon…..

Having once lost a race into space,

Now a new race began to help us save face

Where the goal was to win and claim first prize:

Global pre-eminence and all that it belies.

We chose to go to the moon…

And did we rush in headlong haste -

To land a man on the moon and be the first

To safely return him to earth! Ah, there’s the rub!

Dangers abounded while Time stood poised to drub.

We chose to go to the moon….

With men who had the right stuff,

But would all this prove to be enough,

With the aim just to win a sprint,

To plant a flag and leave a footprint?

We chose to go to the moon….

And by Mercury, Gemini and Apollo we did!

Ethereal images both ghostly and splendid

Hailed us from another world with words well-timed

“One small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.”

We had chosen to go to the moon….

And for a moment we stood there as if in a trance,

Struck dumb by the stark desolation and silence,

In awe at a blue marble suspended in a velvet black sky,

And then we began to fiddle and fidget and wonder WHY?

We then chose to leave the moon…..

When Cynicism set in as adventure turned routine,

And the latest sitcom was the thing to be seen.

A blanket of boredom spread over a fickle world

Chilled by millions and billions at the moon that were hurled.

Selene: Greek moon goddess

We choose now to return to the moon…..

When what had once been revered and respected;

When what held our world balanced and protected;

And of our imagination sparked and illuminated,

Had for too long been ignored and taken for granted.

Do we now choose to go to the moon…

Because others are there for reasons suspect?

To corporatize a chunk of space unchecked?

To have a stepping stone to Mars and yonder?

Or to help us understand, know and wonder?

 *********************

2018 will open with a post on the classic 1958 sci-fi film…..

THE FLY!!!!!

©Chris Christopoulos 2017

The Colossus of New York (1958)

An under-rated, admirable and well-crafted sci-fi film that explores concepts that are relevant to modern audiences.

Directed by Eugène Lourié
Story written by Willis Goldbeck
Screenplay: Thelma Schnee
Music by Van Cleave
Distributed by Paramount Pictures
Release date: 1958
Running time: 70 minutes

Cast

John Baragrey: Dr. Henry Spensser
Mala Powers: Anne Spensser
Otto Kruger: Dr. William Spensser
Robert Hutton: Dr. John Robert Carrington
Ross Martin: Dr. Jeremy 'Jerry' Spensser
Charles Herbert: Billy Spensser

There’s something about The Colossus Of New York that I still find to be eerie and disturbing. It is one of the lesser known vintage sci fi films from the 1950s that I believe deserves much greater attention. While watching the film once again recently, I was reminded of the Cybermen characters from the Doctor Who series in which hapless human beings are forced to undergo an “upgrade” by having their humanity and their very emotions stripped away as they are turned into cybernetically augmented humanoids. There have been instances though when the essential humanity of an “upgraded’ individual has managed to break through the impassive impenetrable façade of a Cyberman.

So, what is this technological Frankenstein movie all about?

Following an accident in which he was killed, Nobel Peace Prize Winner Jeremy Spensser has his brain transplanted into the body of a huge cyborg by his scientist father, William Spensser. William wishes to save his genius son's mind so that it can continue to serve mankind, BUT……

What will be the effect on Jeremy Spensser’s brain?

Will there be irreversible changes to his personality?

Will the very essence of his humanity be at stake?

Read on for more.....

"SURVIVORS": A Poem Inspired By The 1951 Sci-Fi Film, "Five"

SURVIVORS

From Big Ben to the Eiffel Tower

Doomsday warnings wail hour after hour:

Imminent collapse of the human race!

And in a flash the world is laid to waste.

A shocked raggedy-doll stumbles and staggers

Along aimless paths seeking survivors,

While calling out plaintive piteous pleas

Of, “Can anyone help me please!”

The path leads Raggedy-doll to another:

A sensitive Poet and Philosopher

Waving absurdity laid bare and unfurled

Of a once cheap honky-tonk of a world.

Here comes a beetle-browed financier,

Well – just a mere assistant cashier

Counting out a life paid in denial and delusion;

Here he enters in wide-eyed confusion.

Supporting him is the Black Samaritan

Strong of shoulder, pride and passion,

Who once dreamt of being something
more,

Only to end up minding a door.

“I am one who was once blind but can now see;

Who once had settled for a piece of security

In a city where I had never seen the lights,

Nor till now what is important in life.”

The four soon become five

When they save one just barely alive,

Through iron willed-soul so black and depraved

And from whom they will have to be saved.

Beetle-brow cashier now on vacation

Has arrived at his final destination

Which he has yearned for in his dreams

For a whole life-time to him it seems.

“I often dreamt of going on vacation,

But my work was my life’s obligation.

And so I sat behind self-made prison bars

Dreaming of sleeping under the stars!”

The need is felt to stay alive 

As once again four become five 

When Raggedy-doll gives birth to future hope 

Without which our survivors would not cope. 

Iron-will’s hope hides in a fascist fantasy 

That seeks salvation through supremacy 

By force of power, violence and destruction: 

And all that sow the seeds of annihilation. 

“I climbed Mt. Everest. I alone. Always alone. 

And there I’ll sit atop the mountain on my throne 

Invincible and possessed of a special immunity 

With a plundered world spread out below me!”

Clinging to his tattered rags of self-delusion, 

Iron-will’s life force leaks away with the radiation 

Of an inner poison of violence and domination, 

That once robbed a new world of a wise Samaritan.

What of the Poet, Raggedy-doll and Future Hope?

Will they leave behind the Past’s mistakes as they grope

Their way to a new Eden that heals and mends;

Where people work together, live together, like friends?

*****************

Thanks for reading my little poem inspired by and based on the science fiction film,

“FIVE.”

©Chris Christopoulos 2017

The Blob (1958)

Although not a masterpiece, this film is a cultural gem

Practically nothing is known about an incident that occurred in a small rural town in Pennsylvania in July 1957. It involved a mysterious extra-terrestrial blob-like entity that crashed to Earth inside a meteorite. Not only that, but the alien entity turned out to be both aggressive and destructive as it set about devouring and dissolving the citizens of this small rural community.

Almost nothing is also known about the then teenage pair, Steve Andrews and his girlfriend, Jane Martin who witnessed the crash of the meteorite and who set about investigating it. As the teenage pair witnessed the alien creature’s destructive power, they faced the problem of being confronted by a wall of adult skepticism and anger. Meanwhile, the blob continued to engulf more and more people, while growing bigger and bigger……

Directed by Irvin Yeaworth
Produced by Jack H. Harris
Written by Kay Linaker, Theodore Simonson
Story by Irving H. Millgate
Music by Ralph Carmichael, Burt Bacharach
Cinematography Thomas E. Spalding
Edited by Alfred Hillmann
Production company: Fairview Productions, Tonylyn Productions, Valley Forge Films
Distributed by Paramount Pictures
Running time: 86 minutes
Budget: $110,000
Box office: $4 million

Cast

Steve McQueen as Steve Andrews
Aneta Corsaut as Jane Martin
Earl Rowe as Lieutenant Dave
Olin Howland as Old Man
Stephen Chase as Dr. Hallen
John Benson as Sergeant Jim Bert
George Karas as Officer Ritchie
Lee Payton as Kate
Elbert Smith as Mr. Martin
Hugh Graham as Mr. Andrews
Keith Almoney as Danny Martin

Trailer

Read on for more....

Attack of the 50 Foot Woman (1958)

A sci-fi film so terrible yet so much fun to watch!

Directed by Nathan H. Juran
Produced by Bernard Woolner
Written by Mark Hanna
Music by Ronald Stein
Cinematography: Jacques R. Marquette
Edited by Edward Mann
Distributed by Allied Artists Pictures Corporation
Running time: 66 minutes
Budget: $89,000
Box office: $480,000 (USA)

Cast

Allison Hayes as Nancy Fowler Archer
William Hudson as Harry Archer
Yvette Vickers as Honey Parker
Roy Gordon as Dr. Isaac Cushing
George Douglas as Sheriff Dubbitt
Ken Terrell as Jess Stout
Otto Waldis as Dr. Heinrich Von Loeb
Eileen Stevens as Nurse
Michael Ross as Tony the Bartender/Giant
Frank Chase as Deputy Charlie

Trailer

The husband of an unhappily married rich socialite returns to her after having left her only because he now needs money. Meanwhile, philandering hubby, Harry happily continues his affair with another woman aptly maned, Honey Parker. After an explosive confrontation at a bar, his wife, Nancy drives off until she encounters a large spherical object on the road. The object’s sole occupant is an enormous alien……

Despite rumours of UFOs in the area, will anyone believe Nancy?

What effect will Nancy’s close encounter have on her?

Read on for more

Terror from the Year 5000 (1958)

A low budget lacklustre sci-fi with uneven performances, sloppy direction, uneven editing and a multitude of plot holes. So bad, it’s oddly good!

The 1958 independently made American black-and-white science fiction film, Terror from the Year 5000 (a.k.a. Cage of Doom in the UK) was produced by Robert J. Gurney Jr., Samuel Z. Arkoff, James H. Nicholson, and Gene Searchinger. It was directed by Robert J. Gurney Jr., and starred Ward Costello, Joyce Holden, John Stratton, Salome Jens, and Fred Herrick. The screenplay was based on the short story Bottle Baby by Henry Slesar, that was published in the science fiction magazine Fantastic (April 1957). American International Pictures released the film on a double bill with The Screaming Skull.

The story involves Prof. Erling and his financial backer, Victor who have constructed a prototype time machine which they use to obtain various objects from the past. On one occasion they discover that one item - a modernist Venus de milo-like statuette – that materialized in the machine, radiometrically dates to the year 5200 AD! It turns out that 20th-century objects that are placed in the machine appear to be "traded" for objects from the future by someone or something. It also transpires that Victor has been secretly trying to get a living intelligent specimen from the future to materialize in the time machine.

What does the future hold in store for humanity?

What present danger is humanity faced with now!

Directed by Robert J. Gurney Jr.
Produced by Robert J. Gurney Jr., Samuel Z. Arkoff, James H. Nicholson, Gene Searchinger
Written by Robert J. Gurney Jr., Henry Slesar
Music by Richard DuPage
Cinematography Arthur Florman
Edited by Dede Allen
Running time: 66 minutes

Cast

Ward Costello as Dr. Robert Hedges
Joyce Holden as Claire Erling
Frederic Downs as Prof. Howard Erling
John Stratton as Victor
Salome Jens as Future Woman / Nurse
Fred Herrick as Angelo
Beatrice Furdeaux as Miss Blake
Jack Diamond as First Lab Technician
Fred Taylor as Second Lab Technician
Bill Downs as Dr. Blair
William Cost as Joe the Bartender

Movie Clip

Read on for more......

Teenage Monster (1958)

Is it a Western?

Is it a Horror?

Is it a Sci-fi?

NO!

It’s a monster case of Teenage angst!

Directed by Jacques R. Marquette
Produced by Jacques R. Marquette, Dale Tate
Written by Ray Buffum
Music by Walter Greene
Cinematography: Taylor Byars
Edited by Irving M. Schoenberg
Distributed by Marquette Productions Limited
Running time: 65 minutes
Budget: $57,000 (approx.)

Cast

Anne Gwynne: Ruth Cannon
Stuart Wade: Sheriff Bob Lehman
Gloria Castillo: Kathy North
Chuck Courtney: Marv Howell
Gil Perkins: Charles Cannon
Norman Leavitt: Deputy Ed
Gabe Mooradian: Fred Fox
Stephen Parker: Charles Cannon as a Boy
Jim McCullough Sr: Jim Cannon
Frank Davis: Man on Street
Arthur Berkeley: Man with Burro

In 1880 in a small town in the American southwest, a young boy is exposed to the rays from a meteor and becomes a grotesque teenage killer monster who is hidden from a hostile world by his mother.

Trailer

Read on for more....

Top 10 Soviet Science Fiction Movies

Top 10 Soviet Science Fiction Movies

Brought to you by Indie Sci-Fi 451 (sci-fi and independent cinema)

Read about these Top 10 Soviet sci-fi movies accompanied by a dozen modern trailers made specially for the following article;

https://indiescifi451.com/2017/09/15/top-10-soviet-science-fiction-movies/

Also check out the following YouTube preview:

Space Master X-7 (1958)

A low budget drive-in feature with a nice mix of sci-fi and detective drama

Directed by Edward Bernds
Produced by Bernard Glasser
Written by George Worthing Yates, Daniel Mainwaring
Music by Josef Zimanich, Harry Bluestone
Cinematography: Brydon Baker
Edited by John F. Link Sr.
Production company: Regal Films
Distributed by Twentieth Century-Fox Film Corporation
Running time: 71 min.

Cast

Bill Williams : John Hand 

Lyn Thomas: Laura Greeling
Robert Ellis: Pvt. Joe Rattigan
Paul Frees: Dr. Charles T. Pommer / Train-Station Announcer
Rhoda Williams: Stewardess Archer
Joan Barry: Jean Meyers - brunet
Carol Varga: Elaine Frohman
Thomas Browne Henry: Prof. West
Thomas Wilde: Collins
Fred Sherman: Mr. Morse - Hotel Manager
Gregg Martell: Jim Dale - plane engineer
Jess Kirkpatrick: Pilot Vaccarino
Court Shepard: Hendry - Battalion Fire Chief
Moe Howard : Retlinger - Cab Driver
Al Baffert: Plane passenger

Trailer

A space probe returns to Earth bringing with it a mysterious fungus!

A fungus accidentally tinged with human blood and transformed into an ever-growing pile of …."Blood Rust!"

An entire world threatened by an ever-spreading alien infection!

Can the dynamic duo of John Hand and Joe Rattigan locate the one woman who holds the key to stopping the rust from spreading and engulfing the entire world?

Read on to find out more.....

Night of the Blood Beast (1958)

A sci-fi film gem that may produce in you "a hypometabolistic state. A type of suspended animation, brought on by the contraction of the mezzentary blood vessels in the pressure change,” all as a result of simply watching it.  

Directed by Bernard L. Kowalski
Produced by: Gene Corman: Roger Corman
Screenplay by Martin Varno
Story by Martin Varno Gene Corman (credited on-screen)
Music by Alexander Laszlo
Cinematography: John Mathew Nickolaus, Jr.
Edited by Jodie Copelan
Distributed by American International Pictures
Running time: 62 minutes
Budget: $68,000

Cast

Michael Emmet: Maj. John Corcoran
Angela Greene: Dr. Julie Benson
John Baer: Steve Dunlap
Ed Nelson: Dave Randall
Tyler McVey: Dr. Alex Wyman
Georgianna Carter: Donna Bixby
Ross Sturlin: The Creature

Trailer

What If..........????

US Air Force Captain Eugene K. Matthews sits at his desk in a small office at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base. He is just a minor cog within a much larger machine that has been ceaselessly grinding away for decades. The giant machine is called the Human & Extra-terrestrial Anomalous Dialogue project. Project HEAD was initiated specifically at the request of General Neil Thomas, chief of the Air Force Materiel Command at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base.

The order to initiate Project HEAD came via Roger Cowpepper, Special Assistant to the President, under the title of "NCS/MJ-12 Special Studies Project" dated April 1, 1954.

Many captains and other military intelligence personnel before Captain Eugene K. Matthews have been set the task of industriously beavering away at sifting through thousands of reports of human and extra-terrestrial contact, interaction, collusion and communication. Since the 1950s such reports have been collected, analysed and filed.

Project HEAD has been secretly and quietly humming away in the background while more publicised projects such as GRUDGE & BLUEBOOK have come and gone.

Project HEAD has two goals:

1. To scientifically analyse the related data.

2. To determine if the reported phenomena are a threat to national security.

Any data deemed to be of sufficient interest is to be immediately referred to the U.S. Air Force, the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and the National Security Council. Such reports will then be digitized, stored away and acted upon if possible.

And so, as part of this never-ending “house-cleaning” project, we have Captain Eugene K. Matthews sitting at his desk with yet another manila folder containing a report of yet another historical incident of human and extra-terrestrial contact and communication. Rarely had he come across such an historically ancient case crying out to be buried under mounds of time-accumulated dust. In fact, the manila folder and its contents looked as if they had been stored away only yesterday.

Under the icy circle of the white cool-glow LED light illumination of Matthews’ desk lamp, the manila folder, T-471947 is opened to reveal a 1958 Incident code-named: “Night of the Blood Beast.” This particular document, Matthews learns, was located in Record Group 197, entry 1952.

After carefully studying the contents of the document, Matthews is to stamp it with one of the following letter codes:

H: Hoax & Deliberate Deception – Disposal

E: Explanation Satisfactory - Documentation turned over to the office of the Air Force Historian

A: Anomaly unexplained– Retain & classify “Top Secret” pending referral to and further investigation by U.S. Air Force, the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and the National Security Council.

D: Danger & threat posed to national security. Immediate referral to President & Joint Chiefs of Staff for assessment & appropriate course of action to be undertaken.

Read on for more......

Monster from Green Hell (1958)

An average 50's giant bug film that peters out at the end.

Directed by Kenneth G. Crane
Produced by Al Zimbalist
Written by Endre Bohem, Louis Vittes
Music by Albert Glasser
Cinematography: Ray Flin
Distributed by DCA
Running time: 71 minutes

Cast

Jim Davis as Dr. Quent Brady
Robert Griffin as Dan Morgan
Joel Fluellen as Arobi
Barbara Turner as Lorna Lorentz
Eduardo Ciannelli as Mahri
Vladimir Sokoloff as Dr. Lorentz

Trailer

Spoilers follow below….

Journey into Green Hell

(Full account of the “Green Hill” incident from the personal journal of Dr Quent Brady)

Entry….

My colleague, Dan Morgan and I have been put in charge of a U.S. government program that has been designed to send various animals and insects into earth orbit to test the effects of exposure to space radiation.

Why do we do this?

"This is the age of the rocket, the jet, atomic power. When man prepares to reach for the stars. But before he dares to launch himself into space, there is one great question to be answered: What happens to life in the airless void above Earth's atmosphere? Will life remain untouched, unharmed by its flight through space? Or will it change into…what? There was only one way to find out and we were working on it."

And how will we do this?

Thanks to the former Nazi German rocket scientist bastards we spirited out of Germany at the end of the war, we have lots of V2 rockets with which to conduct our tests and prepare human beings for what lies beyond the comforting confines of our planet. It is into one of these rockets that we were able to “load the passengers” and at 10.15 minus 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 we sent them off “into the wide blue yonder!”

Entry…..

After what seemed at first to have been a successful launch, the radar operator informed us that the rocket was “out of normal radar range.”

Read on for more....

It! The Terror from Beyond Space (1958)

An at times quite frightening and atmospheric film achieved by means of economy and simplicity

Spoilers follow below…..

In a “future” 1973, the first manned expedition to Mars has been attacked and destroyed by an unknown life form which somehow later manages to stow away on the rescue ship. There is only one survivor from the initial ill-fated expedition: the leader, Col. Edward Carruthers. He is being brought back to earth under suspicion of having murdered his fellow astronauts! Will he have to face a firing squad for the crime of murder, or can he prove his claim that a Martian monster is to blame for the deaths of his crewmates?

Director: Edward L. Cahn
Screenplay: Jerome Bixby
Music composed by: Paul Sawtell, Bert Shefter
Producers: Edward Small, Robert E. Kent
Makeup: Paul Blaisdell
Narrated by Marshall Thompson
Cinematography: Kenneth Peach
Edited by Grant Whytock
Production company: Vogue Pictures, Inc.
Distributed by United Artists
Running time: 68 min.

Cast of Characters

Col. Ed Carruthers: (played by Marshall Thompson) Captain of the first expedition to Mars. All his crewmates were killed by the creature, but he is the one blamed for it.

Col. Van Heusen: (played by Kim Spaldin) Captain of the rescue ship that is sent to rescue Ed Carruthers and his crew. Initially he is hostile towards Carruthers and manages to become infected by the alien stowaway.

Major John Purdue: (played by Robert Bice) He gets injured and spends most of the movie with a bandage on his head.

Eric Royce: (played by Dabbs Greer) Mary's husband we can assume. 

Dr. Mary Royce: (played by Ann Doran) The ship’s doctor.         

Ann Anderson: (played by Shirley Patterson) Scientist and love interest for Carruthers. 

Lt. James Calder: (played by Paul Langton) Suffering a broken ankle and armed with only a blow torch, he becomes trapped between a couple of induction pumps by the monster. 

Bob Finelli (played by Richard Benedict) & Gino Finelli: (played by Richard Hervey) Brothers who fall victim to the creature. 

It!: (played by Ray Corrigan) A Martian life-form that stows away on the rescue ship and sets about picking off the crew one-by-one so that it can drain them of all their bodily fluids. The creature appears to be impervious to bullets, fire and radiation.

Movie Clip

Read on for more.....