(Rymdinvasion i Lappland)
Invasion of the Animal People
For some, a Viking good time!
For others, a bloody waste of time!
So bad, it’s good some might say
While yet others might suggest
It should never see the light of day.
Directed by Virgil W. Vogel
Produced by Bertil Jernberg, Gustaf Unger
Written by Arthur C. Pierce (screenplay and story)
Music by Harry Arnold, Allan Johansson
Cinematography Hilding Bladh
Edited by Shirley Citron, Tom Rolf;
Running time: 73 minutes (Sweden); 55 minute (US); 80 minutes (TV)
Cast
Barbara Wilson as Diane Wilson
Sten Gester as Erik Engström
Robert Burton as Dr. Frederick Wilson
Bengt Blomgren as Col. Robert Bottiger
Åke Grönberg as Dr. Henrik
Gösta Prüzelius as Dr. Walter Ullman
Doreen Denning as Anna, Dr. Ullmans secretary
Ittla Frodi as girl in the sports car
Brita Borg as the singer
Lars Åhrén as the monster
John Carradine as narrator (US version)
Trailer
Space Invasion of Lapland is a 1959 Swedish-American black-and-white science fiction-monster film that was heavily re-edited by American producer Jerry Warren and had newly filmed American sequences added. I admit that until recently I was unaware of the existence of this film. Sadly, after viewing it I feel that I have not missed much.
Spoilers follow below....
Meteor Landed in Lapland!
Thus, proclaims the headlines as news spreads of a meteor having streaked across the sky before ploughing into the side of a hill.
At the Royal Academy of Science, Dr. Frederick Wilson meets with Dr. Walter Ullman and Dr. Henrik who give him the go-ahead to proceed to the location of the reported meteor crash site with Henrick and Erik Engstrom, a geologist.
Enter philandering Erik preceded by his fat ego. After attending the meeting, he joins Wilson and Henrik aboard a plane en-route to the meteor site.
Love Interest
Later, after landing near the crash site in a small military plane, we see Diane Wilson (Wilson’s niece) wowing everyone with her Olympic ice-skating prowess. Of course, Erik’s attention is immediately drawn to Diane while being unaware that Wilson is her uncle.
It turns out that Diane is quite interested in Erik the Ego despite being warned about the trail of broken hearts he has left strewn across Europe. It seems she likes dangerous bad boy types.
I found out that at this point there was for the time a racy nude shower scene, but in the version I watched it seems to have been omitted. That would at least have been the one redeeming feature of this film! I must have watched a TV version in which the scene was skipped in the interests of “family viewing.” It definitely doesn’t have Carradine’s narration at the start that featured in the US butchered version.
Playing Hard to Get
Next we are “treated” to a lengthy giggly chasey-chasey scene between Erik and Diane involving a ski-lift, and a pursuit along the ski slopes. After faking a fall, Diane tricks Erik by taking his skis, knocking him down and skiing away. Erik has no option but to walk all the way back to the ski lodge. Has Erik met his match?
Romance in The Air
Later at dinner, after having shaken off some of his tiredness and humiliation, a stiff and sore Erik dances with Diane while the singer performs “The Midnight Sun” in Swedish. Diane certainly scrubs up well in evening wear!
Suddenly a man bustles in and gives Dr Wilson and Henrick some information which causes them to get up to leave. Erik moves to join them, but Diane is forbidden to come along by her uncle probably on the basis that he wishes to protect his niece and that she is a ……. woman!
Don’t take “no” for an answer
So, guess who is riding along with the men in the military vehicle? Yep, you guessed it – a defiant Diane!
Arriving at the crash site, they get out of the vehicle and Diane is told once again that she is not to accompany them and is to wait there. So, guess who is hiking along snow-covered ground with the men? Yep, you guessed right again!
The party eventually come across an area strewn with the grisly remains of animals that seem to have been torn apart.
What could have done this?
Diane (who really needs to be wearing something a whole lot warmer) decides to walk off for a short distance only to discover a huge footprint. She then calls the attention of the others to it and after examining the print Erik declares that it must have been made by something twenty feet tall.
Later, while looking over photos of the crater and finding nothing new, Dr. Wilson suggests that the crash looks more like a landing………but is interrupted. Well, it doesn’t take a genius to work out what he was about to say. They are all to fly out to the site at 6.00 am – all except Diane, of course!
The next morning guess who is discovered stowing away in the plane? It wouldn’t take a genius to work that one out either. The others think Diane is being childish and that none of them know what they are likely to encounter, but, hey - there’s just no stopping the woman!
Enter - Big Hairy Bastard
At the crater site, they descend a rope ladder to examine the object. Diane being a mere female is told to stay put. They obviously didn’t take the hint from the other times they tried to forbid her from taking part in manly business.
Dr. Wilson concludes that the spacecraft is of extra-terrestrial origin and they agree not to tell Diane until they know more. They probably think that being a woman Diane will probably go all to pieces with shock or that her head will explode or something.
Meanwhile back at the plane, a guard begins unloading his rifle at something. The point of view shot suggests that he is firing upward at something BIG and MEAN and mighty UNCLEAN.
Hearing the shots and fearing an avalanche, the men hurry back to the landing site only to find the guard dead and the plane torn to pieces. Giant footprints are discovered leading away from the plane. It is now obvious that the crashed object is likely a spacecraft and that it brought whatever caused the carnage to this area. With no means to radio for help, Dr. Wilson suggests that Diane and Erik ski to the nearby village from where they can send a message and then return by morning.
After an interminable amount of skiing and having to walk their skis up the mountainside, Erik says they are almost at their destination. Diane takes the lead but hits a tree, injuring her knee.
Meanwhile, Henrick informs Dr. Wilson that he will retrieve the equipment from the crater. After his descent, Henrick detects the presence of radioactivity with his Geiger counter. He then begins to examine the alien craft. but is observed by the alien inside. Having caught sight of the alien’s shadowy presence, Henrick tries to escape but is struck by some kind of energy weapon.
While this is going on, Diane and Erik make it to a rescue cabin in which lamps are soon lit, fires are glowing, a silhouette strip tease is performed by Diane as she changes out of wet clothes and an injured knee is tended to.
Leaving Diane in the cabin, Erik takes off for the nearest village to make contact with the others and summon help. In no time at all he is drawn back to the cabin by Diane’s screams.
The creature looking as if it is in desperate need of a good periodontist, has turned up and is now on top of the mountain above the cabin. Before Erik and Diane can escape, the creature starts an avalanche which damages the cabin. Erik is rendered unconscious after being struck by falling boards and debris while Diane with a miraculously recovered knee, makes it to the woods.
Lost and Found
We next see Erik back at the village and lying in a bunk bed. When he wakes up he is informed that he was rescued but that Diane is still missing and that Henrick was found dead in the crater. Efforts to search for the missing Diane will be put in place and hopefully the Laplanders will locate her.
Things haven’t been faring so well for poor Diane as she valiantly staggers and stumbles her way through a blizzard, eventually tripping over a fallen log. There she rests unable to go any further. It is a wonder that hypothermia hasn’t set in as later on she awakens and screams at the sight of the looming presence of the giant grossly deformed Chewbacca-like creature.
Next we have a scene featuring those crazy funster Laplander cats gathered together gnawing on reindeer parts and performing some kind of entertaining pantomime. Suddenly one of their buddies turns up and they all skedaddle out of there with reindeer in tow!
Soon after, the creature shuffles into the abandoned Laplanders’ camp, bearing Diane. After it puts her down, it returns to the space ship clearly under the control of an alien who has been watching proceedings on its viewing screen.
After Diane stands up to look around, three alien beings who look as if they have just stepped out of another sci-fi fantasy film appear and surround her. It seems that they communicate telepathically instead of verbally. How do we know? Their movements, demeanor and sound effects suggest it. As the aliens approach Diane, she as all good women of the era were supposed and expected to do, screams and faints.
Don’t Mess With The Saami!
As the mayhem subsides with the departure of the big hairy bastard, a search party is organized to find Damsel in Distress Diane.
Soon there is a face-off between the irate band of Laplanders and the Big Hairy Bastard. Now, if I were an alien having just arrived on this planet and I was confronted by a bunch of incensed beings clad in multi party-coloured clothing, wearing head gear festooned with huge pom-poms, brandishing lit torches, gesticulating wildly and seemingly insane with rage, I know what I’d do. Get back in my ship and go back where I came from!
Well, the advice is eventually heeded but not before our Laplander friends launch their torches at the creature. In the meantime, Diane has been placed on the ground and has rolled away to a safe distance. The creature soon catches on fire and topples over a cliff. The alien, having witnessed this, launches the spaceship and departs our planet.
Dr. Wilson wonders if we will fare better when we land on another planet. (Don’t count on it) The final shot is of Erik and Diane walking off together into the sunset. (I mean, who does that, really?)
The only point of interest I can offer in this case is that I can just picture Ingmar Bergman turning over in his grave!
Full Film
©Chris Christopoulos 2019
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