SCI-FI FILM FIESTA FREE EBOOK: The Swingin' 60s Volume 3 - "Freaky Future Shocks"

SCI-FI FILM FIESTA FREE EBOOK:

The Swingin' 60s

Volume 3 - "Freaky Future Shocks"

From the eerie time paradoxes of Beyond the Time Barrier (1960) and the haunting evolutionary warnings of The Time Machine (1960), to the dangerous pursuit of knowledge in The Man with the X-Ray Eyes (1963), this volume explores the consequences of pushing beyond the limits of understanding. The journey continues through the chilling dystopia of Fahrenheit 451 (1966), the iconic cautionary tale of Planet of the Apes (1968), and the psychological unease of The Power (1968).

Rich in detail, insight, and atmosphere, Volume 3 of Sci-Fi Film Fiesta, The Swingin’ 60s - “Freaky Future Shocks” captures the anxieties of a world caught between optimism and dread—where every scientific breakthrough carried the possibility of unintended and irreversible consequences.

The films explored in this volume may belong to another era, but the questions they raise remain as relevant as ever. Each reflects a world grappling with change—scientific, social, and existential—and each offers a glimpse of futures shaped as much by human choices as by technological possibility.

In revisiting these stories, we are reminded that the future is not a fixed destination, but something continually being created. The warnings, hopes, and imaginings of the past still speak to us—if we are willing to listen.

More than a celebration of classic cinema, this volume is an invitation to reflect on our own time. As we navigate an age of rapid technological change, the visions of the 1960s feel less like distant fantasies—and more like warnings we are only just beginning to understand.

The future is coming!

The question is…

are we ready for it?

Oh, did I mention that this volume is…….

FREE!!!!

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Battle Beneath The Earth (1967)

 

A diverting and quirky 60s sci-fi film with an unrealised ambitious concept

Directed by Montgomery Tully
Written by Charles F. Vetter
Produced by Charles Reynolds, Charles F. Vetter
Cinematography: Kenneth Talbot
Edited by Sidney Stone
Music by Ken Jones
Distributed by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Running time: 91 minutes
Budget: £156,307

Cast

Kerwin Mathews as Cmdr. Jonathan Shaw
Viviane Ventura as Tila Yung
Robert Ayres as Adm. Felix Hillebrand
Peter Arne as Arnold Kramer
Al Mulock as Sgt. Marvin Mulberry
Martin Benson as Gen. Chan Lu
Peter Elliott as Dr. Kengh Lee
Earl Cameron as Sgt. Seth Hawkins
John Brandon as Maj. Frank Cannon
Ed Bishop as Lt. Cmdr. Vance Cassidy
Carl Jaffe as Dr. Galissi
Garrick Hobson as Professor Blackthorne
Sarah Brackett as Meg Webson
Bee Duffell as Matron's friend
Chela Matthison as nurse
Burnell Tucker as Jack Ambridge

Trailer

Advanced burrowing machines?

Tunnels dug from China to the United States?

Atomic bombs under major cities?

A dastardly plan to conquer the U.S.?

An expected war with a projected 100 million causalities?

All this kept secret for years!

But now at last

Someone who knows..

Someone who was there….

Will explain…..

Read on for more....

Cyborg 2087 (1966)

An undemanding over-padded but enjoyable low-budget sci-fi film

Directed by Franklin Adreon
Written by Arthur C. Pierce
Produced by Earle Lyon
Edited by Frank P. Keller
Music by Paul Dunlap
Production company: Harold Goldman Associates
Distributed by United Pictures Corporation
Running time: 86 minutes

Cat

Michael Rennie as Garth
Karen Steele as Dr. Sharon Mason
Wendell Corey as the sheriff
Warren Stevens as Dr. Zeller
Eduard Franz as Professor Sigmund Marx
Harry Carey, Jr. as Jay C
Dale Van Sickel as Tracer #1
Troy Melton as Tracer #2
John Beck as Skinny

Trailer

We have already witnessed a possible future in which humanity in the year 2029 faced the possibility of extinction in a war with machines. In order to prevent human beings from triumphing in that war, a cyborg - the T-800 TERMINATOR - was sent back to the year 1984 to kill the mother of the human resistance leader, John Connor.

Now, we discover that in the future year of 2087, freedom of thought is illegal and the world’s population is controlled by governments that employ technology as a means of control. A small resistance group of free thinkers send a cyborg, ‘Garth A7’ back in time to the year 1966 to prevent a scientist, Professor Sigmund Marx from making a discovery he will term as "Radio-Telepathy" that will eventually result in mind and thought control becoming a reality and as a consequence will lead to the establishment of tyranny in Garth's time. Hot on Garth’s heals are government agents called ‘Tracers’ who have also been sent back from the future to prevent him from carrying out his mission and changing that future.

Read on form more.....

Matango (マタンゴ) (1963) / Attack Of The Mushroom People (1965)

A little known atypical and interesting tokusatsu classic sci-fi / horror film, that is atmospheric and well-crafted, but somewhat slow-paced at times

Directed by Ishirō Honda
Screenplay by Takeshi Kimura
Story by Shinichi Hoshi, Masami Fukushima
Based on "The Voice in the Night"by William Hope Hodgson
Produced by Tomoyuki Tanaka
Cinematography: Hajime Koizumi
Edited by Reiko Kaneko
Music by Sadao Bekku
Production company: Toho Co., Ltd
Distributed by Toho
Running time 89 minutes
Country: Japan
Language: Japanese

Cast

Akira Kubo as Professor Kenji Murai
Kumi Mizuno as Mami Sekiguchi
Kenji Sahara as Senzō Koyama
Hiroshi Tachikawa as Etsurō Yoshida
Yoshio Tsuchiya as Masafumi Kasai
Hiroshi Koizumi as Naoyuki Sakuda
Miki Yashiro as Akiko Sōma
Jiro Kumagai as Doctor at Tokyo Medical Center
Yutaka Oka as Doctor at Tokyo Medical Center
Keisuke Yamada as Doctor at Tokyo Medical Center
Hideyo Amamoto as Matango
Haruo Nakajima as Matango
Masaki Shinohara as Matango
Kōji Uruki as Matango
Toku Ihara as Matango
Kuniyoshi Kashima as Matango
Tokio Ōkawa as Matango

In Summary…..

Matango  / Attack of the Mushroom People (1963) is a Japanese sci-fi / horror film directed by Ishirō Honda. It is partially based on William Hope Hodgson's short story "The Voice in the Night." The story involves five pleasure-seeking young people and two crewmen who become stranded on a tropical island. They soon stumble upon a deserted, fungus-covered ship wreck which they discover had been a research vessel examining the effects of radiation on plant and animal life. The crew had eaten some of the fungus and as a result were driven mad. With little edible food on the island, the group of castaways struggle to find a way to survive only to realize that they have each other to contend with along with a mysterious presence in the form of…...deadly mushrooms!


Read on for more……

Queen of Blood (1966)

A rather cheap hybrid sci-fi / horror film with capable performances, strikingly eerie and vibrant visuals and haunting atmosphere.

Directed by Curtis Harrington
Screenplay by Curtis Harrington
Based on story “A Dream Come True” by Mikhail Karyukov, Otar Koberidze
Produced by George Edwards, Samuel Z. Arkoff
Cinematography: Vilis Lapenieks
Edited by Leo H. Shreve
Music by Leonard Moran
Production company: Cinema West Productions
Distributed by American International Pictures
Running time: 81 minutes
Budget: $65,000
Box office: $17.3 million (as at 1 Oct 1966)

Cast

John Saxon as Allan Brenner
Basil Rathbone as Dr. Farraday
Judi Meredith as Laura James
Dennis Hopper as Paul Grant
Florence Marly as Alien Queen
Robert Boon as Anders Brockman
Don Eitner as Tony Barrata
Forrest J. Ackerman as Farraday's aide

Trailer

An alien species from another planet signals Earth to make formal contact with humanity.

The alien spaceship crashes on Mars.

A distress transmission is sent to Earth.

Earth dispatches a ship to attempt a rescue.

On Mars, the alien spacecraft is located.

Only a single dead alien humanoid is found aboard the ship.

An alien rescue shuttle had left Mars but crashed on the moon, Phobos.

A green-skinned alien female is found alive aboard the wrecked shuttle.

For the rescue mission’s crew, their troubles are only just about to begin!

(Read on for more.....)

A Tribute to Warren Stevens

Screen Sci-Fi Stalwart - 

That & Much More!

Warren Stevens is the actor with the familiar face we have seen in many films such as the sci-fi classic, Forbidden Planet (1956) and the 1954 film, The Barefoot Contessa in which he appeared with Humphrey Bogart, Ava Gardner and Edmond O'Brien. Let’s also not forget the numerous TV series Warren Stevens appeared in such as the original Star Trek.

Warren Stevens was born Warren Albert Stevens on November 2, 1919 in Clark’s Summit, Penn., He attended the Naval Academy but due to vision problems he left before graduating. He did later manage to serve as a pilot in the U.S. Army Air Corps during WWII.

After WWII he worked in radio and joined the Actors Studio in New York. He was then offered a Hollywood contract at 20th Century Fox and made his Broadway debut in The Life of Galileo (1947).

As a contract player, Stevens had little control over the roles he played.

His first movie role was in The Frogmen (1951), starring Richard Widmark and Dana Andrews, followed by other roles including Phone Call from a Stranger (1952), Wait Till the Sun Shines, Nellie (1952).

In 1952 Stevens appeared in seven films, including the Deadline — U.S.A. (starring Humphrey Bogart) in which Stevens had a significant supporting role as a reporter.

In 1956 Stevens was given a very solid role in the classic sci-fi masterpiece, Forbidden Planet (1956) in which he played the part of Lt., "Doc" Ostrow.

His other sci-fi movie appearances included, On the Threshold of Space (1956) as Capt. Mike Bentley and as Dr. Carl Zellar in Cyborg 2087 (1966), starring Michael Rennie. 

Warren Stevens went on to have occasional supporting roles in big films but was unable to achieve a real breakthrough in his career with A-list movies. The direction of his acting career thereafter shifted to television as a journeyman dramatic actor.

Stevens appeared in over 150 prime time shows from the 1950s to the early 1980s, including: Tales of the 77th Bengal Lancers (as Lt. William Storm), Actors Studio, Campbell Playhouse, Studio One, Route 66, Hawaiian Eye, Perry Mason, The Untouchables, Climax!, Surfside 6, 77 Sunset Strip, I Spy, The Man from U.N.C.L.E., Ironside, The Mod Squad, Mannix, Cannon and Mission: Impossible.

Stevens also appeared in episodes of some classic Western series such as, Laramie, Wagon Train, Gunsmoke, Bonanza, Daniel Boone, The Virginian and Rawhide.

Fans of film and TV sci-fi / horror will definitely appreciate Warren Stevens contribution to the genre with appearances in Alfred Hitchcock Presents, The Twilight Zone ("Dead Man's Shoes"), One Step Beyond ("The Riddle”), The Outer Limits ("Keeper of the Purple Twilight"), Star Trek ("By Any Other Name"), Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, The Time Tunnel, Science Fiction Theater, and Land of the Giants.

Warren Stevens died in Sherman Oaks, Calif., of respiratory failure on Tuesday, March 27, 2012. He was 92. He had three sons and was married to Barbara Fletcher Stevens for 43 years.

©Chris Christopoulos 2019