Journey to the Far Side of the Sun / Doppelgänger (1969)

A stylish and thought-provoking but quite dark sci-fi film with some great sequences and special effects. The film raises some interesting questions about the conflict between science and politics

Well, dear reader, it wasn’t all that long ago when we fare-welled our look at the sc-fi films of the 1950s. Now, a few years later with the following post we’ll be taking our leave of the sci-fi films of the 1960s and what a journey that has been. For this post I have decided to take a fair bit of license by constructing a ‘What if?’ scenario while maintaining the essential plot elements of the film. In fact, if you watch the film again after reading this post, it seems to acquire quite a sinister feel to it. Anyway, hope you enjoy it.


Directed by Robert Parrish
Screenplay by Gerry & Sylvia Anderson, Donald James
Story by Gerry & Sylvia Anderson
Produced by Gerry & Sylvia Anderson
Cinematography John Read
Edited by Len Walter
Music by Barry Gray
Production company: Century 21 Cinema Productions
Distributed by The Rank Organisation (UK), Universal Pictures (International)
Running time: 101 minutes

Cast

Roy Thinnes as Colonel Glenn Ross
Ian Hendry as Dr John Kane
Patrick Wymark as Jason Webb
Lynn Loring as Sharon Ross
Loni von Friedl as Lise Hartman
Franco De Rosa as Paulo Landi
George Sewell as Mark Neuman
Ed Bishop as David Poulson
Philip Madoc as Dr Pontini
Vladek Sheybal as Dr Beauville
George Mikell as Dr Bernhardt Brisson
Herbert Lom as Dr Kurt Hassler

Uncredited:

Keith Alexander as Launch Controller
Edward Cast as Security Vaults Sergeant
Peter Burton as Medical Technician
Anthony Chinn as Air-Sea Rescue Crew Member
Nicholas Courtney as Medical Technician
Arnold Diamond as Clavel (Paris delegate)
Cy Grant as Dr Gordon
Constantine Gregory as Launch Control Technician
Annette Kerr as Nurse
Martin King as Dove Service Technician
Basil Moss as Assistant Doctor
Norma Ronald as Pam Kirby
John Stone as London Delegate
Jeremy Wilkin as Launch Control Technician

Trailer

In The year 2069, one hundred years after mankind’s first manned moon landing, the European Space Exploration Council sends two astronauts on a joint European-NASA mission to investigate a mysterious planet located on the opposite side of the sun.

After only 3 weeks, followed by a disastrous crash-landing, one of the two-man crew awakes to to find himself immersed in a mysterious and unsettling set of circumstances.

Eventually he begins putting the pieces of a puzzle together only to discover that things are not as they seem……..

Read on for more.....

Mission Mars (1968)

A rather plodding, dull and amateurish sci-fi film that eventually is redeemed by an unusual alien encounter

Directed by Nick Webster
Screenplay by Mike St. Clair
Story by Aubrey Wisberg
Produced by Everett Rosenthal
Cinematography: Cliff Poland
Edited by Paul Jordon
Music by Berge Kalajian, Gus Pardalis, The Forum Quorum
Poduction company: Red Ram Productions
Distributed by Allied Artists Pictures
Running time: 90 minutes

Cast

Darren McGavin: Col. Mike Blaiswick
Nick Adams: Nick Grant
George De Vries: Duncan
Michael DeBeausset: Cliff Lawson
Heather Hewitt: Edith Blaiswick
Shirley Parker: Alice Grant


In the last post, Night Caller From Outer Space (1965), I alluded to the fact that the British seemed to have the knack of constructing good quality films (including science fiction films) despite budgetary constraints and questionable plot lines. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said for many sci-films that have come out of the US and the film, Mission Mars is just one example of a film that is on the whole rather dull, pedestrian and plainly amateurish.

When the film was made in the 1967- 68, Apollo 8 was set to herald humanity’s first breakaway from its earthly bonds on a journey to orbit another heavenly body. This mission provided the human race with a view of our beautiful but fragile planet suspended in the void of space and offered us a glimpse of our place in the scheme of things. From that mission, we then set our sights for mankind’s first physical presence on the surface of another world – our moon.

As a 12 year old at the time, I envisioned human beings establishing bases or colonies on the moon sometime in the 1970s. From this, I believed that human beings would probably set foot on Mars sometime during the 1980s. How wrong I was! Nearly 60 years later, we are possibly about to somewhat replicate Apollo 8s achievement and many in the space industry are (over?) confidently anticipating that we will have a human (American) presence on the moon’s surface by 2027. That is if the Chinese don’t get there first in the new ‘race’ to the moon. From this it is projected that we will use the moon as a springboard to having a human presence on Mars and of course – beyond. As to when? Well, pick a number, any number!

Let’s now go back to the late 60s to the film, Mission Mars as the United States prepares to launch three astronauts on a mission to land on the planet, Mars….

Traile

Read on for more.....

INTO SPACE - NEW EBOOK

Sci-Fi Film Fiesta

Volume 2:

"INTO SPACE"

In this post I’d like to offer the reader another FREE volume from the “Sci-Fi Film Fiesta” eBook series. This second volume is titled, “INTO SPACE” and contains some individual classic films from the golden age of science fiction of the 1950s. These films feature imaginative presentations of humanity’s tentative and often dangerous steps into the great unknown realm of outer space. Let’s hope we never forget that space is in fact an extremely dangerous, unforgiving and potentially lethal place for human beings to be working and living in. If we become complacent and lose respect for the environment of space for which we are unsuited, it can and will kill us.

EPUB DOWNLOAD LINK


PDF DOWNLOAD LINK (With images)


MOBI DOWNLOAD LINK


KINDLE DOWNLOAD LINK


TXT VERSION

Also available from;

Free-eBooks.net

Google Play (Books)

Keep an eye open for Volume 3: “Other Worlds”




©Chris Christopoulos 2022

Capricorn One (1977)

A great sci-fi political thriller reflecting the increasingly prevalent cynicism of the 1970s through to the present day

Directed by Peter Hyams
Written by Peter Hyams
Produced by Paul N. Lazarus III
Cinematography: Bill Butler
Edited by James Mitchell
Music by Jerry Goldsmith
Production company: ITC Entertainment
Distributed by Warner Bros.
Running time: 124 minutes
Budget: $5 million (approx.)
Box office: $12 million (US and Canada rental)

Cast

Elliott Gould as Robert Caulfield
James Brolin as Charles Brubaker
Brenda Vaccaro as Kay Brubaker
Sam Waterston as Peter Willis
O. J. Simpson as John Walker
Hal Holbrook as Dr. James Kelloway
Karen Black as Judy Drinkwater
Telly Savalas as Albain
David Huddleston as Hollis Peaker
David Doyle as Walter Loughlin
Lee Bryant as Sharon Willis
Denise Nicholas as Betty Walker
Robert Walden as Elliot Whitter
Alan Fudge as Capsule Communicator

Trailer

“Capricorn One,” NASA's first manned mission to Mars.

Seconds before the launch, the crew is pulled from the capsule!

The rocket leaves earth unmanned!

The life support system is faulty!

NASA fears the publicity of a scratched mission!

An unthinkable plot is hatched!

An investigative reporter puts pieces together of an unthinkable mystery involving..

Humanity’s greatest achievement

OR

Its greatest....

Hoax?

Read on for more.....

SILENT RUNNING (1972)

A melancholy sci-fi film that makes you think about what could happen, and is in fact happening to our planet, along with the consequences for us all if no action is taken.

Directed by Douglas Trumbull
Written by Deric Washburn, Michael Cimino, Steven Bochco
Produced by: Michael Gruskoff, Marty Hornstein, Douglas Trumbull
Cinematography: Charles F. Wheeler
Edited by: Aaron Stell
Music by: Peter Schickele
Production company: Universal Pictures
Running time: 89 minutes
Budget: $1,350,000

Cast

Bruce Dern: Freeman Lowell
Cliff Potts: John Keenan
Ron Rifkin: Marty Barker
Jesse Vint: Andy Wolf
Mark Persons: the Drone
Steven Brown: the Drone
Cheryl Sparks: the Drone
Larry Whisenhunt: the Drone
Joseph Campanella: Neal - Berkshire' Captain (voice)
Roy Engel: Anderson (voice)

Trailer

Spoilers follow below....

The viewer is at first treated to a close-up view of a slice of nature in all its colorful and vibrant splendor. The camera takes us on a journey through water droplet speckled plant-life along with glimpses of its insect, amphibious and other denizens.

As the camera pulls out, our view is jarred by the sudden appearance in the shot of a section of an artificial surface feature which appears to be a metal foot-ramp. Next we see a monk-like robed human figure and behind and above him a star-strewn view of space. This is not what might at first have been expected.

The robed individual is Freeman Lowell, one of four crewmen aboard American Airlines space freighter Valley Forge. Lowell is the resident botanist and ecologist who maintains the various plants, cultivates the crops and attends to the animal life, all of which are contained in enormous, geodesic greenhouse domes attached to his and other large spaceships.

The lush foliage being framed against the pitch black of outer space and contained within a marvel of human technology makes the existence of the flora and fauna all the more remarkable and miraculous.

“On this first day of a new century, we humbly beg forgiveness and dedicate these last forests of our once beautiful nation, in the hope that they will one day return and grace our foul Earth. Until that day, may God bless these gardens and the brave men who care for them.”

This is the not too distant future, where all plant and animal life on Earth is becoming extinct. What remains has been preserved in the domes of the 2000 meter long orbiting space freighters. The plan or mission is to eventually return the preserved plant and animal life to earth. The Valley Forge, is part of a fleet of freighters currently located just outside the orbit of Saturn.

Freeman Lowell is passionately and one might say obsessively dedicated to his work of preservation and conservation. Not so, however his crew-mates whose main priority is to return to Earth after their one-year deployment to space.

“Do I have to put signs up here to keep you guys off my grass?”

The tranquility of the scene is rudely disrupted by the antics of Lowell’s crew-mates who burst in on Lowell driving motorized buggies, tearing up the soil and nearly bowling Lowell over. Blowing off steam and having fun is a lot more appealing to Lowell’s crew-mates than dedication and respect for what’s around them and their responsibility toward it.

In the next few scenes featuring his interaction with his crew mates, Lowell comes across not just as some hippie drop-out intent on merely shunning civilization. Instead, this is a man who appreciates the natural world and all that it offers, who is adept at working in partnership with technology as a tool and one who can play a mean hand of poker which suggests skill at strategy and bluff. He probably just prefers the natural world and technology to his fellow ass-hole human beings and is fully committed to the ideals behind the forest preservation mission.

More importantly, Lowell appears to be a hopeless and naive optimist who fervently believes that the authorities back on earth have indeed paid attention to his communications and that “they're about to re-establish the parks and forest system” with him as director. After all, he’s spent the last eight years dedicated to the project and that “here's no way they're gonna announce cutbacks, not after this amount of time.”

“You don't think that it's time that somebody cared enough to have a dream?”

What Lowell doesn’t seem to understand is the fickle and self-absorbed nature of human beings as alluded to by crewman Wolf who tells him, “it's been too long, Lowell, people got other things to do now.”

This sentiment is underscored by a radio transmission from Con Central in which their boss, Anderson informs the crews of the fleet that orders have been received to “abandon, then nuclear destruct, all the forests and return our ships to commercial service.”

It is at this point that something within Lowell’s psyche seems to snap and begins to unravel. It is as if there is no place in the universe anymore for logic, reason, for rationality, for a sense of right and wrong. To him, such a destructive course of action as the blowing up of the Earth’s last remaining forests in space is just “insane.”

"Rejoice in the Sun"

♪ Fields of children ♪

♪ Running wild ♪

♪ In the sun ♪

♪ Like a forest is your child ♪

♪ Growing wild ♪

♪ In the sun ♪

♪ Doomed in his innocence ♪

♪ In the sun ♪

♪ Gather your children ♪

♪ To your side ♪

♪ In the sun ♪

♪ Tell them ♪

♪ All they love will die ♪

♪ Tell them why ♪

♪ In the sun ♪

♪ Tell them ♪

♪ It's not too late ♪

♪ Cultivate one by one ♪

♪ Tell them to harvest ♪

♪ And rejoice ♪

♪ In the sun ♪

(Joan Baez)

A future time where all flora and fauna is extinct on Earth.

The planet's ecosystems exist only in large pods attached to spacecraft.

Commercial interests have now taken precedence.

The pods are to be jettisoned into space and destroyed by nuclear devices.

The crew of Valley forge and other ships can return home to earth.

Botanist and crew member Freeman Lowell has tended the plants for eight years.

How will the dedicated Lowell take the news?

Is the earth destined to lose the last of its forests and living creatures?

Read on for more....

Countdown (1968)

A rather dry, less than exciting but well-acted snapshot of the space race during the Cold war period of the late 1960s. The film deals with complex emotions and human behavior instead of technology but suffers from a lack of tension and suspense.

The Soviets are about to launch a manned mission to the moon.

A desperate bid by the US to land a man on the moon before the Soviets do.

An Apollo moon program that isn’t ready to launch yet. 

A rushed preparation to send a single astronaut in a modified Gemini capsule to land on the moon.

He is to remain alone on the moon in a lunar shelter for a year until an Apollo mission can rescue him.

BUT.....

Who will be selected for this hastily prepared and perilous mission and can it succeed?

Directed by Robert Altman
Produced by William Conrad
Screenplay by Loring Mandel
Based on “The Pilgrim Project” by Hank Searls
Music by Leonard Rosenman
Cinematography: William W. Spencer
Edited by Gene Milford
Production company: A William Conrad Production
Distributed by Warner Bros.-Seven Arts
Running time: 101 minutes

Cast

James Caan as Lee Stegler
Joanna Moore as Mickey Stegler
Robert Duvall as Chiz Stewart
Barbara Baxley as Jean
Charles Aidman as Gus
Steve Ihnat as Ross Duellan
Michael Murphy as Rick
Ted Knight as Walter Larson
Stephen Coit as Ehrman
John Rayner as Dunc
Charles Irving as Seidel
Bobby Riha as Stevie Stegler

Trailer

(Spoilers follow below....)

We are transported back to the late 1960s, a time we recall being one of change, the rise of counter-culture and impending social and political turmoil. Shielded from all of the ructions of the times within the bubble of the Gemini and Apollo moon programs, we find three astronauts training in an Apollo 3 simulator with their main concern consisting of having their session being aborted abruptly with the “third orbit coming up.”

The astronauts inhabit a world of buzz and crew-cutted, skinny-tied, narrow-trousered and short shirt-sleeved mission focused dedication to the achievement of a history-making goal: sending a man to the moon.  

♪♪ Johnny we gotta make a moon shot

Or the Russians will leave us behind

So get ready soon and we'll drop you on the moon.. ♪♪

Read on for more

The Angry Red Planet (1959)

Low-budget sci-fi fun

Directed by Ib Melchior
Produced by Sidney W. Pink, Norman Maurer
Screenplay by Sidney W. Pink, Ib Melchior
Based on Original story by Sidney W. Pink
Music by Paul Dunlap
Cinematography: Stanley Cortez
Edited by Ivan J. Hoffman
Production company: Sino Productions
Distributed by: Sino Productions (originally), American International Pictures
Running time: 83-87 minutes
Budget: $200,000

Cast

Gerald Mohr as Colonel Thomas O’Bannion

Naura Hayden 

as Dr. Iris "Irish" Ryan

Les Tremayne as 

Professor Theodore Gettell

Jack Kruschen 

as Chief Warrant Officer Sam Jacob

Paul Hahn as Major General George Treegar
J. Edward McKinley as Professor Paul Weiner
Tom Daly as Dr. Frank Gordon
Don Lamond as TV Newscaster/Martian Voice
Edward Innes as Brigadier General Alan Prescott
Gordon Barnes as Major Lyman Ross
Jack Haddock a Lt. Colonel Davis
Brandy Bryan as Nurse Hayes
Joan Fitzpatrick as Nurse Dixon
Arline Hunter as Joan
Alean Hamilton as Joan's Friend

Trailer

The first spaceship to Mars!

Presumed lost!

Now found in space and remotely returned to Earth!

Only two of the original crew of four are still alive!

One survivor remains unconscious!

An alien growth on his arm!

The other survivor has blocked out all memory of what happened!

The race is now on to...

Save the unconscious crewman

and….

Help the amnesiac crew-mate to remember what happened back on…..

Read on for more.......

First Man into Space (1959)

A sci-fi story containing both charm and corny dialogue, told on a modest budget. 

Directed by Robert Day
Produced by John Croydon, Charles F. Vetter, Richard Gordon
Written by Wyott Ordung, John Croydon, Charles F. Vetter
Music by Buxton Orr
Cinematography: Geoffrey Faithfull
Edited by Peter Mayhew
Production company: Amalgamated Productions
Distributed by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Running time: 78 min.
Budget: $131,000
Box office: $635,000

Cast

Marshall Thompson: Cmdr. Charles Ernest Prescott
Marla Landi: Tia Francesca
Bill Edwards: Lt. Dan Milton Prescott
Robert Ayres: Capt. Ben Richards
Bill Nagy: Police Chief Wilson
Carl Jaffe: Dr. Paul von Essen
Roger Delgado: Mexican Consul
John McLaren: State Dept. Official, Harold Atkins
Spencer Teakle: Ratings Control Room
Chuck Keyser: Ratings Control Room
John Fabian : Ratings Control Room
Richard Shaw: Witney
Bill Nick: Clancy
Helen Forrest: Secretary
Roland Brand: Truck Driver

Trailer

What if?..........

(Spoilers Follow Below……)

Good evening. I’m your host, Bill Bannerman and welcome to tonight’s program, Probing the Past where we will be revealing to you exclusively shocking revelations that cast doubt on the widely held assumption that the Russians were the first to launch a human being into space and return him safely to earth.

Read on for more.......

Battle in Outer Space (宇宙大戦争 Uchū Daisensō) (1959)

We shall fight them in space! We shall fight them on the moon! We shall fight them on the earth! We shall never surrender!

Directed by Ishirō Honda
Produced by omoyuki Tanaka
Screenplay by Shinichi Sekizawa
Story by Jotaro Okami
Music by Akira Ifukube
Cinematography Hajime Koizumi
Edited by Ichiji Taira
Production company: Toho
Running time: 93 minutes

Cast

Ryô Ikebe: Maj. Ichiro Katsumiya
Kyôko Anzai: Etsuko Shiraishi
Minoru Takada: The Commander
Koreya Senda: Professor Adachi
Len Stanford: Dr. Roger Richardson
Harold Conway: Dr. Immerman
Elise Richter: Sylvia
Hisaya Itô: Kogure
Yoshio Tsuchiya: Iwomura
Nadao Kirino: Gravity Man
Kôzô Nomura: Rocket Commander
Fuyuki Murakami: Inspector Iriake
Ikio Sawamura: Lantern Man
Takuzô Kumagai: Alien
Katsumi Tezuka: Alien

HERE COME THE PLANET SMASHERS!

The Moon is Captured! The Earth is Next!

SPACE DECLARES WAR ON EARTH - OUTLAW PLANET CAPTURES THE MOON!

Space Wages War on Earth!

SEE! Space-shaking last battle of earth rockets vs. flying war saucers!

SEE! Space saboteurs juggle earth's bridges...ships...trains...like toys!

SEE! Earth's minds controlled by rays from outer space!

SEE…

The Biggest Battle Ever Put On Film!

Trailer

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.....