Scientist Russell Marvin and his new bride Carol are driving to work when a flying saucer appears overhead then zooms away. Without proof of the encounter other than a tape recording of the ship's sound, Dr. Marvin is hesitant to notify his bosses. He is in charge of Project Skyhook, an American space program that has already launched 10 research satellites into orbit. General Hanley, Carol's father, returns from an investigation and informs Marvin that many of the satellites have crashed. Marvin admits that he has lost contact with all of them and privately suspects alien involvement. The Marvins themselves witness the eleventh falling from the sky.
When a saucer lands at the lab the next day, the security guards weapons have no effect on the saucer's force field. The aliens kill everyone but the Marvins, who are trapped underground. The general is kidnapped and taken away in the saucer. Russell records a broadcast from the aliens and plays it on a tape recorder, which just happened to be running low on its batteries. The message is slowed down enough that ther aliens' message can be understood: they wanted to meet with Dr. Marvin. Once rescued from the sub-basement, Marvin plays the message for his superiors, but they have to wait for authorization.
Impatient, Marvin contacts the aliens and steals away to meet them, but Carol and Major Huglin follow him. They and a motorcycle cop are taken aboard a spaceship resting on Malibu Beach. They discover that the aliens have extracted knowledge from Gen. Hanley's brain, and now have him under their control, although they reassure Carol that they can restore him. They also claim to be the last of their species and that they shot down the satellites because they thought they were weapons. As proof of their power, the aliens give Marvin the coordinates of where they sank a destroyer that had fired on them. the humans are released with the message that the aliens want to meet the world's leaders in 56 days in Washington, D.C. to negotiate an occupation.
The flying saucers are invulnerable to conventional weapons, but from his observations Marvin develops an ultra-sonic weapon, which is later upgraded to an effective anti-magnetic weapon. He feverishly starts building a prototype, and just as he finishes, a saucer arrives. Marvin tests his weapon and the saucer is disabled enough to send it wobbling away. As they leave, the aliens jettison Gen. Hanley and another captive, who fall to their deaths.
Groups of alien ships then show up in the skies over Washington, Paris, London, and Moscow, and begin destroying everything. But there are enough of Dr. Marvins' new truck-mounted weapons deployed in Washington, D.C. to slowly shoot them down. One saucer clips and topples the Washington Monument, while another crashes into the Capitol Building and a third into Union Station. The defenders also discover that the aliens are vulnerable to small arms fire once they leave the immediate force fields of their saucers.
Special effects expert Ray Harryhausen animated the flying saucers in this movie. Harryhausen also animated the falling stones when saucers crashed into buildings,[citation needed] in order to make the action appear more realistic. Some figure animation was used to show the aliens emerging from the saucers. A considerable amount of stock footage was also used,[citation needed] notably scenes during the invasion that showed batteries of U.S. 90 mm M3 guns and an early rocket launch, presumably standing in for the recently introduced Nike Ajax missile. Stock footage of the explosion of the warship HMS Barham during World War II was used to fill in for a U.S. Navydestroyer that is destroyed by a flying saucer.
The voice of the aliens was produced from a recording of Paul Frees reading the lines by jiggling the speed control of an analog reel-to-reel tape recorder, so that it continually wavered from a slow bass voice to one high and fast.[citation needed]
During a question-and-answer period at a tribute to Harryhausen and a screening of Jason and the Argonauts held in Sydney, Australia,[citation needed] Harryhausen said he sought advice from noted 1950s UFO "contactee" George Adamski on the depiction of the flying saucers in the film, but he thought that Adamski grew increasingly paranoid as time went by. The iconic saucer design, a static central cabin with an outer rotating ring with slotted vanes, matches descriptions given to Donald Keyhoe of flying disc sightings.[citation needed]
Depiction of science and technology
The film has shots of several 1950s technologies in action, including paper tape communications, a telautograph and a differential analyzer.[citation needed] The Project Skyhook in the film (released 1 July 1956) reflects the public interest in announcements about the earth satellite projects of the International Geophysical Year (1 July 1957 to 31 December 1958; first satellites in orbit included Sputnik 1 on 4 October 1957 and Explorer 1 on 31 January 1958.)
The invaders' flying saucers use magnetic drives capable of near light speed velocities, resulting in a distortion of time: while time seems like minutes to the passengers, events on board occur in split seconds of real time. They use spy drones that look like ball lightning or Foo fighters. Their language translator device resembles a glowing crystal rose which also serves as the input device for their "Infinitely Indexed Memory Bank". Humans captured by the invaders are subjected to scanning for the "Infinitely Indexed Memory Bank" which strips the victims' mind of all knowledge, leaving them mindless zombies. At one point, the invaders seize control of all communications to broadcast their ultimatum: "People of Earth, Attention!"
The invaders induce solar flares that disrupt earth's weather and mankind's communications. The invaders' main weapons are disintegrator rays housed in the arms of their space suits (which are unarmored and vulnerable to gunfire) and in a parabolic device that extends and retracts from the base of their saucers. The ray reduces humans and trucks to ashes and causes aircraft, ships and buildings to explode or fall apart.
Info About This Groundbreaking Sci-Fi Movie With A Top Notch Soundtrack:
Forbidden Planet is a 1956 science fiction film[2][3] directed by Fred M. Wilcox, with a screenplay by Cyril Hume. It stars Leslie Nielsen, Walter Pidgeon, and Anne Francis. The characters and its setting have been compared to those in William Shakespeare's The Tempest,[4] and its plot contains certain story analogs. Forbidden Planet was the first science fiction film that was set entirely on another planet in deep space, away from the planet Earth.[5] It is considered one of the great science fiction films of the 1950s,[6] a precursor of what was to come for the science fiction film genre in the decades that followed. Forbidden Planet features special effects for which A. Arnold Gillespie, Irving G. Ries, and Wesley C. Miller were nominated for an Academy Award. It was the only major award nomination the film received. Forbidden Planet features the groundbreaking use of an all-electronic musicmusical score. It also featured "Robby the Robot", one of the first film robots that was more than just a mechanical "tin can" on legs; Robby displays a distinct personality and is a complete supporting character in the film.[7]
Plot
Early in the 23rd century, the United Planets Cruiser C57-D travels to the planet Altair IV, 16 light-years from the Earth, to discover the fate of an expedition sent 20 years earlier. Soon after achieving orbit, the cruiser receives a radio transmission from Dr. Edward Morbius, the expedition's linguist, who warns them to stay away, saying he cannot guarantee their safety and that he needs no assistance. The starship's captain, Commander John J. Adams, insists on landing. They are met by Robby the Robot, who takes Adams, Lieutenant Jerry Farman, and Lieutenant "Doc" Ostrow to Morbius. At his home, Morbius explains that an unknown "planetary force" killed nearly everyone else and then vaporized their starship as the survivors tried to leave the planet. Only Morbius, his wife (who later died of natural causes), and their daughter Altaira were somehow immune to this force. Morbius fears that the C57-D and its crew will meet the same fate. Altaira is fascinated to meet men other than her father. Later the next night, some equipment aboard the C57-D is sabotaged, though the sentries never spotted an intruder. Adams and Ostrow visit Morbius the following morning, and learn that he has been studying the Krell, a highly advanced native humanoid species. The Krell had all died mysteriously in a single night, some 200,000 years before, just as they achieved their crowning scientific triumph. In a still functioning Krell laboratory, Morbius shows Adams and Ostrow a device he calls the "plastic educator," a machine capable of measuring and enhancing intellectual capacity; it shows three-dimensional projections of thoughts. The captain of the Bellerophon had tried using the machine and had been killed instantly. When Morbius used the machine the first time he himself barely survived, but found his intellectual capacity had been permanently doubled. This, along with information he obtained from a Krell "library," enabled him to build Robby and the other technological marvels in his house. Morbius then takes them on a tour of a vast cube-shaped self-maintaining underground Krell complex, 20 miles [30 km] on a side and powered by 9,200 thermonuclear reactors. In response to the sabotage, Adams orders a defensive force field fence deployed around the ship. This proves useless when the intruder returns undetected and murders Chief Engineer Quinn aboard the starship. Dr. Ostrow is confused by a casting made from one of the large footprints the intruder left behind; its features appear to violate all known evolutionary laws. When the intruder returns again the next night, the C57-Ds crew discovers it is invisible, its shape outlined only by the energy beams of the force field fence and the energy weapons directed at it, all of which have no effect. Several of the crew are killed, including Farman. Simultaneously in the Krell laboratory, Morbius is awakened from a nightmare by Altaira's scream; at that same instant, the creature vanishes. Later, while Adams confronts Morbius, Ostrow sneaks away to use the educator. He is mortally injured, but just before he dies, Ostrow explains to Adams that the vast underground installation was built to materialize any object that the Krell could imagine anywhere on the planet. However, Ostrow realizes that the Krell had forgotten one vital thing: "Monsters from the id! Monsters from the subconscious." When confronted by Adams, Morbius objects, pointing out that there are no Krell still alive. Adams replies that Morbius's mind – expanded by the "plastic educator" – had recreated the same creature that had killed the members of the original expedition, but Morbius still refuses to believe it. When Altaira declares her love for Adams in defiance of her father's wishes, the monster approaches the house. Morbius commands Robby to kill it, but Robby knows the creature is an extension of his master. The conflict with his programming to never harm humans forces Robby to shut down. The monster breaks into the house and eventually melts its way through the nearly indestructible doors of the Krell laboratory where Adams, Altaira, and Morbius have taken refuge. Morbius finally accepts the truth: The creature is an extension of his own mind, "his evil self". He is fatally injured trying to drive the creature away, but the monster disappears. Morbius directs Adams to activate a self-destruct mechanism; he warns them that they must be 100 million miles away within 24 hours. From deep space, Adams, Altaira, Robby, and the rest of the crew witness the destruction of Altair IV.
The screen story by Irving Block and Allen Adler, written in 1952, was originally titled Fatal Planet. The later screenplay draft by Cyril Hume renamed the film Forbidden Planet, because this was believed to have greater box-office appeal.[8] Block and Adler's drama took place in the year 1976 on the planet Mercury. An Earth expedition headed by John Grant was sent to the planet to retrieve Dr. Adams and his daughter Dorianne, who have been stranded there for twenty years. From then on, its plot is roughly the same as that of the completed film, though Grant is able to rescue both Adams and his daughter and escape the invisible monster stalking them. The film sets were constructed on a Metro Goldwyn Mayer (MGM) sound stage at its Culver City film lot and were designed by Cedric Gibbons and Arthur Longeran. The film was shot entirely indoors, with all the Altair IV exterior scenes simulated using sets, visual effects, and matte paintings. A full-size mock-up of roughly three-quarters of the C57-D starship was built to suggest its full width of 170 ft (51 m). The ship was surrounded by a huge, painted cyclorama featuring the desert landscape of Altair IV; this one set took up all of the available space in one of the Culver City sound stages. Forbidden Planet is the first science fiction film in which humans are depicted traveling in a starship of their own construction.[9]
Later, C57-D models, special effects shots, and the full-size set details were reused in several different episodes of the television seriesThe Twilight Zone, which were filmed by CBS at the same MGM studio location in Culver City. At a cost of roughly $125,000, Robby the Robot was very expensive for a single film prop at this time.[10] Both the electrically controlled passenger vehicle driven by Robby and the truck/tractor-crane off-loaded from the C57-D starship were also constructed specially for this film. Robby the Robot later starred in the science fiction film The Invisible Boy and appeared in many TV series and films that followed; like the C57-D, Robby (and his passenger vehicle) appeared in various episodes of CBS' The Twilight Zone, usually slightly modified for each appearance. The animated sequences of Forbidden Planet, especially the attack of the "Id Monster", were created by the veteran animator Joshua Meador,[11] who was loaned out to MGM by Walt Disney Pictures. According to a "Behind the Scenes" featurette on the film's DVD, a close look at the creature shows it to have a small goatee beard, suggesting its connection to Dr. Morbius, the only character with this physical feature; the bellowing, now visible Id monster, caught in the crewman's high-energy beams during the attack, is a direct reference to and visual pun on MGM's familiar roaring mascot Leo the Lion, seen at the very beginning of Forbidden Planet and the studio's other films of the era.
Release
Forbidden Planet was first released on April 1, 1956, across the United States of America in CinemaScope and Metrocolor, and with stereophonic sound in some cinemas (either by the magnetic or Perspecta processes). The premiere of Forbidden Planet in Hollywood was at Grauman's Chinese Theatre, and Robby the Robot was on display in the lobby. Forbidden Planet ran every day at Grauman's Theater through the following September. Forbidden Planet was re-released in film theaters during 1972 as one of the "Kiddie Matinee" features of MGM, with about six minutes of film footage cut to ensure that it received a "G" rating from the Motion Picture Association of America.[9] Video releases feature the "G" rating; however, they are all uncut.
Home media
Forbidden Planet was first sold in the pan and scan format on MGM VHS and Betamax Video tapes in 1982, then was re-issued again by MGM/UA on widescreen VHS for the film's 40th anniversary in 1996. The film was also released on laser disc the same year by MGM/UA and later in its original CinemaScope widescreen format from The Criterion Collection. The Warner Bros. company next released it on DVD in 1999. (MGM's catalog of films had been sold to AOL-Time Warner by Turner Entertainment and MGM/UA in 1998. Their version came with both the standard and original widescreen format on the same disc.)
For the film's 50th anniversary, the Ultimate Collector's Edition was released on November 28, 2006 in an oversized red metal box, using the original movie poster for its cover. Both DVD and high definition HD DVD formats were available in this deluxe package. Inside both premium packages were the films Forbidden Planet and The Invisible Boy, The Thin Man episode "Robot Client" and a documentary Watch the Skies!: Science Fiction, The 1950s and Us. Also included were miniature lobby cards and a 8 cm (3-inch) toy replica of Robby the Robot.[12] This was quickly followed by the release of the Forbidden Planet 50th Anniversary edition in both standard DVD and HD DVD packaging.[9] Both 50th anniversary formats were mastered by Warner Bros.–MGM techs from a fully restored, digital transfer of the film.[13] A Blu-ray Disc edition of Forbidden Planet was released on September 7, 2010.
Soundtrack
Forbidden Planet's innovative electronic music score, credited as "electronic tonalities" – partly to avoid having to pay any of the film industry music guild fees[citation needed] – was composed by Louis and Bebe Barron. MGM producer Dore Schary discovered the couple quite by chance at a beatnik nightclub in Greenwich Village while on a family Christmas visit to New York City; Schary hired them on the spot to compose his film's musical score. While the theremin (which was not used in Forbidden Planet) had been used on the soundtrack of Alfred Hitchcock's Spellbound (1945), the Barrons' electronic composition is credited with being the first completely electronic film score; their soundtrack preceded the invention of the Moog synthesizer by eight years (1964). Using ideas and procedures from the book, Cybernetics: Or, Control and Communication in the Animal and the Machine (1948) by the mathematician and electrical engineerNorbert Wiener, Louis Barron constructed his own electronic circuits that he used to generate the score's "bleeps, blurps, whirs, whines, throbs, hums, and screeches".[10] Most of these sounds were generated using an electronic circuit called a "ring modulator". After recording the basic sounds, the Barrons further manipulated the sounds by adding other effects, such as reverberation and delay, and reversing or changing the speeds of certain sounds.[16] Since Louis and Bebe Barron did not belong to the Musicians Union, their work could not be considered for an Academy Award – in either the "soundtrack" or the "sound effects" categories. MGM declined to publish a soundtrack album at the same time that Forbidden Planet was released. However, film composer and conductor David Rose later published a 7" (18 cm) single of his original main title theme that he had recorded at the MGM Studios in Culver City during March 1956. His main title theme had been discarded when Rose, who had originally been hired to compose the musical score in 1955, was discharged from the project by Dore Schary sometime between Christmas 1955 and New Year’s Day.[citation needed] The Barrons finally released their soundtrack in 1976 as an LPalbum for the film's 20th anniversary; it was on their very own PLANET Records label (later changed to SMALL PLANET Records and distributed by GNP Crescendo Records). The LP was premiered at MidAmeriCon, the 34th World Science Fiction Convention, held in Kansas City, MO over the 1976 Labor Day weekend, as part of a 20th Anniversary celebration of Forbidden Planet held at that Worldcon; the Barrons were there promoting their album's first release, signing all the copies sold there. They also introduced the first of three packed-house screenings that showed an MGM 35mm fine grain vault print in original CinemaScope and sterophonic sound. A decade later, their soundtrack was released on a music CD in 1986 for the film's 30th Anniversary, with a six-page color booklet containing images from Forbidden Planet, plus liner notes from the composers, Louis and Bebe Barron, and Bill Malone.[16] The soundtrack is also available on disc one of the album Forbidden Planet Explored.
Track list
The following is a list of compositions on the CD:[16]
Main Titles (Overture)
Deceleration
Once Around Altair
The Landing
Flurry Of Dust – A Robot Approaches
A Shangri-La In The Desert / Garden With Cuddly Tiger
Graveyard – A Night With Two Moons
"Robby, Make Me A Gown"
An Invisible Monster Approaches
Robby Arranges Flowers, Zaps Monkey
Love At The Swimming Hole
Morbius' Study
Ancient Krell Music
The Mind Booster – Creation Of Matter
Krell Shuttle Ride And Power Station
Giant Footprints In The Sand
"Nothing Like This Claw Found In Nature!"
Robby, The Cook, And 60 Gallons Of Booze
Battle With The Invisible Monster
"Come Back To Earth With Me"
The Monster Pursues – Morbius Is Overcome
The Homecoming
Overture (Reprise) [this track recorded at Royce Hall, UCLA, 1964]
Influence
The biography of Gene Roddenberry, Star Trek Creator, notes that Forbidden Planet was one of the inspirations for the series Star Trek.[17] The Doctor Who story Planet of Evil was consciously based partly on Forbidden Planet.[18] The musical Return to the Forbidden Planet was inspired and loosely based on Forbidden Planet[19] and won the Olivier Award for best musical of 1989/90.[20] A scene from the science fiction television series Babylon 5, set on the Epsilon III Great Machine bridge, strongly resembles the Krell Great Machine. While this was not the intent of the show's producer, the special effects crew tasked with creating the imagery stated that the Krell Great Machine was a deliberate reference to their Epsilon III homage.[21] The film is named alongside several other science-fiction cult films in the opening song of The Rocky Horror Picture Show.
The film depicts a future in which human beings, known as "Oms" (a homonym of the French-language word hommes, meaning men), are creatures on the Draags' home planet, where they are seen as pests and sometimes kept as pets (with collars). The Draags are an alien species which is humanoid in shape but a hundred times larger than humans, with blue skin, fan-like earlobes and huge, protruding red eyes. The Draags also live much longer than human beings – one Draag week equals a human year. Some Oms are domesticated as pets, but others run wild, and are periodically exterminated. The Draags' treatment of the Oms is ironically contrasted with their high level of technological and spiritual development. The story opens with a woman running, occasionally looking behind her as if pursued. An enormous hand descends and blocks her way. She runs back the way she came and finds her way blocked by another hand. It becomes apparent that she is being toyed with by entities that do not appreciate her fragility, and as she dies, the infant she has been carrying and attempting to protect begins to cry. The view changes to reveal the Draag children who have accidentally killed the woman; they leave quickly when an adult Draag and child approach. The child voices concern for the orphaned infant, and the two take the child to their home. Tiva (the Draag child) names the infant Terr (word play on the French word Terre, meaning Earth). Her father, whom the adult Terr voice-over explains is master Sinh, the Draag great Aedile, attaches a collar capable of physically dragging Terr back from mischief, and over the next several scenes, their relationships develop. Terr witnesses the parents seemingly ingesting food by inhaling it from a device. After changing Terr's costume as one would a doll's, Tiva uses makeup to give herself a more Om-like appearance. When Terr impishly trades dark pigment for light, Tiva blows some of the powder on him. Tiva uses a tiny indoor weather-maker to cause a small storm cloud to form over Terr and chase him around the dwelling. Tiva takes Terr for a walk, and then teaches him how, under certain circumstances, crystals will form on stationary objects, including standing bipeds. She also teaches him that whistling will shatter the crystals. Terr happens upon master Sinh as he and several compatriots are melding in a ritual, and it is revealed that many Draag children have Oms like Terr when they convene to watch their respective Oms interact. Tiva's education is supplied by the use of a headset that transmits knowledge directly into the brain of the user. Because she enjoys having Terr in her hand when she is having her "infos," Terr begins to acquire their knowledge. Meanwhile, at the seat of government, Draag Councilors discuss whether the regular extermination of the wild Oms is sufficient to keep their numbers at an acceptable level. It is revealed that Oms were first found on a planet that retained some evidence of structured life, but the images seem to reveal that Earth was in a post-apocalyptic state at the time. Terr decides to escape, and to take the headset with him. He does not get very far before Tiva realizes he is missing, and her mother tells her to use her bracelet to bring him back. Terr finds himself suddenly being dragged backward by the collar. Only the headset becoming entangled in plants allows a wild female Om to come to his rescue before he is choked by the collar or dragged all the way back. When Terr explains that the headset contains the knowledge of the Draags but he doesn't know where to go with it, his unnamed rescuer takes him to her tribe, who live in a tree in a walled park. When it is demonstrated that Terr can read Draag script, the leader (known only as "Mighty One") is willing to accept Terr into the tribe, but the Wizard is not, and demands a trial by combat – to the death. Terr and the Wizard's champion have child-sized animals bound to their torsos in such a way as to prevent the combatants from using anything but the beaks of said animals to attack. Terr is injured, but wins the trial. Over the next several scenes, it is shown how the Oms have adapted to life on the Draags' planet. Snail-like animals weave clothes onto the Oms, predators that would eat Oms are in turn hunted and efficiently stripped of useful materials, and the gene pool is kept well-mixed. Oms even make the occasional foray into Draag areas in search of resources. Returning from one such expedition, the group of adventurers is accosted by bandits who drop clawlike harpoons into the cargo and simply lift it up into their own tree. Mighty One tells Terr that they live on the other side of the park, and cautions him that they are evil. When the now-literate Oms read the new sign on one of the walls, they realize the park is about to be "de-Omised." Terr decides that he must take this information to the tribe of bandits, and is quickly captured and taken before their leader, a wizened old woman. The woman is skeptical of his claims and orders Terr's imprisonment. When the de-Omising begins, however, the old woman returns and frees him. The de-Omising is accomplished using disks that release a poison gas. A great many Oms perish from this gas, but a sizable number still manage to escape through a crack in the park wall. Two passing Draags witness the exodus, and one begins crushing the Oms underfoot. The Oms retaliate and manage to kill their attacker while the other escapes. Afterward, Mighty one is revealed to be killed and the old woman leads the survivors to a place where she believes they will be safe. The death of a Draag puts the Council in an uproar. De-Omising is stepped up to a much higher priority, new technologies are developed, and extermination frequency is scheduled to greatly increase. The old woman has led the two now-united tribes to an old rocket depot. Applying their newfound knowledge, the Oms, under Terr's direction, very quickly adapt the abandoned technologies to their own purposes and begin to flourish, thanks to the rebirth of mechanized industry. On a visit to the old woman, Terr's wife hears her express both optimism and regret that she will not live to see the Oms finally find peace. Fatalities resulting from Draag attempts to de-Om the rocket depot are minimized by the creation and organized use of shelters, but the Draags' updated de-Omising technologies become ever more aggressive, and when an automated scout detects the persistent Om settlement, it summons an array of lethal devices. As the attacks become more diverse and effective, the Oms launch their manned rockets toward the Fantastic Planet, where they discover headless humanoid statues. As Draag meditation bubbles descend to alight atop the statues, the statues begin to dance. It is revealed via Terr's voiceover that this is the secret of the Fantastic Planet. Draag meditation animates the statues and allows the Draag to reproduce. When the feet of the dancing statues threaten the rockets, the Oms use energy weapons to shatter the statues, effectively killing thousands of meditative Draag. Pandemonium reigns in the Council chamber, for it seems the two species will destroy one another if they cannot find a way to live together. Apparently they do just that, for in the very next scene, an Om steps down off an outstretched Draag hand, removes his silly hat and assumes a posture of confidence and self-assertion. The headset voice dispassionately recounts the Om's construction of a new satellite where Oms can live, "which they call Terr, after their ancestral planet."
Themes
The film is chiefly noted for its surreal imagery, the work of French writer and artistRoland Topor. The landscape of the Draag planet is full of strange creatures, including a cackling predator which traps small fluttering animals in its cage-like nose, shakes them to death and hurls them to the ground. The Draag practice of meditation, whereby they commune psychically with each other and with different species, is shown in transformations of their shape and colour. The interaction of science and superstition is most apparent in the Wizard, who resists the knowledge that Terr brings, fearing it will erode the power he maintains. Knowledge trumps ignorance, but in this case only after surviving an attempted assassination. Terr's drive to share knowledge overpowers the fear of an unknown people. Only his courage to save others not of his adopted tribe allows that tribe to overcome the loss of their leader. The Draags and Oms finally learn to live in peace and mutual benefit; presumably any groups can if they and their leaders really want to. This may have been a theme favoured by the filmmakers as it was made and released during the Cold War (the source novel was written long before this).
At least two versions of the film were available on VHS, the only differences being two very brief scenes. The shortened film left out Tiva's first attempt at naming the new baby Om and her father's reply. Another very brief omission (an establishing shot) had no dialogue.
Burnt-in English subtitles on Anchor Bay's USA DVD release spell the name of the blue-skinned species as "Draag"; the original novel the film is based on spells it as "Traag".
In 2006, Eureka Entertainment released the film on DVD in the UK as #34 in their Masters of Cinema range. Unlike the Anchor Bay release, this uses an anamorphic widescreen transfer and newly translated subtitles which retain the "Draag" spelling. This version was released in Region 1 on October 23, 2007.
On October 23, 2007 Facets Video and Accent Cinema released a newly restored version of the film on DVD, including many bonus features never available before. It is different from the version released by Eureka.
In August 2010, Eureka released a restored high-definition transfer of the film on Blu-Ray, with special features including a collection of Laloux's short films, and a 27-minute documentary called Laloux sauvage. Eureka, a London-based company, has only produced the edition as a region B release.
Televised airings
Madlib cites the film as an influence, using visuals from the film on his album covers and samples of the soundtrack on his songs. The song "Come On Feet", on his album The Unseen, contains many samples from the movie, including the recurring melody of the main theme.[5]
Info About This Trash-SciFi Zombie Horror Movie With Tura Satana & John Carradine:
The Astro-Zombies, aka Space Zombies aka The Space Vampires, is a 1968 science fictionhorror film starring John Carradine, Wendell Corey (in his final film appearance) and Tura Satana. It was written, directed, and produced by Ted V. Mikels. The plot follows a disgruntled scientist who, having been fired by the space agency, decides to create superhuman monsters from the body parts of innocent murder victims. The creatures eventually escape and go on a killing spree, attracting the attention of both an international spy ring and the CIA.
The low budget movie has gained cult status along with many of Ted V. Mikels other works, inspiring him to write and direct a sequel. Mark of the Astro-Zombies was released direct-to-video in 2002 with Tura Satana reprising her role of Satana from the original film.
During a showing of the film on KTVU's Creature Features, it was noted that much of the film was shot on property owned by actor Wayne Rogers.
American horror punk band the Misfits recorded a song entitled "Astro Zombies", released on their 1982 album, Walk Among Us.
Sequel
With Mark of the Astro-Zombies was 2002 the second movie released, the third and last movie of the Trilogy will be released 2010 under the working title Astro Zombies M3: Cloned.[1]
Info About This Great Exploitation Movie With Tura Satana:
Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill! is a 1965 exploitation film directed by Russ Meyer, who also wrote the script with Jack Moran. It stars Tura Satana, Haji, and Lori Williams.
The film features gratuitous violence, sexuality, provocative gender roles, and camp dialogue. It is one of Meyer's more boldly titled and unflinchingly exploitative films; however, there is no nudity.
The film was shot in the extreme western parts of the Mojave Desert. However, some of the scenes appear to have been filmed farther east, near Baker, California. The last scenes in the film were made west of California City. The rail line running between Mojave and Trona, California is clearly evident.
Plot
Three thrill-seeking go-go dancers—Billie (Lori Williams), Rosie (Haji), and their leader, Varla (Tura Satana)—encounter a young couple in the desert while racing their sports cars. After killing the boyfriend (Ray Barlow) with her bare hands, Varla drugs, binds, gags and kidnaps his girlfriend, Linda (Susan Bernard). On a desolate highway, the four stop at a gas station, where they see a wheelchair-bound old man (Stuart Lancaster) and his muscular, dimwitted son, Vegetable (Dennis Busch). The gas station attendant (Mickey Foxx) tells the women that the old man and his two sons live on a decrepit ranch with a hidden cache of money. Intrigued, Varla hatches a scheme to rob the lecherous old man.
Beyond the Valley of the Dolls is a 1970 American schlockmelodrama film starring Dolly Read, Cynthia Myers, Marcia McBroom, John LaZar, Michael Blodgett and David Gurian. The cult classic was directed by Russ Meyer and co-written by Meyer and Roger Ebert.
Originally intended as a sequel to the 1967 film Valley of the Dolls – "dolls" being a slang term for depressant pills or "downers" – Beyond the Valley of the Dolls was instead revised as a parody of the commercially successful but critically reviled original.
Plot
Three young women — Kelly MacNamara (Dolly Read), Casey Anderson (Cynthia Myers), and Petronella "Pet" Danforth (Marcia McBroom) — perform in a rock band, The Kelly Affair, managed by Harris Allsworth (David Gurian), Kelly's boyfriend. The four travel to Los Angeles to find Kelly's estranged aunt, Susan Lake (Phyllis Davis), heiress to a family fortune. Susan welcomes Kelly and her friends, even promising a third of her inheritance to her niece, but Susan's sleazy financial advisor Porter Hall (Duncan McLeod) discredits them as "hippies" in an attempt to embezzle her fortune himself. Undeterred, Susan introduces The Kelly Affair to a flamboyant, well-connected rock producer, Ronnie "Z-Man" Barzell (John LaZar), who coaxes them into an impromptu performance at one of his outrageous parties (after a set by real-life band Strawberry Alarm Clock). The band is so well-received that Z-Man becomes their Svengali-style manager, changing their name to The Carrie Nations and starting a long-simmering feud with Harris. Kelly drifts away from Harris and takes up with Lance Rocke (Michael Blodgett), a high-priced gigolo who pursued her with designs on her inheritance. Harris fends off the aggressive attentions of porn star Ashley St. Ives (Edy Williams), but after losing Kelly weakly allows Ashley to seduce him. Ashley soon tires of his uptight nature and inability to perform sexually due to increasing drug and alcohol intake. Harris descends further into heavy drug and alcohol use, leading to a drug-addled one-night stand with Casey which results in pregnancy. Casey, distraught at getting pregnant and wary of men's foibles, has a lesbian affair with clothes designer Roxanne (Erica Gavin), who urges her to have an abortion. Petronella has a seemingly enchanted romance with law student Emerson Thorne (Harrison Page). After a meet-cute at Z-Man's party, they are shown running slow-motion through golden fields and frolicking in a haystack. Their fairy-tale romance frays when Pet sleeps with Randy Black (James Iglehart), a violent prize fighter who beats up Emerson and tries to run him down with a car. A drunk Harris challenges Lance to a fight. After Lance beats him severely, Kelly ends her affair with Lance. Susan Lake is reunited with her former fiancè Baxter Wolfe (Charles Napier). The Carrie Nations release records and continue to perform successfully, despite constant touring and drug use. Upset at being pushed to the sidelines, Harris attempts suicide by leaping from the rafters of a sound stage during a television appearance by the band. Harris survives the fall but becomes paraplegic from his injuries. Kelly devotes much time to caring for him. Emerson forgives Petronella for her infidelity. Casey and Roxanne have a steamy, intimate romance. But this idyllic existence ends when Z-Man invites Casey, Roxanne, and Lance to a psychedelic-fueled party at his house. After revealing he has female breasts and trying to seduce Lance, who spurns him, Z-Man goes on a murderous rampage: he beheads Lance with a sword (while the Twentieth-Century Fox fanfare is heard on the soundtrack), stabs his servant Otto (Henry Rowland) to death, and shoots Casey and Roxanne, killing them. Responding to a desperate phone call Casey made shortly before her death, Kelly, Harris, Pet, and Emerson arrive at Z-Man's house and try to subdue him. Petronella is wounded in the melee, which ends in Z-Man's death. After a preachy, satirical voice-over monologue during scenes of Kelly and Harris (in crutches) hiking on a log over a creek — which Roger Ebert credits to Russ Meyer's "sick sense of humor"[cite this quote] — the film ends with the wedding of three couples, Kelly and Harris, Pet and Emerson, and Susan and Baxter Wolfe, with Porter Hall observing from outside the court house window.
Production
Beyond the Valley of the Dolls was originally intended as a straightforward sequel to the 1967 film Valley of the Dolls. Jacqueline Susann, author of the novel Valley of the Dolls, had been asked to write a screenplay but declined. Susann herself had come up with the title while she was writing her second novel The Love Machine. 20th Century Fox rejected two screenplay drafts, and the final version, written by director Russ Meyer and novice screenwriter Roger Ebert in six weeks, was not only a spoof of the original film, but, in Ebert's words "a satire of Hollywood conventions, genres, situations, dialogue, characters and success formulas, heavily overlaid with such shocking violence that some critics didn't know whether the movie 'knew' it was a comedy."[3] Meyer's intention was for the film to "simultaneously be a satire, a serious melodrama, a rock musical, a comedy, a violent exploitation picture, a skin flick and a moralistic expose (so soon after the Sharon Tate murders) of what the opening crawl called 'the oft-times nightmarish world of Show Business.'"[3] As a result, the studio placed a disclaimer at the beginning of the film informing the audience that the two films were not intended to be connected. Posters for the movie read, "This is not a sequel — there has never been anything like it". Upon its initial release, the film was given an X rating by the MPAA;[4] in 1990, it was re-classified as NC-17. Meyer's response to the original X rating was to attempt to re-edit the film to insert more nudity and sex, but Fox wanted to get the movie released quickly and wouldn't give him the time.[3] Beyond the Valley of the Dolls – sometimes referred to as BVD – is the first of two films produced by independent filmmaker Meyer for 20th Century Fox – it was followed by The Seven Minutes, although Meyer's original deal was for three films[3] – and one of three movies that film critic Ebert co-wrote with Meyer. Ebert has said that Beyond the Valley of the Dolls seemed "like a movie that got made by accident when the lunatics took over the asylum."[5] Because the film was put together so quickly, some plot decisions, such as the character Z-Man being revealed as a transvestite woman, were made on the spot, without the chance to bring previous already-shot scenes into alignment with the new development.[3] As they were shooting, the cast was uncertain whether the dialogue was intended to be comic or not, which would alter their approach to acting it. Because Meyer always discussed their roles and the film so seriously, they did not want to unintentionally insult him by asking, so they broached the question to Ebert instead. Meyer's intention was to have the actors perform the material in a straightforward manner, saying "If the actors perform as if they know they have funny lines, it won't work." Ebert describes the resulting tone as "curious".[3] In 1980, Ebert looked back on the film and said of it:
I think of it as an essay on our generic expectations. It's an anthology of stock situations, characters, dialogue, clichés and stereotypes, set to music and manipulated to work as exposition and satire at the same time; it's cause and effect, a wind-up machine to generate emotions, pure movie without message.[3]
Beyond the Valley of the Dolls was made while Fox was being sued by Jacqueline Susann, according to Irving Mansfield's memoir Jackie and Me. The suit did not come to trial until after the death of Jacqueline Susann, and her estate won a $2 million verdict against the studio.
Music and soundtrack
Most of the film's music was written by Stu Phillips, whose composing credits include The Donna Reed Show, The Monkees, McCloud, and the original film and television versions of Battlestar Galactica. Phillips adapted Paul Dukas' The Sorcerer's Apprentice for the psychedelic scene at Z-Man's house near the film's end.[6] Members of the fictitious Carrie Nations neither sing nor play their own instruments in the film. Vocals for the lip-synced songs were performed by Lynn Carey, a blue-eyed soul singer based in Los Angeles. Carey's voice is showcased on the apocalyptic rocker "Find It", the earnest folk anthem "Come With the Gentle People", the raunchy R&B of "Sweet Talking Candyman", the lilting ballad "In the Long Run", and the soulful strut of "Look On Up At the Bottom". Strawberry Alarm Clock perform their 1967 hit "Incense and Peppermints", the mid-tempo rocker "Girl from the City", and the power pop anthem "I'm Comin' Home" during the first party scene at Z-Man's house. The film's title song was performed by A&M artists The Sandpipers. Different versions of the soundtrack album exist because of disputes over royalties.[6] The original vinyl soundtrack, reissued in the early 2000s, substitutes Amy Rushes' vocals for Lynn Carey's originals; it also includes one song, "Once I Had Love", not on the 2003 CD reissue. However, the CD edition of the soundtrack contains 25 songs compared to the 12 songs on the vinyl version. "Incense and Peppermints", some incidental music, and the Strawberry Alarm Clock's Hammond organ instrumental "Toy Boy" are missing from all soundtrack releases.
Character influences
Roger Ebert revealed that many of BVD's themes and characters were based upon real people and events, but because neither Ebert nor Russ Meyer actually met these people, their characterizations were based on pure speculation.
Ronnie "Z-Man" Barzell - The fictional eccentric rock producer turned Carrie Nations manager was loosely based on real life producer Phil Spector.[7] More than three decades later Spector was convicted of murder after the body of Lana Clarkson was found at his mansion, which is somewhat reminiscent of the events of the film's climax.
The climactic, violent ending, which was not in the original script, was inspired by the real life Tate-LaBianca murders perpetrated by the Manson Family. The film began production on December 2, 1969, shortly after the murders, which were covered heavily by the media.[9]Valley of the Dolls star Sharon Tate was among the murder victims, as was Jay Sebring. Vocalist Lynn Carey, who was dating Sebring and had been invited to join him the night of the Tate-LaBianca murders, refused his invitation, according to her comments on the DVD extras.
Porter Hall - This scheming lawyer shares the name of a character actor who often played movie villains.[10]
Susan Lake and Baxter Wolfe were, in an original draft script, Anne Welles and Lyon Burke from Valley of the Dolls. Their back-story stated in BVD ("He proposed to her but it was the wrong time", "It's been three years..."), matches the ending of the original. Following Jacqueline Susann's legal-action proceedings against 20th Century Fox, the characters were renamed and recast.[11]Barbara Parkins, who played Anne, was originally under contract to appear in BVD and was disappointed when she was abruptly removed from the project.[12] The BVD special edition DVD features a screen test with Michael Blodgett and Cynthia Myers enacting the bedroom scene between Lance and Kelly. Obviously based on an early script, the dialogue has them make reference to Anne Welles, not Susan Lake, as Kelly's Aunt.
Legacy
Since its release in 1970, BVD has acquired a cult following and has even been included in various "best of" lists by movie critics. In 2000, Canadian magazine Take One included BVD in their "Best Films of the 1970s" critics poll.[13] In 2001, the Village Voice named the film #87 on its list of the 100 Greatest Films of the Century.[14] Beyond the Valley of the Dolls was released as a two-disc, special-edition DVD set on June 13, 2006.
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