New Shout! Factory Blues

I couldn't wait until this afternoon to go and pick up the new Shout! Factory Battle Beyond The Stars and Damnation Alley special edition Blu-rays, so late last night, I headed out to my favorite place to buy vids (Bull Moose Music in Waterville, ME) and walked out with both discs at three minutes past midnight.

I have not yet had time to sit down and watch either film all the way through (although I'm probably going to spin Battle right after I finish this post), but I have given both discs a quick scan. Battle looks gorgeous. There are a few specks and scratches here and there, but it's a quantum improvement over the original New Concorde DVD from a decade or so ago (that print looked like it had been stored in a ditch). I would never have imagined that this low-budget Roger Corman space opera could ever look as good as it does here. For one thing, you can finally appreciate all the skill that the miniature crew put into designing and detailing the model spaceships.

The Hephaestus Station flyby (with James Horner's homage to Jerry Goldsmith's Star Trek - TMP "V'Ger" theme) in particular was a revelation - on the old DVD the scene was so dark that you could barely make out any fine detail on the space station model at all. Now, it's crystal clear. In fact, everything - sets, costumes, etc. - looks remarkable, and I'm eager to kick back and watch the whole movie - and the supplemental featurettes.

The Damnation Alley transfer doesn't quite fare as well; the film was shot on very grainy 70s film stock, and all the optical effects that were added in post only degrade the image further. Still, it looks vastly better than any cable TV print I've seen, with much stronger colors and contrast - and it's in its correct 2.35:1 'scope aspect ratio.The extras look promising, too.

Look for full reviews shortly, both here and at my DVD Late Show site.

Catherine Schell in MOON ZERO TWO (1969)

Here are a couple of nice publicity shots of gorgeous Catherine Schell (Space: 1999's Maya) in the 1969 Hammer space Western, Moon Zero Two, which I wrote about a few days ago.

Consider this a Space Babes "extra," as the stunning Ms. Schell was our Space Babe for June, 2010!

Behind-The-Scenes Pix #2: STAR WARS

George Lucas directs ill-fated galactic bounty hunter Greedo (Maria De Aragon in high heels!) on the set of Star Wars in 1976. Actor Paul Blake also portrayed the character in the film, in the scenes where both Greedo and Han Solo are seen in the same shot. The two Greedo suits weren't quite identical; look closely and you'll see that the shape of the alien's fingers change from shot-to-shot.

Captain's bLog 0709.10

 

•  Am still struggling to wrap up various writing commitments, so there will continue to be mostly graphics-heavy posts (comic book covers, posters, stills, etc.) here at Space: 1970 for a while yet. I do still  plan on posting DVD reviews of  the Warner Archives discs of The Bermuda Depths, Thundarr the Barbarian and Strange New World over the next month or so, and will obviously be writing about the Battle Beyond The Stars and Damnation Alley Blu-rays that are due from Shout! Factory on Tuesday. I also hope to have the second Space: 1970 Podcast available in August. Stay tuned.

•  Although Universal continues to maintain that the audio problems on their recent release of The Bionic Woman Season 2 DVDs were inherent in the source materials that they had available at the time, they are now offering "corrected" replacements for disc 4, which contained the worst of the problems. I've contacted their Customer Service folks and will be sending my disc in exchange for the replacement next week. Here's the official info:

The initial release of "The Bionic Woman: Season 2" was issued with the best audio elements that the studio had available at the time, which included noticeably imperfect audio from the episode, "Deadly Ringer." Constructive feedback and suggestions since provided from fans has led to the uncovering of additional source material to repair (or improve?) the audio on this specific episode.

Consumers not satisfied with their purchase can send their mailing addresses to Universal Studios Home Entertainment Consumer Relations at: USHE.ConsumerRelations@bydeluxe.com. They will receive information on returning disc 4 which featured the episode, "Deadly Ringer," in exchange for a replacement disc with corrected audio.

•  Filmmaker Sandy Collora, director of the 70s-esque sci-fi adventure film, Hunter Prey, which I was very impressed by, dropped me a line a couple days ago to tell me about his newest project. This one, Shallow Water, appears to be a "rubber suit monster" thriller in the vein of Humanoids From The Deep or Alien... and that sounds cool, too:

Here’s my theory; The industry nowadays seems so focused on genre movies needing a “hook”, that the basic elements so vital to making these films work, seem to go out the window.  Sadly replaced by shaky cam, indistinguishable nonsense, CGI monsters that you never really get a good look at, “found footage”, or the newest 3D technology…  All the iconic films mentioned above that have literally defined the genre, have NONE of those things in them.  Great characters, a compelling, scary story, and a well designed, organic, monster are all you need to make good horror film.  It’s really not that complicated.

Much like my last film; “Hunter Prey”, “Shallow Water” will be a hand made movie, harkening back to all the classic horror films of the 70’s and 80’s, when the creativity and ingenuity of the filmmakers were the tools used to craft a film, instead of gimmicks and marketing hooks.  Join us on this adventure by visiting our kickstarter page and be a part of something that truly embodies the spirit of independent filmmaking.

As noted in the quote from his blog above, Sandy's trying to raise some financing through Kickstarter. Anyone who might be interested in checking it out, should click on those links.
 
•  Finally, today is my 46th birthday. I plan on spending it pantless and watching movies.

Have a great weekend, Star Kids!

THE FANTASTIC JOURNEY (1977) TV Guide Ad

Here's the bizarrely psychotronic TV Guide advertisement that NBC ran for the premiere of its short-lived science fiction series, The Fantastic Journey, starring Escape To Witch Mountain space kid, Ike Eisenman, Jared Martin and Carl Franklin (who would become an acclaimed film director in the 90s, with movies like One False Move and Devil In A Blue Dress).

The pilot film had about twice as many main characters as the ongoing series that followed it, characters that were written out rather clumsily at the end of the premiere in a tacked-on scene. In subsequent episodes, the lovely Katie Saylor and Space: 1970 favorite Roddy McDowell would join the cast as they wandered through various strange universes and different time zones.

Oh, that wacky Bermuda Triangle!

MOON ZERO TWO (1969) Theatrical Posters

Moon Zero Two was produced by England's Hammer Films - a studio better known for gothic horrors like Taste The Blood Of Dracula and Frankenstein Must Be Destroyed - in 1969, as the world's first overt "Space Western." Lots of B-movie space operas of the 50s and early 60s were little more than disguised cowboy flix, but Moon Zero Two was the first one to not only admit it, but make it part of its advertising campaign.

The plot was cribbed from a half-dozen standard Western B-movie scenarios, just transplanted to the moon. Unfortunately, director Roy Ward Baker, a Hammer veteran, who could be excellent when working within his element, was way out of his comfort zone with this offbeat sci-fi flick. What should be a fast-paced, tongue in cheek Lunar frontier romp is, instead, an unfortunate, plodding misfire.

The movie does have a lot going for it, though, especially for Space: 1970 aficionados. The female lead is Catherine Schell (Space: 1999), looking gorgeous in a variety of futuristic (circa 1969) space fashions, and the overall production design is delightfully "mod" - very much in line with Gerry Anderson's UFO and Journey To The Far Side Of The Sun. Someday soon, I'll try to write up an full review of the film. In the meantime, I hope you enjoy these colorful one-sheets and quad posters from the movie's original international release.

It's interesting to me that the U.S. poster (top) portrays the film more along the lines of something like 2001 or Marooned (i.e.a  more "reality-based" space adventure), while the British and other international posters play up the more comic strip (literally in the case of poster #3), sixguns 'n spacesuits intent of the filmmakers.

FAMOUS MONSTERS #170

As I've said many times, I was a Starlog kid. Until my late teens, I had little-to-no interest in horror movies (although I love them now), so Famous Monsters of Filmland magazine wasn't even on my radar. However, this issue - #170, cover-dated January 1981, so I probably picked it up in November or December of 1980 - did catch my eye. This was the first Famous Monsters I ever bought, and pretty much the only one I ever bought off the newsstand, although I've purchased various other issues from back-issue bins over the last couple of decades.

It's not difficult to see what caught my attention, with Battle Beyond The Stars and Flash Gordon taking up three-quarters of the cover real estate. (You know, I've still never seen The Awakening.) I can even remember where I bought it - at the LaVerdiere's drugstore at the JFK Plaza in Waterville, Maine. That store (along with the rest of the chain) is long gone now, but I still have this magazine.

Anyway - on a tangentially related note - one more week until Battle Beyond The Stars gets its HD release from Shout! Factory. I can't wait....

July's Space Babe: Farrah Fawcett

July's Space Babe is the late Farrah Fawcett, who we're honoring for several memorable roles from the Space: 1970 era. The stunning feather-haired blonde was a pop culture icon of the 70s, and graced several genre films and television shows with her beauty, presence and talent.

Her role as Holly in the 1976 feature, Logan's Run, was small but star-making, and she also made strong showings on several episodes of her then-husband's TV series The Six Million Dollar Man (most notably in the 1974 episode, "The Rescue of Athena One," in which she played NASA's first female astronaut). In 1980, she co-starred in Stanley Donen's sci-fi gothic, Saturn 3, as Alex, a sexy space scientist, lover of colleague Kirk Douglas (lucky guy), and the object of obsession for both a psychopath (Harvey Keitel) and his equally deranged robot.

Fawcett's life and career was something of a roller coaster, with triumphant highs and tragic lows. Although initially typecast as a lightweight, airheaded bimbo, she eventually proved herself both a formidable dramatic actress and talented comedienne. In the 1970s, she was married to another Space: 1970 icon, Lee Majors, but they divorced in the early 80s. Sadly, she passed away in 2009 from cancer at a too-young 62.

STARSHIP INVASIONS (1977) Lobby Cards

Here's a nice set of theater lobby cards from Ed Hunt's 1977 flying saucer sci-fi flick, Starship Invasions, starring Robert Vaughn and Christopher Lee (along with a lot of hot Canadian starlets as extraterrestrial space babes). As this was released in the States by Warner Brothers, I wonder what chance there is that they still have the rights? Or that we might see a DVD release from Warner Archive?  Hmmm....

BATTLE BEYOND THE STARS (1980) DVD Review @ TCM Blog

I personally haven't yet gotten my hands on a copy of the eagerly-anticipated, forthcoming Battle Beyond The Stars DVD or Blu-ray yet (I'll be picking up my Blu-ray disc when it goes on sale, with everyone else, on the 12th), but the TCM "Movie Morlocks" blog has just posted a nicely enthusiastic advance review of the upcoming Shout! Factory disc, and of the movie itself. Nice to see it getting some respect elsewhere on the Internets.

Check it out HERE.

THE LAST DINOSAUR (1977) Theme Music

To further spark childhood memories, here is the opening theme song to The Last Dinosaur, composed by Maury Laws, lyrics by Jules Bass, performed by Nancy Wilson.

THE LAST DINOSAUR (1977)

One of my fondest sci-fi TV memories from my childhood was an ABC television movie-of-the-week called The Last Dinosaur (1977). Now, thanks to the crew at Warner Archives, I've been able to revisit that experience on DVD.

 

An Antarctic oil survey financed by billionaire industrialist and big game hunter Masten Thrust (Richard Boone,) discovers a pocket of prehistoric flora and fauna in the crater of a dormant volcano, surrounded by mountains of ice and inaccessible by land. Using a drill-equipped vehicle called the "Polar Borer," Thrust personally leads a scientific expedition through the crust of the Earth itself into the time-lost land, accompanied by a plucky girl reporter (TV veteran Joan Van Ark), a Japanese scientist (Tetsu Nakamura), a geologist (Steven Keats, Hanger 18) and his African "hunting guide," Bunta (Luther Rackley). After a disastrous encounter with a vicious Tyrannosaurus Rex, the group finds themselves stranded in the prehistoric jungle and must find a way to survive its myriad perils, including a tribe of savage proto-humans and the ever-present threat of the hungry T-Rex.

The Last Dinosaur made its U.S. premiere on prime time network television, but this co-production between Rankin-Bass Productions (best known for their stop-motion holiday specials) and Japan's Tsuburaya Productions (creators of Ultraman), was released theatrically pretty much everywhere else in the world, and this new DVD from Warner Archives makes that extended theatrical version available in the U.S. for the first time.

Written by comic book veteran William Overgard, The Last Dinosaur is an entertaining lost world adventure with compelling characters, plenty of prehistoric thrills, and lots of dino-action. It's not particularly original, with elements borrowed from genre favorites like At The Earth's Core and The Land Unknown, but it hits all the right adventure beats, and even manages some decently-sketched characterizations and effective moments of drama.

Despite an awful toupee and ill-fitting dentures (I swear he adjusts them on screen more than once) Richard Boone is great as the egomaniacal Thrust, who, it seems, is the true "Last Dinosaur" of the title; an archetypical Alpha-male, unapologetic chauvinist and hunter, who despite his material wealth and success, seems out of step with modern society. As the token female, Joan Van Ark is attractive, tough and appealing.

The special effects are delightfully Old School, with wonderful man-in-suit dinosaurs, gorgeous matte paintings, and miniature sets/vehicles. They're not realistic or even remotely convincing, but they are damned charming and entertaining. My personal favorite effects sequence is the battle between the T-Rex and a Triceratops in a "dinosaur graveyard" surrounded by dino skeletons! I would be remiss if I neglected to mention the wonderfully corny theme song, a decidedly 70s-styled ballad by composer Maury Laws, sung by Nancy Wilson.

The Manufacture-On-Demand DVD from Warner Archive sports a very decent, 1.78:1 anamorphic widescreen transfer and Dolby 2.0 Mono audio. The source print used - the extended International theatrical cut - is in reasonably good shape, with only minimal evidence of age-related wear. Picture quality is surprisingly good, except during some of the special effects process shots, but that's inherent in the old-school techniques used in the film and not any sort of deficiency in the transfer. There are no extras included.

The Last Dinosaur is a product of its time, and unlikely to impress those who demand the slick CGI and lightning pace of modern fantasy films. But, if you're looking for an old fashioned adventure tale, it's a terrific flick, along the lines of The Land That Time Forgot & The People That Time Forgot, and a lot of fun. Recommended.

You can buy it direct from Warner Archive or through Amazon:  The Last Dinosaur