SURREAL ITALIAN SCIENCE FICTION ADVENTURE IN 1965′S WILD WILD PLANET
I CRIMINALI DELLA GLASSIS (WILD WILD PLANET)
1965/Director: / Antonio Margheriti/Writers: Renato Moretti, Ivan Reiner
Cast: Tony Russel, Lisa Gastoni, Massimo Serato, Carlo Giustini, Franco Nero
Antonio Margheriti
I will be honest and say that of all the countries whose films I watch regularly the one I struggle with the most and still have the most ambiguity about is Italy. While there have been some masterpieces like Vittorio de Sica’s The Bicycle Thief and Shoeshine and Fellini’s La Strada most of the stuff coming out of Italy leaves me a little confused and disoriented. For example some people find it amazing that I as a horror fan cannot really stand almost all of Dario Argento’s output. The are incoherent stories and all the ranting about his prowess with camera work and lighting is exaggerated. Then again Mario Bava ranks as one of my all time favorite directors and I have a folder on my hard drive full of Italian horror and giallo films just waiting for me. Now one area that I know basically zip about is Italian science fiction and in particular the genre films of the 1960’s. Other than Bava’s excellent Planet of the Vampires I know virtually nothing of Italian cinema’s visiosn of the future, until watching Wild Wild Planet, or I Crimialli della Gallassia (maybe Galaxy of Criminals). It was directed by Antonio Margheriti (who usually directed as Anthony Dawson and did films like Cannibal Apocalypse and Andy Warhol’s Frankenstein) and co-scripted by the man who brought The Green Slime to life Ivan Reiner. Spaghetti western star Franco Nero has a role as Commander Halstead’s second in command.
What compels me to not throw in he towel on Italian science fiction and horror cinema is not that I expect to get a comprehensible plot or witness deep character development, but rather I watch them for the visuals, interesting music, corny dubbings and the fun time I know I will have. This movie delivers the fun and schlock and has some finely designed sets and nice visuals. While the miniatures cannot be compared to the ones that Eiji Tsuburaya designed (then destroyed) at Toho they are actually nice looking. The sets are lit in that way that a lot of horror and sci-fi out of Europe was lit in the 60’s, with blue or red lights enhancing a room or even exterior shot with warm color even though there is no reason for that light to happen. It was solely for effect. There is a lot of fun online concerning some of the miniatures in this film and look that cannot be denied. In one scene a helicopter (they decided not to use the hover cars they normally use) spins around and ‘round in a circle is obviously a prop on a string a stage hand is twirling. But at the same time it is great. It is surrealistic and dadaesque since the actors in this film play it so serious and straight that the contrast is lighthearted and comical but in a way I recommend.
Either you like the props in a film like this or you compare them to everything that came after 2001: A Space Odyssey and scoff at how ignorant and pathetic filmmakers used to be. I hear people scoff now at film effects that show any imperfections and flaws so how can these same cynics ever accept a space ship on a string with a blow torch for exhaust. And speaking of blow torches, that is exactly what seems to be used for ray guns here. Rather than having lasers or even armor piercing bullets these space men use guns that shoot a flame that seems to have a range of two or three feet. I could never gather that it could damage anything that did not walk right up to the barrel. I will have to check this out closer in a new watching, as this is certainly a film I will see again eventually.
The future as seen by filmmakers of the 60’s did not seem like a bad place. Life was made simple and easy by the most sophisticated and lavish of appliances. There was no pollution or traffic congestion. Food was plentiful and quick and easy to prepare. And women all wore Go Go Boots and people liked to party and still did all the campy dances they were doing in the 60’s. And in this film there are plenty of sexy, Italian gals in Go Go Boots. In films the only nationality of women that appeared uniformly more sexy and groovy than hip Japanese girls were in Italian girls, and usually they had bigger boobs and bigger hair to match. There are plenty of judo flipping, sexy Italian girls in this romp. In one sequence Halstead and his crew bust into a hotel room and get into a knock down drag out judo brawl with a gang of girls who wear only their night gowns and panties, and they almost beat the guys up anyway.
Now the story (what I can make of it) focuses on testosterone driven Commander Mike Halstead’s (Tony Russel) suspicions with the organ harvesting operations being conducted by The Company. The man in charge of the operation is Dr. Nurmi (Massimo Serato) who is the stereotypical evil scientist of the period with dreams and visions of how to better mankind (and increase the power The Company), even if he must destroy most of mankind in the process of realizing those dreams. The conflict between Halstead and Nurmi is the classic formula of two fisted but dull witted hero with a credo vs. the supremely intelligent but blinded by greed, power and twisted vision villain. Ultimately in this films the bad guy comes off much more entertaining than the good guy. Nurmi does not help to bridge the conflict that he and Halstead develop on their first meeting when he blatantly starts making the moves on Halstead’s girlfriend the luscious Connie Gomez (Lisa Gastoni). When Connie is not beating guys up on the judo mat she is binge drinking and having a good time making hot headed Halstead jealous by reciprocating to Nurmi’s creepy advances.
Halstead is put in charge of an investigation into the disappearances of thousands of people on Earth and various space colonies. The reason for the disappearances, abductions we find out, is for the organ harvesting operation ran by The Company. People are captured by a Go Go Boot girl and a eerie looking clone with four arms and are reduced in size and put into a little suitcase. One guy’s abduction, a leader of the military or something, is interrupted and he is turned a dwarf. The scenes involving the bald headed, sun glasses wearing clone are pretty good. The plot gets a little confusing sometimes but the hammy, dead serious acting and visuals keep you hooked. We are treated to a performance art presentation of the future that looks strangely like the performance art presentations of the 60’s. There is even a car chase in futuristic, bubble domed cars that travel at about fifteen miles per hour.
The action winds up on the planet Delphus where the harvesting operation is carried out unobserved. Narumi’s intentions with Connie are not only less than honorable but are down right perverted and freaky as it is revealed he intended on merging his flesh with her’s in a literal fashion. Not to fear our hero and crew show up and as in all movies of the time the balance of the situation leans not in the direction not of the man with the biggest brains but in the direction of the guy who can win an old school fist fight. And in a fist fight between cerebral Nurmi and hot blooded Halstead who do you think will get the ass whooping? There are certainly problems with this film and if you cannot handle absurdity and unbelievable dialog and people in the future still doing the twist and watuse then maybe pass up on this one. But if you like nicely lit studio sets, hammy acting and comic book dialog, women in Go Go Boots and hip 60’s hair styles, true he-man heroes and soulless sinister mad scientists then I think you will enjoy this one. Some thanks goes out to Chick Young at Trash Aesthetics where I first heard of this movie.
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January 9th, 2009 at 4:32 am
Hey Bill. Very cool. What I love about this blog in particular is that you post posters and pictures from a lot of movies that I’ve never seen. Some of them I’ve never even heard of.
January 9th, 2009 at 7:36 pm
Looks like a fun movie (seems like I’ve seen this one before…. didn’t Chick over at Trash Aesthetics post on this flick before?). I look forward to your completed post.
Thanks for the tips on posting audio. I’ll probably follow your advice and email you regarding the details… that is, when I get up the nerve to tackle it again. I’ve been burned several times with music posts, so frankly, I’m done with it for a while. Not worth the energy right now.
Your vidcaps always look so clean and nice. Do you do anything special to “tighten up” the images?
January 10th, 2009 at 1:39 am
I too am done with music posts for now. They consume a lot of time and energy. Which is fine, butnot fine when the whole post stops working suddenly. I did check some stats and some of the music posts were hit a lot and the songs were downloaded more often than I thought. I will keep this method I figured out for now to update a few this like my Jimmy Page Death Wish II post to allow downloading of a rare album there but doubt I will redo all the others. It is, as I said, a lot of work. I tend to spend to much time tweaking and adjusting now as it is.
The players I use for my vidcaps are Gom Player and AVS Player, both free. The AVS I use for DVDs as well with mostly good luck. Alot of my vidcaps are AVI files I’ve downloaded. I tend to take lots of caps and then select the ones that came out best later. Earlier tonight I was doing caps for a couple posts over at Necrotic Cinema. I always get the graphics out of the way first. I think I do between 60 to 80 caps a movie then select the ones that worked. Most are blurred or grainy. GOM Player takes nice vidcaps but there is no F7 function, that just captures the image with by tapping that key. With AVS they have a camera icon on the player and you can snap it as much as you want, no need to pause, and it takes pretty clear captures.
Sometimes I will edit certain images I like in Fast Stone Image viewer as well as rename and format them if needed. I tend to rename all caps now to the movie name to help with searches on line. The Cafe is turning up more and more on the image search page on Goggle now. I always want images. I hate a movie post with no graphics, only a long dissertation. I read them off and on, but I like those nice stills and I know other people do so I hope that I something I provide here.
I will get you that info on the music stuff. Like you I am taking a break from it, but I am sure I will want to try again eventually. Simply to see if I can solve the problem. But the method I used for the Lucifer Rising Soundtrack involves uploading to TWO SEPARATE SITES to achieve my goal. One to get the link for the flash stick player then one to allow for downloading if the listener wants it, and I want that option.
Yes Chick had mentioned this film but I am not sure if he got around to reviewing it as he promised a friend he would. I will go check it out in his archives because I would certainly want to get his take on it. He can dissect a movie well and gets background info together in a terse and effective fashion. I think he teaches a course in media at the college level and it can show in his style often. That is how I found out about it, from his site. It is 1965 and Italian so there will be some problems, but what got me hooked was some of the nice looking sets and lighting. I definitely think it is worth a try.
January 10th, 2009 at 6:00 am
Thanks for the info as usual. Great pointers on the vidcaps.
Most definitely through with music posts. I just did a Mod Squad post and tried to include a few songs from Peggy Lipton’s early albums… only to find my post looking like hell. The script jacked everything up…. I’ll refrain from whining any further and just say I’m with you on the fact that music posts may not be happening for a while.
It’s interesting to hear how much work you put into a post – it definitely shows in the finished product. I throw my stuff together pretty quick… and the irony is my longest most belabored posts usually end up less popular than the ones I slap together in ten minutes.
January 10th, 2009 at 9:23 am
On that last point I agree. Worked on hard does not guarantee hits. I know some of the tricks in is the post title. That is why for example on the Machine Girl I included the name of the girl, Minase Yashiro, to attract more searches. I also learned finally how to increase the font size in Wordpess so inside the posts I increase the title of the film. This is supposed to attract the Google spiders. I will not lie, I am exploiting the pin-up aspect. If you look in my sidebar at the poll I will close shortly American Horror is tied with girls with big hooters and wet swimsuits. Of course the Cafe will always be horror and less known cinema and that Q was a joke, but I know T&A gets numbers, so I am going to focus on pin-up style stuff. We know sex sells, look at the sexy sock ad you had on your site. Made me wanna go out and get a new pair!!!
I have decided to not worry about hits (too much… I would certainly get depressed if they dropped below 150 a day now and stayed there as I am between 180 and 200 and have over 50 RSS subscribers usually). Of course now I am burning the candle at both ends with the new Necrotic Cinema blog but I like that site. Sometimes the server for the Cafe is down for days
and I can use that site until it is back up and I can do modern horror.
I do not have time but some day may make a mainstream movie site. Last night Ivy and I watched Being John Malkovich and Adaptation back to back and we we fascinated with them and I am researching some trivia on them now.
Still Gill. IF I find a suitable site for hosting and downloading I will get that to you.
Thanks for the visits. You and Keith and sometimes Tal and Chick Young are still my only regular commenter. All the guys I met the first week I began this site. Before we we were all LAMBs!!! Ghidorah over at Chainsaw Maintenance (as I translate it from the French with an online dictionary) is a new pal and a great guy. At first his site used to freak me out and I thought he was the real deal, a serial killer in his mom’s basement running a blog site. He is actually a guy in cubicle basically who like cheap gore movies. He has helped me a lot with info how to promote the Cafe. I can use IMDB now to promote the Cafe thanks to him.
But I have decided to just work in a vacuum if I must like a couple guys I know who obviously bust their balls on their posts but get one or two comments for every ten posts they belt out, and yet, continue onward. Sadly a problem I have is my connection or ISP. Some sites I like (like Petra’s Lil’ Blog of Horrors or Il Lozzoc’s Zombo’s Closet are either blocked here or behind some firewall somewhere and I must use a proxy or RSS reader to view them, but it makes it very hard to leave a comment to those (and some others, like Rik Rawlin’s Psych Skull and The Lighting Bug’s Lair-all in my blogrool) sites.
Damn, sorry for the long ass replies. I love good comments. Feel free to comment anytime (as I am sure you do) and do not think it has to be on topic. Some people almost demand your comment be on topic, not me… see how much I reply on this topic.
BTW, my Chinese wife finally saw some episodes of Gilligan’s Island and she loved them, and saw your name and was fascinated by it.
Take care buddy
Bill
August 19th, 2009 at 3:44 pm
Can anyone help. There was a foreign film (Italian?) in the 1960s about a janitor who accidently travels to the future in a spaceship he was servicing. I remember he “escapes” back to his time and there is voice on the ship’s radio shouting “Joseph come back!” There is also a scene with a engineer who has a glowing “reminder” wrist watch that reminds him that it was purchased on Mars. Any ideas as to movie title, please? Thanks!
August 20th, 2009 at 9:46 am
I have to be honest Darrell I am not familar with this story but it sounds interesting and like something I would want to see. If you find out please get back to me and let me know.