Voyage to the Prehistoric Planet (1965)
1h 18m | PG-13
In 2020, after the colonization of the moon, the spaceships Vega, Sirius and Capella are launched from Lunar Station 7. They are to explore Venus under the command of Professor Hartman, but an asteroid collides and explodes Capella. The leader ship Vega stays orbiting and sends the astronauts Kern and Sherman with the robot John to the surface of Venus, but they have problems with communication with Dr. Marsha Evans in Vega. The Sirius lands in Venus and Commander Brendan Lockhart, Andre Ferneau and Hans Walter explore the planet and are attacked by prehistoric animals. They use a vehicle to seek Kern and Sherman while collecting samples from the planet. Meanwhile John helps the two cosmonauts to survive in the hostile land.
Director: Curtis Harrington
Studio: Roger Corman Productions
Genre: Science Fiction, Adventure
Video: 720p
Cast
Basil Rathbone
as Prof. Hartman, Lunar 7
Faith Domergue
as Dr. Marsha Evans, Vega
John Bix
as John the Robot
Gennadi Vernov
as Andre Ferneau, Sirius (archive footage)
Georgi Zhzhyonov
as Hans Walter, Sirius (archive footage)
Georgiy Teykh
as Dr Kern, Vega (archive footage) (uncredited)
Reviews
Neither Basil Rathbone nor Faith Domergue were actually in the original version of this Soviet tale of space exploration to Venus where dinosaurs really do rule. The print I saw had chroma-phase issues which dated it more than it deserved, I thought. It's not a great film, but is eerily suspenseful. "John" the robot could be a distant cousin of "Robby"; it's got a cool hover-Lada and the monsters are pretty much of the time. The audio is rotten though, the dialogue is quite difficult to make out - particularly as they spend much of the movie in space helmets. The inserted dialogue from the two stars is clearly to interest English language audiences but the nature of their editing means the contributions add next to nothing to the actual storyline. Looks like it was filmed in an old quarry somewhere - and actually that helps it's authenticity. Think Jon Pertwee "Dr. Who"!