“Voyage to the Planet of the Prehistoric Women” (1968) is the second of two reworkings of “Planeta Bur,” a Soviet sci-fi film from 1959. The first was the similarly titled, “Voyage to the Prehistoric Planet” (1962) assembled by director Curtis Harrington for producer Roger Corman.
“Voyage to the Planet of the Prehistoric Women” was confabulated by Peter Bogdanovich using the pseudonym, Derek Thomas. Working under the dictum that American International would buy “Planet” if it had some women in it, he inserted new footage featuring Mamie Van Doren, a bevy of nubile cuties in white hot pants, and additional scenes from the Americanized version of another Soviet film, “Nebo Zovet,” (“The Heavens Beckon”) from 1962.
This film has been knocking around for years in a horribly faded version. I’ve attempted to upgrade it by reconstructing it from the best publicly available sources.
First of all, I need to disavow the bizarre story that Pathecolor was some sort of tinting process. Pathecolor was a variant of Eastmancolor (Kodak), and was capable of stunning color. The stylish Poe adaptions by Roger Corman come to mind. Unfortunately, Eastmancolor has proven to be quite unstable over the years, losing density in its yellow and cyan layers until nothing exists but a washed out magenta. The 16mm print used for the generally available transfer, is a prime example of color fading, and of a misguided attempt to equalize its color by adding cyan.
The original “Planeta Bur” was probably filmed in Sovcolor (really Agfacolor from the World War II era). Though not capable of the range, subtlety or consistency of Eastmancolor, it did have a pleasing and vibrant color pallet of its own.
So here is a by no means perfect, but hopefully, much better presentation of “Voyage to the Planet of Prehistoric Women.”
Thanx and a tip o’ the hat to Peter Bogdanovich, Roger Corman, Pavel Klushantsev, Mamie Van Doren, Filmgroup (for not copyrighting it!) and Robot John.
zehnder99
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January 15, 2022
Subject:
Early Bogdanovich Epic
Hollywood will never be able to pay it’s debt owed to Roger Corman. Corman hired some of the greatest directors (and other talents) before they were great and assured that they would be fed, well-rested, and ready to create Oscar worthy art. This sub B creature feature fed and clothed a young and soon to be great director Peter Bogdanovich. For this reason alone, “Voyage” has earned the highest rating, for it facilitated an entire body of great work to come into being. “The Last Picture Show” would never have been made if it weren’t for Mamie Van Doren surging in the venusian surf. Granted, this robo-pic is no “2001”, but it does have sci-fi elements ahead of it’s day and can be entertaining if viewed with either a) a group of serious film historians who are a bit chatty or b) a group of MST3K fans.
aglaeser
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May 15, 2016
Subject:
excellent entertainment
Some astronauts, John the robot and some reptile-like creatures are featured. One man ist nearly eaten by something resembling a large carnivorous plant with tentacles.
While taking a ride in their space-car the astronauts hear the call of the venusian fish-eating women with shellfish-bras.
Things are getting really creepy, when the space-men shoot a flying reptile with their air-defense gun. It turns out, it was a god to the venusian girls, so they take the corpse and swear revenge for it’s death, before bringing the flesh back to the sea again.
Their mental powers cause a full-scale volcanic eruption. Instead of driving the visitors away instantly, the lava-masses rather spark their scientific interest. When they are taking samples, two of them get trapped and their robot does not quite manage to carry them to safety through the lava-stream, so it is left there when the men are picked up with the space-car.
When the explorers are back in their rocket-ship, there is some extremely bad weather, torrential rain, but in spite of it they manage to leave again.
Disappointment in the venus-women about the inferiority of their reptile-god vanishes, when they find the lava-covered robot and worship that instead.
Also available from http://publicdomaintorrents.info/
tedmcburnett
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December 30, 2013
Subject:
Sci-Fi enthusiast
Despite the rather infantile reviews posted, this is a rather interesting film and a precursor of many in the same genre. The robotic action is particularly interesting. Very good entertainment.
I_h8_screen_names
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October 24, 2013
Subject:
Worst.
Even bad by Mamie Van Doren standards. No matter how little she got for doing this, she probably laughed all the way to the bank.
I watched for about 10 minutes and then I figured that since I am 62 years old, I don;t have enough time left on this earth to waste on this.
I did get a little giggle out of “Earth Control” being named “Marcia”…
I know!!!!!!! Marcia, Marcia, Marcia!!! Jan never got a NASA program named after her!!!!!!
loninappleton
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September 7, 2013
Subject:
Where is Bad Blond
These limited release black and white films are at odd places like PressPlayHouse.com where I think I saw it originally listed. I don’t think they are paying distribution fees to anyone.
