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Greetings, and welcome to VIEWING THE CLASSICS. Here you'll find capsule reviews of vintage movies from the early days of cinema through the 1970s, with a special emphasis on sci-fi, horror, and mystery movies. Be sure to check out the Pages links, where you can find a Film Index of all my reviews, links to the reviews organized by cast members, directors, and other contributors, and links to my reviews of the films of talented young director Joshua Kennedy.

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Sunday, February 3, 2013

The Wild, Wild Planet (1964)

Starring Tony Russell, Lisa Gastoni, Massimo Serato, Charles Justin, Franco Nero
Directed by Anthony Dawson
(actor & director credits courtesy IMDB.com)

In the distant future, a space commander is assigned to investigate mass disappearances on Earth, and traces them to a scientist experimenting with human organ transplants.

I thoroughly enjoyed this film from director Antonio Margheriti (credited as Anthony Dawson).  The effects do not hold up well, with the spaceships looking to have been recycled from Margheriti's previous films, and the miniatures are a bit too obviously miniatures in what you'd expect from one of the more cheesy Godzilla movies.  However, the story is a quality sci-fi effort, and benefits from spreading the action across two planets and an orbital space station.  There are also some exciting sequences in which the commander escapes captivity in a skyscraper via a flying car, as well as the explosive climax in Serato's laboratory.

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