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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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Saturday, February 29, 2020

Planets Against Us (1962)

Starring Michel Lemoine, Maria Pia Luzi, Jany Clair, Marco Guglielmi, Piero Palermini
Directed by Romano Ferrara
(actor & director credits courtesy IMDB.com)

After the body of a young man disappears in a plane crash, he's sighted at numerous acts of sabotage on the world's atomic and space programs, replaced by robot duplicates from outer space.

An intriguing-sounding science fiction film from Italy that I had never heard of before, the picture at times feels like a tribute to the American sci-fi films of the 1950s, filmed in black and white, and featuring a flying saucer, and sometimes gory skin-melting effects.  However, it is extremely slow-paced, and takes some patience as the primary robot played by Lemoine dallies with a couple of lovely ladies while trying to track down a professor who's perfected a paralyzing nerve gas.  Nevertheless, Armando Trovajoli provides a very fitting eerie music score, and the special effects are quite decent for the era.  I don't think I can necessarily recommend the film, but it's a nifty find for classic sci-fi film enthusiasts.

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