Battle of the Worlds
Echelon Studios
Singa Home Entertainment
R1 DVD
Pianeta degli uomini spenti, Il
(Battle of the Worlds) is an Italian
science-fiction film released in 1961. It was dubbed into English with very
wordy dialogue and released in the United States in 1963. The DVD edition is a
reasonable quality release in 16 x9 with very clear sound. The picture,
however, is what can be expected from a very old film which has not been
restored. At the same time it is lovely to have such a strange and wonderful
old sci-fi available on DVD at all.
The
film was directed by Antonio Margheriti and starred
Claude Raines, Bill Carter and Maya Brent. Claude Raines outdid himself as the
mad old scientist. He is misanthropic and concerned only with “scientific knowledge”
even if it is at the cost of the whole of humanity. He lives alone in his
bunker like hothouse garden with his dog Gideon and obsesses about calculus
only communicating with his staff through a thinly concerned veil of contempt.
The
story opens a rather nice isolated island where Dr.
Fred Steele (Umberto Orsini) and Eve Barnett (Maya
Brent) are having a hot little romance. They both work at an astronomical
station and have applied to transfer to the mainland where they aim to get
married and start a new life together. Things quickly change
where observations by the team show that a rogue planet has entered the solar
system and is on a supposed collision course with earth. When they
confront Professor Benson he scoffs at their “mechanical” observations and
advises that he has calculated that the planet will come within 95,000 miles of
earth and they fly off into the sun. Other scientists find his style, manner
and observations difficult to deal with but when the planet enters earth’s
orbit they seem to be confirmed.
Benson,
however, has found an anomaly, for some reason the planet now known as “The
Outsider” for some quite bizarre and unexplainable reason should have moved off
towards the son and cannot find any scientific reason for while it is now
orbiting the earth. As spacecrafts head towards the
planet the truth becomes clear as UFO’s come out and attack and destroy them.
It seems the planet is controlled by some sort of alien intelligence.
Benson
is pleased since his calculus has proved reliable (he is a truly cantankerous
old scientist) and he uses his position to negotiate with the governments of
the earth to gain some role in the investigation of the planet. As “The
Outsider” moves closer and closer to earth, the weather changes and disasters
increase. Benson uses his knowledge to bring a UFO down and decode how it
operates.
Soon
the military have the knowledge to destroy the UFO’s and head for the planet
itself. Under Benson’s control an expedition heads to the planet. They find
that the race that once inhabited the planet is now dead and it is being
operated by some sort of automated process. Of course Benson being unconcerned
about earth and only desiring knowledge refuses to leave and so the team leave
him in his delirium and at a safe distance destroy the planet, saving mankind.
This
is bewildering and bizarre film filled to the brim with talking. I do not think
I have watched a film in which they yatter so much. Raines as Benson borders on
the hysterical and much of the other actors while credible seem to have been
dubbed with a vast amount of dialogue. The special effects are what one would
expect from the time but the sheer madness of Raine’s
performance makes this a stand out cult sci-fi title.
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