Movie Review: Voyage to the Planet of Prehistoric Women (1968) directed by Peter Bogdanovich
In the far future of 1998, a three-rocket expedition to the planet Venus begins. The first rocket hits a meteor and explodes. The second rocket carries Howard Sherman (Yuriy Sarantsev) and Alfred Kern (Georgiy Teykh) as well as Robot John, a mechanical man designed by Kern. This ship makes it to Venus, but lands badly, and the crew will need rescue. So the third ship launches, carrying Commander William “Billy” Lockhart (Vladimir Yemelyanov), Hans Walters (Georgi Zhzhyonov) and Andre Freneau (Gennadi Vernov) who is our primary narrator.
This ship lands safely, and the new team sets out in search of Sherman and Kern, guided by mission control, which has been nicknamed “Masha” (Basil Rathbone cameo!) Venus turns out to be a hazardous planet, what with the vulcanism, hostile reptiles, stormy ocean, and carnivorous plants. There’s also this weird sound that carries on the wind sometimes, almost like a woman singing wordlessly. Andre becomes obsessed with this theoretical woman.
Meanwhile, it turns out there’s humanoid life on Venus. A small group of telepathic women who live on the seashore, eat raw fish, and worship the flying reptile god Terah, who the Earthlings kill when it attacks them. The women may be able to control their environment through ritual, led by Moana (Mamie van Doren). Or it may be massive coincidences. Can the Earthlings survive and escape the Planet of Prehistoric Women?
This 1968 film is a recut of 1965’s Voyage to the Prehistoric Planet, which in turn was a recut of the 1962 Soviet movie Planeta Bur (“Planet of Storms”) The Mamie van Dorn parts were new for this version, and the Prehistoric Women never directly interact with the astronauts. (They don’t even show up for the first thirty minutes!) This does leave a lot of questions open. None of the women sings on camera, so they may not be the source of the mysterious song. Also, what might be the lights of a city are seen at a distance but in circumstances that make it impossible to investigate. Is there an actual civilization beyond the dozen women who hang out at the seashore?
The plot and characterization are pretty thin, and the special effects are dubious (some extras were added from Battle Beyond the Sun.) The print I watched was mostly black and white, but had moments of being tinted and I am unsure if this was intentional. On the other hand, the peril was interesting. Robot John is the real hero of the story, and Kern eventually comes to regret putting a “self-preservation circuit” in a hard to access place.
One of the things the movie does well is convey the eeriness of Venus when the goofier elements aren’t on screen. This is not a place that Earthmen could easily dwell, and the weak-minded might be driven to madness.
This one is probably best saved for “bad movie night.”
