Voyage To The Prehistoric Planet

I have no great insights to offer you about VOYAGE TO THE PREHISTORIC PLANET, but I watched the whole thing and surely I deserve a medal for that. What, say you? Why write about it if I have nothing of substance to say? If I had to suffer, so do you.

I exaggerate; it's not that bad. But it's not very good either. VOYAGE TO THE PREHISTORIC PLANET is a dubbed and re-edited version of a Russian science fiction movie. I used to own the original movie in subtitled form on VHS, but I cannot recall if I ever finished it. Maybe? I recognized bits and pieces from that viewing, but the original Russian film might be even longer than VOYAGE. This would not be an enticement to get me to finish it.

The plot? Errr....OK, I got this! Spaceships are sent to Venus, though one gets blown up early. Landing on the planet, there are dinosaurs, lizard men, and killer plants. Sounds exciting, no? No. It's actually pretty dull, all things considered. The bulk of the plot is composed of one group of cosmonauts searching for the other. There is also a robot, and singing.

Nothing much happens in this movie that is worth remembering. It's a lot of aimless wandering and talking. Some of the talking is supplied by Basil Rathbone and Faith Domergue, both of whom look like they are eager to just get paid and go home. The nominal director is Curtis Harrington, though he uses the pseudonym "John Sebastian" here. This is allegedly a reference to Bach, but it does bring up one of the few questions that troubled me about this movie: Hadn't Harrington, producer Roger Corman, or in fact anyone involved with VOYAGE heard of the Lovin' Spoonful?

I am making this sound better than it is. It's not dreadful, but it's mostly good as a time killer. Back in the days when these movies aired on TV, it was the sort of thing that would have turned up on the late show. This is the perfect place for it, in my opinion. If you like it, you stay awake and see a movie! If you don't, it puts you to sleep and you get your rest.

Don't even take my word for it. You can watch the whole movie on Google Video if you want. I do like the paintings used over the main titles; they are probably more interesting than the movie itself. See what you think--if you dare!