AMERICAN MOON !!!!!! 12 TO THE MOON (1960) || SPACE ANGEL: THE GOLD CITY BLUES (segment #200) || STARDUST (1974) || DISNEY'S CREATIVE FILM ADVENTURES (excerpt): MEN IN SPACE (condensed) (1955) || THE UNIVERSE AND I: LUNA THE LOVELY (1976).
************ ********* ********* *********PLEASE NOTE, SCREEN TIME IS 7.30pm,
FOR THE DURATION!
*** SPECIAL ALERT! ***
WITH MUCH REGRET, WE HAVE TO
REPORT THAT THE KITCHEN IS
NO MORE! SO, BRING YOUR OWN
FOOD, EAT BEFOREHAND, OR DO THE
BREATHAIRIAN THING, IF YOU WISH TO
KEEP BODY AND SPIRIT TOGETHER!!!
*** SPECIAL ALERT! ***
TONIGHT: STRICTLY MEMBERS-ONLY
* MEMBERSHIPS STILL AVAILABLE
AT THE DOOR ON THE NIGHT, 'THO *
WITH MUCH REGRET, WE HAVE TO
REPORT THAT THE KITCHEN IS
NO MORE! SO, BRING YOUR OWN
FOOD, EAT BEFOREHAND, OR DO THE
BREATHAIRIAN THING, IF YOU WISH TO
KEEP BODY AND SPIRIT TOGETHER!!!
*** SPECIAL ALERT! ***
TONIGHT: STRICTLY MEMBERS-ONLY
* MEMBERSHIPS STILL AVAILABLE
AT THE DOOR ON THE NIGHT, 'THO *
DETAILS BELOW
************ ********* ********* *********
SPLODGE! NOTES:
1st. Monday in DECEMBER (06/02/12)
ON THE FIRST MONDAY
OF EVERY MONTH ( - except JANUARYs!)
OF EVERY MONTH ( - except JANUARYs!)
a community FilmEdSoc project,
WE CONTROL THE CONTENT
************ ********* ********* *********
Unusual films of discernment,
still presented in convivial surroundings!
ALL PRESENTED ON
GROOVY 16 MILLIMETRE FILM!
the back room
GROOVY 16 MILLIMETRE FILM!
the back room
splodgeburger@ yahoo.com
************ ********* ********* *********
1st Quartile
1st Quartile
FEBRUARY AD 2012
MONDAY, 6th
Registration: 7.00 - 7.30 pm
Screening:
>>>> 7.30 (*SEVEN THIRTY*!!!! ) pm <<<<
TONIGHT: STRICTLY MEMBERS-ONLY
MEMBERSHIPS STILL AVAILABLE
AT THE DOOR ON THE NIGHT
AT THE DOOR ON THE NIGHT
DETAILS BELOW
TONIGHT!
AMERICAN MOON!!!
* STARDUST
(1976)
(1976)
Primitive stars
A short, 'drawn-on-film' animated space cartoon by VERNON SUNDFORS. His last (acknowledged) film (in the 16mm format) was made with the assistance of a grant from the Australian Film Commission's Experimental Film and Television Fund. STARDUST is essentially a cashed-up remake of his 1963 animated film, THE SPACE RACE, but with more stars and less with rocket ships.
Less rockets galore
Both films were mastered on 35mm film, and hand-coloured with inks. In discussing an earlier SUNDFORS film, THE MUSICIANS (1970), STANLEY REED of the BFI described his style as 'dashing', and his animation as 'skilfully judged' - a balance of the primitive and the sophisticated. The spare and economical line of that film calls to mind EMILE COHL's animation of the early 1900s, though COHL's were drawings on paper, reversed to a negative white on black. The antique effect in SUNDFOR's films is enhanced wher he added colour direct;y to the prints, reminiscent of early tinting and stencil colouring. The style originated with a childhood preoccupation with moving images. SUNDFORS explained the origin of his drawing on film technique in CANTRILL'S FILMNOTES 85/86 (June '97) -
'I was given a toy 9.5mm projector when I was very young, with a hand crank on the side, and it just took me over completely. The idea of movement coming out of a strip of celluloid with a bit of handle-turning was the kind of magic that I was very impressed by. I converted it into a camera by enclosing it in a carton with a hole for the lens and another for the handle. So matching up owning a projector with trips to the Saturday matinees when you saw real movies in a real theatre, and then the prospect of actually making something yourself was actually too much to resist.'
'I was possibly influenced by NORMAN McLAREN - we could borrow his films free from the State Film Centre. The McLARENS (the films) were mysterious, they had double coloured lines and things that I couldn't explain in them. I wasn't aiming to copy them or to do the same thing, but perhaps it was there that I learnt that it was possible. I had a load of cheap fun, and there's nothing like cheap fun.'
...'(It) was the only way I could think of that was free. You could get old film and scrub the image off it, or accumulate blank leader and do almost everything for nothing - put it through a toy 35mm projector, if you've got one - and not a penny laid out! So it's withing everyone's reach, and what you put on those little 35mm frames can be like what we used to put on the edge of our school books - the flick books - little stick figures going this way and that and jumping up and down, and geometrical shapes turning into other shapes. And there it was.'
Of his 1963, English amateur movie magazine, MOVIEMAKER, 'TEN BEST' COMPETITION WINNER, THE FLY SWATTER, SUNDFORS observed - 'It was the one that won prizes wherever I put it because it has a little narrative to it I suppose. I think people can get tired of seeing geometrical shapes.'
'I started out with 9.5mm film, but the pen lines on that were huge on projection, so i bought a roll of 35mm clear spacing from Cinevex, and it had the frame lines printed every fourth perforation which was useful. And I thought this was remarkable, I'm surprised everyone isn't doing it! This was 1962 when I would have been about 21.'
'When I started taking it seriously I realised that if I had it reduced down optically to 16mm, I could have white lines on black instead of what I had drawn - black lines on white. And that's wonderful because it's easier on the eyes for a start, and also you could colour them in and let the colour overlap onto the black and it doesn't even show, if it's a good contrasty print. So I did about six or seven of those, and they're always done well.'
Ay?
There is a studied technical roughness that is inevitable in the direct-on-film work, but also appears in (his) rostrum and live-action films - a slap-happy style as one contemporary reviewer put it. The elaborately decorated borders of the titles are a reference to the elegant intertitles of silent cinema, but this is offset by the rough, hand-drawn lettering within. The soundtracks are also sometimes uneven, at times drawing attention to the low-budget technical problems (credits announce 'in crummy sound'.)
This anarchic quality justifies considering the work as part of the underground film movement of the sixties. Prod: Jim Films, AFC Experimental Film and Television Fund. Dir: VERNON SUNDFORS. Anim: VERNON SUNDFORS. 4 mins. RM
* SPACE ANGEL:
THE GOLD CITY BLUES
(segment #200)
(1962)
THE GOLD CITY BLUES
(segment #200)
(1962)
Great Scott!
The closing segment (#200) from the episode THE GOLD CITY BLUES, in which Scott McCloud - in suspended animation - finds himself inside the world of a TV show set in the gangster era. All the characters are in period dress until he is awakened, whereapon he finds that they're all actually out in space.
SPACE ANGEL was an animated science fiction television series produced in the United States from early 1962 through 1964. Each storyline took place over five episode installments. Two hundred and sixty shorts were produced, packaged into 30-minute shows, or aired individually, out of context, in syndication.
The series dealt with the outer-space adventures of Scott McCloud - agent for the Earth Bureau of Investigation (I guess it's the outer-space branch of the FBI!) - and captain of the spaceship StarDuster.
'Space Angel' was McCloud's 'code name' - his secret identity, although very little use ever made of the 'secret' part. He wore an eye-patch, which gave him the suggestion of being a roguish, buccaneer type - something of a Han Solo character - who had seen a bit of action at some time in the past. Devoted to the security and welfare of the solar system, McCloud and his crew would roam the Universe in their super-rocketship. ( - Much was made of the portentious blast-off sequence in each installment, and this further added to labour-reduction in the animation, but it also, curiously, as it always does, enhanced the ritualistic structure of the narrative.)
The crew, who made up the EBI's Interplanetary Space Force, included Taurus, an amiable, Scots-accented, expert pilot and mechanic; the beautiful Crystal Mace, a specialist in astro-navigation and electronics, and who was, clearly, also Scott's love interest ( - to the extent he had one - ) ; Crystal was also the daughter of the local authority-figure, Professor Mace, a JULIUS SUMNER-MILLEResque character, who was in charge of Evening Star - no, not the name of some crusading newspaper, but the space-station out of which the StarDuster operated. Home base, as it were.
Scott's voice was provided by Ned Lefebver, another who seems to have no other credits in animation. Taurus was Hal Smith (Gyro Gearloose, in DUCKTALES (1987). Crystal was voiced by Margaret Kerry, who - aside from, luckily, being married to studio boss Dick Brown - was also, according to the more authoritative accounts, the model for Tinker Bell in the Disney version of PETER PAN (1953).
Many people believe that Taurus, the ship's engineer, may have been the model for STAR TREK's Montgomery Scott (Scotty)! There are one or two similarities between the two characters which do coincide. However, it must be pointed out that the combination of Scotsman and engineer is something of a time-honoured tradition!
The similarities with STAR TREK don't stop there - things like a planet of Romans that force the crew of the Starduster to fight as Gladiators in the arena, creatures that need salt to live and fight to obtain it, or powerful beings found floating frozen in deep space...
One of the many facets which makes SPACE ANGEL notable is that it was the first animation work of renowned designer and comics artist ALEX TOTH.
TOTH had already distinguished himself in comic books, notably at DC Comics (where his work included Johnny Thunder, and Rex the Wonder Dog) and at Dell (including Zorro, and quite a few movie adaptations). He'd also done a little storyboarding for live-action movies.
Later, working for HANNA-BARBERA, he designed SPACE GHOST, SHAZZAN, and more. But SPACE ANGEL is what launched his career in animation.
Later commentators have frequently remarked on the bizarre juxtaposition of TOTH's excellent design work, with the almost nonexistent animation.
The creation of SPACE ANGEL is generally attributed to writer/director Dik Darley - whose live-action credits include THE SPIKE JONES SHOW (TV) and a fondly-remembered Sherwood Schwartz (GILLIGAN'S ISLAND [1964]) '60s sitcom, called IT'S ABOUT TIME (1966), which starred the two great screen comedians JOE E. ROSS and IMOGENE COCO - but who has done little else in animation.
SPACE ANGEL was made as one of the first cartoons dedicated specifically for the early TV market, and employed as virtually as-limited-'animation'-as-you-could-get! (Also found in this 'school' of 'animation which doesn't move' is the MARVEL SUPERHEROES (1966) series from Grantray-Lawrence Animation, Krantz Film Productions, ARP.)
In the 1960s, animation was still a relatively expensive process, costing up to $2,500 a minute to produce. SPACE ANGEL was Cambria Production's second cartoon using the fabulous, patented Synchro-Voxâ„¢ system, developed by Edwin Gillette for 'talking animal' commercials in the 1950s. Cambria was also responsible for CLUTCH CARGO, the 1965 CAPTAIN FATHOM, and THE THREE STOOGES CARTOON SHOW.
The Synchro-Voxâ„¢ system combined still animation cels of the characters and live actors' lips superimposed over the characters' heads to make the 'animation'(!) Producer Clark Haas referred to Cambria's process of limited animation as 'motorized movement.' Cardboard cutouts of the character sometimes would be moved by hand past the background.
To produce Synchro-Voxâ„¢, the voice artist would be filmed in closeup, with a mask hiding everything but the actor's lips. Heavy makeup was used to ensure that the actor's skin colour matched that of the cartoon character. Shades of Louis Bunuel!
When in 'action', rather than animate the character, the cels themselves were shaken, or the camera zoomed or panned to simulate the motion. As Scott McCloud/Space Angel's face was often covered by a space helmet mic, little lip movement was required for his character in the Synchro-Voxâ„¢ process.
The final result on the tender, formative mind of a six year old viewer was undoubtedly profoundly subconsciously disturbing. And such is the cultish preoccupation with the series made with Synchro-Voxâ„¢, that this must surely be the case. Both CLUTCH CARGO and CAPTAIN FATHOM also utilised Synchro-Voxâ„¢.
Prod Co: Cambria Productions. Prod: Clark Haas. Dir: ALEX TOTH. Created By: Dik Darley, Dick Brown. Character Design, Model Sheets, Layouts: ALEX TOTH. Art Dir: Sal Trapani. Voice Artists: Ned LeFebver (Scott McCloud/Space Angel), Hal Smith (Taurus), Margaret Kerry (Crystal Mace). Anim: Warren Tufts. 6 mins. RM
* DISNEY'S CREATIVE FILM
ADVENTURES (excerpt):
MEN IN SPACE (condensed)
(1955)
ADVENTURES (excerpt):
MEN IN SPACE (condensed)
(1955)
The second part from a three-part educational digest of edited short adventure films from WALT DISNEY. The source print includes sections from ONE DAY AT BEETLE ROCK (1967) ( - titled BAD DAY ON BEETLE ROCK), MAN IN SPACE (1955) (titled - MEN IN SPACE), and THE THREE CABALLEROS (1944) (titled - BAIA).
Although that initial broadcast was in B&W, DISNEY mastered MAN IN SPACE in expensive colour - which demonstrates the man's visionary faith in his own work. Later, it was edited into a featurette to play in theaters, accompanying DAVY CROCKETT AND THE RIVER PIRATES (1956), and part of it was exported out for educational film use in this shortened format as ALL ABOUT WEIGHTLESSNESS, released in 1964.
Of special note is the narration, provided by the recently sadly passed IRWIN ALLEN veteran, DICK TUFELD, voice of the LOST IN SPACE (1965 - 1968) robot, and narrator/announcer in VOYAGE TO THE BOTTOM OF THE SEA (1964 - 1968), TIME TUNNEL (1966 - 1967), as well as SPACE PATROL (1950 - 1955).
The first words heard in the VOYAGE TO THE BOTTOM OF THE SEA TV series belonged to TUFELD: 'This is the Seaview, the most extraordinary submarine in all the seven seas'. The first words heard in the LOST IN SPACE TV series belonged to TUFELD: 'This is the beginning, this is the day, you are watching the unfolding of one of history's great adventures...' TUFELD was also heard at the start of several episodes of THE TIME TUNNEL: 'Two American scientists are lost...'
Of special note is the narration, provided by the recently sadly passed IRWIN ALLEN veteran, DICK TUFELD, voice of the LOST IN SPACE (1965 - 1968) robot, and narrator/announcer in VOYAGE TO THE BOTTOM OF THE SEA (1964 - 1968), TIME TUNNEL (1966 - 1967), as well as SPACE PATROL (1950 - 1955).
The first words heard in the VOYAGE TO THE BOTTOM OF THE SEA TV series belonged to TUFELD: 'This is the Seaview, the most extraordinary submarine in all the seven seas'. The first words heard in the LOST IN SPACE TV series belonged to TUFELD: 'This is the beginning, this is the day, you are watching the unfolding of one of history's great adventures...' TUFELD was also heard at the start of several episodes of THE TIME TUNNEL: 'Two American scientists are lost...'
TUFELD's totally unique, energy-charged deep voice put viewers in the right frame of mind for what was to come. IRWIN ALLEN TV was about showmanship and TUFELD was a true showman. TUFELD and IRWIN ALLEN had crossed paths long before 'The Big Four' IRWIN ALLEN TV shows of the 1960s. However, when ALLEN asked TUFELD to do a 'robot voice' for LOST IN SPACE, IRWIN found it hard to explain the type of voice he wanted for the robot, and TUFELD almost missed out on getting the job - because he could not understand what IRWIN wanted. However, it all worked out in the end.
By the 1990s, the LOST IN SPACE fan base was big enough to keep TUFELD very busy. He went around the world talking about LOST IN SPACE - in 1996 he even visited Australia to talk to fans, and in 1998 he was able to do his 'robot voice' once again, in the LOST IN SPACE motion picture. Oddly enough, he sounded much the same as he did in the 1960s.
Check this out!
But, ahem, where were we. DISNEY writer and animation director, WARD KIMBALL directs and (co-)hosts MAN IN SPACE - with Disney introducing. It features a full multi-media mix of interviews, graphics, full animation, special effects photography, and even a live-action space sequence, the equal, or better than similar work in GEORGE PAL's CONQUEST OF SPACE (1955), made in the same year.
Hail Columbia!
KIMBALL uses the 'infotainment' formula that worked so well in VICTORY THROUGH AIR POWER (1943). MEN IN SPACE begins with a light comedic section, providing background information.
The show talks briefly about the lighthearted history of rockets and is followed by discussions of satellites, a practical look (through humorous animation) at what spacemen will have to face in a rocket (both physically and psychologically, such as momentum, weightlessness, radiation, even space sickness) and a rocket takeoff into space.
Check this out!
But, ahem, where were we. DISNEY writer and animation director, WARD KIMBALL directs and (co-)hosts MAN IN SPACE - with Disney introducing. It features a full multi-media mix of interviews, graphics, full animation, special effects photography, and even a live-action space sequence, the equal, or better than similar work in GEORGE PAL's CONQUEST OF SPACE (1955), made in the same year.
Hail Columbia!
KIMBALL uses the 'infotainment' formula that worked so well in VICTORY THROUGH AIR POWER (1943). MEN IN SPACE begins with a light comedic section, providing background information.
The show talks briefly about the lighthearted history of rockets and is followed by discussions of satellites, a practical look (through humorous animation) at what spacemen will have to face in a rocket (both physically and psychologically, such as momentum, weightlessness, radiation, even space sickness) and a rocket takeoff into space.
It was converted into a 32 page comic book ( Dell Comics (#716) ) in 1956. Under the title WALT DISNEY'S MAN IN SPACE: A SCIENCE FEATURE FROM TOMORROWLAND. It was actually a 'novelization' in comic book form of two WALT DISNEY television programmes, MAN IN SPACE (1955) and TOMORROW THE MOON (1955).
Dell Comics Giant #27
It is also found as a 1956 UK reprint as A WORLD DISTRIBUTORS MOVIE CLASSIC (#45), and a 1959 combined-reprint with the other two Dell Comics adaptations of MAN IN SPACE films as: WALT DISNEY'S MAN IN SPACE (Dell Comics Giant #27).
It was also made into a Tomorrowland adventure book, for classroom use, in 1959, as MAN IN SPACE: A TOMORROWLAND ADVENTURE. WALT DISNEY PRODUCTIONS. Adapted for school use by Ley, Willy. Illustrated by Carbe, Nino. Syracuse, NY: LW Singer Co. Inc. (48 p.) 21 cm. Softcover.
Boys and their toys
Just as shown in THE RIGHT STUFF (1983), America's brain trust for the space race are all Germans. It's always more than a bit disturbing to see and hear one-time Nazi, Werner von Braun explaining theories and manipulating models for us just as he must have done for the Nazi command fifteen years earlier. But the U.S. Army didn't transplant him to New Mexico for nothing - the science advisers on this production know their stuff. Their accents and origin go unmentioned even when a clip from Fritz Lang's 1929 WOMAN IN THE MOON demonstrates that they have been popularizing their space dreams for decades.
DISNEY's space launch is a doozie, shown with beautiful conceptual animation. The design of the giant-finned rockets (immortalized in a line of styrene model kits that were the new hobby rage in 1955) is daring, and most of the details of the launch and orbiting mission are a good match for what we saw later with the Apollo programme. The engineering of a space station is quite different from how we're doing it now, but even when covered by stills, the visuals of worker-bee space suits buzzing around assembling the orbiting wheel are beautiful. The launching of nuclear reactors into space is taken as a routine idea. We haven't been told much about that in real life because there's too great a risk of poisoning the entire planet. Tisk, tisk, 'details, details'. It was through this series of programmes that von Braun was able to sell the American public on the possibilities of space exploration and colonization. The film was nominated for an Academy Awardâ„¢, for Best Documentary Short. The next episode in this series was MAN AND THE MOON (1955), followed by MARS AND BEYOND (1957).
* THE UNIVERSE AND I:
LUNA THE LOVELY
(1976)
LUNA THE LOVELY
(1976)
In space, no-one can hear you laugh
Set in the context of a film editing suite, where work is underway on the cutting of a Flash Gordon serial-type space-opera called LUNA THE LOVELY, various alternate 'correct science' adjustments are applied to the film's scenarios, setting us straight on the astrophysics and relativity theory - the relationships between the dimensions of time and space, matter and energy - 'that Hollywood, amusingly, can never quite manage to get right'. Series: UNIVERSE AND I. Prod: KET (Kentucky Educational Television). 17:55 mins. ALC
And featuring:
* 12 TO THE MOON
(1960)
Ten years after DESTINATION MOON (1950), and mankind is still mounting its first mission to the Moon. Released by Columbia as the 'B' film - with BATTLE IN OUTER SPACE (1959) as the 'A' - 12 TO THE MOON (12TTM) was solidly in the '50s tradition of a low-budget B feature. 12TTM is sometimes nominated for the dishonor of 'worst film ever'. It lacks a budget for any impressive effects or sets. The pace is slow, and the acting varies between flat and over-the-top. Yet, in this tale of mankind's first mission to the Moon, there lurks within an attempt at several social statements. The writers were at least trying to say something. The international and culturally diverse crew predate GENE RODDENBERRY's more famous Enterprise crew by five years.
The International Space Order sends a multi-national crew of twelve leading scientists to the Moon to claim it for all, and prevent international squabbling. The cast of characters is comprised of: American Captain and hunk, Ken Clark (as John Anderson), Japanese photographer and pharmacist, Michi Kobi (as Hideko Murata), Russian geologist and mapmaker, TOM CONWAY - GEORGE SANDER's brother - (as Feodor Orloff), handsome Brazilian pilot, Anthony Dexter (as Luis Vargas), German spaceship architect, John Wengraf (as Erich Heinrich), young mathematics genius, Robert Montgomery Jr. (as Roddy 'Rod' Murdock), British geophysicist, Phillip Baird (as William Rochester), Polish-born Israeli aeronautic engineer, Richard Weber (as David Ruskin), Turkish space medicine expert, Muzaffer Tema (as Selim Hamid), French engineer and technician, Roger Til (as Etienne Martel), Nigerian astronomer, Cory Devlin (as Asmara Markonen), and beautiful
Swedish physician, Anna-Lisa (as Sigrid Bomark).
Why is this movie fun? The trope of Man's first trip to the Moon was already long in the tooth in late '59, so it was interesting to see what the writers would do with it. The culturally diverse drew provide ample social commentary. There are ample odd bits to ponder. Such as Cold War metaphors. There is a strong attempt at internationalism as the cure for Cold War 'us-vs-them' thinking. The crew is full of pairs of 'former' foes, working together for the international cause. A subplot involves the cheese-eating surrender-monkey Frenchman (as closet communist) figuring to leave North America frozen, so the Soviets can prevail.
Former Foes, Two-by-Two - The 'huge' crew size was necessary from a story-telling point of view. Several pairs of former foes - sources of Earth factionalism and strife - are shown overcoming their differences. There is the most obvious Cold War ideological pair with American Anderson and Russian Orloff. There is the Polish Jew, Ruskin, and the son of a Nazi, Heinrich. Less blatant are men-vs-women, via the two female crew members. Black-vs-white, via the Nigerian. More subtle is the Christian-vs-Muslim with the Turk, Hamid. We also have age-vs-youth with Heinrich (the old man of the 12), and young prodigy, Roddy.
A dominant subplot revolves around Dr. Heinrich. He is actually the son of a Nazi death-camp doctor, Bernauer. He was so ashamed of his father's sins that he changed his name. This makes a parallel to post-war Germany trying to break with its Nazi past. In tandem is the Polish Jew, Ruskin, who learns to put his hatred of the Nazi's behind him, and accept Heinrich as a friend. The writers' hope for peace is quite evident.
A significant addition is the Nigerian navigator, Markonen. Race relations in the US was getting hot in the late '50s. Emmett Till had been murdered 5 years prior. Rosa Parks sparked the bus boycotts four years prior. The Little Rock Nine crisis was just two years prior to production. Between production and release, the Greensboro Sit-Ins grabbed headlines. Worse was yet to come. Casting a black crewman, equal to the other 11, was pretty bold.
Echoing the sentiment of THE ANGRY RED PLANET (1959), released a few months earlier, the Selenites want nothing to do with Earthlings. Here is their diatribe: 'I speak for the great co-ordinator of the Moon. We advise and warn you. Return to Earth at once. You have done enough damage. You have been bombarding us for years, incessantly.' ( - maybe they weren't so crazy about our television broadcasts, after all! - ) 'Leave us in peace.' ...'We are not enslaved by your Earthly emotions: Greed, Lust, Passions of Conquest. We cannot allow you to stay here. You would only contaminate our perfect form of harmony.'
For all their self-righteousness, however, the Moon-beings are happy enough to kill (on a large scale) on incomplete information. They complained of the Earth people damaging their homeland, yet showed no regret at having to freeze large portions of the Earth.
They're After Our... Cats! - A curious non-sequitur comes amid the Moonies' demands that the Earthlings leave the Moon. Before they left, they were to bring the Moonies the two cats they had brought along on the trip. 'Cats have an unusual feel for us, but unfortunately, we have none here on the Moon. They interest us almost as much as the two human beings who joined us.' This is an odd story bit to ponder - cat fanciers of the Moon!
I almost fell out my chair laughing when the astronauts climbed into the control room and it became instantly obvious that they were expected to sit in patio lounge-chairs to help them endure the crushing stresses of lift off. Oh, and apparently cocker spaniels, monkeys and house cats are immune to the forces of lift off, even though it almost kills the oldest astronaut. The dog just sits on the end of a leash tied to a wall, and the cats and moneys ride out the whole thing in cages. Once the special effects budget completely runs out, you can clearly see the stick holding the model of the rocket-ship in front of the camera. When the crew are about to disembark, note the first glimpse of the sound-stage moonscape! You'll see a darkly dressed stage-hand walk back behind the big boulder! When the crew step out onto the Moon, note the frames for studio lights above stars! Enjoy Roger
Til's outrairgeous French acsont! Admire the techno-babble Ruskin uses to explain why their space helmets have no glass visors! Perhaps the movie's 'high' point occurs when, mid-way to the moon, the rocket's American captain - naked except for a small white towel modestly looped around his waist - opens the shower-room door only to discover that it's currently occupied by the two female members of the crew. The human race has the expertise to build a rocket to the moon, but they can't figure out how to put a lock on the shower-room door? There is so much low budget fun here.
12TTM is a 'dislocated drama'. By that, I mean it took place on the Moon - but concentrated more on human elements than on actual science.There is a warmth and an empathy present in the sci-fi flicks of that era that is not present in today's 'in your face' media and world. In those days, 'attitude on a stick' was equated with a flawed, or even evil character, and required redemption on the part of the sinner. 12TTM suffers many of the usual low-budget woes prone to pre-STAR WARS (1977) sci-fi cinema. t's slow paced and talky. It may be a movie that only hard-core '50s B sci-fi obsessives can enjoy. But, beneath all the cliches, however, are some attempts at serious points. Prod Co: Columbia Pictures Corporation, Luna Productions Inc. Prod: Thom E. Fox. Asst Prod: Fred Gebhardt. Dir: David Bradley. Scr: DeWitt Bodeen. Scn: Fred Gebhardt. Mus: Michael Andersen. Phot:
John Alton. Ed: Edward Mann. Art Dir: Rudi Feld. Set Dec: John Burton. Sd: Herman Lewis. SPFX Co: The Howard A. Anderson Co. SPFX: E. Nicholson. Tech. Adviser: Ronald Grant. Cast: Ken Clark, Michi Kobi, TOM CONWAY, Anthony Dexter, John Wengraf, Robert Montgomery Jr., Phillip Baird, Richard Weber, Muzaffer Tema, Roger Til, Cory Devlin, Anna-Lisa, FRANCIS X. BUSHMAN. 74 mins. RM
Minor programmes changes may occur due to
unforseen circumstances.
Feature runs last, shorts order may vary from
listing.
* Acknowledging ACMI, Inc. and the
National Film and Sound Archive ;-) *
unforseen circumstances.
Feature runs last, shorts order may vary from
listing.
* Acknowledging ACMI, Inc. and the
National Film and Sound Archive ;-) *
************ ********* ********* *********
ADMISSION IS RESTRICTED TO
MEMBERS FOR THIS PROGRAMME.
THIS IS A FILM SOCIETY SCREENING
OPEN TO MEMBERS
BUT IF YOU WISH TO BECOME A MEMBER,
THE JOINING FEE IS SO LOW,
IT MIGHT AS WELL BE FREE!
************ ********* ********* *********
MEMBERSHIP RATES:
Quarterly*:
Generally Socially-Advantaged : $8.00
Generally Socially-Oppressed: $7.00
MEMBERSHIP RATES:
Quarterly*:
Generally Socially-Advantaged : $8.00
Generally Socially-Oppressed: $7.00
*annual and half-yearly memberships available
on request
on request
If you wish to join on the night, we strongly
advise you to arrive well-prior to the time listed
for the screening to commence!
advise you to arrive well-prior to the time listed
for the screening to commence!
************ ********* ********* *********
For e-mail notification,
spam your Subscribe-Request to:
spam your Subscribe-Request to:
or visit:
or register* via snail-mail (address below).
************ ********* ********* *********
To exit the mailing list,
or for general correspondence,
dispatch to:
or for general correspondence,
dispatch to:
714 NICHOLSON STREET
(CNR. NICHOLSON
& SCOTCHMER STREETS),
NORTH FITZROY, VIC, 3068.
PHONE 04 25 74 28 01
(CNR. NICHOLSON
& SCOTCHMER STREETS),
NORTH FITZROY, VIC, 3068.
PHONE 04 25 74 28 01
************ ********* ********* *********
Offline 
Send Email