Voyage to the Planet of Prehistoric Women (1968)

Year: 1968

IMDb Rating: 2.9/10

Genres: Adventure, Sci-Fi

Directors: Peter Bogdanovich, Pavel Klushantsev

Cast: Mamie Van Doren, Mary Marr, Paige Lee

In 1998, six months after the collision of a meteor and subsequent explosion of a rocket sent to Venus, the team composed by the astronauts Kern and Sherman with the robot John is launched to explore Venus. They arrive in the Space Station Texas for refueling but they have problems while landing in Venus. Without communication, another rocket is launched with Commander Brendan Lockhart, Andre Ferneau and Hans Walter to rescue the first team and explore the planet. They use a vehicle to seek Kern and Sherman, but they are attacked by a flying reptile. They kill the animal without knowing that it is worshiped and considered the God Terah by Venusians women that use their powerful connection with nature to destroy the invaders. Meanwhile John helps the two cosmonauts to survive in the hostile land.

Voyage to the Planet of Prehistoric Women is a 1968 American science fiction film, one of two films whose footage was taken from the 1962 Soviet SF film Planeta Bur (Planet of Storms) for producer Roger Corman. The original film was scripted by Alexander Kazantsev from his novel and directed by Pavel Klushantsev. This adaptation, made by Peter Bogdanovich, who chose not to have his name credited on the film, included new scenes added that starred Mamie Van Doren. The film apparently had at least a limited U.S. release through American International Pictures, but became better known via subsequent cable TV showings and home video sales. The film contains no footage from Planeta Bur that was not used in the earlier Voyage to the Prehistoric Planet (1965).

"Voyage to the Planet of the Prehistoric Women" (1968) is the second of two reworkings of "Planeta Bur," a Soviet sci-fi film from 1959. The first was the similarly titled, "Voyage to the Prehistoric Planet" (1962) assembled by director Curtis Harrington for producer Roger Corman. "Voyage to the Planet of the Prehistoric Women" was confabulated by Peter Bogdanovich using the pseudonym, Derek Thomas. Working under the dictum that American International would buy "Planet" if it had some women in it, he inserted new footage featuring Mamie Van Doren, a bevy of nubile cuties in white hot pants, and additional scenes from the Americanized version of another Soviet film, "Nebo Zovet," ("The Heavens Beckon") from 1962. This film has been knocking around for years in a horribly faded version. I've attempted to upgrade it by reconstructing it from the best publicly available sources. First of all, I need to disavow the bizarre story that Pathecolor was some sort of tinting process. Pathecolor was a variant of Eastmancolor (Kodak), and was capable of stunning color. The stylish Poe adaptions by Roger Corman come to mind. Unfortunately, Eastmancolor has proven to be quite unstable over the years, losing density in its yellow and cyan layers until nothing exists but a washed out magenta. The 16mm print used for the generally available transfer, is a prime example of color fading, and of a misguided attempt to equalize its color by adding cyan. The original "Planeta Bur" was probably filmed in Sovcolor (really Agfacolor from the World War II era). Though not capable of the range, subtlety or consistency of Eastmancolor, it did have a pleasing and vibrant color pallet of its own. So here is a by no means perfect, but hopefully, much better presentation of "Voyage to the Planet of Prehistoric Women." Thanx and a tip o' the hat to Peter Bogdanovich, Roger Corman, Pavel Klushantsev, Mamie Van Doren, Filmgroup (for not copyrighting it!) and Robot John.