Der Himmel ruft

One of my sci-fi/horror/fantasy reviews written 50 years ago: Directed by M. Karzukov and Aleksandr Kozyr (reworked version by Francis Ford Coppola); Produced by Tatyana Kulchitskaya for Dovzhenko Film Studios (reworked version by Roger Corman, released in America by American-International Pictures. Photography by N. Kulchiskiy; Music by Yuli Meitus (reworked version by Carmine Coppola). Starring Ivan Pereverzev and Alla Popova; plus voices by Andy Stewart and Aria Powell.

Another waste of a foreign sci-fi film (from Russia), chopped up, dubbed and voice-over narrated to no avail. Beginning with a boring prologue expressing the authors' inflated view of the film's historical importance, this set in 1997 tale of the race of Earth's two powers (North and South hemis) to claim Mars is virtually devoid of continuity or interesting stuff. Nothing really happens, and just to punch up the action, a foolish fight between a giant insect creature and a headless hulk with eyestalks is inserted amidst otherwise straight science fiction.

1997: after a catastrophic atomic war, the Earth has divided into two rival nations, the North Hemis and the South Hemis, both sides locked in a battle to be the first to land on Mars.

Battle Beyond the Sun started life as a state-sponsored Russian sci-fi movie called Nebo Zovyat— a breath-taking, prophetic vision of the Soviet Union's journey into space; in the disrespectful hands of opportunistic producer Roger Corman and a young and eager-to-please Francis Ford Coppola, what was once awe-inspiring becomes laughable, the pair badly dubbing and drastically re-editing the original two hour epic to a mere 64-minutes of clumsy space melodrama (albeit it with impressive effects), 'enhanced' by silly inserts of space monsters that look suspiciously like genitalia.

It's dull going as the two nations race to the 'Red Planet' only to fail with the finishing line in sight, and the feel-good moral of the tale—that rival nations must co-operate if they want to achieve truly great things—does little to compensate for the sheer shoddiness of the whole cut-and-paste approach and the frustrating fact that the wonders of Mars remain unseen.

My giving this a score of 3 is NOT what I would give the original Soviet version of this film. It seems that American-International (a studio that specialized in ultra-low-budget fare in the 60s) bought this film and utterly destroyed it--slicing a two hour plus film into a 64 minute film! Plus, much of this 64 minutes was new material (such as the "monsters")--so you know that this film bears almost no similarity to the original. The original film appears to be a rather straight drama about the Soviet conquest of space--though I really am not sure what it was originally! For insight into the original film, read Steven Nyland's review--it was very helpful.

By the way, this was the third Soviet sci-film I've seen that American-International bought and then hacked apart to make a "new" film--standard practice to a company that was willing to put just about anything on the screen to make a buck--provided, of course, it didn't cost them much more than a buck in the first place!! This Americanized film was about two rival world powers (NOT the US and Soviets) trying to be the first to Mars. The tricky "bad guys" try but fail and the "good guys" rescue one of the idiot astronauts and then head to Mars. Unfortunately, they are temporarily stranded on a moon of Mars where they see some monsters (added by American-International) that are REAAAALLY cheesy and one does bear similarity to a certain part of a female's anatomy. Then, they are rescued--returning to Earth heroes.

The bottom line is that the film was butchered--turning an incredibly beautiful piece of art (for the time) being turned into a grade-C movie. Because of this, the Soviets really had a reason to hate America! I'm just shocked that the horrible job A-I did with this film didn't convince them to refuse to sell more films to these jerks! It's worth a look for a laugh, but the really bad moments that make you laugh are few and far between. So, the film is a dud--not bad enough to make it a must-see for bad movie buffs and too dopey to be taken seriously. I would really love to see this movie in its original form--it must have been some picture.

UPDATE--nietogimenez sent me an email indicating the original IS available and said you can just Google for it.

{Note: these comments and score refer to the Russian film 'Nebo Zovyot' ('The Sky Beckons') (1959), NOT the AIP film 'Battle Beyond the Sun' which was pieced together using the Russian special effects (plus a couple of ridiculous monsters)}. The Soviet spaceship "Motherland' is being prepared on a space station for the first journey to Mars when the mission leader Yevgeny Petrovich Kornev (Ivan Pereverzev) gets a call from another team (presumably American but this is not explicit), also planning on going to Mars in their spaceship "The Typhoon", who request access to the space station's facilities. Kornev assures them that the station is 'open to all'. During subsequent conversations, The Typhoon's crew, pilot Robert Clark (Constantine Bartashevich) and publicity man Erwin Verst (Gurgen Tonunt), are very leery about revealing their exact plans and seem flustered when they find out the Soviets are leaving a few days hence. Verst contacts his boss, who orders them to leave immediately, despite the risks, as all that matters is getting to Mars first (in 1959, the real 'space race' was just beginning). The Typhoon breaks station regulations and takes off without authorisation, injuring Motherland crew member Gregory Somov (Valentin Chernyak). The takeoff triggers an orgy of capitalistic marketing, as seen in a montage of Times Square signs proclaiming the success of the "Mars Syndicate" to be the first to reach Mars, plugs for Mars themed cocktails, and real estate ads pushing the sale of cheap Martian land (an unsubtle dig at Western commercialism and blunt counterpoint to Kornev 'knowledge for knowledge's sake' explanation for why the Russians want to go to the red planet). Paying for their recklessness, the crew of the Typhoon soon find themselves low on fuel and drifting toward the sun. They send an SOS to the Russians who, without hesitation, abandon their own Mars trip to rescue their rivals, despite the hazards of the meteor field the Typhoon has entered. The Motherland, with too little fuel to return to Earth or land on Mars, touches down on the tiny asteroid 'Icarus', the orbit of which has taken it near Mars, to await help from Earth. When an unmanned fuel shuttle crashes, all seems lost until Kornev spots a space-suited figure staggering across the asteroid's surface: Somov had heroically taken command of a second shuttle and delivered the necessary fuel. The film opens with a lengthy present day (i.e. 1959) prologue but just ignore the 'just a dream of the future' framing device and watch the film as straight, hard science fiction. The film is a product of its times and its blatant cold war politics (noble Socialists vs. grasping Capitalists) seems trite and dated, but the story is entertaining and the special effects and imagery outstanding (especially the 'Mars-rise' scene on Icarus or the numerous shots of the spaceships and the space station). I watched a sub-titled version, so somethings may have been lost in translation (such as the nature of Somov's fate). Definitely a must-see for space-opera junkies (or fans of Soviet-era cinema). The best of the 'space' scenes can also be seen in the ridiculous AIP opus 'Battle Beyond the Sun', assembled by one of Roger Corman's more famous umpa loompas, Francis Ford Coppola, or the even more dire 'Queen of Blood' (1966), both of which incorporated recycled 'Nebo Zovyot' footage.

I'm giving this movie a 5/5 because it's impossible to judge as it exists today.

NEBO ZOYOT is the proper name for a pioneering 1959 movie made in the Soviet Union as an official state-sponsored arts project under the direction of Mikhail Karzhukov & Aleksandr Kozyr. By all accounts it was a breathtaking, visually intimidating project dominated by special effects work the likes of which had not been seen before. Roughly telling the story of a Russian space crew sent to find out the fate of an earlier mission to intercept an alien probe on collision with earth, the movie combined DR. STRANGELOVE anticipating interior sets, functional looking science fiction props & space wear, and miniature model effects that make the George Pal & Captain Video oriented Americanized science fiction of the day look like laughable kitsch. Even the trend-setting science fiction work of Italian director Antonio Margheriti looks klunky and flimsy alongside of what is left of the movie.

There are reports of the original film running over 2 hours, a grand celebration of the forward thinking ideals of Soviet Russia where technology, human ingenuity, and tightly controlled communist propaganda promised a brave new world. Fortunately or not, Roger Corman anticipated the fall of the Eastern Bloc, managed to catch a screening of the film, and was talented enough to realize that nothing of it's like had ever been seen in the west before. Corman wasn't necessarily a "good" filmmaker but he had an eye for talent and bought the North American distribution rights for the film, determined to wow audiences with a science fiction spectacle the likes had never been seen.

Bringing in a young director/editor of promise named Francis Coppola, Corman oversaw a "redefinition" of NEBO ZOVYOT into a standardized American-ish Sci Fi potboiler about an astronaut crew sent into space to do battle with various space monsters. Corman had Coppola jettison half of the film's somewhat ponderous setup depicting the preparation & departure of the alien probe from it's home world -- one of the most visually striking sequences ever filmed -- opting instead for "new" inserted footage depicting the space monsters doing battle on the hull of our heroic space ship.

Sigh ... the result is more than a bit of a mess that manages to water down the impact of the original material, complete with an illogical story arc that is mostly explained in voice-over narration & awkwardly dubbed English dialog concocted from whole cloth and edited in to fit the on screen action (more or less). The monsters are absurd: One looks like a giant disembodied vulva bedecked with a row of razor sharp teeth, and the looped footage of space suit wearing astronauts standing around -- apparently under the influence of 1g gravity -- does little but elicit snickers of laughter from viewers who get enough pure oxygen every day. Somehow he made this movie look stupid.

Yet there are segments where the original Russian made vision shines through: The opening launch sequences have a kind of majesty to them that Gerry Anderson would never be able to quite achieve with his THUNDERBIRDS creations, the interiors of the space ships all look spot on real enough for Mercury program era technology, and the Russian segments of the film have a texture to them that is mesmerizing ... And make the inserted Coppola-made footage seem all the more absurd. Today it seems hard to understand why Mr. Corman would have advocated trying to fix what ain't broke in such a hamfisted manner, but that's 1962 for you, and fortunately the visual power of the surviving Russian segments worked to cement the film with a fervent cult following that allowed even some of it to survive for forty-five years.

Hopefully with a 50th anniversary of the original film soon coming a restoration effort can be made to show the film with only it's original Russian segments & appropriate language subtitles, like has recently been done with FIRST SPACESHIP ON VENUS and Pavel Klushantsev's PLANETA BUR, both of which have turned up on excellent DVDs that show the movies without Mr. Corman's interference. Retromedia shows the film under it's Americanized title BATTLE BEYOND THE SUN on a double movie DVD with the Italian space operetta STAR PILOT, and while contemporary audiences may not "get" the funky 60s approach to science fiction I cannot recommend it highly enough.

5/10