Planet der Stürme

Like many of the reviewers, I watched this after the "Prehistoric Planet" film. I was astonished that there were no changes to any of the previous footage, other than the Bogdanovich voice over and the disappearance of Faith Domergue (Marcia). What has been added is a set of blonde women who hold sway on Venus and worship a Pterodactyl. They have scallop shell bras and hip hugger pants with bell bottoms made of a sheer material. I do remember that Mamie Van Doren was really quite a good looking lady and these really are some attractive women. But they never really speak. They are telepathic. They are there to show that they actually caused much of what happened to the Astronauts in the previous movie. This had to be made for the drive-in crowd to neck and ignore, simply to fill space on a triple feature. It certainly wasn't worth much time and effort.

Probably one of the more haunting experiences and viewings as a child I remember because often it was aired at alternative times by it's previous venture, "Voyage to a Prehistoric Planet". I remember feeling confused as to the differences, but by far, "Voyage to the Planet of Prehistoric Women" presents the better use of the original Russian footage. The closing scenes with the women surrounding their "new god" the lava-destroyed robot, "John", are simply eerie in contrast to the previous scenes from the 1962 Russian film. The voice-over dialog by Mamie Van Doren, while "hokey" in parts, sets the mood perfectly. To appreciate this film for what it is, one needs simply to view it ALONE...in the quiet dead of night. It gets under your skin and stays there. One of the more noteworthy and curious (in my opinion), albeit "lessor known" of Corman's "cut and paste" classics.

I saw this movie as a kid, around 1972 or so, and spent years trying to see it again. Yes, I know, I need a life. I finally found it on DVD in one of those 50 sci-fi movies for $20. The movie itself is pretty bad, but if one enjoys 'bad' sci-fi, then this one is perfect. I still can't figure out how they got their 'space-car' to float around like it did. It looked pretty real, as did a Brontosaurus, but the Pterydactyl looked very cheesy, like it was made by a bunch of 7th graders. Anyway, I watched "Voyage to the Prehistoric Planet", then I watched "Voyage to the Planet of the Prehistoric Women" back to back. There must have been a gun to my head, I know. The movies use the exact same dubbed Russian "Planet of Storms" footage, but each movie spliced in their own additional footage, and the results produce 2 similar, but different story lines. "Prehistoric Planet" has Basil Rathbone in separate footage, as well as Faith Domergue in her own footage-they are in different space stations.....making for a clumsy (but enjoyable) plot involving rescuing the men on Venus. The robot seems to have a bigger role in this movie, although it is used to some effect in the other. "Prehistoric Women" has Peter Bogdanovich's voice-over narration, and the spliced-in women in clam shell bathing suits (Mamie Van Doren is the leader), who communicate telepathically. I found this one to be much more interesting of the two. The Earth men and Venus women seemed destined to meet each other, they look for each other most of the movie, but alas because it is separate footage, they never do! A somewhat surprise ending makes the movie that more interesting. I do have to comment on the eerie female singing/crying throughout the movies, made it pretty haunting. Also, some of the noises coming from the console of the space-ships sounds exactly like those heard on the original Star Trek TV show. Well, I probably spent more time talking about this movie than the production crew who actually shot the movie!

There's not too much going for this movie. It has a poor plot and poor acting. At the start of the movie, the special effects seem promising but even this quickly disappears and reverts to much lower standards. It seemed to me that the film is far behind the quality of special effects available in 1968. It seemed to be several years behind the times. The actual quality of the film is even poor. The so called prehistoric women did not in the least look prehistoric. To me they just looked very strange. I didn't find this movie to be very interesting and would go as far as calling it boring. I've seen a lot worse but this film is definitely near the bottom of my list and is one that I would not recommend.

In 1965 Roger Corman produced Voyage to the Prehistoric Planet, and in 1967 he produced (uncredited) Voyage to the Planet of Prehistoric Women (VPPW). But the similarities do not end there. Both films are essentially recycles of Planeta Burg, a great Soviet sci fi adventure from the 1950s. Most of the footage from both films - and ALL of the coherent and interesting footage - comes from the original Soviet film.

VPPW is Peter Bogdanovich's first directorial effort, and unlike some of his later films, it's entirely disposable.

It is not the first, nor the last, time that an American director essentially plagiarized a good foreign film, but it is among one of the worst examples of Ameicanization I have ever seen. Even compared to what was done to Gojira, La Femme Nikita, Wings of Desire and Open Your Eyes, this is close to an all-time low.

Like the previous Voyage to a Prehistoric planet, but less seamlessly, Bogdanovich simply took a little new footage and added it to the original film. The story is essentially an adventure set on the planet Venus, where two cosmonauts and a robot await rescue, and follows the cosmonauts and their rescue team through a series of harrowing adventures involving giant carnivorous plants, lizard men, and geological hazards. Planeta Burg also introduced a little mystery by showing some evidence that Venus may once have been inhabited by an intelligent species capable of producing works of art.

The most interesting aspect of Bogdanovich's retelling of this story is his exploration of this mystery. It seems that the last remnants of Venusian civilization are scantily clad telepathic women who worship, among other things, a Pteradactyl which their earthling visitors have murdered. These women have apparently figured out how to reproduce without men, and to produce cotton pants and hats for themselves out of Venus' barren wastelands, but are otherwise quite primitive. Remarkably, despite the fact that there do not appear to be any Venusian men, the gods the women worship are referred to as "him". You get the picture, yes?

The basic idea of examining the Venusian perspective on the events depicted in Planeta Burg was a good one. But this was, apparently, the only good idea involved in the design of this film.

This film is worth seeing if you ever felt compelled to see Mamie van Doren chewing on a freshly caught raw fish, or if you are a fan of Planeta Burg and just have to see how it has been butchered in this final act of cinematic violence. Otherwise, I can't recommend it.

The special effects are way below the quality of those which appear in the 1950s film, the added content is poorly acted, badly edited, and adds very little to the film.