Il pianeta degli uomini spenti

I've just seen Battle of the Worlds for the first time and is very similar to When Worlds Collide, which was made ten years before this in 1951.

A planet is discovered to be on a collision course with Earth and a way is devised to try and stop it. To makes things worse, Earth is attacked by flying saucers from this planet but they are eventually defeated. A party, including Professor Benson then lands on this planet and they manage to blow it up and successfully do so, but with Benson still on there as he refused orders to evacuate. Earth is saved yet again.

Battle Of the Worlds tends to be a little talky and slow moving in parts but the flying saucer scenes are OK. Despite it being talky, it is fairly eerie in parts.

This features a good performance from Claude Rains (The Invisible Man, The Wolf Man, The Lost World) as Professor Benson but he is the only star I've heard of in the cast.

To sum up, an average movie but not brilliant.

Rating: 2 and a half stars out of 5.

Antonio Margheriti's second space opera, 'Battle of the Worlds' finds Earth threatened by fleets of flying saucers coming from a rogue planet (the "Outsider") that has wandered into our solar system. Veteran A-list actor Claude Rains plays Prof. Benson, a cantankerous and supercilious scientist who figures out is going on (it's odd to see Rains starring in an obscure spaghetti-space opera only a year before working with David Lean on 'Lawrence of Arabia'). I watched an adequately dubbed version so I can't comment on the acting (except for a hammy, English-speaking Rains), or script but the story, if implausible, is entertaining and the special effects have that gaudy but imaginative look that characterises Italian space operas of the era. The idea that the rogue planet is actually some kind of 'space ark' sent out by a dying species (as deduced by Benson based on very little data) is clever and poetic but the scenes in which the refugees are found dead at the controls are unfortunately almost indecipherable (this could be due to the quality of the version I was watching on-line). The film is similar to Margheriti's first space opera, 1960's 'Space Men' and both films, while having weaknesses, are better than most of their American contemporaries, which were too focussed on big bugs and the teenage drive-in market to offer up much in the way of ideas.

One of my sci-fi/horror/fantasy reviews written 50 years ago: Directed by Antonio Margheriti a/k/a Anthony Dawson. Produced by Ultra Film (Italy), released in America by Manson Distributing (later in TV syndication packages). Screenplay by Ennio De Concini; Photography by Marcello Masciocchi; Music by Mario Migliardi. Starring Claude Rains, Bill Carter, Umberto Orsini, Maya Brent, Jacqueline Derval and Renzo Palmer.

This 1960s flick of Italian descent is a very funny science fiction suspenser in which mathematician Claude Rains saves the world from a collision with another planet and learns the "secret of the spheres" in the process. Tremendously hammy acting by Rains, who has a marvelous time at the expense of the Continental supporting cast.

The appearance of Claude Rains is not the only surprise in Anthony Dawson's Il pianeta degli uomini spenti (A.K.A. Battle of the Worlds). Rains plays an eccentric, reclusive, contemptuous elderly scientist who leads a powerful research team. Professor Benson is the best, and he has little patience for lesser minds. His only link to humanity seems to be Eve (Maya Brent), his assistant. Her coming of age, the insubordination of one of the younger members of his research team, and the impending arrival of an enormous and mysterious space object - The Outsider - combine to challenge "the old man's" carefully-constructed self concept, his arrogance, and, ultimately, the continuation of life on earth.

Ultimately, this is one of Italy's best and most serious sci-fi films, and one of the better early '60s sci-fi films to come out of Europe. The relatively primitive (but creative) effects coupled with the very serious and dramatic tone of the dialog may be difficult for most American viewers. Giorgio Giovannini's soundtrack is jarring and intense. And the excellent, but sometimes surreal, Marcello Masciocchi cinematography won't help the average viewer enjoy this film. The international cast (mostly Americans) does very well.

Given the film's dubious pedigree and silly cliché title, I can certainly understand why some reviewers felt compelled to use the words "cheesy" and "spaghetti" in their reviews. I am tempted to point out that macaroni and cheese is a very tasty dish, but I will refrain. Approach this film with an open mind and you might just be able to get something more than guilty pleasure from it.

1960's "Battle of the Worlds" (Il Planeta Degli Uomini or The Planet of Extinct Men) marks only the second science fiction entry from Italian director Antonio Margheriti (under his usual pseudonym Anthony Dawson), perhaps his best given that "Assignment: Outer Space" did not fare well internationally, plus the towering screen presence of an aging Claude Rains in the central role of Professor Benson, very similar to his just completed Professor Challenger in Irwin Allen's "The Lost World." A rogue planet dubbed 'The Outsider' has entered our galaxy and is believed to be on a collision course to destroy the earth, the scientific community casually brushing off Benson's assertion that it will merely pass by without incident. The old man soon learns that 'The Outsider' has slipped into orbit around our planet. Causing a wave of destruction and suicides to force an exploratory ship to examine it more closely. A small force of saucers are dispatched to obliterate the ship, so Benson himself is finally allowed to take charge in the battle, reasoning that 'The Outsider' is something of a 'Noah's Ark,' a relic from a dead world that can be reprogrammed to go back where it came from. The climax offers a race against time, Benson's crew desperate to return to their vessel and take off before nuclear warheads target 'The Outsider' in a blaze of glory. Top screenwriting workhorse Ennio de Concini was coming off Mario Bava's "Black Sunday," and continued working in all genres throughout a prolific career, the 70 year old Rains giving this one a stronger edge with an over the top performance that commands the screen, cantankerous yet lovable, an outsider himself who would prefer to die knowing the truth than live without knowledge. Rarely seen outside the confines of his greenhouse, scribbling calculations on flower pots, Rains easily dominates a cast of barely outlined characters, one couple ready to wed who suddenly end their relationship, another happily married and working in tandem from Earth to Mars. Margheriti's 1965 "Planet on the Prowl" would feature the same type of underground world for its finale, what appears to be a living, breathing organism with brain cells and arteries that bleed crimson. Rather than waste the talents of a fine actor, this low budget vehicle actually gives him something tangible to sink his teeth into, delivering in spades for a film that never receives much love, mostly relegated to horrid, washed out prints.