Doomsday Machine

1972

1h 23m

IMDb RATING

3.1/10

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Science Fiction

Following the discovery of a doomsday machine capable of destroying Earth, the launch of a US space mission to Venus is taken over by the military.

Directors

Lee Sholem

Harry Hope

Herbert J. Leder

Writers

Stuart J. Byrne(screenplay by)

Stuart J. Byrne(original story by)

Stars

Bobby Van

Ruta Lee

Mala Powers

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Top cast

Bobby Van

Danny

Ruta Lee

Dr. Marion Turner

Mala Powers

Maj. Georgianna Bronski

James Craig

Dr. Haines

Grant Williams

Maj. Kurt Mason

Henry Wilcoxon

Dr. Christopher Perry

Essie Lin Chia

Girl Spy

Casey Kasem

Mission Control Officer

Lt. Katie Carlson

Col. Don Price

1st Reporter

Major …

Woman Reporter

Directors

Writers

Stuart J. Byrne(screenplay by)

Stuart J. Byrne(original story by)

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I can see the light at the end of the proverbial tunnel, as I'm nearing the end of my infamous Mill Creek 50-film 'Nightmare Worlds' pack. This was a really strange viewing experience, and honestly made me wonder if my red wine had been spiked with some hallucinogen by some ne'er-do-well prankster. It had some intriguing ideas, a big one being that the USA and USSR are afraid that China is going to destroy the world, so at the last minute, just before a scheduled space flight to investigate Venus, NASA administrators replace three of the astronauts with female counterparts, and include a mysterious large suitcase. Though it says 1972, you can distinctly feel that it was made years earlier, before the game-changers of '2001: A Space Odyssey' and the manned space flight to the moon completely changed the way sci-fi films were made (unless you're the sad saps behind monstrosities such as 'Star Odyssey', that go on as if any relationship with the way things are in real life is an entirely accidental and unintended coincidence). Most of it was made in 1966, but funding ran out, and it shows. The filmmakers couldn't even afford the intended climax, and that shows--the film simply ends. But for all of that, this bizarre experiment of a forced Adam and Eve scenario in outer space, as a future for Earth, is decent--and it would be two generations later, when in Christopher Nolan's 'Interstellar', that this idea would be fully realized with human decency and artistic integrity.

talisencrw16 Apr, 2016