SATURN 3 (1980) - good-looking space thriller

SATURN 3

(1980, UK)

Something is wrong with Saturn 3...

My Wednesday posts are becoming a regular spot for movies that I don't whole-heartedly recommend. This is a 'sick relative' of a movie - one I keep checking back to see if it's getting any better. This time around, I enjoyed it in widescreen, for the first time since seeing it in the cinema. It's still pretty bad, but entertainingly so, with the vague promise that it might have been warped, adult sci-fi horror... if only they'd done it right.

Released the year after Alien, Saturn 3 could be seen as a rip-off, with a robot instead of the monster, and a moon of Saturn instead of the spaceship. But John (Jonathan) Barry had written the story years earlier. Barry was more famous as the production designer of such design classics as Star Wars (wow), Superman - The Movie (gosh), and Stanley Kubrick's A Clockwork Orange (again, wow).

John Barry had also been a second unit director on The Empire Strikes Back (wow). Saturn 3 would have been Barry's chance to direct a movie by himself. He'd presumably been working on ideas for the design of the robot and the sets while preparing the script over the years.



According to news in Cinefantastique magazine (volume 9, issue 1), Barry only got to direct for the first day! There were rumours of problems between him and the cast. Kirk Douglas then directed for two further days, before Stanley Donen (Arabesque, Bedazzled) arrived to complete the film. Such drastic measures hint at problems that ultimately harmed this project so much, it was lucky to appear at all. There are clues throughout, not least the choppy narrative, with repeated fades to black, and the rushed ending. As it stands, the film is only half-formed. A half-interesting story based on solid sci-fi ideas, but mis-handled and poorly finished off.

A base on a frozen moon of Saturn has the ideal conditions for scientists to experiment on solving future Earth's problem of food shortage. Scientist Adam (Kirk Douglas) is assisted by the much younger Alex (the late Farrah Fawcett), living an idyllic existence away from the problems of an over-crowded Earth. Another scientist, Benson (Harvey Keitel), brings an experimental robot from Earth in order to speed up the research. What the inhabitants of Saturn 3 don't know is that he's an imposter, a psychopath who plans to psychically link himself to the huge robot...

The idea of untrustworthy robots is even older than 'Maria' from Metropolis (1927). Even the popular Robby the Robot went renegade in The Invisible Boy (1957), despite abiding by Asimov's law of robotics for his debut in Forbidden Planet (1956). In the cinema however, Asimov's laws are often reprogrammed with movie logic. I'd call them...

The Westworld laws of roboticsFirst law: if it can go wrong, it will go wrong.

Second law: if it looks evil, it is evil.

Third law: screw Asimov - if robots can't kill, you haven't got a story.

The unexpected fourth law: if a killer robot looks dead, it will suddenly come back to life.

The robot design, inspired by the anatomical drawings of Michelangelo, looks great from the neck down. But a weedy pair of plastic eyes on an anglepoise stand looks totally fragile. Generally the designwork, like Keitel's spacesuit and bug-like spaceship, still looks good.

What impressed me the most was the moonbase set! A huge practical (functioning) continuous set that seems to have had no expense spared. Again a production technique used in Alien where a labyrinth of solid and functional corridors, rooms and doors added to the realism of future space travel. For instance, Saturn 3's decontamination chamber looks fantastic and, in operation, appears to be a visually dazzling kaleidoscope.

The DVD restores the intense blue sidelights along the dark main corridors, an electric blue that was almost absent from the VHS release. But spectacular corridors shouldn't be the highlight of the film. They are a perfect example of 'sci-fi corridors', they're even in the poster (at top) - just a robot and a corridor. But while the robot looks silly and headless. The corridor looks good... I must mention this recent, inspirational article 'In Praise of the Sci-Fi Corridor' here in the Den of Geek.

Saturn 3 makes the mistake that so many other Star Wars-inspired casualties made - the opening shot is a spaceship flying over the camera. But much of the outer space modelwork is done on the cheap. The space station and the exterior shots of the moonbase are so small that there are focussing problems that instantly give away the models' actual size. Compared to the money lavished on the sets, the poor special effects indicate that the money got thin in post-production.

There are also hints that some scenes were reshot to tone down the violence. The opening murder is bizarrely devoid of blood. While much of the violence is quite nasty for a family-friendly classification, fast editing hint that it has been toned down. Some story points flash past so quickly, it's confusing. Also the sexual references around the tense love triangle, and Alex/Adam's spring/autumn relationship again seem intended for an adult audience, but toned down for a general release.

There are some famous publicity shots of Farrah Fawcett in a black outfit with a plunging neckline (glimpsed in the trailer below) - presumably for a fantasy dream sequence. I'm guessing that it would have followed the scene where Harvey Keitel's goes to sleep, high on 'blues'...

Further confusion stems from the seventies-hangover anachronisms - an Exercise Wheel (you will laugh when you see it, either at the brazen product placement, or the obvious uselessness of the product), a burst of space-disco, not to mention the casting of Farrah...

In the 'finished' film, there's so much left unexplained. The tanks of liquid under the floor. The surveillance cameras everywhere. The novelisation explains more about what's going on, adding a poignant slant to the epilogue. There's no mention of the dream sequence, but the opening murder scene is better explained. There's more dialogue and exposition and Keitel's stilted dialogue is different, far more natural in the novelisation, indicating that it got a late rewrite (credited to Martin Amis). Though the novel appears to have the same slim story structure as the film (for example, no dream).

Lastly the cast. Unlike the set, they're interesting for the wrong reasons. As Adam, Kirk Douglas is intent on showing us that he's still in good shape. He also gets nuder than Farrah and manages a long bout of skipping to prove himself to Alex, and to us. Just as in Holocaust 2000, there's a gratuitous naked arse shot, when the audience were presumably hoping to see more of Farrah.

As Alex, Farrah Fawcett-Majors had already dropped the 'Majors' at this point, waiting for a divorce from The Six Million Dollar Man, Lee Majors. Her performance isn't much better than her stiff bit-part in Logan's Run, though her acting seriously improved over the next few films.

This is a truly bizarre role for Harvey Keitel, way weirder than when he turned up in Sister Act. The strangeness of his appearing in sci-fi is exaggerated by his character's weirdness. He picks up Farrah's pet dog and immediately checks out it's arse, supposedly demonstrating that Earth people are clinical and emotionless. This all veers towards the unintentionally funny. Plus the shock that Keitel's voice has been dubbed with the very British accent of Roy Dotrice (Tales From The Crypt, Amadeus, Swimming With Sharks). He's saddled with robotic, emotionless dialogue, like this futuristic chat-up line, "You have a great body. May I use it?"

The following year, Outland was the first worthy successor to Alien. A taut re-staging of High Noon on a moon of Jupiter, with Sean Connery as the space-sheriff! Great effects, characters and atmospheric direction from Peter Hyams made Outland a close visual and thematic relative. A gritty, gory thriller with sturdy, functional sets and hardware, from the same producer as Alien.

The region 2 DVD of Saturn 3 is widescreen, letterboxed 16:9, a substantial improvement over the cramped aspect of the VHS releases. Unfortunately, it's non-anamorphic and the audio is mono.

One of the few sensible reviews of the film is here on Moria.

A couple of shots from the missing footage, of Farrah in her dream-sequence Barbarella outfit, appear in this original release trailer on YouTube...

"There are four inhabitants on Saturn 3. One of them is not human". Let me see. Kirk, Farrah, Harvey... they could be talking about the dog!

Website devoted to Saturn 3 here...

SATELLITE IN THE SKY (1956) - early British spaceshot sci-fi!

SATELLITE IN THE SKY
(1956, UK)

Miss Moneypenny beats Bond into space!

I recently assumed that The Day of the Triffids (1963) was Britain's first colour sci-fi film. A correction immediately came back - this widescreen spaceshot drama made in 1956! With a handsome budget, extensive FX work and some familiar faces, it proved to be both fascinating and enjoyable. I love fifties sci-fi and would have chased this up sooner if I'd known it existed.

In the fifties, I'd always thought that George Pal had cornered the market in realistic visions of space pioneering. He imagined America's first space voyages with Destination Moon (1950) and Conquest of Space (1955). Satellite in the Sky is similar in approach, but has with more engaging characters and a pacier, more controversial plot. The film was also made at a time when Britain was actually in the space race - when the method of propelling man into space was still 'out to tender' around the world...


It's the story of mankind's first trip into space, launched from England, of course, (note that even the first unmanned satellite didn't make it into space until 1957 - the Russian Sputnik). After the initial tests are successful, the mission gets a green light. But what the crew don't realise is that the government have plans for a secret payload to be installed in the huge rocket ship.

The early scenes of the homelives of the various astronauts have few payoffs in the story, but thankfully zip by and we're soon in space halfway into the story. But the mission doesn't run nearly as smoothly as the ship's artificial gravity...

Of course, many of the story's 'prophecies' haven't come true - it took decades to get a Brit into space, courtesy of the Space Shuttle. The long launch ramp is presumably based on the same rumoured Russian plans that were also depicted in When Worlds Collide. Gerry Anderson's Fireball XL5 used a similar launching method in 1962, probably because it looked more exciting than a vertical take-off. But the rocket of Satellite in the Sky uses less runway, and has a similar tilting launch platform and exhaust vents that Thunderbird 2 would later use.


The extensive modelwork and matte paintings, Cinemascope and colour make this a definite 'A' picture, unlike much of 1950's sci-fi. The visual effects are fairly obvious today, but I was impressed with their scale and design and how favourably they compared to George Pal's films. The viewing ports that emerge from the sides of the ship looked a little flimsy, but predate Dark Star's bubble and Ash's observation window in Alien.


It's marvellous to see Lois Maxwell in a leading role, playing a nosy reporter who's against the expensive project (a concern that hounds space exploration to this day) but is intrigued by the captain. Six years later she lucked into the bit part for which she's famous, Miss Moneypenny, flirting with James Bond in all the Sean Connery's and Roger Moore's. Few other members of the cast manage a mid-Atlantic accent as good as hers. Her Canadian accent also lead her into voicing Atlanta Shore for Gerry Anderson's Stingray (1964), a TV series also aimed at US sales.

Black Hole favourite, Kieron Moore (The Day of the Triffids, Dr Blood's Coffin) is the rocket captain, delivering a typically entertaining uncharismatic performance. He's very 'take charge' and pro-active in an emergency, but his characters are always so abrubt that he's not much of a prize for the love interest. (More about Moore at Brian's Drive-In Theater).

Lurking in the wings is grand thespian Donald Wolfit (Blood of the Vampire, Svengali) posing a threat by daring to scene-steal from Kieron Moore's screentime.

Another crewmen is a very young Bryan Forbes, cheeky stalwart of classic British war movies (The Wooden Horse, The Colditz Story), he was also in the movie of Quatermass II (Enemy from Space). You probably know him as a director - notably The Stepford Wives (1975), Deadfall (1968) and Whistle Down The Wind (1961).

Once again there's a chance to see Donald Gray (Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons) in action. I caught him in another movie last week, Timeslip (1955).


Satellite in the Sky should really have a far higher profile in British sci-fi history, or even as a classic British movie. Perhaps if it had a better title? As it stands, I've never seen this on TV, and the DVD release is of course from the US, in a double-bill with World Without End (also from 1956). Both films are presented in anamorphic 2.35 widescreen (from Warner Home Video).

BARBARELLA (1968) the Ultimate Guide - Part 3: Barbarella Costume-changer

In the 1968 movie, Barbarella's frequently hazardous mission meant she had trouble hanging onto any of her Italian designer outfits. Costume designs are credited to Paco Rabane no less, though most were created by Jacques Fonteray, all influenced by Jean Claude Forest, who originally created the character and was heavily involved in the production.

Without spoiling the story too much, here's the sequence of Barbarella's many many costume changes. All her 'clothing breaks' are included, when her clothes disappear and prompt the need for another outfit...

1. SPACESUIT STRIP BARBARELLA
Silver spacesuit with detachable sleeves and leggings, with transforming silver helmet.
(Worn for the titles sequence as Barbarella enters the spaceship.)

Then all her clothes fall off!

(Freefall striptease, talking to Earth President)



COSTUME CHANGE!

2. ASTRONAVIGATRIX BARBARELLA
Black one-piece with breast and stomach windows, segmented plastic see-through casing overlaying shoulders and breasts, black tights.
(Worn for space voyage to Tau Ceti. Presumably this is her pilot uniform!)

COSTUME CHANGE!


3. ICE FOREST EXPLORER BARBARELLA
Silver cape, brown net body stocking, silver bra, wide silver belt, silver boots.
(Exploring the ice forest on Planet 16, meeting the children).




Rrrrrip!

3a. Ice Forest Explorer outfit - torn version!
(The dolls, Mark Hand's sailboat).


Then all her clothes fall off!

(Mark Hand's sailboat)



COSTUME CHANGE!

4. FURRY TAIL BARBARELLA
A thigh-length fur top which also has a troublesome tail.
Looks like she's hung onto her silver boots.
(Getting back onboard the spaceship, journey to the Labyrinth.)




COSTUME CHANGE!

5. LABYRINTH EXPLORER BARBARELLA
White one-piece with black stripes that continue down to the thigh-length boots.
(Worn for entering the Labyrinth, meeting Ping and Pygar.)

Then all her clothes fall off!

(In the bird's nest.)

COSTUME CHANGE!

6. FLYING BATTLE-ACTION BARBARELLA

Silver chainmail brassiere on white, red thong over chainlink belt and white leggings, black cape, red and white boots.
(Worn for flying with Pygar, arrival in Sogo, meeting the Queen.)

Rrrrrip!

6a. Flight Suit - torn version!
(Birdcage, meeting Dildano)

Then all her clothes fall off!

(Getting changed at Dildano's secret headquarters)

COSTUME CHANGE!

7. NIGHTCLUB BARBARELLA
Black top with right-breast and stomach windows, brown leather bikini over brown tights, circle-patterned cape.
(Worn in the nightclub, chilling on see-through scatter cushions).

Then all her clothes fall off!

(The monstrous Excessive Machine!)

COSTUME CHANGE!

8. MATHMOS BARBARELLA
Green 'Peter Pan' tunic with rectangular frills, green boots.
Hair freshly ruffled by the Excessive Machine.
(Final outfit. Below is a publicity shot which has a good view of the 'brainwave detector with built-in tonguebox' that she wears on her left wrist for most of the story.)

There you have it! Barbarella's every outfit! I think I need to chill out with some 'essence of man' after all that!



More chapters in the Ultimate Guide to Barbarella...

Part 1: Introduction
Part 2: Cast and Characters

Part 4: Missing Scenes
Part 5: Set Designs

BARBARELLA (1968) the Ultimate Guide - Part 2: Cast and Characters

Further to my first posting (an illustrated introduction and review) on the 'way out' 1968 movie Barbarella, here's a look at the main characters and the actors who played them...

Barbarella (Jane Fonda)

Barbarella is sent out alone on a mission, with the Earth President confident that her skills as both an astronaut and a resourceful adventurer can single-handedly take on an unknown planet and the Universe's most destructive weapon. Though she appears to be a typical blonde (certainly in the comic strip), her naivety is shared by all Earth people of the 40th century, in a society where there is no war, and sex is now cerebral and not physical. She flies her spaceship, Alpha 7, alone - she's a top-level astronavigatrix. Though unused to fighting, she adapts quickly to using weapons from Earth's Museum Of Conflict. Like the hippy children of the sixties, she's open-minded and not judgemental of the debased inhabitants of the strange new planet she explores. She has no problem having sex with anyone she's only just met. Just as well, because this frequently happens.

Jane Fonda is fantastic as Barbarella - the role called for a beautiful, sexual actress who excels at both drama and comedy, and could walk the fine line of space adventure and tongue-in-cheek! By the time the film was released, Fonda had rebelled, against America's involvement in Vietnam and for feminism. This was of course at odds at Barbarella's publicity campaign, monopolising on Fonda's near-nakedness and the character's knack for being exploited by almost everyone she meets.


The film marked an end to Fonda's lighter, comedy roles. She pushed immediately towards tougher parts, with the depression-era They Shoot Horses Don't They?, then the hard-edged thriller Klute, where she played a prostitute. Beginning a period where she distanced herself from the "pornographic" comedy. She continued with a mix of political (Coming Home, The China Syndrome), dramatic (Julia, On Golden Pond) and back to comedy films (Fun With Dick and Jane, California Suite, Nine To Five). Nowadays Barbarella is a long, long way from scandalous, and Fonda talks about it like just another one comedy.

Jane Fonda is still acting (Monster In Law) but is also an active blogger, and Tweeter! If you want to know more about her very full life, ensure you read her autobiography 'My Life So Far', and not any of the many unauthorised biographies.

Pygar (John Phillip Law)

Barbarella's main ally is Pygar, a blind angel, an ornithanthrope (part man, part bird). He's trapped in the Labyrinth that surrounds the city of Sogo, because he's lost the will to fly. Like Barbarella, he's sexually attractive but also naive to the evil forces of the City of Night.

John Phillip Law doesn't overplay Pygar's blindness or his innocence. He spends the whole film dressed only in a feathery loincloth and a huge pair of wings (a heavy attachment that could actually flap). Law was cast while shooting Hurry Sundown with Fonda, after a string of supporting roles in Hollywood. Immediately after Barbarella, Dino De Laurentiis cast him as another comic strip character, Italian this time, as the lead in Mario Bava's Danger: Diabolik. Apart from Barbarella and Diabolik, he's best remembered as Sinbad in Ray Harryhausen's The Golden Voyage of Sinbad. His acting career lasted till the very end, when he sadly passed away last year.

The Great Tyrant (Anita Pallenberg)

The Great Tyrant rules the city of Sogo with a leather glove. Her citizens are dedicated to committing evil acts for sexual and violent pleasure, feeding the Mathmos with negative energy that powers the city. A very green source of energy, if you think about it. Her Black Guards (made only of leather) suppress any opposition to her rule. She likes to disguise herself as an ordinary citizen and 'play' with her subjects. She also has a fondness for doubling up words, calling Barbarella "Pretty-Pretty".

Anita Pallenberg's performance sounds better than it looks, even though her outfits are just as seductive and spectacular as Barbarella. Pallenberg famously had her voice overdubbed by another actress, who makes her sound sensual, suggestive and far more expressive. One of the few good articles ever written about the film appeared in Video Watchdog #23, a review of the laserdisc edition. Italian movie expert Tim Lucas named the voice artist as Fenella Fielding (the villainess in Carry on Screaming), so I doubt that it was the similar-sounding Joan Greenwood, who is credited on IMDB.

Pallenberg's other famous role was as Mick Jagger's girlfriend in Performance, reflecting her famous dalliances with the members of the Rolling Stones. Never serious about movies, she's now a fashion designer.

The Concierge (Milo O'Shea)

The Black Queen's right hand man (here he is, putting his right hand to good use) is the Concierge. He dishes out extra special punishments and tortures to the most difficult of the Great Tyrant's enemies. His specialties range from the high-tech Excessive Machine (a musical prison that lethally amplifies orgasms) to the good old-fashioned whip. He can be recognised from his cummerbund that looks like the Sydney Opera House!

The Concierge is played by the villainous-looking Milo O'Shea, an esteemed Irish actor who made his name on the stage and in high-powered dramatic roles, like the adaption of James Joyce's Ulysses, but ended up being well-known for comedy on TV and film (like the inspector in Theatre of Blood). He initially underplays his villainous role, but easily hits the heights when he needs to.

O'Shea recreated the role, years later, in the video album Arena for 80s pop band sensation Duran Duran. A specially re-edited compilation of the band's promotional videos, supplemented by specially shot linking material. Clips from the film were also used in this moneyspinning, straight-to-video extravaganza directed by Russell Mulcahy (Highlander, Razorback) who shot many of the bands most famous and expensive videos.

Dildano (David Hemmings)

Dildano hides in the bowels of Sogo, plotting a revolution against the Black Queen, while not quite having enough resources or organisational skills to pull it off. He's passionate about his cause, but inept, forgetful and accident-prone. At least he knows how to make love the new-fashioned way...


David Hemmings was a late addition to the cast, when a key comedy scene was reshot (more about that in my forthcoming article on missing scenes). At the time, Hemmings was internationally famous from his role in Blow Up. But after a spate of starring roles, he shifted into directing, including a movie adaption of James Herbert's The Survivor (1981), and then many TV episodes (all on film), including The A-Team, Airwolf (in which he also starred in the pilot as Airwolf's creator), Magnum P.I. and Quantum Leap. He ended his career by returning to acting, appearing in Gladiator, and The League of Extraordinary Gentleman, before passing away in 2003.

Professor Ping (Marcel Marceau)

Professor Ping is the unofficial leader and advisor in the Labyrinth, cheerfully helping the exiled as they disintegrate into nothing, or integrate with the rock walls of the maze. While brainy enough to fix Barbarella's spaceship, it takes him a while to deduce that she's of female origin...

Bizarrely, it's a verbose role for the world's most famous ever mime, Marcel Marceau. He had a brief spate of speaking roles in movies, including William Castle's Shanks. and Mel Brooks' Silent Movie! Ironically, Marceau is dubbed by another actor here, I think it sounds like the versatile voice actor Robert Rietty, or maybe Ping lookalike Geoffrey Bayldon (Catweazle, Asylum).

Mark Hand (Ugo Tognazzi)

The Catchman is a hairy wanderer of the ice and forests of Weir, the snowy wilderness not far from Sogo. The habitat shows that Planet 16 isn't one of these Star Wars planets that has the same climate all over (a scientifically inaccurate whimsical throwback to Flash Gordon's Universe). The ice sheet contrasts with the balmy and arid labyrinth, hot enough to grow orchids. Here Mark Hand nets roaming wild children to provide unwilling slaves for Sogo. He mentions this all very calmy as he's chatting up Barbarella. He's also not great at repairing spaceships, though his self-propelled sailboat is still running smoothly.

Ugo Tognazzi plays this cameo role, in a cast that mixed Italian and French actors with English and American. Again he's an actor who could ably play drama and comedy. The only other film I've seen him in was the original French movie of La Cage Aux Folles, where he played the bisexual lead, a role replayed by Robin Willams in The Birdcage.

The President of Earth (Claude Dauphin)

Finally Dianthus, the President of Earth, gives Barbarella her mission via a video screen communicator at the start of the story. He's enamoured with Barbarella and looking forward to meeting her in the flesh, though not worried enough about her safety to spare her any assistance (like his own security force) for the dangerous mission. What he says goes, but it doesn't always make sense.

The last star in our line-up was the celebrated French actor, Claude Dauphin (Grand Prix, Phantom of the Rue Morgue). I'm assuming that his performance as the Earth President was dubbed into English by another actor, despite his many international roles. He's now buried in the Pere Lachaise cemetery in the outskirts of Paris.



Of all the above actors, only Fonda, O'Shea and Pallenberg are still around. Lower down the cast, the credits are still incomplete for the many actors who dubbed the film for the English-language version. Like who did Barbarella's spaceship computer Alphy? Or the cool calming voices of the Chamber of Ultimate Solution - the forerunner of Futurama's suicide booth?



My next article about Barbarella will be an illustrated guide to her many costume-changes, a running gag throughout the film.

Part 1: My review and overview of the Barbarella phenomenon

Part 3: Barbarella's many many outfits
Part 4: Missing scenes
Part 5: Set Designs