A Quick Look: VOYAGE TO THE PREHISTORIC PLANET (1965 - color)

   VOYAGE TO THE PREHISTORIC PLANET was an import from Russia. In the 60's, American International and some of the similar studios would supplement a portion of their output with imported movies of a commercial nature (in other words, science fiction and monster movies). This one, like many in the mid-to-late 60's, was released to television. It has since fallen into public domain and shows up on countless cheap label DVDs. The film itself is pretty interesting, if generic: explorers land on Venus to discover a prehistoric world populated by dinosaurs and possibly a higher intelligence. More or less a straight translation of the original Russian treatment, where as many of these pictures were farmed only for their effects sequences. Basil Rathbone and Faith Domergue join the cast via American footage, basically replacing minor characters who had served the same story functions. 

  
   These Russian space operas tend to be pretty opulent, since they were basically State-sponsored show pieces. You can see why directors like Roger Corman were attracted to them. Ronald Stein provided the US soundtrack, incorporating themes from earlier scores like that of DINOSAURUS! and ATTACK OF THE 50FT WOMAN. The film enjoyed a healthy run on television for decades. In 1967, Roger Corman hired Peter Bogdanovich to re-structure VOYAGE TO THE PREHISTORIC PLANET into a 'new' movie that could be released to television. The result was the very similarly titled VOYAGE TO THE PLANET OF PREHISTORIC WOMEN. Basically, it's the same movie with some additional scenes. This time around, when the cosmonauts land on Venus and find it a prehistoric world with signs of an ancient civilization, they don't see that the civilization still exists -in the form of amphibious females who worship a pterodactyl for some reason. When the men in the earlier movie shoot down the beast, the mermaids begin directing psychic powers toward the invaders, thus explaining the planet's upheavals. In an intriguing finish, the girls discover the cosmonauts' robot and erect it as their new idol. Mamie Van Doren (often written off as the poor man's Jayne Mansfield) stars as the leader of the titular prehistoric women. The concept is workable, but it would've worked a bit better as an original movie. Watching this is just going over VOYAGE TO THE PREHISTORIC PLANET once again and noting how much better it was edited the first time!