BATTLE BEYOND THE SUN (1962) ¢
D: Thomas Colchart
Edd Perry, Aria Powell, Andy Stewart, Bruce Hunter
Stilted Soviet science fiction, repackaged by Roger Corman and Francis Ford Coppola, about the race between two rival superpowers to see who can be the first to reach Mars. It's in color and it looks better than a lot of American sci-fi flicks of the period, but the storytelling really needs some work. Two monsters (created by Coppola) do appear eventually, but it's too dark to see very much, except that one of them looks suspiciously like a giant vagina with a mean disposition and razor-sharp teeth. Don't worry, though. Even that won't keep you awake. The original Soviet cut, called "Nebo Zovyot" and missing the lethal genitalia, came out in 1959.
