From: donnell@tuna.micro.umn.edu (BogusMan)
Subject: Re: bottom 5 experiments?  [Not quite]
Organization: none
Date: Sun, 13 Dec 1992 17:17:16 GMT

In article <62792@mimsy.umd.edu> sjsmith@cs.umd.edu (Stephen Joseph Smith) writes:
>donnell@manowar.micro.umn.edu (BogusMan) writes:
>>Besides the comments from the gang, I liked this as a movie.
>
>You're kidding, right?
>
>I do agree that this *is* one of the better movies that have been on MST3K,
>but it really isn't a good movie, sorry...
>
>
>>It should be pointed out that "First Spaceship On Venus" is a polish film.
>>For the time, <Late 50's> it contained excellent effects.
>
>I wasn't busting on it for the effects...
>
>
>>It's based on a novel by Stanislaw Lem, and I think it's damn good. It was
>>released here minus over 30 minutes of footage, badly dubbed, and from a
>>faded master print.
>
>Now, I will give it some credit for the minus-over-30-minutes-of-footage.
>A lot of my problems with the movie could be explained by bad editing.
>"Now I'll do my hair and change into a skirt..." - quoted inexactly from
>memory.  And what about the people wearing the big A's (and the other
>letters)?  No explanation there.  Oh, and the chess-playing robot, yikes.
>At least the dubbers could have figured out that "Ommugga" was "Omega."
>
>_First Spaceship to Venus_ was, unquestionably, a *much* better movie thn
>Rocketship XM --- uh, yes, we got blown off course from the moon to Mars.
>Uh-huh.  Oh, and the female-scientist-breaks-down-under-pressure-just-to-
>show-she's-not-as-good-as-a-man.  Oh, and we'll land on Mars without
>checking if this is going to leave us with enough fuel not to crash on
>Earth.  Plus, the Texas guy for comic relief, yikes.
>
>
>>if it is so bad, ask yourself this: What American movie from 1960 would
>>have a Black astronaut? And never call attention <really> to this fact
>>even once. Nobody really makes any comments on color at all.
>>Find that in another movie of the time period, or hell, even since!
>
>Uh... I can think of six, off the top of my head.
>
>Star Trek: The Movie.
>Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan.
>Star Trek III: The Search for Spock.
>Star Trek IV... V... VI... you get the idea.
>
>
>_FStV_ is one of the best movies that Joel and the bots have done, but it's
>still not _good_.
>
>- Gamera
>
>

I had no idea that the Star Trek films were made before the series aired.
And they call attention the color thing repeatedly. Tastefully, I admit,
but they still do it.

It seems that this film is rather well known in its original form to 
some science fiction buffs, and has more reputation than I thought.
As always, you cannot judge a film by a showing on MST3K, nor from a 
badly dubbed and re-edited american version. Doing so is strictly an
injustice to the films.

And I liked "Rocketship X-M". You should see the Wade Williams cut of the
film. Williams created a new negative, added lost scenes and had the 
whole thing tinted. It was much better. But comparing it to "First Spaceship
On Venus", "FSOV" comes out the clear winner.

Expecting explanations for clothing and such from a film translated from
polish by greedy americans is a bit much. Like expecting Sandy Frank
to explain the Hair helmets in "Fugitive Alien". If anything, the guys who
did this one were even worse than Mr. Frank, since they ruined what could
easily have been a pretty good movie, and Sandy only ruins what was trash 
to begin with.

Pax
					--Judex--