Perry Rhodan - SOS from space

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Movie
German title Perry Rhodan - SOS from space
Original title … 4… 3… 2… 1… morte
Country of production Italy
Germany
Spain
original language Italian
Publishing year 1967
length 79 minutes
Age rating FSK 12
Rod
Director Primo Zeglio
script Karl-Heinz Vogelmann,
K. H. Scheer , Sergio Donati . Primo Zeglio
production Ernst von Theumer
music Antón García Abril , Marcello Giombini (title song "Seli")
camera Riccardo Pallottini
Manuel Merino (anonymous)
cut Renato Cinquini
occupation

Perry Rhodan - SOS from Space ( Spanish : Órbita mortal , Italian : … 4… 3… 2… 1… morte ) is an Italian-German-Spanish science fiction film from 1967. It is the only feature film in whose focus is the booklet hero Perry Rhodan . The German version has been shortened by around 15 minutes compared to the Anglo-American version ( Mission Stardust ) .

action

Perry Rhodan, Major of the "US Space Force", will meet with three colleagues - his buddy Captain Burley (international version: Mike Bull, in the novel Reginald Bull called "Bully"), Captain Flipper and the on-board doctor Dr. Paulsen (international version: Dr. Manoli, in the novel version Dr. Eric Manoli) - sent on a secret space mission to the moon . When the heads of Interkosmos discuss details, they are bugged by the gang boss Arkin. In this way he learns what the mission is for. A probe previously sent to the moon located a metal under the 'Nubian Sea' that has a far greater atomic weight than uranium and is therefore more valuable "than all silver, gold and platinum combined". The moon mission ends unexpectedly. The team of four encounters an alien spaceship that recently had to make an emergency landing here due to machine damage. You will be welcomed by the scientist Crest and the blonde, beautiful and arrogant spaceship commander Thora. They and their combat robots, which can dissolve people and objects in no time with their eyes, come from the planet Arcon, 114 light years away. The Arconians are unable to repair their spaceship for the flight home, and so Perry offers Rhodan his help. Dr. Paulsen notes that Crest is very sick: he has leukemia . To help him, everyone would have to fly back to Earth to see specialist Dr. To seek out Haggard. You take the small Arconier spaceship that is in the wrecked mother ship and return to the blue planet.

When they land in Africa, the colorful troops are received in an unfriendly manner by local soldiers. The spaceship is shot at, but Thora's defensive weapons easily withstand all bursts of fire. Looking for Dr. Haggard ambush Rhodan and Burley. But with the help of a weapon given by Thora and her waving fists, Perry and his buddy can bring down the villains. Finally, the two reach Haggard, who agrees, with his two medical staff, Dr. Sheridan and the nurse Silva, drive to Crest and treat him. The car is pursued by trigger-happy soldiers and Arkin's gangsters. Perry Rhodan gets into the hands of the gangsters. While Haggard is treating Crest, it is revealed that Dr. Sheridan and Silva as well as Haggard belong to Arkin's people. Together with the traitor Captain Flipper, they try to torpedo the treatment. Gas is used and the treatment team passes out. What nobody knows so far: the real Haggard exists, looks exactly like the fake one and is being held by Arkin on his fortress-like island. During the gas attack, Flipper, a bailiff Arkins, grabbed Thora and kidnapped them. But Thora can still activate her combat robots beforehand, which are supposed to kill Arkin's people. There is a wild shooting. While Flipper flees with Thora hostage, the rays escaping from the robots' eyes trigger the false Haggard and Dr. Sheridan and Silva in thin air.

Arrived on Arkin's island, his gang tries to force Torah to explain the function of the spaceship to them. Meanwhile, the military take the small spaceship under shell fire. But it is protected from attacks by a protective screen. Meanwhile, Perry has freed himself from captivity by jumping out of a flying helicopter and is running back through the desert to the spaceship. There the recovered Crest tells him how to locate the kidnapped Torah. Perry and Burley put on Arconian protective suits, storm Arkin's Island, and free Torah. While trying to escape the arriving astronauts, Flipper is killed when he is crushed by a security door. Arkin manages to escape. Thora and her two rescuers return to Crest on the spaceship and destroy the entire island with the push of a button. Gang boss Arkin dies too. Together with the real Dr. Haggard all fly back to the moon. There, as Crest always hoped, the union of both races, the Arconians and the humans, finally takes place when Thora and Perry Rhodan are in each other's arms.

Production notes

The film, shot in Rome , Spain and on the Spanish island of Lanzarote in the fall of 1966 , is a classic European trash product of the 1960s - pop design, primitive special effects and brash (German) dialogues included. Elements of the science fiction genre and the trigger-happy gangster and agent film were combined. As was common for many European films of the time, the role of the title hero was also cast in this film with a second-class North American film actor ( Lang Jeffries ). From the Italian side, Federico d´Urutia was involved in the script.

The film is loosely based on the first three Perry Rhodan novels Stardust , The Third Power and The Radiant Dome from 1961. It was premiered in Italy on August 4, 1967. The German premiere took place on October 20, 1967. At the same time, Clark Darlton wrote a paperback of the same name, which was published in 1967 by Moewig Verlag and was reprinted in 2014 by Pabel Moewig Verlag. The still photographer Karl-Heinz Vogelmann (1927-2011), who had already written the script for Five to 12 in Caracas , was also involved in the script .

For the 25-year-old Swede Essy Persson , this film marked the beginning of a short international film career. Immediately after filming was over, she was brought to Germany and at the beginning of 1967 she played the leading female role in the exploitation film The Rasthaus der Cruel Puppen .

The Rhodan readers were very disappointed with the film; the producers had changed the original story too much. There was neither a Dr. Sheridan (played by Ann Smyrner in the film ) and gang boss Homer Arkin (played by Pinkas Braun ). In general, the entire gangster environment for the film was completely invented. The love scene between Perry and Thora was also a concession to the zeitgeist of 1967. In the film, the Gobi desert became an African savannah , and thus the Asian Federation became an African Federation.

Further technical data

criticism

"Technically complex, but formally second-rate science fiction film."

- Klaus Brüne : Lexicon of international film

“ Perry Rhodan 's adaptation of the comic is quite respectable - that cannot be said of the only film adaptation to date, 'SOS from Space' (1967). Fans hate the film fervently. "

- Tom Hillenbrand : Spiegel Online

“The film by Primo Zeglio, which is based on Volume 1 (“ Stardust Company ”), could hardly compete with the great success of the novel booklets: It deviated too much from the original, and - presumably for cost reasons - brought gangsters into the air instead of the military of the great powers Spiel, and did not even manage to properly highlight the title hero: The fans then spontaneously complained that this was not a »Perry Rhodan«, but a »Bully« film. (Bully is Rhodan's funny, stupid sidekick .) The cast was just as catastrophic as the unimaginative buildings, for which Rhodan's author KH Scheer was also hired as a “technical advisor”. What went out to repeat the huge success of the novel booklet on film ended as a pathetic flop and quickly disappeared from the scene despite the bombastic public relations work of the Rhodan booklet publishers. "

- Ronald M. Hahn , Volker Jansen : Lexicon of Science Fiction Film

«Especie de compromiso entre the cine de cienciaficción más bien" pulp "entonces en boga en Italia, y the clásico sucedáneo de los primeres James Bond."

"A kind of compromise between the scruffy science fiction cinema common in Italy and the classic surrogates of the first James Bond films."

- Carlos Aguilar : Guia del video-cine

“Based on first of internationally popular Perry Rhodan series of novels, but worthless nonetheless.”

"Based on the first of the internationally popular Perry Rhodan novels, but worthless nonetheless."

- Leonard Maltin : Movie & Video Guide

On September 13, 2013, the film was shown as part of the Tele-5 series The Worst Films of All Time .

Lore

The first German television broadcast took place on Saturday, October 16, 1971. A VHS edition was published in 1995 by Studiocanal . A complete English language version of the original was published on DVD by Sinister Cinema in 2008 . To date (as of July 2019) no German-language DVD has been edited.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Rhodan's friend, who is always called Captain "Burley" in the German version, is called Captain "Mike Bull" in the international cast lists
  2. ↑ The spaceship doctor, who in the German version always says “Dr. Paulsen "is called in the international cast lists" Dr. Manoli ".
  3. ↑ Klaus Brüne (Red.): Lexikon des Internationale Films Volume 6. S. 2927. Reinbek near Hamburg 1987.
  4. ↑ "Grandpa From Outer Space. 50 years of 'Perry Rhodan' ”in spiegel.de
  5. ^ Ronald M. Hahn, Volker Jansen: Lexicon of Science Fiction Films. 720 films from 1902 to the present day. Heyne, Munich 1983, p. 391.
  6. ^ Carlos Aguilar: Guia del video-cine, p. 852, 4th edition. Madrid 1992
  7. ^ Leonard Maltin : Movie & Video Guide, 1996 edition, p. 865

Proof of the change made: Perry Rhodan Vol. 1 Stardust Company