Journey to the Seventh Planet

Journey to the Seventh Planet (1962)

Runtime: 77 minutes

Directed by: The greatly named Sidney W. Pink

Starring: John Agar, Carl Ottosen, Ove Sprogoe, Louis Miehe-Renard, Greta Thyssen

From: Cinemagic Inc.

A movie that gives me far more to discuss than just it being about a journey to Uranus. Someone on a messageboard (yes, the oft-mentioned messageboard) said after my comments on Cat Women of the Moon that I should do more cheesy 50’s and 60’s sci-fi. I’d like to see films from that genre/time period in general, whether or not it is schlock. The plot description on Letterboxd gives more away than it really should but I’ll say the story is more heady and thoughtful than you’d probably expect; it is also reminiscent of some other science fiction works from the 50’s throughout the 70’s. The fact that this was a Danish-American co-production which was released by AIP is at least different.

A mutual here reviewed the movie earlier in the year, and revealed something that with the passage of time became horrifying. The film is set in late 2001-there’s another picture you’ll be reminded of-and the world is now run by the United Nations. No, the idea of them as a world government is not what I was referring to, although that is a nightmare for some people “probably” detached from reality. Anyhow, there is now world peace and in one scene, a letter is seen as a character read is. Problem is, the date is… September 10th, 2001. Yep, that prediction went awry…

On that sobering note, onto the actual movie—seen via the bowels of the Internet. Man has not been to Uranus before (I won’t make nonstop juvenile puns) so the UN’s Space Force-my name for the organization-recruits several horny men from various European nationalities to pay a visit. Once we do get to see the planet in its true form, it is the expected wacky and trippy aesthetic which nevertheless charmed me, as did the quaint special effects. After all, their blue and yellow “space suits” have helmets that blatantly don’t cover their full head!

There’s more than one baffling moment and some that are pretty stupid-how horny the astronauts are is an actual plot point-that said, I was still entertained with how this was a tale involving man’s fears & desires, so of course there are women and creatures. Overall, there was still campy delights in this somewhat serious presentation so I was entertained. What entertained me the most: this has an end credits song. No, it isn’t the groovy awesomeness of what we heard in The Green Slime; rather, it’s a love ballad which sounds like the product of a Vegas lounge singer, to steal a phrase from a Letterboxd mutual. That is a compliment, BTW-yes, the song and the entire melodic soundtrack can be found on YouTube.