Finally caught up with a 1960s sf movie Id read about and remember seeing ads for in the newspaper, but never saw until this week: Hugo Grimaldi and Arthur C Pierces MUTINY IN OUTER SPACE (1965), starring William Leslie, Carl Crow, James Dobson, Dolores Faith, Richard Garland, Pamela Curran, and Glenn Langan. Thats pretty much the whole crew, folks, in this space-station set spin on SPACE MASTER X-7 (1958)—how much of a spin? Its set on Space Station X-7. In fact, this is pretty much the template for Kinji Fukasakus ガンマー第3号 宇宙大作戦 / Ganmā Daisan Gō: Uchū Daisakusen / THE GREEN SLIME (1968), the last of Ivan Reiner and Walter Manleys quartet of Gamma One sf movies (the previous three Italian productions helmed by Antonio Margheriti, ostensibly as made-for-TV features that instead played theatrically). Its actionably identical, had Grimaldi and Pierce decided to go after MGM: astronauts on the moon accidentally pick up something from the lunar surface, infecting Space Station X-7 (Gamma 3 in GREEN SLIME) with a fast-growing, fast-spreading fungal life form that overtakes the orbiting station. MUTINYs virulent fungus-amongus is comprised of sprawling natty carpeting and stretches of insulation—not nearly as much fun as the Green Slime!—vulnerable only to cold, like THE BLOB. Then why does it spread so quickly on the outside of the station, in a subzero vacuum? Ah, dont ask stupid questions! So, see, its pretty much SPACE MASTER X-7 in space, with a dash of THE CAINE MUTINY: the captain is on the brink of a breakdown from space rapture, which made me want to immediately revisit REN AND STIMPYs Space Madness episode. Grimaldi and Pierce never brought much energy to the screen—its a lumpen, thudding thing, really—but its also efficient, unpretentious, adequately and earnestly played, and totally square: all part of the fun. Theres a clunky attempt at making something of the space shots of the moon rocket docking with X-7 with the meager means at the special effects mans disposal; if nothing else, honestly, every well-rubbed nickel IS up on the screen. By the time the fungus is slathered all over the X-7 wheel, the glimpses of its dingy gray cotton-candy-like clots dangling over view ports recalls the more colorful amoeba-smears of Ib Melchiors ANGRY RED PLANET (1959) even as it anticipates some of the interior-biology-at-work imagery of FANTASTIC VOYAGE (1967). Shot and released in black-and-white, this was no doubt a somewhat leaden anachronism in 1965 (Pierce stuck with color sf thereafter). Fungul fears date back to the innovative weird fiction of William Hope Hodgson, and had already fueled movies like the lackluster THE UNKNOWN TERROR (1957; subterranean foamy-fungul parasitic infections that turn men into monsters) and the far more intoxicating マタンゴ / MATANGO / ATTACK OF THE MUSHROOM PEOPLE (1960). Chalk it up to MUTINY IN OUTER SPACE being another link in the chain of sf plague movies (going back to PANIC IN THE STREETS, THE QUATERMASS XPERIMENT) that led to Crichtons THE ANDROMEDA STRAIN by the end of the decade, and as such of interest for 60s sf movie buffs (like me). Grimaldi and Pierce were grinding these low-budget sf opuses out in the mid-1960s at quite a clip for a couple of years: they collaborated on THE HUMAN DUPLICATORS (release the same year), and Grimaldi previously had a hand (asst producer) in PHANTOM PLANET (1961) and import versions of a couple gems, while Pierce was behind the 1966 double-bill of WOMEN OF THE PREHISTORIC PLANET and THE NAVY VS. THE NIGHT MONSTERS, along with THE LAS VEGAS HILLBILLYS (also 66). Pierce was the genre dynamo of this team, having also scripted BEYOND THE TIME BARRIER (1960), DESTINATION INNER SPACE, DIMENSION 5, CYBORG 2087 (all 1966), etc., including the Jerry Warren English translation/edit of INVASION OF THE ANIMAL PEOPLE (1959). As such, Ive a soft spot in my skull for Pierces body of work, which had a mix of imaginative notions and shameless exploitation wed to a stingy, stodgy pragmatism that definitely fueled this mid-60s streak of productivity. He was a poor mans Ib Melchoir (wrap your head around THAT notion, would you?). Not much of a movie, really, but glad I saw it at last.
Posted on: Sat, 07 Jun 2014 01:15:47 +0000
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