Groovy like Barbarella and psychedelic as 2001, a look at the imaginative SciFi movies of the sixties.
Time Machine (1960)
George Pal’s version of H.G.Wells’ classic science fiction novel. The Wells estate was impressed by Pal’s War of the Worlds they let him choose another story for a future project. George Pal picked Time Machine.
The story of George a Victorian gentlemen who invents a machine that travels in time. George discovers a future where humanity is divided into two species, the Eloi who live above ground and the subterranean dwelling Morlocks.
The film starred Rod Taylor and Yvette Mimieux.
The ingenious use of time lapse photography to speed up time for the time travel sequences won Gene Warren and Tim Baar an academy award for special effects.
Village of the Damned (1960)
The English village of Midwich falls prey to an anomaly that knocks everyone unconscious. Months later all women of childbearing age are giving birth to blonde children who manifest telepathic powers.
Directed by Wolf Rilla based on the novel The Midwich Cuckoos by John Wyndham. Professor Gordon Zellaby was played by George Sanders.
A low budget scifi horror film eerily depicting an alien invasion through children. Another version by Anton Leader, Children of the Damned set in London would also give a good scare.
Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea (1961)
Irwin Allen’s film adventure aboard the submarine Seaview. The movie has an all-star cast starring Walter Pidgeon as Admiral Harriman Nelson, Robert Sterling as Captain Lee Crane with Joan Fontaine, Barbara Eden, Michael Ansara and Peter Lorre in supporting roles.
Plot involves a burning Van Allen radiation belt and the Seaview is tasked to stop the “Skyfire” by launching a missile from the Marianas Trench at a precise moment. In a race against time, the Seaview confronts a giant octopus, a hostile submarine and a saboteur before completing its mission to save the world.
The submarine’s unique design with its eight window panoramic view, shark-like frontal flare and Cadillac tail fins gave the Seaview a pop icon status for fictional ships.
Voyage became a box-office success Irwin Allen would later recycle the props to make the hit TV series with the same title.
Day of the Triffids (1962)
After a meteor shower spores begin to grow into plants called Triffids beginning its carnivorous attacks on civilization.
Based on the novel by John Wyndham, directed by Steve Sekely and starring Howard Keel as the central character, Bill Masen.
A low budget movie with not so special effects the film has become a cult favourite for B-movie fans. The novel, established author John Wyndham and remains his best known science fiction writing.
La Jetée (1962)
Paris in the apocalyptic future after WWIII survivor’s research time travel sending one traveller back to obtain food, medicine and technology. The traveller’s obsession from childhood recalling an incident at the airport’s boarding ramp (the jetty) takes him to that moment at the jetty where he discovers his own death.
Directed by Chris Marker, the film is a black and white photo montage with voice over narration running 28 minutes. The pacing of the montage gives the film the progression of a graphic novel. The still images freezes each moment in a temporal memory like a narrative photo album.
Terry Gilliam adapted the plot for the film Twelve Monkeys.
Jason and the Argonauts (1963)
Ray Harryhausen’s landmark film based on the mythical hero Jason and his quest for the Golden Fleece.
Directed by Don Chaffey with music by Bernard Herrmann. The film’s numerous Dynamation animated monsters- Harpies, the bronze giant Talos and the Hydra is an unparalleled achievement without use of computer graphics.
Jason’s spectacular battle with the skeletons is regarded as one of the greatest special effects in motion pictures. Harryhausen took four months to finish the three minute scene.
Ray Harryhausen’s elaborate special effects gave the film the look of a big budget production turning Jason and the Argonauts into a box-office hit and a memorable classic.
7 Faces of Dr. Lao (1964)
A travelling circus ran by Dr. Lao brings wonders and a moral lesson in life to a small town.
George Pal directs from the novel by Charles Finney starring Tony Randall as Dr. Lao and featuring Barbara Eden.
The film won an honorary Oscar for William Tuttle (Outstanding Achievement in Make-Up).
Dr. Strangelove (1964)
Stanley Kubrick’s satire on the Cold War and the idea of mutual assured destruction (MAD).
Brigadier General Jack D. Ripper launches a nuclear attack on the Soviet Union with B-52 bombers. Claiming the communists are out to “sap and impurify” the “precious bodily fluids” of the American people with fluoridated water and causing his impotence.
The Soviets reveal to the Americans they have a “Doomsday” device that in case of attack will destroy all life on earth. The Soviets turned it on a few days before a planned public announcement.
Starring Peter Sellers and George C. Scott with Sterling Hayden, Slim Pickens, James Earl Jones, Keenan Wynn, Peter Bull, Tracy Reed. Sellers plays three roles; President Merkin Muffley, Group Captain Lionel Mandrake and Dr. Strangelove. The film launched Peter Sellers to Hollywood stardom.
First Men in the Moon (1964)
Adapted from the H.G. Wells Novel directed by Nathan Juran starring Edward Judd, Martha Hyer and Lionel Jeffries
The U.N. launches the first moon mission only to find a British flag and the names of the first explorers. Authorities on Earth trace one survivor who retells their first journey to the moon.
Ray Haryhausen animates the various moon creatures with his trademark Dynamation.
Robinson Crusoe on Mars (1964)
Adapted from Daniel Defoe’s novel and directed by Byron Haskin. Starring Paul Mantee, Victor Lundin and Adam West.
A mission to Mars malfunctions leaving one surviving astronaut and a monkey trapped in Mars.
The Martian war machines from “War of the Worlds” which Byron Haskins also directed were recycled for use as the alien mining ships.
Haskins decision to film at Death Valley gave the “Mars” landscape a striking similarity to the real Martian landscape. NASA tested their Mars Rovers at Death Valley.
Alphaville (1965)
Jean-Luc Godard’s “SciFi Film Noir” about a secret agent transported to the future city of Alphaville ran by a sentient computer, Alpha 60.
A tale of emotional suppression, loss of individual freedom and a society controlled by a dictatorial AI Godard pits brawn versus logic eventually destroying that logic with the emotional power of poetry.
Though set in the future Godard filmed the locations in modern day Paris.
Fahrenheit 451 (1966)
451 degrees Fahrenheit is the temperature book paper catches fire. Ray Bradbury’s dystopian future looks at literary and intellectual suppression via the burning of books. Firemen are charged with hunting down books and burning them. One fireman, Guy Montag eventually reads some of them and begins a journey of self discovery.
Though shot in England, the monorail exterior was done at France’s SAFEGE test track which no longer exists. Directed by Francois Truffaut starring Oskar Werner and Julie Christie.
Fantastic Voyage (1966)
A defecting scientist from the Soviet Union escapes an assassination attempt but is left comatose. A team of specialists attempt to remove a blood clot by entering the body in a microscopic miniaturized submarine, the Proteus.
Amazing special effects brings a surreal journey through the human body. Human tissues and cells become larger than life transforming them to something out of this world.
Written for the screen by Harry Kleiner, novelization by Isaac Asimov.
Directed by Richard Fleischer starring Stephen Boyd, Raquel Welch, and Donald Pleasence. Special effects by L.B. Abbott and Art Cruickshank.
One Million Years B.C. (1966)
Hammer Films Production starring Raquel Welch, John Richardson.
A fantasy adventure film set in prehistoric times about humans struggling to exist in a dinosaur world.
Dinosaur animation by Ray Harryhausen. Humans and dinosaurs never co-existed but the producers thought it might make a good subject for a movie. Filmed mostly in the Canary Islands, Raquel Welch’s publicity shot got better notoriety than the movie.
Barbarella (1967)
Roger Vadim’s groovy SciFi erotica based on the French comic strip by Jean-Claude Forest. Starring Jane Fonda, John Phillip Law, Anita Pallenberg, Marcel Marceau.
Jane Fonda’s opening sequence stripping in zero gravity has become a cinematic icon. The film bombed at the box-office but became a pop culture influence from the band Duran Duran, pop music, and films The Fifth Element and Austin Powers.
Quatermass and the Pit (1967)
SciFi horror film by Hammer Productions released in the United States as Five Million Years to Earth. Directed by Roy Ward Baker and written by Nigel Kneale based on his television series, Quatermass.
A unique scifi film from Hammer (compared to what they regularly produced) that ends with an element of the supernatural. An extension for a London subway unearths fossils and a five million year old spaceship. Quatermass investigates and discovers something not right and people around Hobbs station begin to experience disturbances.
Starring Andrew Keir as Prof. Bernard Quatermass with James Donald, Barbara Shelley, and Julian Glover.
2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)
Stanley Kubrick’s surreal journey of human evolution, extraterrestrial life and space exploration. Collaborating with renowned SciFi author Arthur C. Clarke from his short story, The Sentinel, 2001 is the SciFi movie fans of the genre have been waiting for Hollywood to produce.
Kubrick’s artistic manipulation of space and time coupled with minimal dialogue conveys a visual sense of the vacuum of space and its isolation. The film is a visual experience (sometimes termed “psychedelic”) complemented by the use of classical music. Richard Strauss’ Also Sprach Zarathustra will always be identified with 2001.
2001’s pioneering special effects achieved a realism and authenticity that made it the breakthrough film in SciFi moviemaking history. Cinematographer Geoffrey Unsworth did all effects in-camera, doing multiple passes on the same negative giving the film’s space scenes a first generation quality minimizing degeneration inherent in special effects. The film won an academy award for special effects.
Arthur C. Clarke & Stanley Kubrick
Arthur C. Clarke wrote further sequels 2010 was the only story developed into a movie. 2001 starred Keir Dullea, Gary Lockwood, William Sylvester and Daniel Richter as Moonwatcher.
Charly (1968)
Charlie Gordon is a mentally challenged man who volunteers to undergo experimental brain surgery. His progress parallels a mouse named Algernon. Both regain their intelligence Algernon can do complex mazes, Charlie becomes a genius. Algernon’s memory begins to deteriorate Charlie finds out the treatment is temporary and realizes he will revert back to his former self.
Poignant drama on mental retardation and social behaviour. Cliff Robertson’s portrayal of Charlie Gordon won him the Oscar for best actor. The film stars Claire Bloom, Lilia Skala, Leon Janney and Dick Van Patten.
Directed by Ralph Nelson and adapted by Stirling Silliphant from the Hugo and Nebula award winning story, Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes.
Planet of the Apes (1968)
A spaceship crash lands in an unknown planet three astronauts find their way to a civilization ran by apes and humans are considered a lesser animal species.
Based on the French novel, La Planète des Singes by Pierre Boulle from an adaptation by Michael Wilson and Rod Serling directed by Franklin J. Schaffner. The film stars Charlton Heston, Roddy McDowall, Kim Hunter and Maurice Evans.
Ground breaking make up effects to recreate the apes delivered make up artist John Chambers the Academy’s Honorary Award for outstanding achievement in Makeup.
The surprise ending is considered one of the most memorable in film history.
The Valley of Gwangi (1969)
A struggling Wild West rodeo discovers a valley where dinosaurs exist. The cowboys try to capture the dinosaurs for the rodeo show ending up with more than they can handle.
Great creature effects by Ray Harryhausen. “Gwangi” in the movie is an Allosaurus but Harryhausen modeled it to a T. Rex. The roping of Gwangi remains a memorable sequence of the film. The story was based on an early concept, Valley of the Mists from King Kong animator Willis O’ Brien.
Directed by Jim O’Connolly and written by William Bast starring James Franciscus, Richard Carlson and Gila Golan.
Marooned (1969)
Three American astronauts returning home from a space station mission are unable to fire the main rockets stranding them in orbit while rescue efforts are hampered by an approaching hurricane.
The suspense filled movie delivers an edge of your seat tension as ground crews attempt a rescue mission to the stranded Apollo module.
Based on the novel Marooned by Martin Caidin. Caidin rewrote and updated the novel to reflect the movie he also acted as technical advisor. Directed by John Sturges and starring Gregory Peck, Richard Crenna, David Janssen, James Franciscus and Gene Hackman.
Great special effects plus some creative stories were a good balance in 60’s SciFi films, the special effects techniques developed for 2001 added an authentic realism never before seen in cinema. The pioneering work of these films will bring the future generation of
SciFi Cinema to new heights.
SciFiDrive SciFi 60’s Movie Playlist
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