TCM Genre movies schedule...

[Christopher]

I just watched Riders to the Stars, which I recorded on Thursday, and it was an unexpected little gem. By 1954 standards, it's a pretty solid "hard" SF movie, a very well-researched speculative portrayal of the first attempt to send humans into space, with some cool stuff about the training process for the astronauts; the centrifuge sequence in particular was rather exciting. Some of the assumptions about space are silly in retrospect, but reasonable for '50s science fiction. And the script (by Curt Siodmak, the novelist/screenwriter who wrote The Wolf Man and Earth vs. the Flying Saucers) is well-written with some good characterization and dialogue.

The main drawback of the film is its tiny budget and ridiculously cheap, crude visual effects -- and a theme song that's about as silly as Gene Roddenberry's little-known torch-song lyrics to the Star Trek theme. Also, the print that TCM showed was in pretty poor condition with a lot of breaks in the film. It would be a shame if there were no better, more complete copies surviving of this very impressive film.

 

[RJDiogenes]

^^ I love the Star Trek lyrics. I always thought it would be cool if a TNG movie had had a scene in a 24th century nightclub that featured a cameo of Nichelle Nichols singing that song.

I recorded Cyclops and Illustrated Man this week and I hope to be able to watch Illustrated Man at least today. I didn't record Riders To The Stars because it's being repeated, but I'm looking forward to that one, too.

 

[Mr. Adventure]

Illustrated Man was very odd, I couldn't get to into that one. My favorite part was that crazy future apartment. It seemed almost like what you'd think someone who wasn't into science fiction would come up with if forced to do so.

Weirdly, the framing sequence was more interesting than the stories.

 

[Greg Cox]

Watched part of Westworld last night. Funny to watch a "futuristic" sf movie in which the very concept of a computer virus is greeted with incredulity.

"It's almost as though these malfunctions are spreading like a disease!"

"A disease for machines? How is that possible?"


Oh, sweet naive 1970's! If only you knew . . . .

 

[Christopher]

Illustrated Man was very odd, I couldn't get to into that one. My favorite part was that crazy future apartment. It seemed almost like what you'd think someone who wasn't into science fiction would come up with if forced to do so.

It seemed to have the same underlying philosophy as Krypton's design in Superman: The Movie: a futuristic world as a completely white, sterile, cold environment with no traces of color or comfort, symbolizing a future where technology had wiped out anything natural or imperfect, any trace of individuality or passion. I think George Lucas's THX-1138 had a similar design philosophy.

Weirdly, the framing sequence was more interesting than the stories.

Only in the sense that the stories' execution was even duller than the frame sequence. I wouldn't say I enjoyed any of it. (Although Claire Bloom was rather striking back then.)

 

[RJDiogenes]

I actually did not get a chance to watch the whole thing yet-- I'm about a half hour into it-- but that sterile vision of the future is not uncommon in 60s media. The idea that everything will be mechanized, you'll get all your nutrition from a pill, that there will be no feeling left because everything will be controlled by computers, et cetera. It's what I call the dark side of the hippie movement-- the idea that science is cold and clinical and we must abandon it and go back to nature (rather than understanding that science is nature and an essential part of humanity). It's unfortunate, but that was an aspect of society back then. You can see elements of that line of thinking even in 2001 and Star Trek.

 

[Greg Cox]

Oh yeah, you can see that in Sleeper, too.

And I suppose Logan's Run is the hedonistic, seventies version. The art direction is more colorful and less sterile, but everything is still soulless and scientific. People are numbered, sex is casual and meaningless, there are no families, no nature, etc.

And, of course, a computer is running everything.

 

[Mr. Adventure]

^^ Zardoz is another example. TMP has a lot of that as well. I've often wondered what direction science fiction movies would've taken had Star Wars not been made.

Illustrated Man was very odd, I couldn't get to into that one. My favorite part was that crazy future apartment. It seemed almost like what you'd think someone who wasn't into science fiction would come up with if forced to do so.

It seemed to have the same underlying philosophy as Krypton's design in Superman: The Movie: a futuristic world as a completely white, sterile, cold environment with no traces of color or comfort, symbolizing a future where technology had wiped out anything natural or imperfect, any trace of individuality or passion. I think George Lucas's THX-1138 had a similar design philosophy.

I get that, I was just thinking about some of the trappings like the weird furniture and stuff. I just thought some of it seemed goofy like "Box" in Logan's Run. It seemed thrown together in a perfunctory manner.

 

[Greg Cox]

^^ Zardoz is another example. TMP has a lot of that as well. I've often wondered what direction science fiction movies would've taken had Star Wars not been made.

Heck, even TOS has a heavy dose of computer-phobia. Besides all the obvious eps about societies regimented by controlling computers, you've Samuel Cogley going on about man versus machine in "Court-Martial," Lenore Karidian ranting about Kirk being more machine than man, "The Way to Eden," etc. Not to mention all of McCoy's grousing about cold, unemotional Vulcans and such.

TOS, for all its adventurous spirit, seemed to have profoundly mixed feelings about computers and "perfect" societies . . . . it's not all that removed from the dystopian fears of the era.

 

[Harvey]

^^ Zardoz is another example. TMP has a lot of that as well. I've often wondered what direction science fiction movies would've taken had Star Wars not been made.

I think Alien and Blade Runner are big contributors to the used aesthetic as well, perhaps even more so than Star Wars, which spent a lot of time on the Death Star, a rather sleek and sterile environment.

Of course, if Star Wars hadn't been made, 20th Century Fox wouldn't have fast tracked Alien, and if Alien hadn't been made, Ridley Scott probably wouldn't have been hired to do Blade Runner. I guess it all does go back to George Lucas.

 

[Greg Cox]

^^ Zardoz is another example. TMP has a lot of that as well. I've often wondered what direction science fiction movies would've taken had Star Wars not been made.

I think Alien and Blade Runner are big contributors to the used aesthetic as well, perhaps even more so than Star Wars, which spent a lot of time on the Death Star, a rather sleek and sterile environment.

Of course, if Star Wars hadn't been made, 20th Century Fox wouldn't have fast tracked Alien, and if Alien hadn't been made, Ridley Scott probably wouldn't have been hired to do Blade Runner. I guess it all does go back to George Lucas.

I remember reading an essay by Samuel Delany many years ago in which he praised Star Wars for proving that big-budget science fiction movies didn't have to be sober cautionary tales about dystopias and doomsday. If nothing else, Star Wars reversed the trend set by Planet of the Apes, Logan's Run, Soylent Green, Rollerball, Omega Man, Silent Running, Colossus: The Forbin Project, etc. It made science fiction movies fun and appealing again.

 

[Christopher]

Heck, Star Wars is the very embodiment of the "science and technology = evil, back-to-nature traditionalism = good" mentality. All the Imperial stuff is bright and clean and gleaming and high-tech, and it's the noble Rebels who are using run-down ships and equipment and spiritual forces and antique weapons and bows and arrows and log traps and such.

 

[Greg Cox]

Heck, Star Wars is the very embodiment of the "science and technology = evil, back-to-nature traditionalism = good" mentality. All the Imperial stuff is bright and clean and gleaming and high-tech, and it's the noble Rebels who are using run-down ships and equipment and spiritual forces and antique weapons and bows and arrows and log traps and such.

Good point. There's also the crucial moment where Luke switches off the targeting computer and trusts the Force instead . . . .

On the other hand, the tone of Star Wars owes much more to Edgar Rice Burroughs and Flash Gordon than cautionary tales like THX-1138 or Soylent Green.

 

[Christopher]

^Well, yeah; the main difference is that it shows the old-school naturalism thriving alongside and butting up against the sterile technocracy, rather than just showing the technocracy dominating everything. True, movies like THX-1138 and Logan's Run have the technocracy being escaped or defeated in favor of nature, but it's a nature that's abandoned and depopulated, having been conquered or rejected long ago, and we don't get to see its reclamation. So the sense of oppressive sterility is more dominant there.

 

[Klaus]

Logan's Run would have been a lot better if they'd kept the whole-world context of the book and ditched the idiotic "We forgot what the Sun is" idea of them locked in the one city...

...and been brave enough to keep the death age as 21, not 30. Couldn't have used York then, of course.

 

[Mr. Adventure]

I forgot to mention it in time but for the future when TCM shows Logan's Run they often pair it up with a featurette that was made to promote the movie. At one point they have a couple of models portraying Logan and Jessica and the one playing Logan is David Hasselhoff! Pretty good for a laugh if you happen to catch it. Not sure if that's on the DVD or not.

 

[Disruptor]

I saw some old MGM promo they ran "LION POWER" highlighting 1967-1968 releases, mentioning 2001 but no footage from it.

The only genre film I've caught on TCM recently was THE GAMMA PEOPLE which was a really bad 50's mad scientist movie.

 

[RJDiogenes]

^^ I saw that the last time they ran it. I didn't really like it much.

^^ Zardoz is another example. TMP has a lot of that as well. I've often wondered what direction science fiction movies would've taken had Star Wars not been made.

Heck, even TOS has a heavy dose of computer-phobia. Besides all the obvious eps about societies regimented by controlling computers, you've Samuel Cogley going on about man versus machine in "Court-Martial," Lenore Karidian ranting about Kirk being more machine than man, "The Way to Eden," etc. Not to mention all of McCoy's grousing about cold, unemotional Vulcans and such.

TOS, for all its adventurous spirit, seemed to have profoundly mixed feelings about computers and "perfect" societies . . . . it's not all that removed from the dystopian fears of the era.

I mentioned TOS, and I should have mentioned Twilight Zone as well. They did their share of sterile dystopias. "Number 12 Looks Just Like You" is one of my favorite episodes.

I still haven't seen all of Illustrated Man, but I'm enjoying it so far. They stuck with the Bradbury-style dialogue, which was probably a poor commercial choice, but certainly shows integrity. Very artsy and intellectual; I'd love to see films like this made today. Unfortunately, Star Wars, the film that made sci fi fun again, also made it dumb again.

 

[Mr. Adventure]

Looks like IFC is showing old sci-fi and horror flicks on Saturdays at noon. In particular, this Saturday they are showing the rather rare original Invaders From Mars which I've never managed to catch through the years.

 

[RJDiogenes]

I'm not familiar with that channel; I'll have to look for it.