February 9, 2012

Films

The Terrornauts – 1967 | 75 mins | Sci-Fi | Colour

Plot Synopsis

The Terrornauts

Sci-fi drama based on Will F. Jenkins novel The Wailing Asteroid, which Jenkins published under his pseudonym of Murray Leinster. It’s a mediocre sci-fi tale symbolising the danger to planet Earth if we’re not vigilant, but with second-rate special effects and weak direction it doesn’t add up to anything more than a kitsch science-fiction adventure with Charles Hawtrey and Patricia Hayes on hand to provide comic relief.  Screened in the US in 1967, the film only received a release in Britain in cut form in 1971.

Dr. Joe Burke (Simon Oates) is the British astronomer behind Operation Star Talk, a sponsored project listening out for,and trying to contact intelligent alien civilisations. After years without anything, they begin to receive an oscillating electric signal, one Burke heard as a child, and he gets more than he bargained for when an alien spacecraft transports the observatory and its inhabitants to another world. They are exposed to a savage race that was formerly a civilized colony, and given a warning about the future.

Production Team

Montgomery Tully: Director
Geoffrey Faithfull: Cinematography
Peter Musgrave: Film Editing
Olive Mills: Makeup Department
Dorrie Hamilton: Makeup Department
Elisabeth Lutyens: Original Music
Milton Subotsky: Producer
Max Rosenberg: Producer
Bill Constable: Production Design
John Brunner: Script
Laurie Clarkson: Sound Department
Stanley Smith: Sound Department

Cast

Simon Oates: Dr Joe Burke
Zena Marshall: Sandy Lund
Charles Hawtrey: Joshua Yellowlees
Patricia Hayes: =Mrs Jones
Stanley Meadows: Ben Keller
Max Adrian: Dr Henry Shore



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