Satellite in the Sky- New R1 DVD release

[julian_craster]

Satellite in the Sky- New R1 DVD release

A DANZIGERS British rarity, and in a nice colour/scope print too, with Britmovie favoutites Lois Maxwell, Bryan Forbes et al......



Satellite in the Sky

84 min.

Starring Kieron Moore, Donald Wolfit, Lois Maxwell, Bryan Forbes

Cinematography Georges (BLIMP) Périnal, Jimmy Wilson (CinemaScope/Colour)

Special Effects Wally Veevers

Art Direction Erik Blakemore

Film Editor Sidney Stone

Original Music Albert Elms

Written by John Mather, J.T. McIntosh, Edith Dell

Produced by Edward J. Danziger, Harry Lee Danziger

Directed by Paul Dickson

Miss Moneypenney, Michael Balfour , Bryan Forbes, Keiron Moore

in the film

From:

DVD Savant Review: World Without End / Satellite in the Sky



It doesn't matter that Satellite in the Sky isn't very good; it has been largely unviewable for fifty years except on bad pan-scan bootlegs. Filmed in CinemaScope and color in England, it's also no cheapie. The shapeless script is hobbled by a great deal of just plain awful dialogue. Noted actor Donald Wolfit hams up his biggest scenes just to provide relief from the lack of drama or tension. Welsh director Paul Dickson had a fairly prolific career in Brit TV but the film's three writers share only a couple of other credits between them.



Synopsis:

A British space ship is being prepared for launch on a purely scientific mission, but the intrepid astronauts all have troubles with women. Dedicated Larry Noble (Jimmy Hanley) is called in for late-night meetings, infuriating his neglected wife Barbara (Thea Gregory). Radio Man Jimmy Wheeler (future director Bryan Forbes) is frustrated because his girlfriend, fashion model Ellen (Shirley Lawrence) must work on their last night before the launch. And Commander Michael Haydon (Kieron Moore of Day of the Triffids and Crack in the World is harassed by Kim Hamilton (Lois Maxwell), a news reporter absorbed by her own prejudice against space travel. On the eve of departure, the officers are given a shock -- the entire flight is actually a weapons test bankrolled by the United States. The ship will launch and detonate a devastating new invention, which its inventor Professor Merrity (Donald Wolfit) calls the Tritonium Bomb.



Variety's review (July 11, 1956) said that Satellite in the Sky "almost becomes an unconsciously funny comedy" due to a maladroit script and leaden direction. Future Miss Moneypenny Lois Maxwell didn't do well for her first English film after spending several years in the Italian industry. Her Kim Hamilton has no problem stowing away on the spaceship, and nobody seems very upset to discover that she's aboard. In Brog.'s words, "she spends her time in the stratosphere plaguing the crewmen with silly questions like, "Are you sure you know what you're doing?"

This is the only image Savant could access online for Satellite in the Sky. Exciting, huh?



The film's 85 minutes are padded with footage of English jets landing and taxiing, courtesy of the A.V. Roe and Folland aircraft companies; one of the planes appears to be a Vulcan bomber as seen in the 007 film Thunderball nine years later. Director Dickson's talky scenes frequently contain only one or two cuts, and the film moves like molasses. The petty domestic subplots go nowhere.



Interest finally focuses on the flight itself, and the politics behind it. The English commanders express only token irritation to find out that their research mission is really a Cold War bomb test for Uncle Sam; the regular crewmen aren't even told they're going to lob a Tritonium Bomb from their airlock, and barely seem to care. The too-casual attitude is indicative of a slack and uncoordinated production. In one scene, a jet said to be thousands of feet in the air is shown to be literally buzzing the airfield. Commander Kieron Moore shoos some technicians out of the ship after the atomic rockets have started warming up and are spewing radioactive steam all over the launching bay. As the workmen go out the door, Moore advises them, "Oh, be careful of the radioactivity!"



Satellite in the Sky takes its cue straight from When Worlds Collide, with the ship launched up an inclined ramp at an angle of only 35° or so. The filmmakers have built some impressive spaceship interior sets, with double automatic airlock doors, etc. The miniature spaceship is a beauty, a standard streamlined dart shape that we first see sitting on an enormous cradle-slide in an underground hangar. The 'big reveal shot' is almost identical to the first reveal of the super-sub Gotengo in Toho's Atragon, except that this model is much more detailed. Individual metal panels stand out on the ship's silver skin.



Unfortunately, the model photography is mostly poor. The terrific underground view cuts with a completely mismatched matte painting. Our expectations rise as the ship tilts and giant doors open to reveal the ramp stretched out above. But the launch is botched by several angles that make the ship seem to go slower as it ascends the ramp. The final long shot then shows the ship zipping away up the track like a cheap skyrocket. The camera pans, but too late to see it leave the ramp! In the following shot the ship is barely off the ground, as if in imminent danger of crashing. Giant wires are visible as the ship wiggles into space, clouds of smoke puffing from its exhaust.



The film's one big crisis occurs when the obnoxious Professor played by Donald Wolfit sets the fuse in the Tritonium bomb. The bomb's self-propulsion unit fails, and the weapon attaches itself to the tail of the ship by dint of 'metallic attraction.' This cues the characterizations to more or less fall to pieces. Moore and Maxwell exchange sweet nothings in the face of doom while the others act glum or try out gallows humor. Wolfit's character behaves ludicrously, first blaming the others, then screaming that he doesn't want to die, and then trying to bring the ship back down into the atmosphere. Wolfit wants to save himself by letting the bomb fall off, even though it will obliterate a big chunk of Earth below.



The film's considerable interest for Sci-Fi fans lies in its hardware. Astronauts exit for EVAs via a tube on the bottom of the ship's hull. That and a pair of picture-window observation pods extend out of the ship's streamlined interior, like the clever moon-ship elevators in the later Toho film Battle in Outer Space. One impressive angle shows this observation pod in the foreground while the space-walkers work on the bomb way in the background. Composites are good in the space scenes, but the effect is harmed by starfields that are milky instead of jet black. Other blacks in the film are deeper, so I don't think this is due to WarnerColor fading.



The filmmakers aren't up on their space science. The rocket just parks in space without any mention of going into orbit; the giant model is shown flying back to its base like a dirigible with a fire in its tail. The poster's tag line is equally plain clueless: The Never-Told Story of Life on the Roof of the Earth! But the general drama is as sober as Riders to the Stars and definitely not aimed at the kiddie market. Satellite in the Sky is a strange production in almost every aspect.



The guilty favorite World Without End and the obscure oddity Satellite in the Sky make a fine DVD double bill combo for Sci-Fi fans interested in vintage goods. Color is very good on both enhanced transfers, with Satellite showing a little mottling and wear in places. Audio is clear on End, with Leith Stevens' score coming across well, but some dialogue is a bit distorted in Satellite. Unfortunately, no extras are included, not even trailers.



See also:

World Without End/Satellite in the Sky

[julian_craster]

The caption should read:



Miss Moneypenney, Sir Donald Wolfit , Bryan Forbes, Keiron Moore

in the film

[JTurner]

I thought the movie was quite well done--the interpersonal relationship angle was realistic and helped to overcome the rather inartful effects and inattention to scientific details/requirements. However, it made absolutely no sense for the female lead to have gone undetected in the ship--and it's highly likely that her additional weight would have been very problematic. Still, for the time and considering the budget, it's a well-done movie. The Region 1 disc is of fine quality.

[Stephen Laws]

Just thought that anyone accessing this thread might like to know that the giant spider model/prop which leaps from a cave ledge onto Rod Taylor in this movie - also turns up in another TWO of director Edward Bernd's movies - QUEEN OF OUTER SPACE (1958) (in which it performs another 'leap' from a ledge i.e., propelled by an offscreen stage-hand) and is zapped by a ray gun, and VALLEY OF THE DRAGONS (aka PREHISTORIC VALLEY - 1962) in which, again having been chucked onto an actor from offstage, is speared to death by the co-star.



If anyone knows where this stabbed, burned, speared man-size rubber spider is stored, please let me know. I'll pay good money for it (But don't tell the wife).



Stephen Laws

The Midnight Man: The Official Website of the author Stephen Laws

[nobbywoods]

It should be noted this is another Best Buy exclusive.

[asiamiles]

It was originally a BB exclusive but then was put on general sale, as was the WHEN DINOSAURS RULED THE EARTH/MOON ZERO TWO DVD released at the same time, but that one has since been pulled probably because the uncut print of WDRTE did not tally with the rating on the DVD cover.