Mechte Navstrechu (1963)
Mechte Navstrechu is another one of those Russian films which was bought by Roger Corman and given a western edit and dub.
For those keeping a track on this chop-shop movie-making process, Corman purchased the US and UK rights to Nebo Zovyot (1960) THE SKY IS CALLING which became BATTLE BEYOND THE SUN. Planeta Bur (1962) PLANET OF STORMS which became VOYAGE TO THE PREHISTORIC PLANET and VOYAGE TO THE PLANET OF PREHISTORIC WOMEN. As well as Mechte Navstrechu (1963) A DREAM COME TRUE or ENCOUNTER IN SPACE which is probably better known over this way as Queen of Blood (1966) or occasionally Planet of Blood. And I'm reliably informed that Queen of Blood contains a little bit of the first two Russian films as well.
Now while this may not be very respectful to the originals, their creators or the fine art of cinema in general, it did give us a glimpse of some amazing film making which might not have otherwise come to our attention. And now that the Iron Curtain is down and the Internet is up and running, we can seek out and appreciate the originals for their truly wonderful craftsmanship and vision and acknowledge that it was every bit as good if not better than the stuff coming out of the west at the same time.
Steve
I wonder how they explained away those cccp labels in the anglicized version. That last shot is particularly impressive, I really like that woman in the space suit too, I suppose she's the Queen of Blood?
ReplyDeleteI believe she is the titular Queen of Blood. Quite who she is in the Russian version, I've yet to find out. I think these things weren't just a re-dub but a re-construction of the plot. And Somebody did some very good copies of the helmets or they bought the originals along with the film stock because apart from the give away CCCP, you almost can't tell them apart.
ReplyDeleteIn the original film, she is an extrasolar alien who is the sole survivor of a crash on Mars, rescued by the protagonists. She has no spoken dialog and does almost nothing in the film aside from being carried.
DeleteTwo ships are involved in the rescue; one crew has the "CCCP" helmets, the other have black helmets with a picture of the Eastern hemisphere.
The American version adds "IIST" helmets, and helmets with a Western hemisphere. Haven't seen it, so I don't know if there are four different ships in Queen of Blood.
The eastern hemisphere symbol is a little odd if you think about it. Is it the symbol of the African / Asian / European Space Agency?
thanks for the info John.
DeleteThis is a case where both versions are distinct entities and both are pretty good. The original is really rather closely paralleled until the alien ambassador is recovered. The difference is that the original is nearly over when the recovery occurs, but "Queen of Blood" has a half hour of the trip home to go at that point. "Queen of Blood" is actually rather creepy, with that strange green vampire woman stalking her sleeping or hypnotized prey aboard a spaceship. Granted, it's a rather spacious, and sparsely appointed spaceship...
ReplyDeleteAs for the CCCP logo; they pretty much cut around any closeups of the original, saving the medium and long shot shots, which include the cool sfx. The spacesuits sure do look alike.
thoughts appreciated thingmaker.
DeleteI found out what happened to the original russian spacesuit costumes/props that were used in this film.
ReplyDeleteThey were reused as pressure type suits in the 1967/68 soviet movie Продавец воздуха [translated as the Air Seller,tho I`ve also seen it called the Air Stealers].It sounds rather a lot like the sort of 1960s 007/spy movie type plot that we`re all very familiar with,ie: an evil villain plotting to steal the worlds air supply [yes,I do know how silly that sounds]
Its based [I suspect rather loosely] on a 1929 novel by a russian SF writer named Alexander Belyaev,who was often referred to as the russian "jules verne".
The suits in question were modified for their new role by having the circular side pieces that the antennas attached to removed,the bolted neck ring was also completely cut away and the large shoulder/upper chest piece was also cut back.
https://www.kino-teatr.ru/acter/album/1857/10460.jpg
https://russian7.ru/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/114-2.jpg
https://avatars.dzeninfra.ru/get-zen_doc/3510533/pub_5ffc67db7cd87011f08656d2_5ffc69e87cd87011f08bc824/scale_1200
I like the fact that it wasnt only just in western productions where spacesuit props were reused,often after being extensively modified and ending up looking very different.
That is one of the greatest aspects of this site,the fact that we`ve been able to discover the often completely unknown histories of some very well known tv and movie spacesuits,as well as being able to discover some completely unknown suits from obscure productions that I doubt many of us had ever heard of.