Now that football season is over, Russ and I are creating a new tradition of watching a really bad B-movie on Saturday night. Popcorn may be involved. Last week we watched Voyage to the Planet of Prehistoric Women (1968). I chose this one from our 50 Classic Sci-Fi DVD set because from the title I believed it would be difficult to find a more awful movie.
Well, I was wrong. Turns out the “prehistoric women” were an afterthought to an already existing movie, Voyage to the Prehistoric Planet , released just three years earlier. The earlier movie starred Basil Rathbone as a scientist, and some unknown actress as astronaut “Marcia.” As you can see from the pictures above, Basil Rathbone is not much to look at, 
and “Marcia,” with her Marge Simpson hairdo, fares only slightly better, so I guess someone figured the way to make this movie sexier would be to add “prehistoric women.” Of course, here, prehistoric women are hot blondes in skintight shiny bell-bottoms and strategically-placed shells. I’m certain all prehistoric women looked exactly like this. And communicated telepathically. And worshipped an amphibious pterodactyl.
But wait! It gets even better. Before this movie was the 1965 Voyage to the Prehistoric Planet, it was actually a RUSSIAN sci-fi flick, sans Basil Rathbone. So whether you’re watching Prehistoric Planet or Prehistoric Women, the astonauts (Hans and Andre) have a slightly foreign look about them and spout totally inane dialog that doesn’t quite match the movement of their lips.
There were some nice underwater scenes, though. At one point, Hans or Andre (not sure it really matters which) meets up with a fairly bizarre-looking octopus. I also thought this shot of one of the “prehistoric women” was particularly haunting and well done.
There’s a robot, some rockets and space stations, baby godzillas and an erupting volcano, but even though this is essentially the third attempt to get this thing right, it’s still extremely dreadful.
Yes! I think we have succeeded! Can’t wait to see what Russ has lined up for tonight’s movie!
