First Spaceship on Venus

Poster tagline: YOU ARE THERE... ON MAN’S MOST EXCITING, MOST INCREDIBLE JOURNEY!!! I’ve seen the abridged U.S. version, so I can only talk about that one, and I’m perfectly fine with it. One immediately notices the generous budget, which was more lavish than that of quite a few Hollywood-produced films in the genre at the time. After all, it was a matter of prestige for the Eastern Bloc to shoot a substantial sci-fi with lavish cinematography that would stand up to comparison with the “evil imperialists”. The U.S. version has no plenary sessions, no signs of internationalization, no holding hands in the closing scenes. In the context of its time, the spaceship appears plausible (and betrays the creators’ heavy borrowings from the foundational sci-fi flick Destination Moon); we even get some zero gravity and dialogue that doesn’t grate on the ear. Venus itself is rather impressive; the makers worked to get the most out of the set – the planetary environment is shrouded in fog, the sky is lit with polar lights, and the Venusians’ architecture is beautifully bizarre with all those spired towers with dozens of windows, spiraling skyward like huge corkscrews, encompassed by crawling living jelly. This is all very nice to look at. What an immense pity it is that only a really poor copy has survived, as if one threw a VHS tape into the washing machine and ran a hot-wash cycle :o). There’s even an environmental message in the form of the final twist, seemingly lifted from Rocketship X-M (1950), which also makes it clear that the Venusians destroyed their own planet through hubris and mismanagement. (10/05/2020)