“Countdown,” the summertime sci-fi section of B&W World, begins with a 50s classic starring The Dude’s father. Go HERE.
Pass it along, if you wish
32 Responses to B&W World: Pigs in Space
Host with the Most
By this time my lungs were aching for air
I only remember vaguely the mST3K version, need help with the original
Mandatory Nitpicky Correction: You mean Noah Beery, Jr., not Wallace (Wallace, as you certainly know, was his uncle). Later to be James Garner’s father on “The Rockford Files.”
Star Trek connection, anyone? Anyone? Bueller?
Thanks – will fix!
This flick was the first subject/victim on MST3K I ever saw.
The ship is screaming back to Earth…a cast member is unconscious…
She: Should we wake him?
Crow T Robot: Why? So he can experience his own fiery death?
I was sold right then and there.
“Looks like I picked the wrong day to quit sniffing glue.”
Looks like I picked the wrong day to make an Airplane reference without hitting the link first.
Loved the Pigs In Space ref. I wonder if this film started the current run of improbably gorgeous female scientists. They’ve appeared in Bond films, space films, and I guess most recently in the revolting remake of The Day the Earth Got Really Annoyed.
Don’t want to knock ‘em, but the female scientists I’ve met are almost as uninspiring in the looks department as their male counterparts. Some stereotypes have an inner core of rich, creamy truth.
“Some stereotypes have an inner core of rich, creamy truth.”
Mmmmmmm, rich, creamy truth… tastes like chicken.
As far as I can tell, no, James, no repeated japes from the MST3K version. (Yes, I watch it. A lot.)
And Grebmar, so far as I know, there’s no Star Trek connection. (And yes, I actually went to the bother about 10 years ago of trying to find Star Trek connections with all MiSTied movies. Yes, I’m weird.)
“inner core of rich, creamy truth”
Isn’t that segment 3 of the Skybar?
Love the above picture of Lloyd. Looks like he has been sniffing.
And I know I’m probably in the minority, but I’ve always preferred Lloyd to his son Jeff. There’s just something about Jeff Bridges and William Hurt that requires a little more tolerance in viewing from me. Can’t really explain it.
I watched the trailer on U-Tube. Advertised as 4 “men” and a “girl”. Looks more likely 4 “boys” and “woman”.
No Star Trek connection I see, but here’s a tenuous Monty Python connection:
The whole “Three men and a woman thing:”
“… comes the story of three people and a woman united by fate who set out in search of the fabled Pole of the Sahara and found … themselves.”
I think Heinlein was actually involved in the making of this film.
Sorry, It was four men and a girl here. Never mind she’s probably got a PhD in Astrophysics.
I was too busy gasping at their courage.
I think the 1971 Andromeda Strain may have been the first movie to feature a female scientist who was short squat and perhaps Lesbo. Blew me away, but after the novelty wore off I was ready to return to the eye-Candy daughter of the Nobel prize winner gals.
Lloyd Bridges es…. muy macho!!!!
dc, it was DESTINATION MOON that Heinlein had a hand in. And also Chesley Bonestell, with those lurvely astronomical paintings.
Bob
I am a NASA employee (male) and I can assure you that there actually are world class scientists who are simultaneously brilliant, female and drop dead gorgeous. These are the people for whom it is impossible to buy a christmas gift: they already have all the gifts they need.
As boblipton points out, Heinlein was involved in Destination Moon – IIRC correctly he wrote most of it, and held their feet to the fire on technical accuracy (he wrote about the experience in Expanded Universe. As someone who works in the field (why yes, I AM a Rocket Scientist) Destination Moon is fairly impressive – given what was known at the time, they provided a reasonable idea of spaceflight (though they had the roomiest spacecraft I’ve ever seen).
As for Rocketship XM – eh, not so much. I particularly like the aircraft turn and bank indicator embedded in the wall behind the token girl scientist during the flash clip. If it’s any comfort, they appear to be in level flight.
According to IMDB her name is Osa Maassen and seems to have had a reasonably active career. I don’t know how many other times she made the cast as an affordable alternative to Ingrid Bergman, but I liked the way her vowels and consonants sounded like the results of a lifetime chewing on lutefisk.
From what I could see, this was an attempt at ‘serious’ science fiction, although the rocket ship looked like it was the kind that I used to fill with water, pump some air into, and acheive the apogee of a suborbital trajectory at 25 feet above my backyard launch complex. Were Kim Jong Il that successful.
Historical Note from IMDB: A massive campaign was undertaken to create public awareness of the film [Destination Moon -- Dr. Spyn] during its production. This campaign also attracted the attention of independent producer Robert L. Lippert who rushed a low budget space travel film, Rocketship X-M (1950), into production to capitalize on this campaign. Legal action forced Lippert to modify the campaign for his film. Material sent to exhibitors for “Rocketship X-M” carried the disclaimer “This is not ‘Destination Moon’.” Lippert was able to have “Rocketship X-M” into general release more than three weeks before this film had its preview engagements.
Heinlein and Bonestell were both associated with “Destination Moon,” but not “Rocketship X-M.”
I am reimagining the film with zero gravity with Dr. Dapper Dresser’s tie flipping up in his face. Good thing our gal in space isn’t wearing a skirt.
Just watched the MST3K version a couple months ago, Joel and the bots were great, the movie was prosy and de-press-ing.
I look at the rocket and think “Steely Dan.”
The mention of Robert Lippert always brings a smile to the face of any MST3K fan.
Rock climbing.
Thanks for the inadvertent plug, James; I’m the one hosting the MST3K version of this movie on Youtube. This plug brought to you by Snickers. Hungry? Why wait?
Wow, that first clip in your review reminded me how far back in time we have to go to see a cover of Newsweek that does not feature Obama.
Grebmar Says:
June 9th, 2009 at 9:49 pm
Star Trek connection, anyone? Anyone? Bueller?
2 Star Trek connections – first, director George Pal and Gene Roddenberry hads adjoining offices at Paramount Studios, and the two close friends traded ideas very often; second, one of Pal’s longtime designers, Wah Chang, designed the tricorder, flip-top communicator, and many of the sets and props during the first year of ST.
“No crackers Gromit! We’ve forgotten the crackers!”
Why do all the still shots remind me of Wallace and Gromit’s “A Grand Day Out”?
*non sequitor alert*
Osa Maassen was in my favorite Fred Estaire movie: You’ll Never Get Rich with the incomparable Rita Hayworth.
I noticed the film score was written by Ferde Grofe, who wrote the Grand Canyon Suite and orchestrated Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue.
So if the speedometer only goes to 120 mph and the moon is 238,000 miles away, could they really “cover that distance in approximately in 48 hours”? The math is giving me an ice cream headache.
I guess I picked the wrong week for not being a world class scientist who is simultaneously brilliant and drop dead gorgeous.