The always glaring base commander Dobler (Bradford Dillman) is hiding something from his team, and also killing them off with the help of his computer and control over the oxygen supply. Claire discovers the goo is a fast mutating life form. Dobler calls it a threat but Claire knows the real threat is elsewhere...
This is a terrible load of tosh. It has cheap sets, cheaper special effects, baffling plot and indifferent to terrible acting. Unintentionally hilarious and tremendous fun of course.
If this seems similar to the 1939 serial Buck Rogers it is because it is a condensed version! Buck Rogers (Buster Crabbe) is a 20th century pilot who, along with Buddy (Jackie Moran), is put into suspended animation after an airship crash. When he is awaken in the future he finds the world to be much more advanced, and much more dangerous. He helps the good guys out against the evil plans of Killer Kane (Anthony Warde)...
Naturally as the nearly four hour original serial was edited down to a single film that's just over an hour long it is all rather breakneck. In fact it is maybe a little too frenetic as we move from action scene to action scene with hardly any time to breathe. The action is great though and includes rocket ships with sparks flying out of them, ray guns and an army of mindless robots - slaves controlled by fiendish helmets and worked until they die.
Little to no subtlety maybe but it is all tremendous fun.
Rhonda refuses to change the statue, Alex's only legal recourse is to find out who was the model for the... thing thinking Rhonda must have slept with him. Alex starts to make his way through a list of Rhonda's male acquaintances, finding ways to see their genitals...
It does sound a very strange film and it indeed is very odd, and very of it's time. The film is smutty and ridiculous, not everything works but frequently it really does hit the spot. A good cast, which also includes John Cleese and Ann Bell, make the most of it.
The sort of swash buckling silent movie epic Douglas Fairbanks Senior was born for and set the screen action hero template for. With some scenes of quite stark brutality, including the dumping of corpses in a heap and lots of murder, we are hurled into the savage world of the pirates led by Anders Randolf and Sam De Grasse. The Duke of Arnoldo (Fairbanks) is seeking revenge on the pirates for murdering his father, he thus infiltrates their band as the Black Pirate...
The Black Pirate soon proves himself as he helps capture a ship and he rises up the ranks, but his plans for revenge are complicated by the lovely Isobel (Billie Dove) whom he must protect from the evil clutches of his fellow pirates...
Although a lot of the more extreme violence is implied off-screen, the film can be very bloody, and in it's Technicolor print (one of the earliest) would have been very red! As a silent movie action epic this can't be faulted, Fairbanks was at his wash buckling action hero peak. The story may be pretty obvious but that is not the important thing here, it's spectacular.
He seduces and ravishes her, then the Viceroy (Wadsworth Harris) tries to get rid of her and the scandal by having her thrown in prison and whipped! Fenella's mistreatment sparks the populace in a revolt led by fisherman Masaniello (Robert Julian) which eventually brings down the Viceroy and his regime who do not have a happy ending...
While not a brilliant film it does have plenty of grand designs and grander staging. Pavlova (yes the dessert was named after her) was a famous ballerina and this was her only appearance in a feature film. Her appearances have the lightness and grace you would expect though the camerawork unfortunately often did not make the most of it. The film could have done with some heavy editing. But it is an interesting film and was quite an accomplishment.
