“Don’t step on these breathing valves. And try to avoid touching the arteries.”
The Earth has been experiencing some geological upheavals. Tsunamis, earthquakes, violent storms. Scientists have been trying to find out the cause. Computers have hypothesized the theory that an unknown planet may have moved into the solar system interrupting the normal Earth’s gravitation. The disruption appears to come from the Gamma One area.
Gamma One is a space station. Space Command leader General Norton sends Commander Rod Jackson to Gamma One to handle the situation. Commander Rod Jackson is an ass. He’s in love with Lt. Terry Sanchez (Ombretta Colli) but engaged to Janet Norton (Halina Zalewska) and he’s basically nasty to everyone. I digress.
Gamma One receives a faint distress call from outpost station Echo. Jackson, believing that the disruptive planet may be in that area, mounts a recon mission. He finds the planet. In his absence, General Norton arrives at the space station. He too is a jerk. A couple more ships follow Jackson’s ship to the planet.
The planet has a very low density and it can move its direction. It can also send out and take in asteroids and it can also alter its gravity. One of the ships crashes into the planet and starts to sink in a red goo. The other ships land and investigate the planet. They need to know where to plant bombs in order to blow up the planet. They make their way down into the planet by a labyrinth of caverns. The walls are lined with, what Jackson calls "arteries", and the floor has moving "breathing valves." They make their way slowly to the core of the planet.
“War Between the Planets” was released in 1966 and was directed by Antonio Margheriti. It is the third in what is known as the Gamma One Quadrilogy, a series of four movies by Margheriti in cooperation with MGM that take place on or around a futuristic space station, Gamma One. All four movies were made back to back in 1964 and 1965. Originally made to be made for TV movies they were released theatrically in some countries.
Again with the really bad names for movies “War Between the Planets” is so average. Another title of “Planet on the Prowl” is not great either, but is a little better. Japan’s “Gorath” done in 1962 was also about a misbehaving planet. In some ways I liked it more, but there was one thing about “War Between the Planets” that bothered me.
***minor spoiler; Did they actually blow up a living entity and not a planet? That question alone made this movie worth it for me.*** The ‘planet’ had arteries, breathing valves, the presence of oxygen and a pulsating motion. Not to mention the fact that it moved wherever it wanted too, whenever it wanted to. To me, all signs of a sanctioned being. Granted, a large being, but still there was the suggestion that it was alive. I can understand that everybody got so involved in ranking out the cheap special effects and the dubbed dialogue. Even the bland plot. What I don’t understand is that this little hint in a few lines of dialogue were just left by the film makers and not picked up anywhere. This movie could have been so much more had that one train of thought been expanded and delved into. Instead we just went to the semi sad ending and the rolling credits. It’s too bad. Other than that tantalizing little tidbit, “War Between the Planets” was an average Italian science fiction movie. Nothing special.