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The Wild, Wild Planet [I Criminali della Galassia] (1965)

Or, hey, in Germania, it's Raumschiff Alpha


The Wild, Wild Planet [I Criminali della Galassia]

Director:Antonio Margheriti
Cast:Tony Russel, Lisa Gastoni, Massimo Serato, Carlo Giustini, Franco Nero
Genre:Film, Science fiction

By Joe MacLeod | Posted

In 1965, using pretty much the same sets, props, and actors, Antonio Margheriti, aka Anthony Daises, Anthony Daisies, Anthony M. Dawson, or Anthony Dawson, if you will, directed four Italian Space Operas designed to take America by storm. They failed. I Diafanoidi Vengono da Marte (The Deadly Diaphonoids), La Morte Viene dal Pianeta Aytin, I Diavoli dello Spazio (The Devil Men from Space), and I Criminali della Galassia (Wild, Wild, Planet) live on as, uh, charming examples of what forward-looking Italians in 1965 thought The Future should look like, you know, pointy rocket ships, bad guys wearing black leather and sunglasses, and chicks with pointy bras and the Big Hair. Space good guy Commander Mike Halsted travels to the Planet Delphos, home base of Doctor Nurmi, who is busy trying to create the perfect humanoid, and wouldn't you know it, it turns out the perfect humanoid would be a genetic comingling of Dr. Nurmi and Connie, Mike Halstead's gal pal and "perfect specimen" according to the good doctor, rrr-owf! Anyway, stuff blows up real good, and there's a huge miniature flood of kabillions of gallons of blood-red scientific fluid, which is probably where Stan Kubrick got that idea for the red and the flooding with the elevator doors in The Shining. Margheriti went on to do such films as Andy Warhol's Frankenstein, and Yor, the Hunter from the Future.

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