WAR OF THE WILD, WILD PLANETS

Within the last week, TCM has run two of the four "Gamma-One" Italian science fiction films. These low-budget monstrosities were produced in the mid '60s, utilizing the same production company, cast members, sets and recycled special effects sequences. The films, in order are WILD, WILD PLANET (1966), WAR OF THE PLANETS (1966), WAR BETWEEN THE PLANETS (1966) and SNOW DEVILS (1967). It's not necessary to watch these films in their order of release but I include this information for anyone who feels compelled to do so. The two films that TCM ran (and which I've had the dubious pleasure to watch) are WILD, WILD PLANET and WAR OF THE PLANETS. They're both truly dreadful, craptastic exercises in bad genre filmmaking. But that's besides the point of this post. 

Watching these films took me back to my high school days when I would often spend the night at my buddy Blake Brown's house. It was always a blast to spend a night there because Blake had "cable television." In Austin, Texas in the early '70s, "cable television" meant that for a monthly price you could receive all of the Austin broadcast channels as well as the stations in San Antonio (the closest big city). That's it. Remember, there really was no true "cable television" until the early 1980s so getting to watch television stations from another city (and with good reception) was really a big deal for us. Especially on Friday nights. 

That was when KSAT, the San Antonio ABC affiliate, would broadcast "Project Terror", their late night package of horror/science fiction films. The show was always a double feature, with the first film starting at 10:30. "Project Terror" billed itself as being where "the scientific and the terrifying meet" and to prove it, the opening focused on a blinking green oscilloscope (oh, scary!). No matter how cheesy these films were, Blake and I were determined to stay awake as long as possible and try desperately to make it to the end of the second feature. 

Our marathon movie watching was fortified by snacks provided by his mother and when I say "snacks", I mean SNACKS! Whenever I was over there on a Friday night, Mrs. Brown would provide both of us with homemade bowls of both guacamole dip and queso, along with giant size bags of Fritos. These were no ordinary bowls. These were mixing bowls full of home made goodness. 

We'd polish off the bowls of dip during the first feature of "Project Terror" and during the commercial break before the second film started, we'd raid the kitchen for more food, this time consisting of incredibly thick peanut butter and strawberry preserves sandwiches (on white bread) and ice cold milk in the biggest glasses we could find. Thus restocked, we'd head back to the den for more sf/horror wonderment. 

I bring all of this up because while I don't recall ever actually seeing WAR OF THE PLANETS or WILD, WILD PLANET on "Project Terror", these are exactly the kinds of films that would have aired on that program. The fact that they were (and remain), horrible movies, is beside the point. Watching these two films over the last several days served as the best kind of time machine, taking me back to an earlier, more innocent age when watching badly dubbed Italian science fiction films with a good buddy and stuffing myself with dip, chips and sandwiches was nothing short of pure bliss.