1° FESTIVAL INTERNAZIONALE CINEMA GIOVANI
Retrospettiva - Il cinema italiano che oggi ha vent'anni. Opere prime 1958-1967
Space men
by Antonio Margheriti
Country: Italy
Year: 1960
Duration:
Ray Petersen, a reporter in 2000, is sent on the satellite-spaceship BZ 88 to carry out an investigative report. Once on the spot, he can’t understand the reasons of the captain’s odd behaviour, but he gets along with a young employee of technical services and also saves her life. The mysterious behaviour of the captain finds an explanation when he reveals to the journalist the danger that threatens the Earth: Alfa 2, the first interstellar photonic spaceship, is coming back to the solar system surrounded by a deadly field of energy. It is going to reduce the Earth to a ball of magma, if nobody stops it. BZ 88 makes a stop on Venus. A brave member of the crew drives a rocket into Alfa 2: he is going to die before destroying it, but he will send essential information. Thanks to this, Ray Petersen, on board of a space taxi, reaches the spaceship and stops it. Left without oxygen, the captain saves him and takes him back to the satellite near his girlfriend.
Traduzione in inglese Francesca Sala – English translation Francesca Sala
Biography
film director
Antonio Margheriti
"Antonio Margheriti (alias Anthony M. Dawson) concentrated most of his energy on science fiction (about half of the science fiction films in Italian cinema are his). However, he also dedicated himself to the genre of horror, and with better results. He is a curiously uneven director. At times, he is ingenious, able to weave complex narrative patterns. (The metaphor of the spider is perhaps the most apt for describing the direction of his ghost films.) He is also a cultivated and refined director at his best moments. This type of discontinuity is evident in his first horror film, Danza macabra (1963), which takes off from an unnerving idea - to make the mechanism of identification function backwards by freezing the protagonist into the role of a passive spectator incapable of self-defense. However, he was not able to keep up the discipline necessary for this technique. (It would have called for the identification of the camera with the eyes of the protagonist-spectator and therefore a constant use of the motionless camera.) Nevertheless, the film remains one of the best and most fascinating Italian fantasy films. The theme of the lesbian love matches up in its audacity and explicit treatment to the sadism of La frusta e il corpo. Its weaving of the events into a tension frozen for almost all of the film explodes in the frenetic delirium of the finale." (Teo Mora, Storia del cinema dell'orrore (1975-1978), Tomo II, Fanucci, Roma, 1978).
FILMOGRAFIA
Space Men (1960), Il pianeta degli uomini spenti (1961), L'arciere delle mille e una notte (La freccia doro) (1962), Il crollo di Roma (1963), Danza macabra (1963), Anthar l'invincibile (1964), Il pelo nel mondo (1964), I lunghi capelli della morte (1964), La vergine di Norimberga (1964), I giganti di Roma (1964), Ursus terrore dei Kirghisi (1964), I criminali della Galassia (1965), I diafanoidi vengono da Marte (1965), Il pianeta errante (1965), La morte viene dal pianeta Aytin (1965), A 007 sfida ai killers (1966), Operazione Goldman (1966), Joe l'implacabile (1967), Joko, invoca Dio e muori (1968), Nude... si muore (1968), Io ti amo (1968), Contronatura (1969), ... E Dio disse a Caino (1969), L'inafferrabile invincibile Mr. Invisibile (1969), Nella stretta morsa del ragno (1971), Finalmente... le Mille e una notte (1972), Novelle galeotte d'amore nel Decamerone (1972), La morte negli occhi del gatto (1973), Ming, ragazzi! (1973), Manone il ladrone (1974), Whisky e fantasmi (1974), Là dove non batte il sole (1975), Il mostro è in tavola... barone Frankenstein (1975), Dracula cerca sangue di vergine... e morì di sete (1975), La parabola di un fuorilegge è legge (1975), Con la rabbia agli occhi (1976), Controrapina (1976), Killer Fish - Agguato sul fondo (1978), L'ultimo cacciatore (1980), Apocalypse domani (1980), Car Crash (1981), I cacciatori del cobra d'oro (1982), Fuga dall'arcipelago maledetto (1982), Tornado (1983), Il mondo di Yor (1983), I sopravvissuti della città morta (1984), Arcobaleno selvaggio (1985), La leggenda del rubino malese (1985), L'isola del tesoro (1986), Commando Leopard (1987), L'ultimo colpo (1988), Il triangolo della paura (1988), Alien degli abissi (1988), Indio (1989), Indio 2 - La rivolta (1991), Gengis Khan (1993-94), Virtual Weapon (1996).
Declaration
film director
Space men is the most interesting of my science fiction films. I think it was really good, very successful. It is the story of a spaceship that faces troubles in coming back to the Earth and the characters live the same adventure seen in Abbandonati nello spazio, but with more novel into it... and it was shot ten years before. (...)
They commissioned a film that had to be presented as an American film and I changed my name in Anthony Daisies, which is the translation of Antonio Margheriti. The film was out in Italy first, signed by Anthony Daisies. But when it arrived in the USA, I received a message from the American distribution company: I had to change my pseudonym. They suggested Dawson instead of Daisies. I accepted, but I didn’t understand why. I learnt a little later that Anthony Daisies means Antonio the pederast! I didn’t know that Anthony Dawson was already an actor in England and that was a little annoying: they often said that the Italian director Anthony Dawson was supposed to act in the film of an English colleague! (...)
When talking about science fiction, everyone suddenly thinks about Martians, rockets and flying saucers. That’s all right with me, but it is not just that. Science fiction is also what can happen right now, no matter where. In Italy there are a lot of published sci-fi stories, but films are always about those basic topics. I would like to make a film from a good story, but it is very hard to find enough money. (...)
I love the unreal. But most of my films are just financial transactions. However, science fiction doesn’t only exist in space adventures. I read a lot of it, but I think that Danza macabra is more science fiction than “space opera”, a real “space opera” would be too expensive for every Italian producer. And anyway, science fiction is not only science and machines. It is madness, the imagination is totally free. To respect a technology means to limit science fiction. (...)
Traduzione in inglese Francesca Sala – English translation Francesca Sala
Cast
& Credits
Director: Anthony Daisies (Antonio Margheriti).
Soggetto e sceneggiatura: Vassilij Petrov.
Fotografia (Vistavision, Eastmancolor): Marcello Masciocchi.
Scenografia ed effetti speciali: Caesar Peace.
Editor: Mario Serandrei.
Music: G.J.K. Broady.
Cast and characters: Rik Von Nutter (Ray Peterson), Gaby Farinon (Lucy), David Montresor (George), Archie Savage (Al), Alan Dijon, Franco Fantasia, Anita Tedesco, David Maran, Joe Pollini.
Production company: Ultra Film.
Italian distribution: Titanus.
Soggetto e sceneggiatura: Vassilij Petrov.
Fotografia (Vistavision, Eastmancolor): Marcello Masciocchi.
Scenografia ed effetti speciali: Caesar Peace.
Editor: Mario Serandrei.
Music: G.J.K. Broady.
Cast and characters: Rik Von Nutter (Ray Peterson), Gaby Farinon (Lucy), David Montresor (George), Archie Savage (Al), Alan Dijon, Franco Fantasia, Anita Tedesco, David Maran, Joe Pollini.
Production company: Ultra Film.
Italian distribution: Titanus.
