Christopher Lee Sci-Fi!

 

Christopher Lee Sci-Fi Special!

By Kristin Battestella

Who needs Count Dooku when you can revisit these preposterously retro Christopher Lee science fiction adventures?

Night of the Big Heat – Christopher Lee (Horror of Dracula) and Peter Cushing (Curse of Frankenstein) anchor director Terence Fisher's (Frankenstein Created Woman) 1967 sci-fi island heat wave based on the John Lymington novel. Big satellites, giant perimeter cameras, and spinning radar gizmos immediately give this a decade too late feeling, and initially it's tough to tell who is who among the British quaint. Snooping vagrants mysterious killed and bespectacled scientist Lee checking his big listening equipment are slow to start despite ominous swanky music and sweet roadsters. The cars are overheating amid radio weather reports of 90 F in winter and rising, oscillating fans, glistening foreheads, and ice melting at the local inn. Buzzing sounds and crackling noises over the phone acerbate wife versus bikini clad secretary hostility, ogling men, and past dalliances. Ties are off, ice is being dripped down the blouses, and people are leaning inside the refrigerator. It doesn't cool off after dark, and the crazed buzzing begats car accidents and explosions. Something is said to land on the hill as dark room developments and then new infrared photography gather proof for our novelist who doesn't believe in extraterrestrials. Do they warn the villagers or would that cause a panic? Beer bottles break in the heat while juicy kisses lead to who's getting caught, rowdy assaults, and more fiery ends. The big boob tube gets weird signals before blowing up, dogs are barking, and a delirious farmer's sheep are killed, yet it's tough to tell if the tension and now tame cigarette steamy are the main story or if the underlying sci-fi build is the priority here. The increasingly congested inn stifles with arguments about what to do – like who are you supposed to contact anyway if you suspect an alien invasion? More sweaty clothes and giant walkie talkies accent the look of fear and victims' screams as the screen goes white, and it's nice that we don't see the alien wither tos and why fors until attempts to contact the mainland fail. Unfortunately, flashlights and dynamite plans to divide and conquer get confusing before thunderstorms and an easy, contrived end that really had no where to go. The staged, mid century television design is fine, but the uneven hammy science and would be saucy do a disservice to the compelling ensemble. It might have been interesting had there been no explanation to the sci-fi or just a heat induced killing spree, for all the postulating that our satellites signals lured the extraterrestrials to come heat up the earth feel tone deaf today considering how we are making the planet hotter right now with our own stupidity no aliens needed. This is fun for the cast – if you can accept that this is neither groundbreaking or actually all that steamy.

End of the World – Pleas to use the telephone from Father Christopher Lee open this 1977 romp before sparks, broken windows, and explosions prevent the call. The Spanish Mission convent and organ music peppering the score contrast the then new Model 82 computers and dot matrix printouts as our Communications Professor traces ominous space signals. These beeping messages predict “Large Earth Disruption” as earthquakes, droughts, volcanoes, and noxious cloud reports are heard on the radio yet the Professor and his Mrs. fool around and go to a swanky banquet while the viewer wonders if any of the driving to and fro or walking through the NASA lab talking about lecture tours are important. Even wife Sue Lyon (Lolita) serves no purpose but to scream a few times. There are contamination suits and pulsing crystals, light up gizmos, lots of techobabble, and all of it could have been cut by time they get to the mission where the signals are emanating amid prayers, roses, and nuns in black gardening. Buzzing fences and flashing lights lead to secret bunker men catching our couple, but all the scientists know each other so it's all good! They trade some more sci-fi barbs before going back to the mission, and it might have been better had we not seen the church opening but only explored the convent with the professor and his beeping gizmos as Father Christopher jokes that the signals are just a nun's transistor radio. The entire premise could have been the Professor snooping around the convent for SF unknown as technology and religions clash, but you can't expect that much here. Grabby old lady nuns attack in the dark – whisking victims to their underground alien lair with advanced gadgets, colorful tubes, whirring machinery, and flashing controls. Repairs needed to achieve sub warp speed contrast Lee's white robes as he recites The Lord's Prayer. He hesitates on “give in to temptation” and “deliver us from evil” before escape attempts and fiery overkill amid interstellar travel hyperbole, cloning, time warps, and murder. The aliens are stuck on earth and desperate to get back to their own utopia but need the Professor to fix their gear, so he sneaks back to the lab for his snazzy crystal – wasting time going up and down ladders, running in the dark, and blowing up the place with his coworkers within. Oopsie! So much for being better than the killer aliens just trying to get home amirite? Once we get to the alien morality debates, the movie's over, and the whole story would have been better from the extraterrestrial perspective. Now that they can leave, the aliens intend to destroy earth for all the problems we will cause in the galaxy, which is pretty much spoiled by the title. At least the special effects while disaster befalls the planet and the nuns peace out through the portal are pretty bemusing. With four minutes of slow credits, this becomes eighty minutes of meandering that could have been an interesting warning as a half hour anthology episode. Instead, it's only enjoyable if you add some MST3K lampooning. To think, this came out the same year as Star Wars.