Voyage To the Prehistoric Planet Movie Review

If you're into the classicly "bad" B-sci-fi movies from the fifties, then you'll probably enjoy "Voyage To the Prehistoric Planet" from 1953. It's all elementary that Basil Rathbone of Sherlock Holmes movie fame would star in such a film (pun intended) as this was to be one of his last film features I believe (what a way to go).

Bad as these movies are, classic B-sci-fi movies like "Voyage to the Prehistoric Planet" are still fun to watch; even though in terms of development, they are about as interesting to watch as a paint drying on a bathroom room (and we all know how much fun that is, don't we?). Rathbone plays a doctor of science who is on the verge of discovering a planet of "brontosauric" proportions (prehistoric pun intended) that consists of prehistoric mammels. Filmed on what looked like to be on a Pacific island somewhere, this movie is not all bad--IT"S TOTALLY BAD, AWFULLY MADE, but boy, was it fun to watch.

They don't make these films of yesteryear anymore and for that, we can all be greatful, but in terms of nostalgic value, they are in essence, brilliant and enjoyable to watch from time to time. "Voyage to a Prehistoric Planet" had some fun in it as I sat there watching what looked a giant prehistoric octopus try to squeeze the life out of an astronaut (mind you this was well before the days of "Planet of the Apes' and we all know how good those days were, don't we?) It was hilarious to watch what really looked like spaghetti with legs try to suffocate this poor man.

One of the navigators on the ship, a brunette with a 60's "bee hive"  hairdoo had me more captivated with her hairstyle then her acting skills (PEEEEW! is right). It sounded as if she was reading a book and had memorized her lines ("See Spot Run" would be the type of book I had in mind; phew!).  Like I said, movies like "Voyage to a Prehistoric Planet" are fun to watch, but I wouldn't want to sit through five or six of these in one sitting; I do have some dignity you know. I sat there watching this movie thinking, what were people back in 1953 thinking when they saw this NOT SO MUCH a piece of "cinematic brilliance" on the screen for the first time (as if most of them saw it a second time) when they had movies like "Singin in the Rain" or "An American in Paris" playing around the same time. "Usher, I want my twenty five cents back!" is probably what movigoers of 1953 would have been saying.