Doomsday Machine (1972)

Directors:

Harry Hope
Lee Sholem

Writer:

Stuart J. Byrne (original story and screenplay)

Release Date:

8 July 1976 (West Germany)

Genre:

Sci-Fi

Tagline:

See! The Earth Destroyed In A Nuclear Holocaust!

Plot:

Spies discover that the Red Chinese have built a "doomsday machine" capable of destroying the surface of the Earth...

Plot Keywords:

Venus | Space | End Of The World | Noah's Ark | Doomsday Device

Cast

Bobby Van	...	Danny
Ruta Lee	...	Dr. Marion Turner
Mala Powers	...	Maj. Georgianna Bronski
James Craig	...	Dr. Haines
Grant Williams	...	Maj. Kurt Mason
Henry Wilcoxon	...	Dr. Christopher Perry
Essie Lin Chia	...	Girl Spy
Casey Kasem	...	Mission Control Officer
Lori Scott	...	Lt. Katie Carlson (as Lorri Scott)
Denny Miller	...	Col. Don Price (as Scott Miller)
Mike Farrell	...	1st Reporter
John Cestare
Raymond Mayo
Frank Gambina
Mark Bailey	...	Major / Astronaut

Also Known As:

Armageddon 1975
Doomsday
Escape from Planet Earth (USA) (video title)

Runtime:

83 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Sound Mix:

Mono

Company:

First Leisure

Trivia:

Most of the movie was filmed in 1967 but due to a lack of financing it wasn't completed until 1972 when the producers had acquired enough money to complete the film, but without any of the original cast members.

Goofs:

Revealing mistakes: As the earth explodes the string holding the model planet is visible.

Quotes:

Katie: You're very forceful, aren't you?
Mason: Do I, er, need force?
Katie: I was talking about vibrations.
Mason: Oh. How are yours doing?
Katie: What do they say?
Mason: I'm not sure, but I like them.
Katie: And they like you. In time.

Movie Connections:

Featured in "Movie Macabre: Doomsday Machine (#2.32)" (1983)

moderately enjoyable sci-fi clunker with strange ending

Technically, overall, "Doomsday Machine" is just a crappy movie. But to me, it's elevated above all that by the inclusion of unintended entertainment value.

A ship is due to be launched into space, but at the last moment, there's some kind of crisis on earth, and 3 male members of the crew are replace by 3 females, after which they all climb into their space-age Barcaloungers and recline for the trip.

Of course, the 3 women on board are all professionals, and so are the men, but that doesn't prevent any hanky-panky. Most guilty of this is Grant Williams (formerly the Incredible Shrinking Man) who can't seem to control his libido.

Of course, sometime soon after the launch of the ship, the crazy Chinese, who have some kind of doomsday device, set it off and the earth blows up, and the spacecraft is dodging bits of it and radiation to boot. Not a pleasant situation.

The lighting in the space ship looks like some kind of far-out hippie pad, all bright colors. When shown from outside, the ship appears to be several different ships, so the viewer is never sure if they're looking at the craft in which our heroes reside, or at other crafts.

Eventually a decision is made that to land on Venus, some of the crew must be sacrificed, that is, die so that others may live, but two of them spot an old Russian craft and manage to "swim" toward it and get inside. And what of the fate of the others? Well, I dunno, this has a very strange ending (not that the rest of it isn't strange).

The DVD version (Elvira's Movie Macabre) is not exactly top notch, and if you watch it without her babbling, it has fade-outs, which are presumably left from the film being edited so you have the pleasure of her inane patter. It's not exactly remastered, either, so you have slight jumps in picture & dialog at times. Not that it really matters with THIS film though. Look for Mike Farrell (MASH) as a reporter at the beginning. 5 out of 10.