The Terrornauts (1967)
A radio telescope project on the verge of getting scrapped through budgetary and lack of results at a British observatory. The telescopic radio waves are hoping to pick up signs of life from outer space but there have been no positive results. Suddenly a faint sound is heard on the instruments. Project leader Joe Burke (Simon Oates,best known from the BBC's Doomwatch) takes it upon himself to respond...with out of this world results.
The Terrornauts is typically creaky, cheap, British sci-fi from Amicus. Once you get your head round this fact the sooner you'll come to love the film. The early character introducing scenes at the observatory are nicely played, building up a deal of tension and making the characters believable. Even comic (ish) turns from Charles Hawtrey and Patricia Hayes can't derail things. The whole closure of the project story line giving you a great deal of empathy with everyone.
Once the signal is intercepted things take a turn for the mad, as in barmy. The observatory is transported by an alien craft to another world and dumped on the surface. Here we meet a dodgy looking robot that makes even the wonkiest looking Dalek seem like a million dollar creation, a bizarre tribe of green skinned folk seemingly desperate to sacrifice gorgeous scientist Zena Marshall to some elder God and the most ludicrous looking creature you're likely to come across in British sci-fi.
These aren't criticisms. The films limitations definitely add to it's overall charm and together they all make for an excellently entertaining, certainly quirky,fast paced movie.
Recommended.
The dvd from Network, which i've had hanging around for nigh on a year, looks very good. Despite some problems with the film (witness the green lines) the restoration on the original cinema release is good. I watched this version rather than the re-release version which has an even better transfer without damage because it runs 14 minutes longer.
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