Apatros Review Ep-0146: The Planet of Extinct Men [1961] ("Battle of The Worlds")

AR-0146: Italian cult director Antonio Margheriti ["Anthony Dawson"] made quite a few space operas in the early 1960s [makes sense since he started the whole shebang] and this was one of the more easily accessible in terms of having Claude Rains onboard and its presence in many a public domain DVD Box set [the source of my archive copy BTW].

In a future Earth run by a bureaucracy, the planet has just been visited by an alien planetoid, which Earth's top [& crankiest] scientist predicted quite some time in advance, him dubbing it "The Outsider". When attempts to reach it prove deadly, thanks to the planetoid having a robotic fleet of UFOs defending it from attack, it is up to Rains to investigate and find a solution...

...if only he can find the means to do so in the mathematical formula that passed for his heart.

Not really too shabby a movie, as this one has a little bit of novelty value that separates it from the usual alien invasion fare of the day [never really had before a movie where it is the planet itself that does the actual invading], plus the ending is surprisingly emotionally downbeat. Claude Rains carries the show effortlessly, even though his character can be a right royal prick at times. That being said, this is a wholly standard example of the genre and as such nothing particularly special.

My Grade: C [Average]

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Note: This is the first time you're seeing a different colour used as a backdrop in the index picture and that is due to the fact I use the colours as a reference to what grade I give the subject. See if you can work out what range the green covers and what colour I use for higher graded material...