The original might have been great, as some people seem to suggest, but the American dubbed version looks like it has been cut to ribbons - the dialogue is risible:
"They, and the others who are coming, will form the crew!" is an early example of English being horribly mangled to vaguely fit the mouth movements of the actors.
The story (as it survives) was hardly original even in 1960:
In 1985 a fragment of an extra-terrestrial message is found in the Gobi desert. Somehow, (There is an awful lot of unexplained "Somehow" in this film) this is connected with a supposed meteor that hit Siberia 75 years before. Lots of "International scientists" are given access to the world's biggest computer (and it is very big - must be lots and lots of vacuum tubes in there) they manage to decipher some of the message - but not all.
"We must renovate it!", cries one of the vaguely ethnic International Scientists, "We must soak it in a catalytic medium then subject it to radiation!"
"Very good idea," says another, not bothering to ask why radiating a heat-damaged magnetic recording would do any good whatsoever. Though I must remember that trick next time I accidentally erase one of my answer machine messages.
Meanwhile, another scientist, who has big shiny hair, has worked out that the trajectory of the alien ship means it can only have been launched from Venus! How? I mean how DID he work that out 75 years after the event? Find some 100 year old Yak farmer who saw it crash and asked him which way it came from?
As luck would have it the World League of Super Scientists have just finished building a pretty nifty looking space ship that not only looks like a Stark lemon squeezer but has Artificial Gravity, a machine shop and a fully equipped operating theatre. Why, after going to all that effort, they didn't manage shoehorn in a small kitchen somewhere is beyond me but if they had, the crew wouldn't have got to drink great Science Fiction Chocolate Flavoured Smoothies for the whole trip. Wow! The future is so exciting!
The crew, their cute robot, and (GASP!) a woman doctor! blast off for Venus. Suddenly there is an unexpected meteor shower - didn't these people ever see any crappy old SF films? - there is ALWAYS a sudden unexpected meteor shower. One of the crew goes outside to fix something before they hit an even bigger slightly more expected meteor shower. He fixes it (apparently by letting off a fire-extinguisher in its general direction) they swerve at the last moment and aren't doomed any more.
This whole sequence is deathly dull. One of the most boring unexpected meteor shower scenes ever.
After 45 days in space (sick to the back teeth with chocolate smoothies) and just three days away from Venus they decipher the rest of the message which basically says "All your base are belong to us - Mwahahahaha!"
EEK! Dilemma! Go on? or go back and warn Earth?
They grimly go on. One of the crew goes ahead to scout for a good landing site. He looses radio contact. He lands. He gets out to go for a walk and falls down a hole where he is attacked by metal insects. (Note: "Attacked" in this context means a Not Very Special Effects guy up a stepladder bounces some totally non-scary kid's toys on thin elastic in front of the camera.) His scout ship explodes. The big ship nearly lands on top of him. Everyone meets up.
"Look, your ship exploded because you parked it on top of that buried power cable."
"It didn't say anything about not parking near power cables in the manual. Who do I sue?"
They follow the power cable. It leads to a strange, ginormous glowing ball.
They follow it the other way. It leads to a strange, ginormous underground control centre place - an entire planet to land on and they arrive at the Venusian's High command's secret underground bunker...! Nice one! Suddenly they are attacked by a bezzillion tons of malevolent black porridge which chases them up a spiral ramp. Trapped at the top, one of them pulls out his disintegrator ray and fires. The porridge runs away but things start happening. Lightening flashes. The strange, ginormous glowing ball turns red and gravity starts getting stronger! The spaceship can't take off! Everyone rushes back to the spaceship where they sit around and talk for ages. The cute robot goes berserk (well, rolls backwards and forwards a bit) and (God knows how) manages somehow to seriously injure someone.
The most Asian member of the crew remembers he caught a glimpse of a control panel down the bottom of a very deep hole back at the Secret Bunker and is convinced he can reverse the process. He sets off with the only black member of the crew and lowers HIM down the very deep hole for some reason, before getting a puncture in his space suit and dying.
Suddenly (again for no explained reason) the whole process goes into reverse. Gravity reverses. "Energy is being converted into mass!" Now they are struggling to keep the ship on the ground! They fail. They are flung into space leaving the black guy, and someone who went off to rescue him behind. They go home. Sombrely they step from the ship and make little speeches. Big Shiny Haired scientist is reunited with someone who was cut out of the earlier part of the film. The Lady doctor consoles someone else who was cut out of the earlier part of the film. I wonder who they were because we had seen neither of them before.
The original 130-minute version may well have been great but its 93-minute American version is just rubbish.
"They, and the others who are coming, will form the crew!" is an early example of English being horribly mangled to vaguely fit the mouth movements of the actors.
The story (as it survives) was hardly original even in 1960:
In 1985 a fragment of an extra-terrestrial message is found in the Gobi desert. Somehow, (There is an awful lot of unexplained "Somehow" in this film) this is connected with a supposed meteor that hit Siberia 75 years before. Lots of "International scientists" are given access to the world's biggest computer (and it is very big - must be lots and lots of vacuum tubes in there) they manage to decipher some of the message - but not all.
"We must renovate it!", cries one of the vaguely ethnic International Scientists, "We must soak it in a catalytic medium then subject it to radiation!"
"Very good idea," says another, not bothering to ask why radiating a heat-damaged magnetic recording would do any good whatsoever. Though I must remember that trick next time I accidentally erase one of my answer machine messages.
Meanwhile, another scientist, who has big shiny hair, has worked out that the trajectory of the alien ship means it can only have been launched from Venus! How? I mean how DID he work that out 75 years after the event? Find some 100 year old Yak farmer who saw it crash and asked him which way it came from?
As luck would have it the World League of Super Scientists have just finished building a pretty nifty looking space ship that not only looks like a Stark lemon squeezer but has Artificial Gravity, a machine shop and a fully equipped operating theatre. Why, after going to all that effort, they didn't manage shoehorn in a small kitchen somewhere is beyond me but if they had, the crew wouldn't have got to drink great Science Fiction Chocolate Flavoured Smoothies for the whole trip. Wow! The future is so exciting!
The crew, their cute robot, and (GASP!) a woman doctor! blast off for Venus. Suddenly there is an unexpected meteor shower - didn't these people ever see any crappy old SF films? - there is ALWAYS a sudden unexpected meteor shower. One of the crew goes outside to fix something before they hit an even bigger slightly more expected meteor shower. He fixes it (apparently by letting off a fire-extinguisher in its general direction) they swerve at the last moment and aren't doomed any more.
This whole sequence is deathly dull. One of the most boring unexpected meteor shower scenes ever.
After 45 days in space (sick to the back teeth with chocolate smoothies) and just three days away from Venus they decipher the rest of the message which basically says "All your base are belong to us - Mwahahahaha!"
EEK! Dilemma! Go on? or go back and warn Earth?
They grimly go on. One of the crew goes ahead to scout for a good landing site. He looses radio contact. He lands. He gets out to go for a walk and falls down a hole where he is attacked by metal insects. (Note: "Attacked" in this context means a Not Very Special Effects guy up a stepladder bounces some totally non-scary kid's toys on thin elastic in front of the camera.) His scout ship explodes. The big ship nearly lands on top of him. Everyone meets up.
"Look, your ship exploded because you parked it on top of that buried power cable."
"It didn't say anything about not parking near power cables in the manual. Who do I sue?"
They follow the power cable. It leads to a strange, ginormous glowing ball.
They follow it the other way. It leads to a strange, ginormous underground control centre place - an entire planet to land on and they arrive at the Venusian's High command's secret underground bunker...! Nice one! Suddenly they are attacked by a bezzillion tons of malevolent black porridge which chases them up a spiral ramp. Trapped at the top, one of them pulls out his disintegrator ray and fires. The porridge runs away but things start happening. Lightening flashes. The strange, ginormous glowing ball turns red and gravity starts getting stronger! The spaceship can't take off! Everyone rushes back to the spaceship where they sit around and talk for ages. The cute robot goes berserk (well, rolls backwards and forwards a bit) and (God knows how) manages somehow to seriously injure someone.
The most Asian member of the crew remembers he caught a glimpse of a control panel down the bottom of a very deep hole back at the Secret Bunker and is convinced he can reverse the process. He sets off with the only black member of the crew and lowers HIM down the very deep hole for some reason, before getting a puncture in his space suit and dying.
Suddenly (again for no explained reason) the whole process goes into reverse. Gravity reverses. "Energy is being converted into mass!" Now they are struggling to keep the ship on the ground! They fail. They are flung into space leaving the black guy, and someone who went off to rescue him behind. They go home. Sombrely they step from the ship and make little speeches. Big Shiny Haired scientist is reunited with someone who was cut out of the earlier part of the film. The Lady doctor consoles someone else who was cut out of the earlier part of the film. I wonder who they were because we had seen neither of them before.
The original 130-minute version may well have been great but its 93-minute American version is just rubbish.