This is an apparently Soviet-Bloc (from East Germany and Poland) film that has been dubbed into English. How much of the original story is preserved is unknown. Several similar films were re-dubbed during the 1960s and the efforts were, to put it mildly, very sad. But it's easy to tell its Communist origins--dig those crazy Commie hairdos so popular in the 1960s! This film begins with a scientist announcing that a famous meteorite that struck Siberia and laid waste to so much of it in 1906 was actually a Venusian space ship! Because of this, he urged the international space effort to change their plan to visit Mars and go to Venus instead—who cares about the extremely high temperatures and metal-smashing atmosphere (two facts never mentioned in this film). In fact, who cares that in this film there is no zero gravity in space, rockets decelerate when the engines are cut in space (space is a vacuum or near-vacuum—deceleration does not occur in this state), people are thrown about the ship as it steers and other "facts" that are contradicted by the laws of physics! Once the ship nears the planet, one of the crew members figures out the Venusian language and realizes that these people were planning on attacking the Earth and wiping out everyone. Now their goal is to reach those in charge on Venus and convince them not to attack. However, various radioactive attacks are launched on the team once they near the planet and things look pretty bad for the Earth. And, when they finally are able to penetrate the planet's defenses, a surprising thing is learned about the Venusians themselves.
The film looks extremely primitive today, but when it debuted its special effects and costumes were actually quite advanced. With 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY and subsequent sci-fi films, we've come to expect a much higher level of sophistication in the look of space travel but if you look at the film in context, it was well done. My biggest problem isn't the effects but the last 25 minutes of the film—when it just becomes incredibly talky. Again and again, the characters just go on and on and on as well as come up with amazingly uncanny conclusions about Venus—things they could have only gotten by reading the script! This made the film a bit of a letdown towards the end, but still, I have seen worse sci-fi films and the dubbing was actually pretty good. Worth seeing for sci-fi fans, though most others probably won't be that impressed today.
The film looks extremely primitive today, but when it debuted its special effects and costumes were actually quite advanced. With 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY and subsequent sci-fi films, we've come to expect a much higher level of sophistication in the look of space travel but if you look at the film in context, it was well done. My biggest problem isn't the effects but the last 25 minutes of the film—when it just becomes incredibly talky. Again and again, the characters just go on and on and on as well as come up with amazingly uncanny conclusions about Venus—things they could have only gotten by reading the script! This made the film a bit of a letdown towards the end, but still, I have seen worse sci-fi films and the dubbing was actually pretty good. Worth seeing for sci-fi fans, though most others probably won't be that impressed today.