Voyage to the Planet of Prehistoric Women

Voyage to the Planet of Prehistoric Women – despite it’s title, really isn’t that bad of a cheesy monster movie. It deals with a rescue mission to Venus, to rescue the first expedition there. Unlike the uninhabitable planet that they should expect, the astronauts discovers that it’s inhabited by prehistoric creatures. These include man-eating plants, and rubbery dinosaurs. What they don’t know, but the audience does, is that a race of beautiful, telepathic women live there, too. And they’re angry …

Review

It should be said that Voyage to the Planet of Prehistoric Women really isn’t that bad, all things considered. It’s a hodgepodge of footage from a Soviet science fiction movie, mixing in new footage. The result is a surprisingly enjoyable B-movie. But, clearly a cheesy monster movie.

There are two different groups of people: the astronauts, broken into two groups, and the lovely Venusian women. They never directly interact.

Astronauts

The astronauts are broken into two groups: the original expedition, complete with “Robot John”, and the rescue party.

Venusian Women

A group of lovely human women, wearing seashell bikini tops and leggings that make them look like mermaids when they’re underwater. And, the underwater cinematography is lovely. Led by Mamie Van Doren, as Moana. No relation to the Disney Princess. 🙂 They’re telepathic, and somehow in tune with nature …. To the point of being able to get the volcano to erupt, in an attempt to kill the astronauts. Since they “murdered” the Venusian’s “god”.

Other alien life forms

• The rubbery, fake, tentacled plant monster.
• The rubbery, fake, flying lizard. The Venusian women’s “god”, Tara. Terra? However its spelled. It attacks the rescue party as they’re driving in their vehicle, looking for the missing astronauts. And, rather than escaping, or submersing the vehicle (which they do afterward), they kill it. Causing the conflict.

Thoughts

• A boring 20 minutes introduction, talking about various space craft under development at the time.
• Where are the Venusian men?
• How does the astronaut survive the poisonous Venusian atmosphere, when Robot John opens his helmet to give him a pill?
• How does poor Robot John feel about become the Venusian’s new pagan idol? Not that he’s still functional …

Cast

• Mamie Van Doren (The Navy vs. the Night Monsters) … Moana. The leader of the Venusian women.
• Mary Marr … Verba
• Paige Lee … Twyla
• Gennadi Vernov … Astronaut Andre Freneau (archive footage)
• Margot Hartman … Mayaway
• Irene Orton … Meriama
• Pam Helton … Wearie
• Frankie Smith … Woman of Venus
• Georgiy Teykh … Capt. Alfred Kern
• Judy Cowart … Woman of Venus
• Vladimir Yemelyanov … Cmdr. William ‘Billy’ Lockhart (archive footage)
• Robin Smith … Woman of Venus
• Cathie Reimer … Woman of Venus
• Yuriy Sarantsev … Astronaut Howard Sherman (archive footage)
• Georgi Zhzhyonov … Astronaut Hans Walters (archive footage)
• Adele Valentine … Woman of Venus
• Peter Bogdanovich (The Great Buster, The Cat’s Meow) … Narrator (voice)

Editorial review of Voyage to the Planet of Prehistoric Women

Roger Corman gave director Bogdanovich a big break when he let him construct this film around special effects sequences from a Soviet sci-fi film called “”Planeta Burg”” (see Foreign Films). Mamie Van Doren is the clamshell-clad queen of alien cavegirls who greet a crew of tongue-dragging astronauts very happy to see her after their long journey.