The Bamboo Saucer 1968 Download
Maryetta Worm
The Bamboo Saucer is a independently made 1968 Cold War science fiction film drama about competing American and Russian teams that discover a flying saucer in Communist China.[1] The film was re-released in 1969 under the title Collision Course with an edited down runtime of 90 minutes.
Test pilot Fred Norwood (John Ericson) is flying the experimental X-109 (actually an U.S. Airforce Lockheed F-104 Starfighter jet aircraft accompanied by a chase plane (another F-104). During the flight testing, Norwood finds himself pursued by a flying saucer and believes he has to engage in a series of tricky aerobatics to protect himself. The ace pilot amazingly pulls out of a dive at Mach 3.12 (2,320.00 MPH, 3,402 Ft. per Second from 30,000 Feet), and Fred and the "experimental" X-109 plane fortunately survive the wild flight.
Fred Norwood finds himself summoned to Washington D.C. to meet with Hank Peters (Dan Duryea), a member of an influential, unnamed agency of the United States Government. Hank Peters believes Fred Norwood's account and shows him a sketch that Fred identifies as the same kind of blue saucer that buzzed the, I mean X-109. Peters tells Norwood that the sketch was provided from intelligence sources based in Red China. Because of Fred's familiarity with a variety of aircraft, he is asked to accompany Peters and two scientists who will be parachuted into Red China. Peters informs Fred that there are reliable sources that report the two humanoid aliens in the saucer died, likely from exposure to Earth bacteria; and due to rapid deterioration, their bodies were reported as cremated by Chinese peasants.
At the Chinese drop zone, they are met by American agent Sam Archibald (James Hong) who leads them to the saucer now hidden inside the ruins of a Catholic church. Due to the Communists having destroyed the church, the upset locals assist the Americans in any way possible. On traveling to their destination while evading units of the People's Liberation Army, they run across a party of Russian scientists led by their own version of Agent Hank Peters, Comrade Zagorsky Vincent Beck. Among the group of 4 Russians is scientist Anna Karachev Lois Nettleton (Miss Chicago of 1948). After some tense moments the two competing parties begrudgingly decide to cooperate in investigating the hidden saucer.
Soon they are discovered by The Chinese Army, and after a wild firefight when 2 Russians and 2 Americans and 1 Chinese (all 5 are eventually killed) stand off the Chinese Army, killing at least 61 Chinese soldiers, the three survivors in the flying saucer... 2 Americans (Ericson and Hastings) and one of the Russian scientists (Lois Nettleton) board the saucer, activate it, take off, and fly out of Chinese airspace. A pre-programmed autopilot course instantly takes control and flies them away from Earth past the Moon, past Mars, and on a collision course with Saturn. Unable to return unless they work together to control the alien UFO, they are finally successful and able return to Earth in less than a minute. The trio decides to land in Geneva, Switzerland. Then a quote from President John F. Kennedy about mutual human cooperation in space flashes on screen.
Fairbanks persevered and had a collaborator, Frank Telford, rewrite the screenplay by Alford "Rip" Van Ronkel and special effects man John P. Fulton with Telford directing the film in 1966.[4] Fairbanks contacted the office of the United States Secretary of Defense about his screenplay. In a April 12, 1966 reply, the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense informed Fairbanks that they had a "negative reaction" to Project Saucer. They recommended that the screenplay delete any reference to the CIA, saying it would not be appropriate to place one of their operatives in the fictionalized situation. Furthermore, the flying saucer investigation was not factually set up; the Air Force's General was an unnecessarily uncomplimentary character and would not act as he does in the screenplay; it was also not clear just what part the Air Force played in the aircraft testing; any one of the aircraft manufacturers could clarify the film's opening sequence; finally, the Air Force should not be utilized or included in the air drop inside Chinese air space[5]
During the flight testing of an experimental jet plane, test pilot Fred Norwood (John Ericson) is pursued by a flying saucer and has to engage in a tricky series of aerobatics to protect his plane. Once on the ground Norwood is informed that radar picked up no other craft near him. His superiors who monitored his vital signs think he had a series of hallucinations and order him off the project.
A real turnip of a sci-fi thriller, 1968's The Bamboo Saucer is a wild title to see show up on Blu-ray. More or less out of reach for decades, it spent most of its life putting insomniacs to sleep between car commercials on the Late-Late show. In other words, genre addicts will flock to Olive Films' new release. Just last year Olive gave the egregiously incompetent Fire Maidens of Outer Space a glorious HD release as well. Is this a great country or what?
The Bamboo Saucer was made by industry veterans taking a shot at a feature film -- producer Jerry Fairbanks had been making short subjects, often science-oriented, since the early 1930s. Writer-director Jack Telford was a prolific TV producer. They had the connections to round up some names for the cast and to secure good technical help. Co-writer Rip Van Ronkel had contributed to the original Destination Moon. Optical expert John Fulton also received story credit, while ace cameraman Hal Mohr had been filming since before the Titanic went down. This is the last or near last movie for several notables on the credits. Great actor Dan Duryea died before the film's 1968 opening, but evidence suggests that the actual shooting had taken place as early as two years before.
The awkwardly structured story begins as one kind of movie, changes to another, and finishes up as a third. Discredited for claiming to have barely survived an aerial game of tag with a flying saucer, test pilot Fred Norwood (John Ericson) tries to clear his name by searching for UFOs over the Nevada skies. When a fellow pilot is killed chasing a bogie, Federal Intelligence agent Hank Peters (Dan Duryea) uses Fred's description to confirm reports of a saucer found by peasants in a remote corner of Red China. The alien inhabitants reportedly died of Earthly infections, and were cremated. John, Hank and two scientists parachute into Red territory to locate the saucer and secure its technological secrets for the America. Chinese guide Sam Archibald (James Hong) leads the way, until the group runs into a rival Russian expedition with the same mission. Military leader Dubovsky (Rico Cattani) and Hank immediately face off along predictable nationalist lines, but Fred and beautiful Russian engineer Anna Karachev (Lois Nettleton of Mail Order Bride) immediately hit it off. The saucer is hidden in a lonely building in a valley. While Sam's men picket the hills for Red Chinese patrols, the assembled scientists decide to work together to figure out how to enter the saucer and make it function. Fred and Anna find time to help a Chinese peasant take care of her sick baby. After a Russian kills himself trying to activate the ship on his own, Fred and Anna work out the complex controls and overcome some tricky conceptual problems. Running out of patience, Dubovsky attempts to take over the joint expedition at gunpoint.
The Bamboo Saucer has a great many special effects shots. They're ambitious, fairly well designed, and for the most part completely inadequate. John P. Fulton had become an industry legend for devising complex, groundbreaking effects in classics like The Invisible Man. This show sees him brought low by budgetary limitations. In the opening, a flying saucer is crudely matted over stock shots of an F-104 jet fighter. Not only are the stock shots faded and scratchy, the bright blue saucer is a poor fit for its own holdout matte, and never looks like real part of the image. In fact, it looks like a perspective-challenged blue mistake -- not even the sound effects can save it.
A partial saucer mockup is used for much of the film's long middle section with the actors, but wide shots in the saucer's "hangar" building are also matte composites, with wonky color and unstable matte lines. Effects fabricator Glen Robinson's saucer model moves well when it hovers and when its landing gear fold up. Yet it always looks pasted-in. It is possible that the saucer color was thrown off to dark blue, just so that it would stay consistent throughout the film. The live-action mockup saucer is a gray metal color.
The interior of the alien saucer is really quite amusing -- its panels of buttons and lights look like Hollywood designs for a human-piloted ship. The saucer has a very nicely done doorway in its unbroken outer skin -- an iris that opens and closes with (for once) a nicely animated matte.
In this age of digital work, the cheapest home computer program can mock up a better-looking saucer in only a few hours. A pro digital effects shop would be trying to complicate the shots, just to make them more interesting. The Bamboo Saucer's final composites now resemble sloppy pre-production animatics. It's not difficult to visualize today's artists at work stations blending the saucers into the scenes, matching textures and creating lighting effects to make it all seem like one shot. The dirt on those stock shots would disappear, shadows would be added, light flares as the sunlight bounced off the shiny saucer's surface... meanwhile, we're watching the best that could be done with a bare-bones budget that didn't allow for fine-tuning the work. It's also very possible that Fulton didn't live long enough to personally supervise the film's lab work - he passed away in 1966.
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