Voyage to the Prehistoric Planet (1965) Director: Curtis Harrington (credited as John Sebastian) Studio: American International Pictures (AIP) Starring: Basil Rathbone, Faith Domergue, Richard Weber, Marc Shannon, John Bix Release Date: 1965 (U.S. release) Runtime: 78 minutes Format: Color, sound (English-dubbed) Country: United States (adapted from Soviet production) Language: English (dubbed) Genres: Science Fiction | Adventure Summary: In the year 2020, an international space expedition travels to Venus in search of new worlds to colonize. When one spacecraft crashes, the surviving astronauts fight to survive amid Venus’s hostile landscapes—complete with prehistoric creatures, violent storms, and treacherous terrain. Guided remotely by Professor Hartman back on Earth, the explorers push forward, facing dangers that test their ingenuity, bravery, and endurance. Background: Voyage to the Prehistoric Planet was produced by Roger Corman’s American International Pictures using extensive footage from the 1962 Soviet sci-fi film Planet of Storms (Planeta Bur). To adapt it for U.S. audiences, director Curtis Harrington shot new scenes with Basil Rathbone and Faith Domergue and inserted them into the Soviet material, dubbing the original Russian performances into English. This practice of re-editing foreign films into “new” American productions was common for AIP during the 1960s. Trivia: Basil Rathbone filmed all of his scenes in just one day. Curtis Harrington was so dissatisfied with having to disguise his work that he used the pseudonym John Sebastian. A year later, much of the same Soviet footage was reused again in another AIP release, Voyage to the Planet of Prehistoric Women (1968), directed by Peter Bogdanovich. The film is now in the public domain and is widely available online. Hashtags: #VoyageToThePrehistoricPlanet #CurtisHarrington #RogerCorman #BasilRathbone #FaithDomergue #1960sSciFi #PublicDomainFilm #SovietSciFi