Surviving extreme conditions: a cinematic guide

The theme for this week's batch of movies (which we actually watched several weeks back): survival in extreme conditions. In all three films, characters needed to acquire special gear in order to withstand the challenges of some harsh, unforgiving, or otherwise alien environment.

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Purple Death From Outer Space

Grade: C-

This heavily edited, retitled version of Flash Gordon Conquers the Universe was put together for TV in 1966, more than a quarter-century after the original came out. In the process it lost much of whatever coherence was there to begin with, but retains a certain degree of goofy enthusiasm, as well as an appealing visual style that freely mixes the impressive with the totally half-assed. (That applies to the sound design, too: we got a big laugh out of the hilariously feminine shriek they use when people fall down Ming's bottomless pit.)

Still, despite a wealth of dimestore rockets, lumbering self-detonating robots, and crackling death rays, it all feels a bit empty and slapdash: characters come and go, problems are posed and solved, and there's no real reason to care. Perhaps the complete serial would be more rewarding.

The extreme condition: the frozen wastelands of Frigia, in search of polarite

The path to survival: Prof. Zarkov's special "contra-freeze" spray-on formula

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Attack Of The Giant Leeches

Grade: C

Much has been written about this Roger Corman cheapie, so we'll keep it quick. Arguably more of a Southern gothic soap opera than a monster movie, its assets include sleepy bayou ambience and better-than-average characterizations. Add to this a helping of brazen adultery, as practiced by Ms. Yvette Vickers -- Playboy's Playmate of the Month in July 1959 -- who apparently took up residence in Stephen King's fantasy life shortly thereafter.

All these things may win you over, or not; most viewers will either fall into the "slow, but thoughtful, atmospheric and pleasantly offbeat" camp with P., or the "it's not quite good enough to be good, not quite bad enough to be good" camp with K.

The extreme condition: taking on the titular leech-man in his home environment, underwater

The path to survival: scuba gear, a spear gun, and a generous helping of dynamite

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Radio Ranch

Grade: B-

This feature-length version of The Phantom Empire was easily the most entertaining of all the condensed serials we've watched so far, and doesn't seem to have suffered much at all from the editing process. Neither of us had ever really seen Gene Autry before, and it's amusing to compare our modern archetype of the cowboy with his clean-shaven, almost feminine look.

The plot to Radio Ranch is completely loopy, which is of course one of its biggest assets; see here for a decent summary. None of the performances are anything to write home about, but they don't get in the way of the movie, with the possible exception of Betsy Ross King, whose portrayal of Betsy Baxter (the main girl among the Junior Thunder Riders) is strident at best, grating at worst. She makes up for it, though, with some fancy trick riding -- indeed, there's a lot of impressive horseplay in Radio Ranch.

The costume and set design are intermittently wonderful. As the link above says, the matte painting is well done, the special effects reasonably special, and the robots are totally cute. Whoever edited this did a nice job, all told -- things move at a good clip throughout, and there were only one or two places where we felt unsure about what exactly was going on.

The extreme condition: the subterranean domain of Murania, miles below the surface of the earth

The path to survival: actually, Gene did fine down there. It was the Muranians who couldn't handle our air, and needed special breathing apparatus. We're so extreme!