"Planet of Storms" by Pavel Klushantsev: a space Soviet film

The subject of space has always excited mankind. To this day, the best minds of our time argue about whether it is possible to meet living things on planets scattered across the Milky Way. About how science fiction film Production USSR became a pioneer in the genre of catastrophe films long before Stanley Kubrick read in our article.

About Klushantsev's film Planet of Storms 

"Storm Planet." was the first Soviet film devoted to space themes. The film was produced in 1961, and its premiere took place a year after a landmark event: the flight of the first man into space. This man was, as everyone knows, a Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Alexeyevich Gagarinwho flew into space on the rocket carrier "Vostok" on 12 April 1961. And on 14 April 1962 the film was shown.

The method used in the film combination shootingwhich was far ahead of the Soviet technology of the time. Absolutely everything depicted in the film - from dinosaur-like creatures to spaceships in space - was made on the editor's desk using technology developed by Klushantsev's group.

Originally directed by Pavel Klushantsev in 1957 made a film called "The Road to the Stars", but as the space boom had not yet arrived, the director had to create his own model rockets based on the blueprints of the scientist Tsiolkovsky. After the success of The Road to the Stars, the Soviet film director decided to combine in his next film fiction and novel discoveries of Soviet cosmonautics. This is how the film Planet of Storms, based on Alexander Kazantsev's story "The Grandchildren of Mars" or "Storm Planet.".

A little bit about the plot

There is a touching insertion at the beginning of the film that communicates the possible unreliability of the material collected for the film, but this explanatory shot expresses the hope for success of the Soviet people who will one day see the planet of storms.

According to the story, the planet Venus a joint Soviet-American expedition is sent out. There are a total of three spacecraft in space, one of which, the Capella, fails to survive a collision with a meteor; three spacecraft are required to complete the mission, but waiting for another one takes a long time, so the crews of the Sirius and Vega decide to on landing on Venus.

The glider needed to land the Sirius sets a marker for landing, but loses contact and crash lands. The Sirius crew, meanwhile, explores the planet, where they discover dinosaursas well as Earth-like ocean. The astronauts constantly hear a strange howl, similar to a human's, and are lost in speculation as to how all that is on Venus is possible. Their reasoning is accompanied by musings about space and the living life other than humans that inhabits space.

After a series of mishaps, crew member Masha, left alone in orbit and having lost contact with the crews, is faced with a difficult choice: to follow her instructions or her heart. The girl's decision depends on crew fate.

What's the difference from a novella

As mentioned earlier, the film was made based on the novel by Alexander Kazantsev. It is worth mentioning that the director had to ask the author to change the story a little so that the film could be released without any problems. The book has three different editions; the story was first published in "Komsomolskaya Pravda" 1959.

The film and the novella have some differences, such as:

1. The presence in the story on the ship cats and dogs named Murka and Pulka. The offspring of the first appeared directly in space.
2. Also in the book, the Americans have a separate shuttle and explore Venus separately from the Soviet crew, whereas in the film, of the Americans only Allan Kernas well as Robot Johnwho go exploring with a Soviet cosmonaut.
3. In the film, unlike in the story, the plot suggests that there are no obstacles for the crew to dive to the bottom of the ocean, while the in the first edition of the book, the crew was caught in a storm, which caused a huge size dragonwho was later killed.

Facts about the film

As with all cinema that becomes groundbreaking in any genre, Planet of Storms is characterised by some interesting facts.

One of them has already been mentioned above: for this film, the innovations of cinematography were used - the combination shooting. This approach to filmmaking was ahead of even the Western film industry at the time.

Robot John was played by a Soviet athlete Boris Prutkovsky. It turned out that the usual actor was unable to lift the heavy metal suit, so a sambo wrestler and a wrestler were brought in for the role, however, and the athlete move long in that couldn't.

Klushantsev's film generated a powerful response: it had a huge impact on the country's film industry and was recognised as a important step in world cinema.

Six years after Planet of Storms premiered in the U.S., the film was released in the U.S. "Journey to the Planet of Prehistoric Women." - a remounted version of Klushantsev's film. Pitre Bogdanovich, under the pseudonym Derek Thomas, directed this version.