Sunday, June 23, 2013

Atomic Rulers (1964)

this was the only Starman movie I saw on TV growing up.  even after seeing the clips from EVIL BRAIN FROM OUTER SPACE in IT CAME FROM HOLLYWOOD (and that movie said they were from ATOMIC RULERS anyway) I didn't know there were three more movies.  it was listed in the paper as ATOMIC RULERS "OF THE WORLD" and is still talked about that way.  wonder where it got the second part of the name, since it appears on the title card just like you see it.
this has to be my favorite movie of the four,  and I strongly suspect that it's because it's the one I saw growing up.

 either way it's a great name.  here's the Emerald Planet in the Marpet Galaxy.  they send Starman to stop the potential radioactive waste of space from Earth.  that's a lot of radiation.
I really want one of these globe meters.  the movie is so full of striking images that I remembered most of them from the one or two times I saw it until I saw it again on tape in the late 80s.
I'm still surprised at how brutal Starman is to his foes.  he throws the henchmen around like rag dolls, and doesn't seem to care if they are seriously injured or not.  he reminds me of Superman early on in his career.  he was rather brutal for the first year or so.  throwing around a ton of henchmen is something that all heroes should get to do, it's fun to watch.
 Starman also has a few poses he goes into now and then.  it looks like does a lot of his own stunts, which wouldn't surprise me since they didn't have a lot of money for these movies.  he doesn't do anything too dangerous but I bet more than one stuntman suffered injuries on the set.
the evil Meropolians suffer a tremendous defeat.  there's a great shot early on in the movie of Starman bending a gun in half.  this movie is cool.  they probably should have given him some kind of weakness so he wasn't SO invincible though.

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