Doomsday Machine

1972 Science Fiction 83 minutes Directed by Lee Sholem

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About Doomsday Machine

A spy finds a Chinese device that will destroy the Earth in 72 hours. The United States rushes the Astra mission to Venus and replaces half the male crew with women. After launch the crew learn they are supposed to restart humanity if the planet dies. The device fires. Earth is gone. Mason attacks Carlson. Both are ejected through an airlock. Danny and Major Bronski, lost while repairing a fault, board a derelict Soviet craft. A Venusian voice tells the survivors that Astra is destroyed and that their ship will not be allowed to land, then sends them somewhere beyond the universe.

Cast & crew

More about Doomsday Machine

Herbert J. Leder started the film in 1967. Shooting stopped, reportedly for lack of money, and the footage sat. In 1972 Harry Hope and Lee Sholem finished it without the original cast, costumes, or sets. Stuart J. Byrne wrote it. Stanley Cortez photographed the 1967 material. Also sold on video as Escape from Planet Earth. A cut runs 83 minutes.

Themes

  • A 72-hour weapon
  • A crew chosen to outlive Earth
  • An ending shot years later
  • Venus
  • doomsday device
  • Astra
  • 1967 production
  • 1972 release

Background

Started in 1967 as a Venus survival picture and released in 1972, after the moon landings, with an ending the first cast never played.

Making

The original company never finished the ending. The 1972 unit invented one with helmets that hide the fact that the 1967 actors were gone.

Look

Stanley Cortez shot the 1967 footage. The 1972 additions do not match his material in costume or pace.

Notes

  • Denny Miller, billed as Scott Miller, plays Colonel Don Price. Ruta Lee plays Dr. Marion Turner. Grant Williams plays Major Kurt Mason. Mala Powers plays Major Georgianna Bronski.
  • Bobby Van plays Danny. Henry Wilcoxon plays Dr. Christopher Perry. Casey Kasem plays a mission-control officer. Mike Farrell is a reporter.
  • The 1972 scenes put different suits and opaque helmets on doubles and change the voices.
  • The last stretch, on the Soviet ship, is the padding shot years later.

Scenes

  • Half the crew is swapped for women once the device is known.
  • Mason and Carlson go out the airlock.
  • A voice refuses the survivors a landing on Venus.

Also available

  • Internet Archive (DoomsdayMachine1972)