8mm Forum: Saturn 3. 400ft Colour Sound Walton Agfa Print

This is topic Saturn 3. 400ft Colour Sound Walton Agfa Print in forum 8mm Print Reviews at 8mm Forum.

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Posted by Tom Photiou (Member # 130) on October 02, 2017, 03:17 PM:

A fairly good edit from Walton of this sci fi movie starring Kirk Douglas and Farah Fawcett. This print on agfa stock has as always held its colours very well and with good sharp image and good sound quality this is a pretty good entertaining reel which would be a great opener for any sci fi feature show.
Here is the plot edited to cover this reel, the only criticism i can speak of is, (as is often the case with 400ft cut downs), the very abrupt ending with no original title in sight, only that walton logo.
In the distant future, Captain James is preparing to depart from a space station when he is murdered by Captain Benson (Keitel). Benson, who was marked "Potentially unstable" on a mental exam, steals James's cargo and ship, and departs the station for one of the remote stations, a small experimental hydroponics research station on Saturn's third moon. Arriving there, he finds the station run solely by Adam (Kirk Douglas) and his colleague and lover Alex (Farah Fawcett). Adam,
& Alex enjoy their isolation; the couple have been on Saturn 3 for three years,
Alex and Adam's idyll is broken when Benson reveals his mission is to replace at least one of the moon's scientists with a robot. The robot - named Hector - is one of the first of its kind. With Hector assembled, Benson begins preparing the robot, So connected to Benson, Hector quickly learns of Benson's failure on the test of psychological stability, and also of his murder of James. With little barrier between the robot's brain and Benson's, Hector is soon imprinted with Benson's homicidal nature and his lust for Alex.
Believing the danger over, and unaware of Hector's resurgence, Benson attempts to leave the station, and drag Alex with him. Resuscitated, Hector murders Benson before he can leave with Alex trapping them all on Saturn 3, and assumes control of the station's computer.
Trapped in the control room, Alex and Adam are surprised to see Benson's face on their monitor. The two are directed by a voice they recognize as Benson's to leave the control room, both surprised that Benson is even alive. To their shock, Alex and Adam are confronted by Hector, now wearing Benson's decapitated head.
A short time later, Alex and Adam wake in their own rooms.
Adam destroys the robot, sacrificing himself by detonating explosives hidden on his person.
As already mentioned the quality of this short version is actually very good and probably long enough for this film, it would have had a 10 out 10 score with us if Walton had at least added just a few more feet showing Alex alone after the final scene in this version and then faded to the original end title. This ending tends to leave any audience looking back to the projector and asking "is that it?" So annoying of Walton to have done this to an otherwise excellent abridged version.
Defiantly worth adding to any sci fi collection

Posted by Osi Osgood (Member # 424) on October 03, 2017, 11:56 AM:

Great review. i think that this is one film where a digest treatment is actuaklly better than the film itself.

A funny story about this film. Years ago I lived in boise Idaho, and i would hang out at the local CBS afilliate, as i would play about with the 16MM material, whether commercials and such (this was right when they were switching from 16MM to VHS for thier commercials and they were throwing away all of thier old 16MM (sob) ...

Well, for they're late night movies, they would rent and show 16MM copies of films. One night, they showed "Saturn 3", but what they didn't know, was that the copy they were showing on this CBS station, was the unedited film!!

So, here were those great scenes where we saw Farrah Fawcett, well, um, "exposed". I called my friend in charge of this feature at late night, and he didn't know it. It was funny as well as dangerous, because this wasn't cable TV and nudity was strictly "taboo" at the time (well, this WAS 1984) on broadcast TV.

Anyhow, that was my funny story about "saturn 3"

Posted by Tom Photiou (Member # 130) on October 03, 2017, 01:06 PM:

Osi, I'd like to have seen there faces when it went out. [Big Grin]

Posted by Douglas Meltzer (Member # 28) on October 03, 2017, 08:59 PM:

Tom,

Thanks for the review. I agree with Osi that this digest is infinitely better than the feature. One of Stanley Donen's rare misfires.

Doug

Posted by Tom Photiou (Member # 130) on October 04, 2017, 07:01 AM:

It certainly is Doug, i have seen the feature but have to agree that this works better for me. Whenever a TV series is made as a movie it very rarely works.
Morcombe and Wise here in the UK were one of the biggest and by far the best British TV comedy duo's. they made three feature films, all of them flopped, (although the 400ft version of Riviera touch is quite good, and long enough and also the 4 x 400ft magnificent two is also quite good), both comidians did not enjoy the experience.

[ August 26, 2018, 02:47 PM: Message edited by: Tom Photiou ]

Posted by Bill Phelps (Member # 1431) on October 05, 2017, 04:35 PM:

I must be the odd man out here because I like the feature. I like Kirk Douglas and Harvey Keitel and of course Farrah! I also just acquired the 400' digest over the weekend and was surprised that a review popped up about it. I was told the colors look superb so if Tom's screenshots are any indication then I am very pleased about this purchase.

Bill [Smile]

Posted by Evan Samaras (Member # 5070) on October 05, 2017, 07:43 PM:

I too recently acquired this digest! While mine has great color, the blackest scenes sometime have a hint of purple unfortunately. Tom’s blacks look great!

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