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Alpha Home Video |
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Manufacturer: |
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CRASH OF THE MOONS
(1954 NBC Television, feature length edit of 4 episodes)
MENACE FROM OUTER SPACE
(1953 NBC Television, feature length edit of 4 episodes)
Director: Hollingsworth Morse
Starring: Richard Crane, Sally Mansfield, Scotty Beckett, Robert Lynden, and Maurice Crass
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The 1950s.....when space travel was so much simpler..... |
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...between the exploits of television sci-fi heroes such as Flash Gordon and Captain Video, along with the subject of our Cheap-Ass Report this go around, Rocky Jones, Space Ranger, the spaceways seemed to have been pretty much clogged with crafts of other-worldly origin.
I've always really dug this type of cheesey, retro-science fiction. Maybe it's the fact that you don't really have to think very hard about it, if yer willing to just accept the psuedo-scientific terms and jargon the characters use. Maybe it's the low budget look and atmosphere of these shows that keeps bringing me back....they certainly lend themselves to a ton of unintentional humor. The performances themselves are chock full of dead-pan seriousness, as if the actors were not involved with a kiddie adventure show, but instead with some Shakespearean melodrama.... |
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No...that's not it. I think it's because Crane as Rocky Jones represents something hardly found in today's science fiction media: a genuinely trust-worthy, honest hero who actually has no blemishes. It's hard to believe that there was a time in America's history in which children retreated into fantasy worlds of sci-fi searching for HEROES, men they could look up to and aspire to be like. Sure, they seem hokey and corny by today's standards, but it was a more innocent time...at least for the blissfully ignorant masses of that era's youth. |
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Yes...in these times, Rocky Jones is somewhat of an oddity because of the fact that he's not an ANTI-HERO, a flawed piece of work. Can one truly think of the last time we saw this in science fiction television, or better yet, films? Think of some of the more popular and acclaimed entries into the genre over the last few years? Bladerunner? Rick Deckard has a head full of problems. Star Wars? Well...the classic trilogy had Luke and Han...a kid constantly haunted by the sins of the father and a loveable smuggler...a criminal with a past. The current trilogy? Well...we all know how Anakin turns out, even if he is redeemed in the end. Pitch Black? Jesus..Riddick's a friggin' killer...
And the sad thing is, I've just mentioned a few of my favorites.
Sometimes I think we all would be somewhat better if we had more simpler heroes. Maybe the flawed ones are easier to identify with, sure....but whatever happened to the days when we aspired to be something?
It reminds of something I constantly tell people when they ask me why I have no interest in professional sports anymore (I was an avid baseball player and fan as a kid): Whenever I look at the sports page in the newspaper, I no longer see great things. Drug scandals, sexual and spousal abuse charges, domestic violence, money, money, money....
If I wanted to be depressed, I'd read the front page of the paper instead. |
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Anyways, as always, Alpha Home Video's |
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discs are the bomb, as I've |
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said before. Considering the stuff they had to make transfers from and all. And the price is right also (I paid 7.99 retail apiece for both discs). For more fun with Rocky and other retro science fiction heroes of his like, just click on the banner at right and visit GRAND CENTRAL ROCKET, a fun site dedicated to 50s sci-fi. You won't regret it, and tell 'em HKC-Space Cowboy*, sent ya.....
* see what too many Steve Miller band albums will do to ya, kids?
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