Voyage to the Prehistoric Planet

Voyage to the Prehistoric Planet (1965), producer Roger Corman's American re-edit of the Soviet-made Planet of Storms, comes to DVD from Alpha Video in a surprisingly decent, though unexceptional transfer. The source materials are a bit redded out in certain shots, or slightly soft-focused at times, but the movie looks about as good here as it has on television broadcasts. The Soviet-shot footage shows more blemishes and a color shift toward either green or red, depending upon the shot, compared with the American-filmed scenes involving Basil Rathbone and Faith Domergue -- the latter are often washed out, but their color is more even. And in those shots where the telecine operator was paying more attention, and the materials have held up, some of the footage of Domergue is attractive. The sound has been mastered at a decent volume level, giving full play to Ronald Stein's score (which borrows liberally from his music from Attack of the 50 Foot Woman, among other sources) as well as the dialogue and sound effects. The movie gets Alpha Video's usual six chapters, which are adequate.