Doomsday Machine (Cinematic Titanic)

Film Year:  1972 (filmed in 1967)
Genre:  Science Fiction
Director:  Herbert J. Leder, Harry Hope, Lee Sholem
Starring:  Denny Miller, Ruta Lee, Grant Williams, Mala Powers, Henry Wilcoxon, Bobby Van, Lorri Scott
CT Number:  2

The Movie

The roster for a spaceship to Venus is shaken up at the last minute as three women replace several crewmembers on what was meant to be an all-male mission.  Despite protests that sex will be a distraction from the mission (because these lady scientists are young, pretty, and fertile), the group is immediately launched into space.  Once there they find that the world has exploded, as the Chinese government has set off a stolen doomsday machine because killing off the entire human race benefits them because of...reasons.  They then discover the group was chosen to repopulate the human race on the planet of Venus, but soon...the unthinkable happens......................

.............the budget runs out!  Then several years later they scrounge up some money, hastily film an ending to the movie without the original actors, add some stock footage to make it more coherent, and release the movie for a buck.

The movie is just as good as it sounds.

And I wouldn't have it any other way.

Doomsday Machine is a disaster, but boy is it a glorious one.  First of all, the movie has a halfway interesting premise, one that it tries to coast on.  It would work better if it wasn't cheap as hell, but there's something a little charismatic about its bottom-of-the-barrel state as is.  Nothing in the movie from a production standpoint is convincing, and I'm not sure if that's because they had intended to film special effects or if they always intended on stock footage and the like, but it is very choppy and unconvincing.

This isn't even taking into account the ending, which features two characters in space suits who are clearly not the same actors they're supposed to be, slowly walking around and padding out the film until is stumbles upon something that might be able to pass for an ending.  This final scene is punishing and brutal.  I really would have liked to have seen what the original ending to this movie was meant to be, because I feel like I have an idea but it's frustrating.  The movie doesn't reach a destination, it just stops.

That said, there are a few neat ideas the movie bounces around.  Some of the dramatic interaction about these seven souls discovering they're the last of their race is pretty interesting.  Everyone seems to react a different way:  some with hope, others almost defeated, and some with rage.  There's a premise here, but they didn't have the resources to pull it off.  I can't find it in my heart to hate this movie because of that, and I do wish it had a far better production than it did.

The Riff

As the Titans enter the theater in their second riff we get a glimpse as what might have been the premise behind Cinematic Titanic, though it's debatable that it needed one at all.  Apparently our group is being kept at some sort of facility that's using them to somehow preserve the crummy movies they watch for future generations.  It doesn't have a lot of depth to it, but they never really tried to flesh it out either.  They would dump it and favor live shows in about two years.

There's a bit of an aesthetic change as well, as the Titan podiums are a tad smaller, showing off a bit more of the movie.    Joel is no longer sitting down, opting to stand like J. Elvis and Trace.  He also has a fancy little stand that nobody else is sporting, though he'd switch it up with a similar railing to J. Elvis and Trace in about three releases.

As a riff, Doomsday Machine is probably my favorite of the Cinematic Titanic releases.  Some of this has to do with the fact that I actually like the movie, but for the most part the riffing is pretty strong.  They kid this movie akin to a soap opera, as they note the innuendos, sexism, and the pairing up of the various couples, leading to violence and backstabbing and people being blown out of airlocks...okay, maybe it's not quite a soap opera. The cheap production values are mocked gleefully, with the Titans constantly noting the fake cuts to people getting out of a phony hatch in the floor.  The hasty tacked-on ending doesn't go by unnoticed either, as they riff on the replaced actors and the slow pacing ("It's like watching someone else watch "Manos" The Hands of Fate!").  Overall, mocking this movie is pretty much child's play, because it's a high concept idea that's done so ambitiously simplistic and a lot of the riffs target just how lackluster the production is as a whole.

One of my favorite host segments from Cinematic Titanic happens in this release, where Mary Jo leads a discussion on which ones would have to survive in a post apocalyptic scenario.  Frank's overreaction to a hypothetical question really helps make this segment soar.  Mary Jo claims she'd have to survive because she's the only woman, causing Frank to ask if she intends to have kids with her responding "Hell no!," with Frank's response in turn being "Then GET BACK IN LINE, sister!"  The other segment is nothing much, as Trace tries to make a statement only to be interrupted by Joel's constant messages of "The movie will start in __ seconds!"

Doomsday Machine is really the most fun I've had with a Cinematic Titanic release, with the silly as fuck movie and some pretty solid riffing.  It's probably the most accessible entry for a newbie to the group, and it comes quite highly recommended from me.

Classic

The DVD

Like all Cinematic Titanic releases, Doomsday Machine was initially released on DVD through Cinematic Titanic's website.  Audio and video were good, and there were no bonus features.  The riff was latter re-released on Shout Factory's Complete Collection set, also with good audio and video.  It shares a disc with the preceding show, The Oozing Skull, and it features an interview with J. Elvis Weinstein on the rise and fall of Cinematic Titanic.