Star Odyssey (1979)

A while ago we cast a critical eye over two Italian Star Wars rip offs, The Humanoid and Starcrash.  While these are undoubtedly the two best known examples of this sub-genre of Italian exploitation cinema, one cannot really leave the subject without mention of the films of Alfonso Brescia.  A prolific director across a number of genres, between 1977 and 1979, under the name Al Bradley, Brescia turned out four space operas, back-to-back.  War of the Planets, Battle of the Stars, War of the Robots and Star Odyssey, shared special effects, costumes, sets, cast members and even plot details.   While the films were undoubtedly designed to cash in on the success of Star Wars, the first three, in particular, owe more to sixties Italian space opera, (like Antonio Margheritis's 'Gamma One' series, which had also consisted of four films shot back-to-back with shared sets and cast - and even includes an entry titled War of the Planets), or even 1930s and 40s cinema serials.  Indeed, it is probable that at the time the first of these films went into production, nobody involved in their making had actually seen Star Wars: as far as Italian film makers were concerned, it was just another successful Hollywood product to imitate - the details didn't matter just so long as it some space bound action, robots and aliens.

Of the four films, Star Odyssey is the one which most breaks the established format.  Moreover, with Star Wars having been on global release for a couple of years by the time it went into production, Brescia and his collaborators had had sufficient time to incorporate some direct references to the US film.  In plot terms, it bears little resemblance to Star Wars and clearly draws some of its inspiration from other popular Italian movie genres, most notably the heist movie sub genre (itself inspired by Hollywood productions like Ocean's Eleven).  Instead, the film presents a futuristic alien invasion story of sorts.  The earth, it seems has been won at an intergalactic auction by evil alien Lord Kel, who intends enslaving the planet's inhabitants.  Earth's space defences prove incapable of stopping his flying saucer, which lands on earth, where Kel and his army of golden androids, start capturing hundreds of Africans and putting them in suspended animation in his saucer.  Apparently powerless to stop Kel, the earth authorities to out-of-favour scientific genius Professor Mauri.  As well as being a genius, the Professor also possesses psychic powers, ('The Force') and has an R2D2 like robot, not to mention a niece who is also both a scientist and one of the film's obligatory hot babes.  In order to defeat Kel, Mauri decides that he has to get his 'old team' back together.  Unfortunately, two of them, (also both brilliant scientists), are in prison on the moon, convicted of some kind of heist, which is also the cause of the Professor's fall from grace.

To spring them, Mauri enlists the help of another former associate, the wonderfully named Dirk Laramie (Gianni Garko - Sartana himself), who also has psychic powers - he can see through cards in poker games, for instance.  His niece, meanwhile, recruits another former associate, Norman, who fights robots for money.  Also roped into the scheme is a hypnotised space fighter pilot, Lt Carrera, (nicknamed 'Hollywood', he is apparently a fan of thirties matinee idols and flounces around, striking poses and standing with his hands on his hips, in imitation of his heroes).  In a diversion seemingly designed purely to pad out the running time, Norman rescues a pair of humanoid robots from a scrapyard, after they had turned themselves off in some kind of suicide pact, (they are equipped with emotions and had been in love, the 'female' one has metal eyelashes to denote her 'gender').  The Professor's plan centres around the idea of producing an 'anti-Inderium', 'Inderium' being the apparently impenetrable substance that Kel's saucer and androids are constructed from.  Lord Kel also having psychic powers, (as half the cast of characters seem to have), and senses the Professor's plan and locates his lab, sending his golden androids (all wielding light sabre like Inderium swords), to kidnap him and his niece.  Which they do, but are rescued from the saucer by the others. The 'anti-Inderium' developed, our heroes rush to the space port and take off in space fighters to engage a whole fleet of saucers that Kel now has heading for the earth.  In the space battle that follows, apparently only Laramie survives, with the two scientists sprung from prison apparently perishing when Kel's saucer appears to explode.  Except tat, in a 'twist' ending, the final scene sees Kel auctioning the earth off again, for a huge profit, before revealing that he has done some kind of deal with the two scientists, who get half of the money and the captive earthlings.

As this brief synopsis indicates, the film's plot does contain some novel elements: the idea of a space prison break, the assembling of a team of specialists much in the manner of a heist film and the whole idea of the earth being auctioned to the highest bidder.  This latter element comes straight from forties and fifties pulp magazines and the final auction scenes looks as if it has been taken from the cover of such a publication.  It is, without doubt, the best scene in the whole film.  Unfortunately, this element is never really developed beyond simply being a plot device and, like the other novel plot aspects, appears all too briefly, with the script instead focusing on numerous repetitive scenes designed solely to pad out the running time.  In fact, much of the plot makes no sense whatsoever - if the Professor's help is being enlisted by the authorities, then why does he have to behave in such a clandestine fashion, breaking people out of prison, for instance?  Moreover, the final 'twist' makes little sense - we never learn what kind of deal the two scientists have done with Kel.  What leverage could they possibly have?  Why does he call them 'swindlers'?  What can they possibly have conned him with?  Also, on the moon, why do those gamblers continue to play poker with Laramie after, in the previous scene, having denounced him as a cheat for using his psychic powers to win?  (The answer here seems to be that the two scenes have been edited in out of sequence, so sloppily has the film been assembled).

It doesn't help that the film's production values are threadbare: the effects (mainly taken from previous films) are clunky, the sets dull and featureless, (lots of blank walls and doors marked 'Spaceport 1'), and the costumes unimaginative.  The budget is so impoverished that even 'Hollywood' Carrera's moustache appears to have been drawn onto his face.  The two humanoid robots, while being one of the prop department's more accomplished achievements , are exceedingly irritating and add nothing to the plot.  The performances are generally well below par, with actors either looking as if they are simply going through the motions or going well over the top.  The dialogue, in the English language version at least, is trite and often makes little sense, resulting in a great deal of confusion for the viewer.  Adding to the confusion, the photography is frequently so murky that it is difficult to make out what is going on.  As for the synthesised musical score - it sounds like something that was arbitrarily dubbed onto the soundtrack post-production, rather than having been actually composed to accompany the onscreen action.

Curiously, the film seems to have ambitions to make some kind of 'statement' about slavery and the exploitation of indigenous races.  Not only are black Africans being enslaved by those Aryan-looking golden androids, in their uniform blonde wigs, but the subject is later alluded to  in regrd to one of the humanoid robot's attitude toward what it sees as the Professor's 'inferior' robot.  But again, like many other aspects of the script, this is never developed or pursued.  Such 'serious' plot elements are at odds with the overall tone of the film, which frequently tends toward the comedic, particularly with the characters of Carrera, Norman and the robots.  This tendency toward comedy tends to undermine any attempts at the dramatic.  At the film's end, for instance, the sacrifice of the various characters in the space battle and Laramie's return and budding romance with the Prof's waiting niece, are immediately forgotten as we cut to a scene of the Professor and the robots.  The latter are lamenting that they can never consummate their love by 'going all the way' as they aren't properly equipped, (this was the reason for their suicide pact) - to which the Professor jovially replies that this isn't a problem as he can make the appropriate modifications. A bizarre scene with which to follow the preceding drama, not to mention one that conjures up some horrendous mental images of clanking robo-copulation.

Although Star Odyssey might rank as the most interesting of Brescia's space opera quartet, that really isn't saying much.  Most available versions run at just under ninety minutes, yet it feels much longer.  Incredibly, there is a longer version available.  Whether the additional fifteen minutes clarifies any plot points, I don't know, as I simply haven't had the stamina to watch this version.  The English language version now appears to be in the public domain, turning up regularly on streaming services.  It can also be downloaded from the Internet Archive.  Despite churning out four space operas in only a couple of years, Brescia wasn't quite finished with the genre, returning to it in 1980 for The Beast in Space, a softcore porno version of the genre.  Once again, it was all done on a shoestring with those same saucers, golden android costumes and even some of the same cast once more going through  the motions.