An expedition to Venus runs into problems when one of the ships is destroyed by a meteor. The crews refuse to abandon the planned manned-landing and two teams descend to the surface, but become separated and have to reconnect through hostile Venusian terrain before they can return to Earth. Surprisingly, Venus is populated by creatures very similar to Earth dinosaurs (the explorers see an apparent Apatosaurus, fight small tyrannosauroid carnivores, and are pursued by a Rhamphorhynchus-like flying reptile). They also hear mysterious Siren-like singing and find artifacts suggesting a humanoid civilisation exists (or existed) on the planet, all of which leads up to the cryptic final scene. The film is more 'adventure' than 'hard-science' (compared to other Soviet films such as 'Icarus XB 1' (1963) or 'Nebo Zovyot' (1959)). The 'space-hardware' (suits, etc.) are nicely designed and some of the imagery is very good, especially the shots of Venus from orbit, the foggy surface of the planet, the underwater scenes, or the segment in which the explorers are trapped by flowing lava. The dinosaurs are a mixed bag: the Apatosaurus is quite well done but the small tyrannosaurs are obvious costumes and the pterosaur a puppet. Occasionally the story gets bogged down by tedious pseudo-scientific* dialogue about origins of life on Venus including semi-nonsensical references to Darwin and adaptation (the film came out when Lysenko's politically-expedient 'acquired-trait theories' were finally being publically rejected by Soviet scientists). Unexpectedly, there is a heroic song in the middle of the film, translated as thanking the Planet of Storms but looking forward to going home (including the stirring line "homeward, homeward, homeward, guys!"). The image quality on the version I watched (a Bayview Entertainment DVD) was OK but the subtitles were full of typos (e.g. "Our heaks are beating") and odd phrases (e.g. Venus resembles the "epoch of the prehistoric panglolins"). Budget-conscious auteur Roger Corman acquired the rights to the film and recycled the special effects in "Voyage to a Prehistoric Planet" (1965) and again in the surreally silly "Voyage to the Planet of Prehistoric Woman" (1968) (the latter helmed by future Oscar-nominee Peter Bogdanovich, hiding behind the name 'Derek Thomas'). All-in-all, 'Planeta Bur' is moderately entertaining and well worth watching by genre fans and anyone interested in Soviet-era Russian films. *at least in the subtitle translations
Review of Planeta bur
