User reviews

The russian language version is rare, but well worth seeing. If you're really curious, you can see the American version which was retitled "Voyage to the prehistoric planet" and released in 1966. Back in the early 1960s, when this film was made, the Soviets had focused thier space program on Venus. In fact, they were the first to send probes into the atmosphere, land successfully, and return pictures from the surface. It's no wonder they were inspired to produce an extravagant adventure, based on the promise of thier exploration. The story is basic and straight forward, about an expedition to the planet Venus, but the science is flawed. They encounter oceans, flooding rains, and animal life. When this film was produced, we were just beginning to discover the truth about Venus. A surface temperature at the melting point of lead. A poisinous atmospere, with crushing pressure hundreds of times as heavy as ours. No water, or oxygen, and sulfuric acid in the clouds. If you're lucky enough to run across this film, forget all that, suspend you disbelief, and enjoy this rare classic gem.

This is the first real Russian science fiction movie. I appreciated that it includes almost no ideological trash from the cold war, despite the time of its creation. The crew even includes one English speaking person, Mr. Kern. Mr. Kern is not as perfect as other members of the crew, but he is still a positive figure. What I liked was that this is real SF, and no mainstream movie with "magic" elements: there is space flight, there is an intelligent robot, there are fights with (quite funny) dinosaurs and pterodactyles, there are Venusians aliens and there is speculation about one solar race living on various planets but with common roots. It has all a SF fan can wish. (Except for time travelling and cyberpunk).

Not bad, not incredible like "Forbidden Planet" and not as colourful and tragic as "This Island Earth" and it is certainly not "Solaris". But we must give 60s Eastern bloc science fiction its due. None of it is bad. All of it respects the intelligence of the viewers and each manages to create effective atmospheres. The music and background sound were good. The robot and the "supercar" are dated but very good for the time. Naming the robot "John" is a bit of a dig at the West (one could just as easily see Westerners naming a robot Ivan or Igor). The robot is given a Western name while the crew are all self actualized socialist men except for the woman cosmonaut who is given the traditional role of minding the mothership and lamenting over the fate of the men who are off exploring the planet. If that and the song are the social commentary then it could have been much worse.

Pavel Klushantsev, who directed more Russian SF films than he's credited with here, found himself propelled from obscurity into sudden demand by the Soviet authorities when the production of his 1958 SF debut, 'Road to the Stars' coincided with the launch of Sputnik. Although he languished in almost total obscurity in the West, his films were enormously popular in the USSR, and, as a recent documentary noted, many of his cinematic innovations were 'borrowed' 10 years later by Kubrick in '2001'.

Planet of Storms is not a great movie, but compared with most of the SF which the USA was churning up to this time, it's positively stellar. It's weakest points are its sketchy characterisations, and rather poor pacing, but hard SF luminaries like Gernsback and John Campbell would probably have admired its attention to detail, and relative lack of sensationalism. The film actually begins with the disclaimer "Venus may well be entirely different to this" (or somesuch), and what follows is a serious attempt to depict a Venusian expedition - marred perhaps by the odd dinosaur, but surprisingly free of Soviet chest-thumping.

Planet of Storms won't blow your mind, but you'll find yourself being charmed by the ingenious photography, sets, creatures, etc. There's also a straight out hilarious scene where the Robot gets rained on, and goes off his head. While his two human companions are lying on the ground, dangerously ill from fever, he's babbling on about building a concrete highway to reach the other half of the expedition, who are are about 20 miles away. Contacting him via radio, they are somewhat alarmed to hear him tell them "According to quotes from the Smith corporation, the cost of building a highway to the Sirius is 37 million dollars". I don't know if this was a dig at capitalism, but it cracked me up anyway.

Now - some bloke wanted a translation of the lyrics to the song. These are courtesy of SBS TV Australia (translated by Elena Mikrailik and Brendan Doyle)

(first version)

Planet of Storms, we thank you for your lessons / We enjoyed our stay, but now we must be gone / Our ship awaits; our way is clear and straight / Our hearts are calling, "home, home home" / Yes, home, dear Comrades //

It's time to calculate the points of bearing / It's time to place our courage at the helm / She waits for us, the planet of our birth / Our dear home; our one and only Earth / Yes, Earth / Earth, dear Comrades //



(end of movie version)

Planet of Storms, we'll see you soon, don't worry / And in your harbour, our ships will gladly berth / For not in vain are we the sons of Earth / For not in vain are we the sons of Earth / Earth, dear Comrades

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

If one wants to learn some Russian (which I would like to do if I could find the time), then this film would give some insights.

I bought the version from Sinister Cinema which seems to be missing the first half and so it starts with the cosmonauts discussing a tragic collision in space as they prepare to embark on a trip to Venus. It is in Russian with English subtitles and the special effects and the background music are both awesome. The story is pretty straight forward about a Russian expedition to the planet Venus, their encounter with dinosaurs and other strange life forms, philosophical discussions about the role of man in space, speculation about extraterrestrial intelligent life, and an ironic ending in which intelligent humanoid life is shown to exist on Venus, yet there is no contact between them and earth-born humans. Perhaps the writers intended a sequel.

Just like a lot of the German films from the 1930s, there is very little or no ideological propaganda, even though there is one reference to the Communist Party, Government, and the Soviet Union (thankfully a thing of the past). But aside from that single sentence, there is no reference to anything political. The story centers around a group of cosmonauts that represent not just Russia, but all of humanity as a whole as the crew embarks on an exploratory mission of the planet Venus. Recommended highly.

Dan Basinger

I saw this in my childhood and took years to track it down again since I saw it under one of its two confusing Roger Corman english-language re-edits [Voyage to the Prehistoric Planet with Basil Rathbone added, and Voyage to the Planet of Prehistoric Women, with mermaids scenes directed by Peter Bogdonavich.] Finally able to track down the original Russian version recently, I was able to fully appreciate the ambitious scope and production values. The forest is truly primeval in its detailed beauty, Robot John both heroic and sad in his dedication, and the ending poetic and lyrical. Non-U.S. science fiction films are doubly exotic, and this one is classic fare.

"Planeta Bur" is about cosmonauts who are lost on Venus, attempting to return to the spaceship, and their adventures along the way, which include encounters with prehistoric reptiles, a volcano, and other perils. Like Ptushko's "Sadko", this is a true gem of fantastic film. The use of natural and artificial sets is very effective in creating an atmospheric, alien world; the monsters (an intelligent robot, a carnivorous plant, pestiferous lizard men, a pterodactyl, and some other dinosaurs) are similarly well done. Unlike American films of this kind, there is no emphasis on macho violence or digressions into "steamy" romance scenes; instead the film concentrates on the lavish visuals in an unhurried and dignified pace. My only complaints are that the introduction is too long and slow-moving, and that the subplot involving Masha's agonizing over the fate of her comrades isn't very interesting; but the scenes on Venus, which comprise the bulk of the film, more than make up for these flaws. "Planeta Bur" was drastically edited by Peter Bogdonavitch and released in the States as "Voyage to the Planet of Prehistoric Women"; two versions exist, one with footage of Mamie Van Doren leading a tribe of telepathic Venusian women and worshipping the pterodactyl of the original film, the other without Ms. Van Doren or any of the prehistoric reptile footage.

This is really an excellent film. Concerning a landing on Venus by cosmonauts( 6 men, 1 woman and a robot) and their many experiences trying to rescue stranded crew members, the film is well-written with outstanding sets depicting the Veneusian landscape. Unlike in much American Sci-Fi of the period, there are no evil aliens trying to take out our heroes, The only inhabitants they meet are carniverous plants, a peredactyl, and lizard-men( in one of the few poorly done scenes) This is is an excellent film and should be viewed by all Sci-Fi fans.

This is beautiful story of cosmonauts landing on an alien planet, in this case Venus. Wonderful period special effects, some are truly astounding. An intelligent, engaging story dealing with the discovery of an ancient culture. Probably the best thought-out robot in screen history. While we were making Cat Women on the Moon, the Soviets were making this.

It is a bit odd having a robot named John speaking monotonic Russian, but this is a pretty interesting film. I also found it interesting that a couple of English phrases were tossed in on occasion. This is not at all what I was expecting, which was something along the lines of "OUR space program is better than YOUR space program", considering the year this was made. However, there was only one passing reference to any political/ideological struggle, and that was probably thrown in to appease whatever Soviet film board that had to give its approval to this movie. I would recommend this one for any sci-fi junkies out there who like to see what other countries did with the genre.

'Planeta Bur', or 'Planet of Storms', is a Soviet made science fiction film. That and the fact it is not an English language film mean it has largely been forgotten. But for science fiction fans it it definitely worth a view.

The story revolves around a flotilla of Soviet spacecraft heading to explore Venus. As the production year is 1962 Venus was still believed by many to possibly harbor life, and in the real world the USSR was very serious about exploration of it (they would land the Venera probe in 1967). 'Planet of Storms' is a mix of space opera with a smattering of Soviet propaganda, and it all the more interesting for it.

After the flotilla looses a craft to a meteor strike the crew of the two remaining ships decide to attempt a landing on the the 'Planet of Storms'. The male crew all decide to make the journey, along with a robot, leaving the missions only female member in orbit to maintain communications with Moscow control.

The special effects are, by the standard of the time, okay, but at some points are really creative and even exceptional. The mix of effects is uneven, with stop motion and puppet models being the lower end, and solidly built locations models and vistas being the best of what is on offer. Curiously the design of the spacesuits the explorers use seems to have resurfaced in the 1979 film 'Alien'.

While on Venus the explorers encounter dinosaurs, carnivorous plants, violent lizard men, an exploding volcano and the ruins of an ancient civilization. In short there is a lot packed into the films 1 hour and 20 minutes. Peppered throughout are references to the superiority of the Soviet Communist system, and even the scientific inevitability to a 'one world government', which are no doubt included because of who paid for the entire production (and had to okay the script). These references make the film interesting as a take on a fictional Soviet exploration of the universe; a future that never came to be and a system that did not survive to see what did actually transpire.

There are some other Russian curiosities; for instance sexism in any equivalent US film would put a female center stage to be kidnaped or threatened by some alien, but the Soviets men left their woman in orbit, out of harms way. Relating to that there is an interesting sequence of 'Masha' experiencing zero gravity when in orbit, and this is done well. Though no specific year is given for the setting of the movie, the character of Masha does say she was involved in the Sputnik and Luna projects, which means the mission to Venus is part of that lineage. They do however make a joke at her expense, saying that they can make a robot who can think, but not a woman. Que lots of manly laughter and thigh slapping. As it is a film of its time I will not criticize, only say that it is another indicator of the difference in Western and Soviet sci-fi. Another crucial difference is the type of hero that Soviet Science fiction hero uses, as opposed to their Western counter parts. In Western science fiction, a post-WWII influence lingers and is often present. It is the characteristic that the heroes or main protagonists are essentially a mix of aviator and navy type. By contrast 'Planet Bur' adheres to the Soviet preference, by which the main characters are scientists or dedicated cosmonauts, and there is none of the class delineation that is often visible in western space opera.

The special effects are functional, even if they are at times clunky. But some the live action sequences are truly excellent, and do give an immersive feel to the movie, in that it is actually taking place on another world. There is an extended underwater sequence for instance that is very well done.

Besides the afore spacesuits, the land vehicle the explorers use and their robot are both excellent, and are used for more than simply props. Clearly there was a lot of money spent on this production, and the creators ingenuity and artistry is very visible.

Aside from finding dinosaurs on Venus, there is a hint and an open ended cliff hanger, that intelligent life did and does still exist on Venus. This is one of the space opera tropes the movie, but it is well done and leaves the film open ended. Not until 12 years later would the Martian chronicles (in the 1980) infuse the same theme of alien mystery into popular Western culture.

In many aspects 'Planet of Storms' was a product of its time, and in some instances was creatively ahead of its time. It is well worth a look, and I have rated it 8/10 as an example of it's genre. It is not possible to compare it to better more serious sci-fi, as only 6 years later Stanley Kubrick made '2001 A Space Odyssey'. But as a piece of space opera science fiction it may have been more influential than anyone admits too.

It doesn't compare with modern day films at all, but then one shouldn't try to, should one? Gee they all (and probably "we too") took themselves so seriously those days!!

I'm confused by one previous commentator who said the film was in black and white. Maybe her TV was, but the film as I saw it last night certainly was in colour (well, 1960s colour, anyway).

One quote from the film certainly is worth commenting. That's where they are speculating that there may have been creatures who crashed their spaceship a long time ago and then turned feral. The character comments that they would have had "no culture". Well, that's the Eastern European way, isn't it? Culture is so important; but what they can't seem to perceive, so useless. As author Stephen Coonts said of the Russians: "They can all write poetry but not a single one of them can change a light bulb" (well something like that, anyway).

But putting that to one side, yes a most interesting and well-made film of its time. The singing absolutely blew me away. Not the quality of the singing, I mean the fact that they had singing at all in what otherwise seems to me such a "serious" movie!

People in the United States most likely know that in the '50s and '60s, Hollywood made a number of movies about people traveling to other planets. It turns out that the Soviet Union also made one. Pavel Klushantsev's "Planeta bur" ("Planet of the Storms" in English). It's a typical corny, enjoyable sci-fi flick. The destination in this case is Venus, and the cosmonauts get more than they bargained for. The robot was funny.

I understand that Curtis Harrington and Peter Bogdanovich each individually took the movie, added new scenes, and released it under different titles. Well, I doubt that I'll ever be interested in the adulterated versions. I prefer this original. Had the Soviet Union celebrated Halloween, I bet that millions of children would have dressed as that robot.

Fun movie.

I caught this on tv by accident. Its in black and white and has a weird look about it and like a lot of russian sci-fi its kind of creepy and has a strange atmospheric mood about the whole thing. It has a neat robot that talks in a funny voice. I saw the russian subtitled version.

Any fan of real sci-fi ought to see

I'm of the opinion that film is powerful, powerful enough that large segments of our imagination is guided by cinematic relationships. That even the nature of reasoning is affected, even as deeply as how we reinvent practical logic. There are lots of examples to show and arguments to be made -- they are in a collection I am incubating.

Science fiction is a special case, at once more obvious. Not all as subtle as what I study. But surely it had as profound an effect on daily lives.

To understand this film, you need to know some history. Alas, many readers will not appreciate the cold war that was the overriding impetus for the two largest political entities from the 50s through the 80s.

Some dates for you. In 56, the US saw "Forbidden Planet," with a superintelligent robot, space travel and mind augmentation. It was based on Shakespeare's most interesting play and is still among the best scifi films.

In 57, Russia launched a satellite and declared that they "owned" space (and would put nuclear bombs over the US ready to "drop"). Also, that soon, they would have men in space.

In 58 one of the most successful Russian filmmakers (Klushantsev) made a film about "cosmonauts" and space travel that was enormously successful with the Russian public (and their captive peoples). That film was the beginning of a deeper than usual partnership between Klushantsev and the propaganda arm of the Kremlin.

In 1960, an unknown in East Germany made a film (Road to the Stars) about cosmonauts on Venus. It was a runaway hit. In the following year, Kennedy made his famous pledge to put an American on the moon by the end of the decade.

The Soviet moon program had some catastrophic disasters, in large part resulting from lies told to the old Stalin regime by Soviet scientists working on ballistic missiles supposedly (but not really) capable of destroying the US. Khrushchev had these scientists destroyed or imprisoned. That meant no moon program.

But the people already were convinced that Venus was the prize, so the space propagandists seized on this and retooled their manned program as a race to Venus, forget the moon. As a consequence, Klushantsev was given a (for the times and conditions) vast budget and told to make a film of the heroic Soviet nation exploring Venus. This he did in the film you'll see here if you can find it.

Our intrepid crew is asked to make the Soviet people proud, a promise they come back to a few times. There's a robot, clearly stolen from "Forbidden Planet."

The thing revolves around there being life on Venus. Just as they take off, they find proof that the life consisted of humans. Afterthey leave, we see a beautiful woman appear. Then, as the spacecraft flies home, we have a few minutes of a Soviet heroes song in that militant, deliberately fake spontaneous joyous tone of the times.

The effects developed by this team would be used in strange circumstances for the next 8 years. This crew filmed fake footage of real spaceflights. The Kremlin was never so bold as to fake a success when everyone knew the missions ended in fiery death. But they did decorate their successes with these true-fake movies. The most famous was the 65 spacewalk of Leonov, wonderfully believable until you wonder who is holding the camera. Oddly, the propagandists assumed that the camera eye was such a magical omnipresence that no one would ask.

Anyway, this film was somehow procured by the infamous Roger Corman. He shortened it and dubbed in English. He substituted the blank female (who says in an orbital craft) with an even more blank female. One wonders why; Faith Domergue had been hot 15 years earlier but here is wallpaper. And he adds an earthside leader who radios a few times, played by the already embarrassing Basil Rathbone. Something interesting could be said about his Sherlock Holmes here.

Kubrick's 1968 2001, used many conventions from this shop, even when they went against the science of the thing. And ever since, on through "Star Wars," we have that single vision of what space SHOULD look like.

Ted's Evaluation -- 2 of 3: Has some interesting elements.

This movie is one of them campy sci-fi films which i'm actually watching right now. If you like something like lost in space you'll like this but it's way better. Great special effects make this a movie you should check it out about space people on Venus who get attacked by aliens who look like dinosaurs. good movie not much action but a robot who looks like the one from Lost in Space. Check it out! it's good there are underwater bits in it and for its time must of been pretty hard to capture in the sixties. This is the only Russian film i've seen and it's pretty funny actually. it seems stupid especially the scene with the octopus hardly realistic.

When the film was shot, no information apart from earthbound observation had been available about Venus. Astronomers knew the composition of the higher atmosphere and some physical characteristics but nothing about the surface which is always hidden under thick layers of clouds. Then it was kind of a mysterious, impenetrable twin Earth bearing unimaginable secrets. Many (Western) sci-fi films handled the pre-spacefaring Venus in quite trivial ways. Although 'Planeta Bur' also represents a fantastical vision of Venus, the depiction of the surface with its orangeish haze and those granitic rocks was surprisingly accurate. The many details and the delightful photography made the film worthwhile. There's also a nice thriller element to the plot. The ending is still one of the eeriest, most bizarre scenes in all science fiction cinema. It is easily one of the better sci-fi entries of the early 1960s.

The film probably should have raised public interest in Venus exploration as in 1962 the ill-fated second generation of Venus probes was underway. None of them would ultimately reach its goal, only a few years after would the umpteenth attempt succeed. Fun fact: 23 years after the film, Soviet spacecraft called "Vega" really touched down on Venus.

Agree w/ the other reviews; it's very effective for its time and budget.

I think the should-I-land subplot may have been more effective for the intended audience; this is a "should I trust my orders or should I innovate" question, and the answer in American culture may be very different from that official response in Soviet Russia. When viewed with that insight, it may make more sense.

Question: My copy (a transfer purchased from Sinister Cinema) subtitles the lyrics during the ending credits... but does _not_ subtitle the earlier instance of the song. Does anyone have a transcription of the Russian words for either or both parts, and/or a complete translation? I'm really tempted to learn it well enough to perform it.

Thanks in advance...

Cosmonauts on a scientific expedition to Venus encounter a succession of difficulties. There are people calling this one of the best science fiction films ever made. TedG honours it on these pages with one of his longest reviews. I'm baffled. It's rubbish; corny pre-teen fare at best.

The film-making is not quite Ed Wood level, but almost. There's not a single original or interesting idea in it. No surreal or existential depth, just guys walking around hacking at rubber tentacled plants and ineffectual dinosaurs. There's a robot - built like a Sherman tank - but it was lifted from The Forbidden Planet. The most remarkable thing about the film is that one of the crew members happens to look a bit like William Shatner.

It was the height of the Cold War and the space race. Is this all the west was up against?