When I moved to L.A. in 1979 I got my first job at a film lab named CFI. I was part of the night shift in the developing department running one of the first high speed developers developing reels of positive reels for movie theaters. One of the movies we did was Saturn 3. The film reels were projected on a screen so we could detect issues with the print if there were any. But the reels came off at about 200 feet a minute, backwards and upside down. It actually improved this stinker by leaps and bounds. I also got to develop the original Fog with Adriane Barbeau, which will always be a fave of mine.
That’s interesting. I was working just around the corner at a place called *Cinesound* in ‘79. I worked in the machine room doing post on mostly low-budget TV shows(That’s Incredible!) and movies. I also sometimes worked in optical transfers. We got the occasional reel from you guys to transfer. 'Alien' was the big film for me that year, but I also remember this turd as well. I got to see an early screening of “The Fog” at a theater just down on Sunset, walking distance from *Pink’s*, the name of the theater escapes me, but I was a member of the Academy of Science Fiction Films and TV (a geek club before we were called geeks) and we got to see a lot of films before release back then. 'The Fog' was memorable because not only was it a great film for a perfectly appreciative audience, but it screened on a Sunday and after I saw it, I had to go into work at Cinesound to do some transfers from CFI. I was alone in the place and I remember being slightly creeped out after having just seen 'The Fog.' Hollywood was an amazing place back in those days.
I was a kid the first time I watched this movie. I was absolutely terrified by Hector. Even now, 40 years later, it's painful to me to watch the movie because it brings back these childhood fears.
I remember watching this as a kid and being really scared 😂, my dad's name is also Hector and he wasn't the nicest father at times. That combination made it worse.
The uncut scene was actually a dream sequence that was cut from the movie - that's why Kirk Douglas was pouring his drink like some Cocktail Show Pony. Also Harvey Keitel had his voice dubbed over in post production. It's not his actual voice you hear in the movie. Finally, the robot and the set really make the movie. It's a classic camp sci-fi romp in the vein of Barbarella and Splice.
I never warmed up to Singing in the Rain either. Gene Kelly made dancing cool and macho for guys in his films and I admired him. But the rain machine was so obvious and everything was staged. I’ll give this star-studded film a try. m.th-cam.com/video/j2psCSVW85w/w-d-xo.html
Saturn3 is pretty mundane sci-fi with one primary exception....Farrah. She was stunning at that time. The plot is just a needless distraction TBH. They could have just filmed her frolicking around the sets in various states of undress for 2 hours and no one would have complained.
Yep. Majors was a hot commodity at the time. Posters, newspaper articles from major papers doing in-depth reporting on her haircut and how teens were copying it (and some were being jealously attacked by classmates), talk show appearances, numerous magazines; she was everywhere. A few of my friends had the swimsuit poster on their walls. Space sci-fi was also a big draw thanks to the success of Star Wars. Give us a space adventure starring Majors (who also was married to Lee Majors, The Six Million Dollar Man, another big icon for us young folks) and we’d be saying “shut up and take my money” long before that meme existed.
Hector was one of the most disturbing robots I'd ever seen in a movie. Human shaped body, but then that tiny little stem of a head with eyes. You just knew it was going to run KILL.EXE at the first opportunity.
I know I'm responding to a three-year-old comment, but yeah. Loading the thing with a big cylinder of brain tissue was pretty disturbing, too. Movie audiences might be familiar with the idea of a "wetware CPU" now, but it was a fairly original idea at the time. Hector wasn't really a robot. It was a cyborg. No wonder it had a thing for... flesh.
Everyone dont forget that. Harvey wasnt the robots orginal programer in the beginning of the movie he murders the man who is suppose to be bringing the robot to Saturn 3 and the robots brain is supposed to be taught by a direct brainlink to its programmer so it gets hooked up to the brain of a murder , so murder is what it learns. And jealousy the robot falls in love with Farrah.
You failed to mention the topless Farrah scene. Also, I didn't realize, for a very long time, that "Singing in the Rain" was from a musical, thinking it was just some saccharine, cutesy song Stanley Kubrick used in the home invasion scene of "A Clockwork Orange".
The book had a lot of backstory to why they were being pressured to make their research perform better and the reason why the robot was sent there. It also explains why Benson the robots handler killed the original operator of it and took over. If you visited Blackpool pleasure Beach and rode "The space invader" indoor roller coaster then you would've seen Hector as one of the exhibits in the queue line.
I've always wondered how much of what Benson said about Earth was true. She was smiling about going there at the end, but is she just stepping into a world of hunger and legal rape?
And bonus! Don't blink or you'll miss a brief topless shot of Farrah Fawcett, which was probably the only reason to go see this movie! And it was at the beginning so you could just fast forward after that to about last 10 minutes for the semi climactic ending.
The movie was on heavy rotation on HBO. My friend had HBO and we watched the movie for the soul reason you mentioned. The struggles of teens in the early 80's were real.
I was 17 when this came out. All me and my friends heard was Farrah's faucets made an appearance and we trampled each other to get in line. I was a big SF fan but it was all about Farrah that night. Saw the movie again years later and realized yeah she really was the best reason to be there.
When I was 17, I was in love with Farrah just like all my friends were, but later, I would discover that she and I shared a great grandmother out of Texarkanna, and were therefore second cousins. My favorite sci fi with Farrah is Logan's Run.
Harvey Keitel's voice was actually done by Roy Dotrice. When it came time to do post production looping, Keitel refused to come back and do it. So the film company hired Dotrice and had him to all the voice.
The outfit Farah wore in the scene you were tripping about was used for some of the movie posters and there was a scene where she was topless it was about the only reason anyone went to see the movie but compared to other offerings of the time it was actually very good! There were movies being released in the eighties that were trying to cash in on the popularity of Star Wars and were cashing in on the names of popular stars like Molly Ringwald David Hasselhoff and a few others that made this movie look like a masterpiece!
i love this movie. back when it came out it was up there with special effects and story. maybe not the best script but still a great movie. any time you get to see Farrah in a movie was great and along with her two other great actors. this came out around the same time as outland with sean connery and a few others with the same look,feel, and basic story idea so for the time these movies all fit together. it was a time in movies that you had to be there to like and appreciate them for what they were. i think a lot of times when looking back at shows and movies of the past we judge them by todays standards
You're definitely right about how some people see these old movies! I think also there's the aspect of chasing that cult classic sort of a thing, and maybe these were made for a quick buck and at the box office and a slow-burn of VHS cash for the Stars? Lol
That is why I waited decades to see Embryo again. I wanted to see the disgust on Rock Hudson's face working with a naked lady. I saw him in a war movie, and you could see it in his face, you want me to grab her what? No way.....
Remember seeing this in theater when it first premiered and thought it was crap....years later, wife and I watched it with a pitcher of sangria, and it was comedy gold.
@@victoriafelix5932 to think that Stanley Donen directed this....director of Charade, Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, Indiscreet, Singing in the Rain......must have had a gambling debt.
@@libradragon just a suspicion...on TH-cam, you can find a clip of the great James Mason doing a commercial for Thunderbird. Not the classic automobile, but the WINE (the kind served in a plain brown wrapper on Skid Row).
You, sir, got my subscription when you asked humanity's most important question "...can someone please tell me why no one has ever noticed the similarities between Tommy Wiseau and Harvey Keitel's character in taxi driver?" PURE GENIUS of perception
this movie for me inhabits that same space as Outland. I'll never bring them up in conversation, but I'll never deny that i like them if someone else does lol
@@Damocles54 Outland could also exist in the Alien(1979)universe. Aliens though being a sequel is a straight up action film and does not own the same tension as the original film.
Poor Sean. His character deserved a reward like that after all the hell the assassins put him through… go back to his quarters and find Farrah waiting… it’s like I feel vindicated right now…
The reason Kirk Douglas and Farah Fawcett were cast in Saturn 3 was because the studio did demographic studies, which concluded that the two stars which audiences most wanted to see in movie together were those two performers. The original director of Saturn 3 was John Barry -- who had served as production designer for Star Wars and Superman (Saturn 3 was to have been his directorial debut, but he was fired, and Stanley Donen stepped-in). Harvey Keitel's dialog was dubbed by British actor Roy Dotrice (who is probably best-known for playing Mozart's father in Amadeus). That scene where Fawcett and Douglas take the drug was actually cut from the film. A lot of incredibly talented people worked on Saturn 3 -- like production designer Stuart Craig (who went on to design Gandhi, The Mission and the Harry Potter movies). The score was written by Elmer Bernstein, who had written the music for The Ten Commandments, The Magnificent Seven, To Kill A Mockingbird and Ghostbusters (yes, that disco music was written by the guy who scored The Ten Commandments).
I saw the movie in australian cinema and the drug/party scene was still in it. I think it might have been later cut out to meet G ratings for wider distribution, a lot of USA states demanded G ratings or there were complications
I actually liked the film. It has a real "Alien" vibe in the suspense and look of the scenery. It really delivered at keeping me interested. The Hecter robot was actually quite terrifying.
It looks dated compared to Alien but I used to love this movie as a kid, and it has a lot of Sci Ideas. The Matrix neck ports, and it had the Terminator before the Terminator. Underrated film.
@@Cal6009 It did me, some people it didn't. When it originally came out I thought it was pretty epic, and a bit terrifying, considering there weren't many films up to that point that could really compare to it. Maybe "Alien", that came out the year before this, but even "Alien" is really kind of slow and boring, AND "Saturn 3" has Farrah Fawcett in all her bare-naked glory instead of the much less attractive Sigourney Weaver in a tank and panties.
9.5 out of 10 for Farrah alone! The rest of the movie was disposable and relatively a waste of time, but the robot was creepy/cool. I too saw it in the theater when it came out. Saw it with my wife who hated it because obviously -- Farrah! I bought the VHS and fast-forwarded to all of her best scenes and then one day the tape went missing... The wife never appreciated my taste in celebrities, LOL! 😎
🤣😂Brilliant analysis... I saw this when it came out and was stoked prior, but after about two minutes realized what I was in for, and just enjoyed the ride. There were a few interesting attempts at special effects tricks that caught my eye, but Farrah was the real star...She looked fantastic, and considering the material, her acting was bang on target... I'd forgotten the space acid scene... Fucking priceless...Thanks for the reminder... xxx ;-)
Kirk Douglas hosted Saturday Night Live to promote this film. Feb 23 1980. Musical guests Sam & Dave. In the film, Farrah flashed the right one, as I recall.
@@oahuhawaii2141I saw "Logan's Run" in the theaters but I do not remember any Farrah flash in that. I think it came out before she became super famous in "Charlie's Angels."
@@curtisrodriguez938 Farrah wasn't topless in Logan's Run but Jenny Agutter, who played Jessica, was topless when she and Michael York changed their outfits before meeting Box.
My mum was expecting me when this film was released. I remember seeing it as a young child and found it creepy. When I hit my 20s I tracked down the movie on vhs and still found it creepy and entertaining. Love sci-fi /robot films especially old ones. It's a forgotten jem that needs more love. Great film. I recently bought the original cinema poster.
Luckily, modern iris scanners will detect if a person is alive by looking for subtle movements of the eyeballs and irises. Fingerprint scanners will accept a dead finger.
Awesome movie! What's very unique is that except for the very beginning of the movie, almost the entire movie consists of just 3 characters and a bunch of robots. Yet they still pulled it off!
I actually watched this late one night on BBC 1, with my parents. I was probably a bit young for it. It's completely bonkers as a film, with some very erratic changes of tone(the psycho robot and then the stuff with Kirk and Farah). I'd also add - what the hell was Keitel doing in a sci-fi film, when he had done work like "Mean Streets" and "Taxi Driver"? Then you have the fact this film was directed by the same man who made "Singin' In the Rain", "Charade", "Indiscreet" and "Bedazzled". It just seems like a really weird combination. Never the less, I would like to re-watch it some time in the future.
Harvey did a Spagetti Western in 1998 along with David Bowie. Music by some of the Bob Marley Reggae offspring Brothers and Wycleff Jean. Odd Combinations. Great Movie. Called "il Mio West" or "Gunslingers Revenge"
I remember this. I got a "so-bad-it''s-good" vibe from it. Like one of those cheesy 1950's low budget sci-fi flicks. Big bowl of popcorn and laugh all the way through.
I remembered seeing this movie on television. My oldest brother told me what it was all about, so I decided to watch it. I was pretty young at the time, early teenager, and the movie did scare the crap out of me. Especially that scene where that man fell down and broke as if he were made of glass. As for the name of the movie, I don't think it was a trilogy film, it was just called Saturn 3, probably because of the name of the base they were in.
My grandparents randomly found a VHS of this lying around their house and gave it to me when I was quite young. I don't remember much of it beyond the name, a guy sticking something into the back of his neck to control a robot and that it scared the absolute fuck out of eight-year-old me! Oh and I think the robot had a brain in a big tube, too.
In 1999 I attended a literary conference featuring the brilliant British novelist Martin Amis. He was also the screenwriter on this film. If you want to get a glimpse of what working with Kirk Douglas was like, including constant rewrites--to add more nude scenes for Kirk--while they were filming, read Amis's book Money and pay close attention to a character named Lorne Guyland. At the '99 conference, Amis detailed how bananas the whole shoot was.
The Farrah Fawcett character in Money was called Butch Beausoleil (probably not coincidentally, Bobby Beausoleil was a member of the Manson Family). The up-and-coming young actor appearing with them was Spunk Davis, and the director who narrates the novel has to explain that 'Spunk' means something different in England!
I got my mom to take me and my friends to this on my 14th birthday. We were all still drunk on Star Wars punch at that point and anything sci-fi was an automatic " heck yeah!". We thought it was schlocky, awful, needlessly violent and completely hilarious. (No comment on what my mom thought. Probably "never again." ) We laughed about it for months. If you're wondering who the audience for this film was, it was us.
This is so funny. I actually saw this in a theater because back then you went out to watch any new science fiction. And I remember actually thinking, wow, human beings actually wrote this and then actually shot it and directed it and acted in it. Amazing!
I first watched Saturn 3 as a kid in the 80s. I really liked it, I did find it terrifying! Yes it is not the best film of its time but it is well worth watching.
I was looking for it for decades. Kept searching for Saturn V, and never got a hint, do you mean 3? Another great missing movie is Checkov's Moonbase movie. The original transformer movie.
@robertsmith2956: Easy to get the number wrong. Saturn V is the heavy-lift launch vehicle (rocket) used by the Apollo program to get men to visit the moon. Saturn 3 is the movie that launched lots of pocket rockets of boys who were over the moon to see Farrah.
Haven't watched this movie in 40 years but I can still hear that creepy alarm! Wap-Wow Wap-Wow Wap-Wow Have you seen "Battle Beyond the Stars"? The lead is played by John Boy of the "Waltons" TV Show of the 1970s. It's Bad Too
This movie may not get talked about much today, but it was well-known at the time. It was even shown on network television in an edited form, which is how I first saw it as a teen.
Made in the 80!!! All those who judging it didn t even born ...great movie i was a kid when it came out and scared to death from hector! Trust me of you would watch this in 1980 almost 40 years ago!!! You would be shit into your pants !
@@Williestyle-RobotechxMacross-x yup. It could have been early 1980. It was the "Festival of Anglo-Language movies." there were no subtitles, and the dialog was read in Polish by a lector. I believe The other movie I saw was the "Silver Racer" with the original ending (where the main character wins the race and dies after crossing the finish line). I don't remember the third movie.
I like this movie. I haven't seen it in decades but I remember it being cheesy fun and the robot kinda scary. I also have never forgotten the scene were Facett gets something in her eye and the robot helps her out. BTW: Harvey Keitel's biographer called the film the "nadir of his career"
This movie scared me to death when I watched it for the first time in the 80s as a teenager. Years later I was very surprised to find that the screenplay was written by Martin Amis!
What's crazy about this movie is that it was never going to be directed by Stanley Donen originally (which is weird in itself) but that is was John Barry, the Production Designer on Star Wars, but was taken off after two weeks at Douglas' behest as he was wasting too much time with the robot scenes, with Donen, the producer, stepping in. There's an interesting account by Billiy Williams the films cinematographer on YT
The TH-cam algorithm reminded me of this old Farrah Fawcett film. The only thing from this otherwise unremarkable sci-fi star vehicle that I recall is how utterly terrifying the robot was.
I remember being a kid in my local video store (pre Blockbuster) and looking at the VHS version of this on numerous occasions. I always thought robot on the cover looked cool and wondered if I should rent it. I never did... for whatever reason.
Using The Decline of Western Civilization Part 2 as the cultural touchstone for pouring drinks on drugs is the best surprise I've had all day, thank you
It's hard to defend this film on any level. It stems from the kind of ultra-violence era of late seventies films like 'Demon Seed', 'Rollerball', 'Logans Run' and 'Zardoz'. Saturn 3 doesn't get near those films on an artistic level but there's something about the visual 'pop' of this film that I like. The films outcome is completely obvious and I think it has a kind of nightmare quality in the very contained facility, the vastness and loneliness of outer space and the developing psychosis of the robot literally driven by the mad Keitels sexual infatuation with Alex. But the robot cannot 'connect' with her and so it goes insane. If there's any message to the film it's that a machine cannot adopt or understand human traits without going mad. But it fails to present the robot as sympathetic in any way at all, so the only tragedy at the end is Adams death, who himself states how obsolete he was anyway. The film doesn't deliver but it's still fun to watch.
@@TheMsLourdes Yea, a couple guys and a crazy robot get up to some shenanigans in the proximity of Farrah Fawcett, a woman who's posters literally papered my adolescent bedroom. And it was in space, two thumbs up. ;)
I also watched Logan's Run. Farrah is in it as eye candy, too. In both movies, I eagerly waited over 90 minutes for that 1-second flash to cross the screen. Back then, there was no way to rewind and replay the moment repeatedly. It was like watching the sun set and seeing the green flash.
Saturn 3 was nominated in 3 categories at the first ever Golden Raspberry Awards (also known as the Razzies) way back in 1980 and went home empty handed for: Worst Picture (losing to Can’t Stop the Music), Worst Actor for Kirk Douglas (losing to Neil Diamond for The Jazz Singer) and Worst Actress for Farrah Fawcett (losing to Brooke Shields for The Blue Lagoon)
"Dark Star", 1970's sci fi film that is summed up as astronauts exploring space looking for signs of intelligent life bored out of their skulls alongside a form of intelligent life that is essentially a beach ball and an awesome and unexpected ending that makes it a cult classic. Worth the time, even in the slow parts.
Dark Star was John Carpenter's first movie, long before classics like the remake of "The Thing" or "Escape from New York"; so remarkable it is remarkable for just that. The mission of the crew was to destroy planets that might pose a risk in the future, and things had been going terribly wrong for years at the point where the movie is set. Classic scenes are talking down an intelligent bomb, fights with the beach ball alien, or conversations with the cryogenically preserved dead commander of the mission.
This reminds me of Madeleine Kahn in Blazing Saddles when she says, " Let me swip into someting a wittle more comfwatable." And comes out more dressed up w full make up. Hilarious
Stanley Donen was called in early in production to take over and finish the film. He did this as a favor to a few colleagues, when they realized it was a disaster. He was unable to completely salvage what is now a camp classic, but enough of the film was “his” that DGA credit was due. Hence, this film is unlike anything else he did in his celebrated career.
John Barry was the original director of the film since he'd written the original story, while Stanley Donen was just going to produce the film. Barry was the Production designer on 'Star Wars,' 'Empire Strikes Back,' and many more films, but he'd never directed a film or worked directly with actors. This was a problem immediately once shooting commenced, as Douglas and Fawcett were unhappy that Barry had no idea how to communicate with them about how they should play their characters(Did this not come up in rehearsals??). After three days of this, the cast went to Donen, Donen went to Lew Grade, whose ITC Films was financing 'Saturn 3' and Grade fired Barry. Donen agreed to step in as director so the production wouldn't shut down, because the film had already been blind-booked into theaters before shooting even began.* Donen was basically directing a film genre he had no affinity for, so it was probably very difficult for him to make a suspenseful, scary film. Why he couldn't get even a _slightly_ more human performance out of Keitel, I don't know. The scene above was cut after disastrous test screenings, which was a shame since Farrah's costume had already been shown for months in magazines like Starlog and Playboy, so obviously fans were left wondering why. The trailer for the film(which is actually very good) doesn't even mention the cast, it just shows the setting and the basic storyline to get you interested. I personally saw this scene for the first time on TV in the Philippines in 2002, so, apparently there are multiple versions of the film out there. Maybe we can get #releaseTheDonenCut trending. Despite it flopping and being a sci-fi stinker it still is cheesy fun with the right adult beverage, the right company and a *comfy chair.* *Blind-booking is the practice of film studios/producers getting a film booked into theater chains sight-unseen, usually because either the cast is very hot or the filmmaker is a proven commodity. Usually studios would book films with theater chains by showing off a reel of the film's highlights to get exhibitors interested. This was a common practice in the '70's and '80's, especially with science fiction, fantasy or horror, which were enormously successful markets back then.
@@antduude Yeah, you'd think that a film starring Kirk Douglas and Farrah Fawcett would have done well based on them alone. But even the biggest stars in the world can't salvage a bad movie.
Not quite right. Stanley was brought in to save the picture because John Barry died. Everyone involved reckoned Kirk was the reason he died. He had a time out clause in his contract, where if he disagreed with Barry he could slope off to his dressing room for the duration. Barry was directing for the 1st time and was driven to distraction by Kirk who constantly rewrote the script, making it ridiculous, and calling time out's when he didn't get his way. Once Donen came in the first thing he did was put Kirk up against the wall in the Berkeley Hotel. He calmed down quite a bit after that. Kirk's most amusing contribution was calling a time out because he A. Wanted to film a fight scene in the nude, which became know on set as the "scrawny chicken" fight. B. Wanted the script changed so that Harvey wins the fight only by cheating. However, for all his nuttiness Kirk redeemed himself by getting Farrah to take her tits out on camera, the 6 million dollar man was not amused ....
There was somethings downright weird about this movie; I saw it in theaters when it came out. In retrospect, you had a strange ensemble cobbled together out of their element of acting. Keitel usually played bad guy street gangsters - and whose voice was completely dubbed in this movie. Douglas was a big screen actor used to epic films, and Fawcett was almost exclusively a pop TV star. It had some originals that you see in later movies: The whole "thing after you in a spaceship" trope was similar to Alien. The robot had elements of Johnny 5 and a few others, brain in the robot thing. Then there was the hole in the back of the neck thing --- A la Matrix. And of course the Blues, which I suspect were a bit like extasy/Molly. And now I find it was directed by the Singing in the Rain director. OK. Although it is a straight up science fiction horrorish movie, knowing all the disparate parts and original tropes makes it hard to actually peg.
@Gee Trieste. Growing up in the 80s this movie came on television a lot. You can always tell with movies like this and "Logan's Run", and "Buck Rogers" how dated they were cause even though it's a futuristic movie.......everything looks and SOUNDS like a Disco! 😆
Keitel(except for the voice)didn't strike me as being out of character since he was controlling and wanton. The "thing after you in a spaceship" idea had been used before in "IT! The Terror From Beyond Space" and "The Green Slime" which were actually more in the frame of "Alien" than S3 was. Also, Johnny 5 developed his own personality and traits where as Hector functioned with the brain(and head)of Keitel.
If I may interject... Nicholas Cage also was in a film called "Bad Lieutenant New Orleans". Harvey was better...err worse. Any Farrah film is a good film or TV show. Check out "Drive Crazy" with Cage and Amber Heard ( w/catchy tune:" F*ck the Pain Away"). Have fun!
You failed to mention the scene where Farrah removes her towel, and we get an extended view of her dream balloons. I was young, and I couldn’t get enough of that scene. I saw this on HBO; there was no pause, no rewind, so I had to wait three days for it to be broadcast again…and again…!…and maybe again.
I remember my parents taking my brother and I to see this in the theater when it first came out. At 13 I was a huge sci-fi fan, and I have to say, it doesn't seem like much today, but it was a pretty amazing film for its time. In this time of AI fears, I think it's still a fairly poignant film, despite its obvious dating flaws. I still watch it at least once a year. As a matter of fact I think I'm going to watch it tonight!
The first five to ten minutes of this movie are a masterpiece, a testament to man's ability to suck the life out of his soul. Then Keitel lands on the moon and the film becomes mediocre interspersed with scenic genius. The set work and robot were extremely well done. A flawed film with great set design and music.
@@Rationalist001 The scene is great visually. The idea that the real moon guy is freezing to the point where he's shred into ice cubes looks great and is an interesting concept. Bad design is a part of technology i.e. The Space Shuttles were death machines. Keitel puts on his helmet and he looks like a bug. He then goes to his ship which looks like a bug. The scene establishes that Keitel is a psychotic emotionless creep (a bug)...so I like the scene for these reasons.
I watched Farrah being interviewed by Johnny Carson (after her success with "The Burning Bed" and "Extremities") and she said that the original script was called "The Helper" and was a better script than the final product.
Back when there were video rental stores Saturn 3 was 1 of the early science fiction video cassettes you could rent, And while I was too young to rent it to or even get my parents to let me watch it, it was still just about the coolest cover art in the store to a young kid like me. I guess that answers the question of, "Who was the demographic for this thing?" The cover art was also probably the only reason it made any money as a rental, at all. Well, that and Kirk Douglas's name... I mean, in what bad movie did Kirk Douglas ever appear? (LOL) Okay, okay, okay.... it also didn't hurt that it was rated R and had Farrah Fawcett in it, so, again, preteen boys could hope.... And then one fine day I had some money of my own and was old enough to have my own movie rental membership. I finally got to watch Saturn 3 with years of pent-up anticipation.... Boy was I disappointed. I've never had a desire to watch it again - not even as part of some Mystery Science Theater sarcasm-party-battle.... Can you believe Saturn 3 came out within a year of Alien, Blade Runner, and Empire Strikes Back? It's like they weren't even TRYING to make a good movie. It is so bad, in comparison, that I'm embarrassed by proxy for the actors, crew, producers, and everyone else that got caught up in this piece of garbage....
That was a hilarious review. I have seen that film many times, randomly, usually as background noise on the Comet channel. It IS wonderfully cheesy, but it cannot top Robot Holocaust made in the late 80s, or the Gor films.
I was twenty when this came out and I did see it at the small local triplex theatre. It struck me as silly story wise but appealing visually with great sets and Farrah. I watched it again a few months ago and enjoyed it much more due to the it's so bad it's good vibe I see in it now.
she was absolutely amazing... such a gorgeous woman and seemingly down for lots of different roles (Logans Run anyone?). I'd watch this just for her as she was my OG teenage crush.
When I moved to L.A. in 1979 I got my first job at a film lab named CFI. I was part of the night shift in the developing department running one of the first high speed developers developing reels of positive reels for movie theaters. One of the movies we did was Saturn 3. The film reels were projected on a screen so we could detect issues with the print if there were any. But the reels came off at about 200 feet a minute, backwards and upside down. It actually improved this stinker by leaps and bounds. I also got to develop the original Fog with Adriane Barbeau, which will always be a fave of mine.
That is cool
That’s interesting. I was working just around the corner at a place called *Cinesound* in ‘79. I worked in the machine room doing post on mostly low-budget TV shows(That’s Incredible!) and movies. I also sometimes worked in optical transfers. We got the occasional reel from you guys to transfer. 'Alien' was the big film for me that year, but I also remember this turd as well. I got to see an early screening of “The Fog” at a theater just down on Sunset, walking distance from *Pink’s*, the name of the theater escapes me, but I was a member of the Academy of Science Fiction Films and TV (a geek club before we were called geeks) and we got to see a lot of films before release back then. 'The Fog' was memorable because not only was it a great film for a perfectly appreciative audience, but it screened on a Sunday and after I saw it, I had to go into work at Cinesound to do some transfers from CFI. I was alone in the place and I remember being slightly creeped out after having just seen 'The Fog.'
Hollywood was an amazing place back in those days.
@@antduude Fog still out there bro.. 🎃
See me Grandpa worked at Kodak end make movie film part-time and also worked on the bomb tunnel most people don't know about
My favorite Adriane Barbeau movie was Escape from New York.
Farrah Fawcett..was so beautiful 🙏
....but a really bad actress(at least at this point in time). A pretty bad film.
In 1979, when the movie was shot - Kirk Douglas was a 63 year old, and Farrah Fawcett was prime 32.
He should have done this movie for free .
How do we know that he didn't and just wanted the free trip to England and be with Farrah fawcett?
Douglas also did his very first nude scene in this film and that sight of him naked was cringy as hell.
No shit! I would have.
Oh I bet he got a taste
@@Angl0sax0nknight I doubt it
You forgot to mention that Hector the robot was absolutely *TERRIFYING!*
The movie is pretty much a mess but it really does have some good moments.
I agree, I think it's sort of poignant today given the fears of AI going around in the media.
I was a kid the first time I watched this movie. I was absolutely terrified by Hector. Even now, 40 years later, it's painful to me to watch the movie because it brings back these childhood fears.
I remember watching this as a kid and being really scared 😂, my dad's name is also Hector and he wasn't the nicest father at times. That combination made it worse.
What’s really terrifying is that space disco. 😱
The uncut scene was actually a dream sequence that was cut from the movie - that's why Kirk Douglas was pouring his drink like some Cocktail Show Pony. Also Harvey Keitel had his voice dubbed over in post production. It's not his actual voice you hear in the movie. Finally, the robot and the set really make the movie. It's a classic camp sci-fi romp in the vein of Barbarella and Splice.
Thank you! I literally just watched the film for the first time (finished about half an hour ago) and was like, "I do NOT remember that outfit!"
I don't know about Splice but Saturn 3 doesn't attach itself to the silliness of Jane Fonda's alluring adventure.
I never warmed up to Singing in the Rain either. Gene Kelly made dancing cool and macho for guys in his films and I admired him. But the rain machine was so obvious and everything was staged. I’ll give this star-studded film a try. m.th-cam.com/video/j2psCSVW85w/w-d-xo.html
I was wondering why I didn't remember that scene.
Someone who appreciates the movie. Great! 👍
Farrah was absolutely stunning at this time. Whoa!
Farrah 😍...one of the influences as to why I married a white girl ❣️
Saturn3 is pretty mundane sci-fi with one primary exception....Farrah. She was stunning at that time. The plot is just a needless distraction TBH. They could have just filmed her frolicking around the sets in various states of undress for 2 hours and no one would have complained.
Exactly. This same approach made Barbarella a cult classic , and it's a shame Saturn 3 didn't make it work for Farrah.
Yep. Majors was a hot commodity at the time. Posters, newspaper articles from major papers doing in-depth reporting on her haircut and how teens were copying it (and some were being jealously attacked by classmates), talk show appearances, numerous magazines; she was everywhere. A few of my friends had the swimsuit poster on their walls.
Space sci-fi was also a big draw thanks to the success of Star Wars. Give us a space adventure starring Majors (who also was married to Lee Majors, The Six Million Dollar Man, another big icon for us young folks) and we’d be saying “shut up and take my money” long before that meme existed.
Yeah she was foxy af.
Except a LOT of women.
in an age of I'm not having that in my house, the wife would have complained!
I went to see this movie when it came out for one reason only, Farrah Fawcett. I was 14. I'm 58 now, I'd happily watch it again for one reason only...
We got to see her perfect woman tops !
Almost the same exact story here.
I'm a year younger and did the same. I went to see Logan's Run for the same reason.
AHHH I see this, is where all the Men Of Culture gather :D
Boobiessssss
Hector was one of the most disturbing robots I'd ever seen in a movie. Human shaped body, but then that tiny little stem of a head with eyes. You just knew it was going to run KILL.EXE at the first opportunity.
I know I'm responding to a three-year-old comment, but yeah. Loading the thing with a big cylinder of brain tissue was pretty disturbing, too. Movie audiences might be familiar with the idea of a "wetware CPU" now, but it was a fairly original idea at the time. Hector wasn't really a robot. It was a cyborg. No wonder it had a thing for... flesh.
Still a cool design
@@racookster Biden's eyes, they really are.
The scene with his veins filling up, and when he showed a sick sense of humor desecrating a body was underrated.
Everyone dont forget that. Harvey wasnt the robots orginal programer in the beginning of the movie he murders the man who is suppose to be bringing the robot to Saturn 3 and the robots brain is supposed to be taught by a direct brainlink to its programmer so it gets hooked up to the brain of a murder , so murder is what it learns. And jealousy the robot falls in love with Farrah.
You failed to mention the topless Farrah scene.
Also, I didn't realize, for a very long time, that "Singing in the Rain" was from a musical, thinking it was just some saccharine, cutesy song Stanley Kubrick used in the home invasion scene of "A Clockwork Orange".
Every boy remembers that scene.
@@oahuhawaii2141cierto 👍🏻😅
That and Kirk Douglas’s Bare ass fight scene
Talk about missing the point of the movie. That tidbit should've been first on the list.
The book had a lot of backstory to why they were being pressured to make their research perform better and the reason why the robot was sent there.
It also explains why Benson the robots handler killed the original operator of it and took over.
If you visited Blackpool pleasure Beach and rode "The space invader" indoor roller coaster then you would've seen Hector as one of the exhibits in the queue line.
wait, there's a book?!
@@jeremiahsnyder9262 yes there is - I have a copy myself
I've always wondered how much of what Benson said about Earth was true. She was smiling about going there at the end, but is she just stepping into a world of hunger and legal rape?
Great.. now I'm wondering who has 'Hector' in their man-cave now!? Lmao!
I had a couple of rides of the Space Invader. Kinda fun but lacked a lot of the anticipation of other coasters.
And bonus! Don't blink or you'll miss a brief topless shot of Farrah Fawcett, which was probably the only reason to go see this movie! And it was at the beginning so you could just fast forward after that to about last 10 minutes for the semi climactic ending.
Seen it was fantastic
Funny. All.I remember is a flash of Douglas's bare buttocks. Not a happy moment.
The movie was on heavy rotation on HBO. My friend had HBO and we watched the movie for the soul reason you mentioned. The struggles of teens in the early 80's were real.
I was 17 when this came out. All me and my friends heard was Farrah's faucets made an appearance and we trampled each other to get in line. I was a big SF fan but it was all about Farrah that night. Saw the movie again years later and realized yeah she really was the best reason to be there.
I went to the cinema for the very same reason! 🤣
I took a date to see it. She still liked me.
@@Mattertransfer LOL - that's incredible. I would have spent years apologizing to any date I took to it...
SF. Is that Sally Field.
Science Fiction
When I was 17, I was in love with Farrah just like all my friends were, but later, I would discover that she and I shared a great grandmother out of Texarkanna, and were therefore second cousins. My favorite sci fi with Farrah is Logan's Run.
Farrah was so lovely, how sad it was when she passed away.
Left us the same day as Michael Jackson, and sadly almost no one knew she was gone.
Harvey Keitel's voice was actually done by Roy Dotrice. When it came time to do post production looping, Keitel refused to come back and do it. So the film company hired Dotrice and had him to all the voice.
The outfit Farah wore in the scene you were tripping about was used for some of the movie posters and there was a scene where she was topless it was about the only reason anyone went to see the movie but compared to other offerings of the time it was actually very good! There were movies being released in the eighties that were trying to cash in on the popularity of Star Wars and were cashing in on the names of popular stars like Molly Ringwald David Hasselhoff and a few others that made this movie look like a masterpiece!
People went to see BOBBY JOE AND THE OUTLAW simply because the original Wonder Woman, Linda Carter, was topless.
She looked far better in just that white bathrobe thing.
You left out the one second flash of full frontal.
She was SMOLDERING in SUNBURN.
Many times the posters were much better than the movie they advertised.
complete with disco music. something in here for the whole family...
i love this movie. back when it came out it was up there with special effects and story. maybe not the best script but still a great movie. any time you get to see Farrah in a movie was great and along with her two other great actors. this came out around the same time as outland with sean connery and a few others with the same look,feel, and basic story idea so for the time these movies all fit together. it was a time in movies that you had to be there to like and appreciate them for what they were. i think a lot of times when looking back at shows and movies of the past we judge them by todays standards
You're definitely right about how some people see these old movies!
I think also there's the aspect of chasing that cult classic sort of a thing, and maybe these were made for a quick buck and at the box office and a slow-burn of VHS cash for the Stars? Lol
3:22...You can see Kirk Douglas HATES his job 😂
…and she sits on a Companion Cube.
That is why I waited decades to see Embryo again. I wanted to see the disgust on Rock Hudson's face working with a naked lady.
I saw him in a war movie, and you could see it in his face, you want me to grab her what? No way.....
Remember seeing this in theater when it first premiered and thought it was crap....years later, wife and I watched it with a pitcher of sangria, and it was comedy gold.
And to think the screenplay was by Martin Amis....
@@victoriafelix5932 to think that Stanley Donen directed this....director of Charade, Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, Indiscreet, Singing in the Rain......must have had a gambling debt.
Perspective is a beautiful thing!
@@libradragon just a suspicion...on TH-cam, you can find a clip of the great James Mason doing a commercial for Thunderbird. Not the classic automobile, but the WINE (the kind served in a plain brown wrapper on Skid Row).
@@inkfishpete8695th-cam.com/video/0xY7mBQrzXU/w-d-xo.html or this: th-cam.com/video/10oKb4xkwNI/w-d-xo.html (funnier)
You, sir, got my subscription when you asked humanity's most important question "...can someone please tell me why no one has ever noticed the similarities between Tommy Wiseau and Harvey Keitel's character in taxi driver?"
PURE GENIUS of perception
this movie for me inhabits that same space as Outland. I'll never bring them up in conversation, but I'll never deny that i like them if someone else does lol
Outland was basically High Noon in Space, interesting conceit, but they overdid the face exploding inside the helmet thing one too many times.
@@csnyder23 that is accurate lol
@@Damocles54 Outland could also exist in the Alien(1979)universe. Aliens though being a sequel is a straight up action film and does not own the same tension as the original film.
@@mrrictus very true, on all counts.
has a bit of a blade runner vibe as well
Poor Sean. His character deserved a reward like that after all the hell the assassins put him through… go back to his quarters and find Farrah waiting… it’s like I feel vindicated right now…
The reason Kirk Douglas and Farah Fawcett were cast in Saturn 3 was because the studio did demographic studies, which concluded that the two stars which audiences most wanted to see in movie together were those two performers. The original director of Saturn 3 was John Barry -- who had served as production designer for Star Wars and Superman (Saturn 3 was to have been his directorial debut, but he was fired, and Stanley Donen stepped-in). Harvey Keitel's dialog was dubbed by British actor Roy Dotrice (who is probably best-known for playing Mozart's father in Amadeus). That scene where Fawcett and Douglas take the drug was actually cut from the film. A lot of incredibly talented people worked on Saturn 3 -- like production designer Stuart Craig (who went on to design Gandhi, The Mission and the Harry Potter movies). The score was written by Elmer Bernstein, who had written the music for The Ten Commandments, The Magnificent Seven, To Kill A Mockingbird and Ghostbusters (yes, that disco music was written by the guy who scored The Ten Commandments).
Wow!
I saw the movie in australian cinema and the drug/party scene was still in it.
I think it might have been later cut out to meet G ratings for wider distribution, a lot of USA states demanded G ratings or there were complications
Wow is right. Thanks for doing that research bro.😂
Oh, Farrah...to see her in her prime, what a treat.
You get to see a lot of her too, which is no bad thing.
If that’s what you’re going for you need to watch Barbarella
I've only watched the movie a few times, so now that you bring it up, I should watch it again!
I actually liked the film. It has a real "Alien" vibe in the suspense and look of the scenery. It really delivered at keeping me interested. The Hecter robot was actually quite terrifying.
It looks dated compared to Alien but I used to love this movie as a kid, and it has a lot of Sci Ideas. The Matrix neck ports, and it had the Terminator before the Terminator. Underrated film.
No it didn't.
@@Cal6009 It did me, some people it didn't. When it originally came out I thought it was pretty epic, and a bit terrifying, considering there weren't many films up to that point that could really compare to it. Maybe "Alien", that came out the year before this, but even "Alien" is really kind of slow and boring, AND "Saturn 3" has Farrah Fawcett in all her bare-naked glory instead of the much less attractive Sigourney Weaver in a tank and panties.
Yes, this film was described once as a jigsaw puzzle with a few pieces missing due to numerous director changes.
9.5 out of 10 for Farrah alone! The rest of the movie was disposable and relatively a waste of time, but the robot was creepy/cool. I too saw it in the theater when it came out. Saw it with my wife who hated it because obviously -- Farrah! I bought the VHS and fast-forwarded to all of her best scenes and then one day the tape went missing... The wife never appreciated my taste in celebrities, LOL! 😎
Too bad the wife didn't go missing instead.
When u bought the tape, u should have purchased 2.. one for a backup for times such as this...
I bet that Leg Lamp you won as a prize from Italy got broken beyond repair, too?
@@mattsnow9273 LOL! Yeah, a leg lamp wouldn't have 'stood' a chance of survival...
Farrah must have been better looking than your wife?
OMG this is awesome... the "special effects" body parts at the end - epic.
How delightfully embarrassing for everyone involved! I needed this today. 😂
🤣😂Brilliant analysis... I saw this when it came out and was stoked prior, but after about two minutes realized what I was in for, and just enjoyed the ride. There were a few interesting attempts at special effects tricks that caught my eye, but Farrah was the real star...She looked fantastic, and considering the material, her acting was bang on target... I'd forgotten the space acid scene... Fucking priceless...Thanks for the reminder... xxx ;-)
Kirk Douglas hosted Saturday Night Live to promote this film. Feb 23 1980. Musical guests Sam & Dave.
In the film, Farrah flashed the right one, as I recall.
That scene never made it to any copy of the movie I saw after it came out for sale on the home video market.
Yeah, that flash is the highlight of the film for me. Too bad it isn't in the home release version.
The same thing with Logan's Run.
@@oahuhawaii2141I saw "Logan's Run" in the theaters but I do not remember any Farrah flash in that. I think it came out before she became super famous in "Charlie's Angels."
@@curtisrodriguez938 Farrah wasn't topless in Logan's Run but Jenny Agutter, who played Jessica, was topless when she and Michael York changed their outfits before meeting Box.
@@debrakish9659 I do remember Jenny Agutter. For me, that was her most memorable role until "An American Werewolf in London."
My mum was expecting me when this film was released. I remember seeing it as a young child and found it creepy. When I hit my 20s I tracked down the movie on vhs and still found it creepy and entertaining. Love sci-fi /robot films especially old ones. It's a forgotten jem that needs more love. Great film. I recently bought the original cinema poster.
The visuals are brilliant and Hector was brilliant, very scary but resourceful as well.
Ooohhhhhhhhhhhhhhh my gawd, I just remembered 'the eye' scene.
Dammit, now I need to watch this film again.
Luckily, modern iris scanners will detect if a person is alive by looking for subtle movements of the eyeballs and irises. Fingerprint scanners will accept a dead finger.
Awesome movie! What's very unique is that except for the very beginning of the movie, almost the entire movie consists of just 3 characters and a bunch of robots. Yet they still pulled it off!
I actually watched this late one night on BBC 1, with my parents. I was probably a bit young for it. It's completely bonkers as a film, with some very erratic changes of tone(the psycho robot and then the stuff with Kirk and Farah). I'd also add - what the hell was Keitel doing in a sci-fi film, when he had done work like "Mean Streets" and "Taxi Driver"? Then you have the fact this film was directed by the same man who made "Singin' In the Rain", "Charade", "Indiscreet" and "Bedazzled". It just seems like a really weird combination. Never the less, I would like to re-watch it some time in the future.
Harvey did a Spagetti Western in 1998 along with David Bowie. Music by some of the Bob Marley Reggae offspring Brothers and Wycleff Jean. Odd Combinations. Great Movie.
Called "il Mio West" or "Gunslingers Revenge"
I remember this. I got a "so-bad-it''s-good" vibe from it. Like one of those cheesy 1950's low budget sci-fi flicks. Big bowl of popcorn and laugh all the way through.
I remembered seeing this movie on television. My oldest brother told me what it was all about, so I decided to watch it. I was pretty young at the time, early teenager, and the movie did scare the crap out of me. Especially that scene where that man fell down and broke as if he were made of glass. As for the name of the movie, I don't think it was a trilogy film, it was just called Saturn 3, probably because of the name of the base they were in.
the base was on the third moon of Saturn.
My grandparents randomly found a VHS of this lying around their house and gave it to me when I was quite young. I don't remember much of it beyond the name, a guy sticking something into the back of his neck to control a robot and that it scared the absolute fuck out of eight-year-old me!
Oh and I think the robot had a brain in a big tube, too.
It appears @metaspherez wife stashed his VHS tape @Helbore's grandparents house. Which the grandparents then gave to child. Interesting.
@@DodgyBagehot the circle of life
I was 13 years old and was so happy my dad took me to see this at the theater.
Sounds like your father was a man of culture trying to pass down culture to his son.
In 1999 I attended a literary conference featuring the brilliant British novelist Martin Amis. He was also the screenwriter on this film. If you want to get a glimpse of what working with Kirk Douglas was like, including constant rewrites--to add more nude scenes for Kirk--while they were filming, read Amis's book Money and pay close attention to a character named Lorne Guyland. At the '99 conference, Amis detailed how bananas the whole shoot was.
Interesting... Thanks!
The Farrah Fawcett character in Money was called Butch Beausoleil (probably not coincidentally, Bobby Beausoleil was a member of the Manson Family). The up-and-coming young actor appearing with them was Spunk Davis, and the director who narrates the novel has to explain that 'Spunk' means something different in England!
I got my mom to take me and my friends to this on my 14th birthday. We were all still drunk on Star Wars punch at that point and anything sci-fi was an automatic "
heck yeah!". We thought it was schlocky, awful, needlessly violent and completely hilarious. (No comment on what my mom thought. Probably "never again." ) We laughed about it for months. If you're wondering who the audience for this film was, it was us.
This is so funny. I actually saw this in a theater because back then you went out to watch any new science fiction. And I remember actually thinking, wow, human beings actually wrote this and then actually shot it and directed it and acted in it. Amazing!
I'm old enough and slightly embarrassed enough to admit that I may have seen the newsprint ad for this movie
I first watched Saturn 3 as a kid in the 80s. I really liked it, I did find it terrifying! Yes it is not the best film of its time but it is well worth watching.
I was looking for it for decades. Kept searching for Saturn V, and never got a hint, do you mean 3?
Another great missing movie is Checkov's Moonbase movie. The original transformer movie.
@robertsmith2956: Easy to get the number wrong. Saturn V is the heavy-lift launch vehicle (rocket) used by the Apollo program to get men to visit the moon. Saturn 3 is the movie that launched lots of pocket rockets of boys who were over the moon to see Farrah.
Shit, another high quality movie review channel who seems to be in line with my own taste. Well, thanks algorithm?
Haven't watched this movie in 40 years but I can still hear that creepy alarm! Wap-Wow Wap-Wow Wap-Wow
Have you seen "Battle Beyond the Stars"? The lead is played by John Boy of the "Waltons" TV Show of the 1970s. It's Bad Too
This movie may not get talked about much today, but it was well-known at the time. It was even shown on network television in an edited form, which is how I first saw it as a teen.
Made in the 80!!! All those who judging it didn t even born ...great movie i was a kid when it came out and scared to death from hector! Trust me of you would watch this in 1980 almost 40 years ago!!! You would be shit into your pants !
Couldnt agree more, "V" tv series blew me away back then.
The old films where best 60s hammer house piss all over what they churn out today.
No I did not shit my pants. You must have been a girly man.
I saw this movie in 1979 during a "Western Movie Festival" in Poland. Loved it!!!
Cool that you saw _Saturn 3_ *before it was released to cinemas* - 15 February 1980 in the United States, 08 May 1980 in the UK and later to Europe.
@@Williestyle-RobotechxMacross-x yup. It could have been early 1980. It was the "Festival of Anglo-Language movies." there were no subtitles, and the dialog was read in Polish by a lector. I believe The other movie I saw was the "Silver Racer" with the original ending (where the main character wins the race and dies after crossing the finish line). I don't remember the third movie.
I like this movie. I haven't seen it in decades but I remember it being cheesy fun and the robot kinda scary. I also have never forgotten the scene were Facett gets something in her eye and the robot helps her out.
BTW: Harvey Keitel's biographer called the film the "nadir of his career"
This movie scared me to death when I watched it for the first time in the 80s as a teenager. Years later I was very surprised to find that the screenplay was written by Martin Amis!
Martin Amis !
Replayed in his novel Money: A Suicide Note. The Kirk Douglas character comes out of it well, unlike Fawcett.
What's crazy about this movie is that it was never going to be directed by Stanley Donen originally (which is weird in itself) but that is was John Barry, the Production Designer on Star Wars, but was taken off after two weeks at Douglas' behest as he was wasting too much time with the robot scenes, with Donen, the producer, stepping in. There's an interesting account by Billiy Williams the films cinematographer on YT
The TH-cam algorithm reminded me of this old Farrah Fawcett film. The only thing from this otherwise unremarkable sci-fi star vehicle that I recall is how utterly terrifying the robot was.
I remember being a kid in my local video store (pre Blockbuster) and looking at the VHS version of this on numerous occasions. I always thought robot on the cover looked cool and wondered if I should rent it. I never did... for whatever reason.
I have the exact same memory from when I was a child.
Using The Decline of Western Civilization Part 2 as the cultural touchstone for pouring drinks on drugs is the best surprise I've had all day, thank you
It's hard to defend this film on any level. It stems from the kind of ultra-violence era of late seventies films like 'Demon Seed', 'Rollerball', 'Logans Run' and 'Zardoz'. Saturn 3 doesn't get near those films on an artistic level but there's something about the visual 'pop' of this film that I like. The films outcome is completely obvious and I think it has a kind of nightmare quality in the very contained facility, the vastness and loneliness of outer space and the developing psychosis of the robot literally driven by the mad Keitels sexual infatuation with Alex. But the robot cannot 'connect' with her and so it goes insane. If there's any message to the film it's that a machine cannot adopt or understand human traits without going mad. But it fails to present the robot as sympathetic in any way at all, so the only tragedy at the end is Adams death, who himself states how obsolete he was anyway. The film doesn't deliver but it's still fun to watch.
I'msorrry... you found a plot in Saturn3??? There actually was one?
@@TheMsLourdes Yea, a couple guys and a crazy robot get up to some shenanigans in the proximity of Farrah Fawcett, a woman who's posters literally papered my adolescent bedroom. And it was in space, two thumbs up. ;)
Um, I'd say Saturn 3 was at least on a level with Zardoz, LOL!
I also watched Logan's Run. Farrah is in it as eye candy, too. In both movies, I eagerly waited over 90 minutes for that 1-second flash to cross the screen. Back then, there was no way to rewind and replay the moment repeatedly. It was like watching the sun set and seeing the green flash.
Dude, I remember this. It was Dope
Crazy they got these actors together and couldn’t make an Oscar award winning movie! 😃
"I once had a horse. On Coney Island. She got hit by a car". Shoulder shrug. Brilliant
Saturn 3 was nominated in 3 categories at the first ever Golden Raspberry Awards (also known as the Razzies) way back in 1980 and went home empty handed for: Worst Picture (losing to Can’t Stop the Music), Worst Actor for Kirk Douglas (losing to Neil Diamond for The Jazz Singer) and Worst Actress for Farrah Fawcett (losing to Brooke Shields for The Blue Lagoon)
:)
Cult classic though, so it wins in the end!
Jeez, so many bad movies; what a way to start off a new decade!
They should have called a tie for worst actress and made Farrah and Brooke slug it out in a topless mud wrestling match to determine the winner.
@@Helbore now THAT would've sold!
Remember watching this on TV in my younger days... Enjoyed it, Farrah helped 💯😁
The other reason to watch this is that Martin Amis wrote it, and at least some of his experiences in doing so made it into his novel 'Money'.
"Dark Star", 1970's sci fi film that is summed up as astronauts exploring space looking for signs of intelligent life bored out of their skulls alongside a form of intelligent life that is essentially a beach ball and an awesome and unexpected ending that makes it a cult classic. Worth the time, even in the slow parts.
Dark Star was John Carpenter's first movie, long before classics like the remake of "The Thing" or "Escape from New York"; so remarkable it is remarkable for just that. The mission of the crew was to destroy planets that might pose a risk in the future, and things had been going terribly wrong for years at the point where the movie is set. Classic scenes are talking down an intelligent bomb, fights with the beach ball alien, or conversations with the cryogenically preserved dead commander of the mission.
This reminds me of Madeleine Kahn in Blazing Saddles when she says, " Let me swip into someting a wittle more comfwatable." And comes out more dressed up w full make up. Hilarious
BWHAHAHAHA!!!! Hands down BEST COMMENT in this entire thread of Comments! Bravo! Congratulations! LOL!
I very much like that robot's design. "Normal humanoid body but head is entirely un-headlike" is a fantastic concept.
Stanley Donen was called in early in production to take over and finish the film. He did this as a favor to a few colleagues, when they realized it was a disaster. He was unable to completely salvage what is now a camp classic, but enough of the film was “his” that DGA credit was due. Hence, this film is unlike anything else he did in his celebrated career.
John Barry was the original director of the film since he'd written the original story, while Stanley Donen was just going to produce the film. Barry was the Production designer on 'Star Wars,' 'Empire Strikes Back,' and many more films, but he'd never directed a film or worked directly with actors. This was a problem immediately once shooting commenced, as Douglas and Fawcett were unhappy that Barry had no idea how to communicate with them about how they should play their characters(Did this not come up in rehearsals??). After three days of this, the cast went to Donen, Donen went to Lew Grade, whose ITC Films was financing 'Saturn 3' and Grade fired Barry. Donen agreed to step in as director so the production wouldn't shut down, because the film had already been blind-booked into theaters before shooting even began.*
Donen was basically directing a film genre he had no affinity for, so it was probably very difficult for him to make a suspenseful, scary film. Why he couldn't get even a _slightly_ more human performance out of Keitel, I don't know. The scene above was cut after disastrous test screenings, which was a shame since Farrah's costume had already been shown for months in magazines like Starlog and Playboy, so obviously fans were left wondering why. The trailer for the film(which is actually very good) doesn't even mention the cast, it just shows the setting and the basic storyline to get you interested. I personally saw this scene for the first time on TV in the Philippines in 2002, so, apparently there are multiple versions of the film out there. Maybe we can get #releaseTheDonenCut trending. Despite it flopping and being a sci-fi stinker it still is cheesy fun with the right adult beverage, the right company and a *comfy chair.*
*Blind-booking is the practice of film studios/producers getting a film booked into theater chains sight-unseen, usually because either the cast is very hot or the filmmaker is a proven commodity. Usually studios would book films with theater chains by showing off a reel of the film's highlights to get exhibitors interested. This was a common practice in the '70's and '80's, especially with science fiction, fantasy or horror, which were enormously successful markets back then.
@@antduude Yeah, you'd think that a film starring Kirk Douglas and Farrah Fawcett would have done well based on them alone. But even the biggest stars in the world can't salvage a bad movie.
@@antduude Thanks DJ... Interesting backstory. News to me.
Not quite right.
Stanley was brought in to save the picture because John Barry died. Everyone involved reckoned Kirk was the reason he died. He had a time out clause in his contract, where if he disagreed with Barry he could slope off to his dressing room for the duration. Barry was directing for the 1st time and was driven to distraction by Kirk who constantly rewrote the script, making it ridiculous, and calling time out's when he didn't get his way.
Once Donen came in the first thing he did was put Kirk up against the wall in the Berkeley Hotel. He calmed down quite a bit after that. Kirk's most amusing contribution was calling a time out because he A. Wanted to film a fight scene in the nude, which became know on set as the "scrawny chicken" fight. B. Wanted the script changed so that Harvey wins the fight only by cheating.
However, for all his nuttiness Kirk redeemed himself by getting Farrah to take her tits out on camera, the 6 million dollar man was not amused ....
"You're sending the Wolf?!" LOVE IT!!
There was somethings downright weird about this movie; I saw it in theaters when it came out.
In retrospect, you had a strange ensemble cobbled together out of their element of acting.
Keitel usually played bad guy street gangsters - and whose voice was completely dubbed in this movie. Douglas was a big screen actor used to epic films, and Fawcett was almost exclusively a pop TV star.
It had some originals that you see in later movies: The whole "thing after you in a spaceship" trope was similar to Alien. The robot had elements of Johnny 5 and a few others, brain in the robot thing. Then there was the hole in the back of the neck thing --- A la Matrix.
And of course the Blues, which I suspect were a bit like extasy/Molly.
And now I find it was directed by the Singing in the Rain director. OK.
Although it is a straight up science fiction horrorish movie, knowing all the disparate parts and original tropes makes it hard to actually peg.
@Gee Trieste. Growing up in the 80s this movie came on television a lot. You can always tell with movies like this and "Logan's Run", and "Buck Rogers" how dated they were cause even though it's a futuristic movie.......everything looks and SOUNDS like a Disco! 😆
These three actors had zero chemistry.
Keitel(except for the voice)didn't strike me as being out of character since he was controlling and wanton. The "thing after you in a spaceship" idea had been used before in "IT! The Terror From Beyond Space" and "The Green Slime" which were actually more in the frame of "Alien" than S3 was. Also, Johnny 5 developed his own personality and traits where as Hector functioned with the brain(and head)of Keitel.
The "thing after you in a spaceship" was also done in "This Island Earth" in the 50s.
The guy who did Keitel's voice sounds like the same guy who did Schwarzenegger's in "Hercules in New York".
My favorite film with Harvey Keitel is " The Bad Lieutenant" he brings out the real life crazy Harvey it's a must watch movie!
If you like crooked cops be sure to watch Woody Harrelson in 'Rampart' - he rivals Keitel's LT for insanity.
@@arise2945 I'll have to check it out! Thanks
If I may interject... Nicholas Cage also was in a film called "Bad Lieutenant New Orleans". Harvey was better...err worse. Any Farrah film is a good film or TV show. Check out "Drive Crazy" with Cage and Amber Heard ( w/catchy tune:" F*ck the Pain Away"). Have fun!
when ozzy pours the oj i swear i hear someone in the original crew almost failing to stifle a laugh and it made me geek out
I learned recently that the close up of Ozzy's hands was staged to make it look like he was too fucked up to pour orange juice.
Delightful review, you have a great sense of humor! 😆♥️
Awesome movie, a childhood favorite
That was an exquisite pour and an exquisite job by the writers getting Farrah Fawcett into those skimpy costumes/outfits.
They knew exactly what they were doing - and so did she.
@@gregorde For sure man, no doubt.
I remember that outfit when I was an adolescent - I'm sure I saw it on Showtime or Cinemax after my parents went to bed.
They acted baked because they probably were baked.
Such amazing acting, you really do believe they are high on "blue dreamers"!
You failed to mention the scene where Farrah removes her towel, and we get an extended view of her dream balloons. I was young, and I couldn’t get enough of that scene. I saw this on HBO; there was no pause, no rewind, so I had to wait three days for it to be broadcast again…and again…!…and maybe again.
I remember my parents taking my brother and I to see this in the theater when it first came out. At 13 I was a huge sci-fi fan, and I have to say, it doesn't seem like much today, but it was a pretty amazing film for its time. In this time of AI fears, I think it's still a fairly poignant film, despite its obvious dating flaws. I still watch it at least once a year. As a matter of fact I think I'm going to watch it tonight!
"It's fun to watch Douglas and Fawcett act like they're totally baked."
ACT???
Was the weed really that good back then?
I saw this film 30 years ago. Doesn't the robot get the hots for Farrah?
The first five to ten minutes of this movie are a masterpiece, a testament to man's ability to suck the life out of his soul. Then Keitel lands on the moon and the film becomes mediocre interspersed with scenic genius. The set work and robot were extremely well done. A flawed film with great set design and music.
@@Rationalist001 The scene is great visually. The idea that the real moon guy is freezing to the point where he's shred into ice cubes looks great and is an interesting concept. Bad design is a part of technology i.e. The Space Shuttles were death machines.
Keitel puts on his helmet and he looks like a bug. He then goes to his ship which looks like a bug. The scene establishes that Keitel is a psychotic emotionless creep (a bug)...so I like the scene for these reasons.
I watched Farrah being interviewed by Johnny Carson (after her success with "The Burning Bed" and "Extremities") and she said that the original script was called "The Helper" and was a better script than the final product.
I forgot about this movie.
I watched it, some time in the mid 80s on VHS, but yeah time to put it on my watchlist. Thanks.
Back when there were video rental stores Saturn 3 was 1 of the early science fiction video cassettes you could rent, And while I was too young to rent it to or even get my parents to let me watch it, it was still just about the coolest cover art in the store to a young kid like me. I guess that answers the question of, "Who was the demographic for this thing?"
The cover art was also probably the only reason it made any money as a rental, at all. Well, that and Kirk Douglas's name... I mean, in what bad movie did Kirk Douglas ever appear? (LOL)
Okay, okay, okay.... it also didn't hurt that it was rated R and had Farrah Fawcett in it, so, again, preteen boys could hope....
And then one fine day I had some money of my own and was old enough to have my own movie rental membership. I finally got to watch Saturn 3 with years of pent-up anticipation....
Boy was I disappointed. I've never had a desire to watch it again - not even as part of some Mystery Science Theater sarcasm-party-battle....
Can you believe Saturn 3 came out within a year of Alien, Blade Runner, and Empire Strikes Back? It's like they weren't even TRYING to make a good movie. It is so bad, in comparison, that I'm embarrassed by proxy for the actors, crew, producers, and everyone else that got caught up in this piece of garbage....
I would love to see this as part of Mystery Science Theater 3000
Thanks for uncovering this cheesy gem!
Your tearing me apart farrah!!!!
That was a hilarious review. I have seen that film many times, randomly, usually as background noise on the Comet channel. It IS wonderfully cheesy, but it cannot top Robot Holocaust made in the late 80s, or the Gor films.
Just found this & OMG I LMFAO... however... I still love this movie LOL LOL LOL... as much as I loved the 80's
thanks for this. i love this film and nobody talks about it
People talk about it
I have to admit: I enjoyed this film, for what it was. Granted, I originally saw in in the movie theater, at age 6.
3:20
Farrah brought that outfit from home.
I was twenty when this came out and I did see it at the small local triplex theatre. It struck me as silly story wise but appealing visually with great sets and Farrah. I watched it again a few months ago and enjoyed it much more due to the it's so bad it's good vibe I see in it now.
3:39 Who was the target audience? Kirk Douglas. The film was made for Kirk Douglas. 🤣
Farrah Fawcett gave me a continuous woody that lasted well over a year back in ‘70’s
she was absolutely amazing... such a gorgeous woman and seemingly down for lots of different roles (Logans Run anyone?). I'd watch this just for her as she was my OG teenage crush.
Harvey Keitel's voice was totally dubbed by actor Roy Dotrice
Really? Cool!
And the dubbed voice is only noticed because Keitel went on to an impressive career.
@@scruffsbycartoonfish2301 yes the director didn't like Keitel's NY accent