Space Rangers in the Movies: Planet of Storms

While I working on a few upcoming gallery posts of space rangers, I stumbled upon this awesome find. It's a 1962 Russian sci-fi EPIC called Planeta Bur a.k.a. Planet of the Storms. Directed by Soviet Era filmmaker Pavel Klushantsev, it features some seriously slick production values in the way of costumes and vehicle designs, but is probably best remembered for it's Robby look-alike "John the Robot". Wikipedia says the costume had over 42-points of articulation, which I'm pretty sure outdoes Robby by about 40 points. [snark!]

Here, our intrepid explorers are beset upon by human-sized Godzillas:

The plot, according to Wikipedia:

In the future, a Soviet-American expedition to Venus encounters problems upon landing and must be rescued by a companion ship already in orbit around the planet. The cosmonauts must overcome adversity and challenges using their courage, skills and technology.

Pieces of the film made their way into the Roger Corman's "Journey to the Planet of the Prehistoric Women".

Vehicle design:

Snazzy space threads:

DVD and movie posters:

And best of all, action shots:

"What's that you NASA punk? You wanna hitch a ride on the Soyuz?"

BONUS:
Here's a moon landing scene from Klushantsev's earlier film Road to the Stars, which was part documentary-part sci-fi imagining. Think Wonderful World of Disney's Tommorrowland for the Soviets.

• Planet of Storms on IMDB
• Get it on Amazon
• Rediscovered on Boing Boing (video link no longer works there)