The Bamboo Saucer Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		2.0
Video		3.0
Audio		3.5
Extras		0.0
Overall		2.5

The Bamboo Saucer Blu-ray Movie Review

Space Station Zebra?

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman March 20, 2014

Metro Goldwyn Mayer was in the first of what would be recurrent death throes when it released two vastly different science fiction films in 1968. 2001: A Space Odyssey was initially misunderstood and even reviled in some quarters, but of course has gone on to become one of the most iconic films of all time, regardless of genre. Ice Station Zebra was a much (as in much) more old fashioned entertainment, a kind of clunky thriller (with some science fiction elements) that pitted dashing Americans against dastardly Russians in an attempt to retrieve a top secret satellite. Perhaps ironically there was a third science fiction film which premiered in 1968, one done on a much smaller scale than either of the MGM behemoths, which nonetheless included some elements of both of those larger, better known films. The Bamboo Saucer was a Jerry Fairbanks production, a not especially well remembered man nowadays who nonetheless has a star on the Hollywood Wake of Fame and who won an Oscar in 1945 for a short subject called Who’s Who in Animal Land. Fairbanks in fact made his early reputation producing shorts, but he was also farsighted enough to be one of the first film guys to make a foray into television, and Fairbanks is sometimes credited with having the multi-camera setup which soon became a staple in sitcoms. Fairbanks' partner in that invention was Frank Telford, who directed The Bamboo Saucer. Perhaps not coincidentally, the 1968 film features several actors who were at that point probably best known for their mid-sixties television work, including Peyton Place's Dan Duryea, McHale’s Navy’s Bob Hastings, Honey West’s John Ericson and Accidental Family’s Lois Nettleton. (A major supporting role is essayed by Bernard Fox, known to hordes of Baby Boomers as Dr. Bombay on Bewitched.) The Bamboo Saucer is an unabashedly lo-fi B-movie that nonetheless is probably better than some might expect, despite some frankly less than thrilling “special effects” and some occasionally wooden acting.

Fred Norwood (Jon Ericson) is a hot shot top gun who is testing an extremely expensive new jet prototype that may put its developer Victor Rhodes (Bartlett Robinson, another mid-sixties television regular, including a recurring role on Mona McCluskey) in line for a humongous Pentagon contract. Fred encounters a flying saucer in the air and begins evasive maneuvers, but the spacecraft’s huge magnetic field interrupts radar and radio contact, making Fred look like he’s lost his mind and is intent on crashing the jet. When he gets back to the ground his claims of having seen an extraterrestrial craft are scoffed at, and when Rhodes thrusts elevated pulse rate data in front of him and accuses him of being a madman, Fred realizes his test pilot days are probably at an end.

Fred enlists the aid of his sister (Nan Leslie) and her husband to take a little prop plane up at regular intervals to investigate any and all radar anomalies. Fred’s repeated efforts never turn anything up, but his brother-in-law actually manages to chase the craft down, resulting in a tragedy. Soon enough there’s even more corroborating evidence when Fred is summoned to a super-secret Washington, D.C. office and shown a sketch that a Chinese peasant made of a strange craft which crashed into a local church. It is of course the exact same spaceship that Fred had seen, and the political officer, a guy named Hank Peters (Dan Duryea), enlists Fred to accompany him to (Communist) China to track down the craft.

Fred, Hank and a coterie of various experts (including the aforementioned Hastings and Fox) manage to parachute into China, where they’re met by their liaison, a Chinese operative bearing the unlikely name of Sam Archibald (James Hong, yet another actor who will be instantly familiar to television addicted Baby Boomers). The Americans almost literally stumble upon a Russian group evidently on exactly the same mission they’re on, a group which includes a comely female scientist named Anna Karachev (Lois Nettleson) who instantly attracts Fred’s eye, and not just because she’s topless when he first spies her (it’s the sixties, remember, don’t count on anything too salacious).

Despite some simmering distrust, the two teams decide to work together, especially since both groups want to evade patrolling Red Chinese armies. The Bamboo Saucer actually defies one of the principal rules of lo-fi science fiction “spectaculars” by not delaying a look at the spaceship, delivering a view at around the halfway point when the Americans and Russians get to the Chinese church (after a few intermediary adventures) and begin to try to figure out some of the technology that governs the craft. One especially amusing moment comes when Jack Garson, the character played by Hastings, is using his electric shaver and the frequency of his device magically opens a previously hidden entry port into the vehicle.

Some subterfuge on the part of one of the Russians and, later, an incursion by the Chinese finally force Fred’s hand, and he, Anna and Garson take off in the spaceship, only to discover that an autopilot has somehow been engaged and they’re zinging off into the furthest reaches of the solar system. There’s some patently silly stuff in this segment of the film that is practically aching to be parodied on a show like Mystery Science Theater 3000, including some frankly hilarious interstitials of the trio just staring in various poses as the spaceship zings from planet to planet. There’s some passing blather given to world peace and the need to stand together as a species, now that it’s obvious there’s other intelligent life in the universe, though that of course presumes that the humans in this film are acting intelligently, which is a somewhat debatable proposition.

The Bamboo Saucer dances around the international sociopolitical issues that also inform Ice Station Zebra, while just barely touching on the close encounter and evolutionary elements that underlie 2001: A Space Odyssey, but it does so in a fairly flatfooted manner. The film isn’t downright horrible, and is certainly far from the worst low budget science fiction film to appear during this general era, but it’s obviously a resolutely simpleminded affair that may have pretensions toward grandiosity (as evidenced by its closing quote from President Kennedy), but which ultimately fails to achieve anything much more than standard issue time killing entertainment.

The Bamboo Saucer Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

The Bamboo Saucer is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Olive Films with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.78:1. This is a somewhat bifurcated looking release, depending on whether process photography or matte shots are in evidence. The sequences which don't rely on any special effects actually boast decent (if somewhat faded) color and saturation, and above average clarity and sharpness (see screenshots 5 and 6 for two good examples). On the other hand, the process and matte shots look decidedly worse than the bulk of the film, in some cases offering noticeably faded color and a more expected increase in softness and grain. There's quite a bit of age related damage to note as well, with typical bugaboos like dirt and white flecks dotting the premises. If I had the ability to, I'd probably upgrade this to around a 3.25 to account for the better looking sections, but since the second half of the film depend so heavily on matte shots, which probably never looked fantastic but are frankly even shoddier looking in high definition, I've "demoted" this to a 3.0.

The Bamboo Saucer Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

The Bamboo Saucer's lossless DTS-HD Master Audio Mono track is a bit on the narrow side but actually has no real damage or age related wear and tear to report, and sounds nicely full, especially in the midrange. Dialogue and the film's sometimes annoyingly intrusive score both resonate completely clearly, though the music can sound just slightly thin in the upper registers.

The Bamboo Saucer Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

No supplements of any kind are offered on this Blu-ray disc.

The Bamboo Saucer Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

The Bamboo Saucer tries to be sober minded about international relations and what Mankind's first contact with extraterrestials (or at least their spaceship) might mean for the future of our species, but it's undercut by a paltry budget and some less than viscerally compelling acting. The film in fact often plays like a made for television movie, which considering its cast of small screen regulars is completely appropriate.