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What a great selection, Forbidden Planet is one of the best I have ever seen. A movie that has cult status for many reasons, studio MGM spent a great deal of money making this movie and doesn't it show. Cast exceptional for the time and of course the special effects are pre CGI. The coolest robot ever portrayed in a movie "Robbie the robot". I noted a couple not in my collection which I had forgotten about which are also very innovative for the time of the 50's. 😃

There are enough good 1960s Si-fi movies that you can make several more permutations. I saw Barbarella (1968) starring Hanoi Jane, in 1969 in a rundown theater with moths on top of the popcorn in the dispenser. The front row of seats was turned over. This was just outside West Point NY. This film is the source of John Taylor’s and Nick Rhodes’ “Duran Duran” in 1978 in Birmingham, England

Thank you for the great memories... I saw and enjoyed all. Your fantastic choices 👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻

NASA took the idea of a portable VCR camera for the Apollo program from Robinson...Mars.

Barbarella: Pygar's wings were way better than Flash Gordon/s Hawkman wings, like the technology went backwards over 20 years.

I guess I am not following your logic. Planet of the Apes was excluded because of the lack of spaceship action. But include Barbarella, which has her landing on the planet by the third scene of the film.

2001 sucks. Pointless story.

I DESPISE ANY CENSORSHIP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Barbarella, where a rather young Jane Fonda removes a spacesuit better than anyone ever.

When I was a kid I received for Christmas a toy hand cranked movie projector and it came with The First Spaceship On Venus which was about 7 or 8 minutes long and used subtitles since the projector didn't have sound. It was a confusing movie having been cut up to fit such a short length film. A few years ago I saw the DVD selling for a dollar so I had to get it and finally understand why the rocket was taking off from Venus with it retro rockets firing. I only had to wait 50 years.

Wow- impressive behind the Iron Curtain knowledge! I’ve never heard of anyone talking about this, ever!

How About Space Probe Taurus aka Space Monster. Looks and feels like a 1950s film but was made in 1965 in B&W free on CZcams and stuck in DVD land. Mostly bootlegs.

The past tense of "drag" is "dragged" not "drug".

The first two or three minutes of Barbarella has several interesting features. The remainder is cheap, silly, childish, and scene by scene, just plain dumb.

Journey to the Seventh Planet (1962) - Starring John Agar. Beautiful print in very good color and terrific story about a voyage to Uranus and fantastic things the crew experiences. Not to be missed. This is my number one selection from the 1960s. Ikarie XB-1, AKA Voyage to the End of the Universe (1963) - Based on a novel by Stanislav Lem. Women of the Prehistoric Planet (1966) - Not to be confused with The Planet of Prehistoric Women. Journey to the Far Side of the Sun (1969) - Written by Gerry & Sylvia Anderson, and Starring Roy Thinnes. Marooned (1969) - Gregory Peck, Richard Crenna, Gene Hackman, David Jansen, James Franciscus, Lee Grant, Nancy Kovack, Mariette Hartley. Based on the Martin Caidin Novel. Countdown (1967) - Directed by Robert Altman. Starring James Caan, Joanna Moore, Steve Ihnat, Ted Knight. Based on the riveting novel by Hanks Searls. And an Honorable Mention to The Forbidden Planet, which didn't make the list because it released in 1957, but let's agree it was WAY ahead of its time!

You have to watch, "Queen of Blood," circa 1966. For decades, ever since I saw "Alien" in the theater, I have insisted that Ridley Scott ripped off this movie to make "Alien." I still insist he did. The plot is a space crew lands on a planet and then harvests what they think are plants or seed buds. But what they really are are the eggs of an alien queen who smuggles herself on board their ship and then one by one begins killing the crew in horrible ways. Of course they manage to kill her eventually. But after they land the director shows the ground crew carrying the alien eggs off the ship. Ending the scene showing the quivering eggs pulsing rhythmically. "The End" I must have seen it in the theater but what I remembered most was how terrifyingly suspenseful it was. But of course, I was only 7 years old at the time. I looked for it for decades but couldn't find it because I couldn't remember the name! No one else could remember even ever seeing it and of course Scott (actually Dan O'Bannon wrote the screenplay) claimed his idea came from some other movie with a plot with ZERO similarities to "Alien," as I recall. I finally tracked down the name by playing 20 questions with ChatGPT! I couldn't believe it had "Queen of Blood" for a title. I never would have guessed that! But I found a website with it on it and watched it. Yep! That was it!

No one who was an adult in the 60’s will watch anything Hanoi Jane was in.😡

You were right, that's when I stopped. Crappy video.

Robinson Crusoe on Mars showed he had electronic device that was radio and TV all in one. I always thought that was cool and now we have smart phones.

How about "First Men in the Moon" British, 1964

Robinson Crusoe on Mars is my favorite space movie of all time. The only good thing about Barbarella is Jane Fonda in the nude!

I saw 2001 in the theater in 1968 at 12 years old and I looked at my father and asked “what the heck was that about”. He tried to explain it inasmuch as he understood. I rewatched the movie again a few years ago and man! It’s one of the most boring movies I’ve ever forced myself to finish watching, and no matter how many times it’s explained to me for the most part I don’t get it.

Honorable mention: THE HEAVENS CALL (1959), a Russian science fiction movie that takes place in the aftermath of World War III, when the United States and the Soviet Union undertake a race to Mars. During the voyage to Mars by both surviving countries, the American astronauts get themselves in a fix and the Russian cosmonauts bail them out. B-movie maestro Roger Corman found out about this Soviet production, had the feature re-dubbed, re-cut, and re-edited. He had Francis Ford Coppola shoot some footage of two alien creatures, changed the names of the two surviving countries to North Hemis and South Hemis, and turned it loose as BATTLE BEYOND THE SUN (1963), and had the cast members’ names Anglicized to hide the fact that it was a Russian flick. Even in its Americanized state, the idea of international cooperation still shines through.

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Where DVDs are available they are far too expensive..... such a shame.

Making a list like this is hard to do as there are so many Sci Fi movies from this era that were great.

Where did you get the good copy?

Eric what about The Day the Earth Stood Still

Thanks for the reviews and list! Phantom Planet was an excellent MST3K episode. There had to be better 60s sci-fi films then that? Lol. Check out The Time Travelers (with a cameo by Forrest J. Ackerman, who coined the term "sci-fi"!), Mission Mars (Darren McGavin and a late role by Nick Adams), and if you want a notorious Sci-Fi film to watch that was also riffed, check out The Doomsday Machine (filmed in the 60s but released much later, riffed by Cinema Insomnia)!

Planet of Storms - Not only was this chopped up and made into Voyage to a Prehistoric Planet, a few years later, it was re-edited a second time and made into Voyage to the Planet of Prehistoric Women. They added scenes of women in clamshell bikinis lounging around on rocks. They worship a pterodactyl, but at the end of the movie, they turn on it, and erect the lava encrusted robot as their new god.

I would have include First Men In The Moon from 1964 starring Edward Judd. If you haven't seen it, I highly recommend it. On another note, I remember paying my 25 cents at the Saturday matinee, also in 1964 and watching Robinson Crusoe On Mars on a really big screen. As a 7 year old I loved it and I still like it today. It holds up fairly well. Of course, 2001 is probably my favorite all time film, period.

2001 is great

1st spaceship on Venus is a classic

Sounds like women of the prehistoric planet😅

All sci-fi films are well done❤

Robinson Crusoe on Mars is actually a great movie, despite the title. It's taken seriously and the effects are really good.

and what about "2010 contact" i mean, the second part of 2001

Thanks good Sir! Pretty good list! I think Bava's Planet of the Vampires is indeed, one of the "best looking" sci-fi films ever made. Only the Italians would spend half the budget on the uniforms, heh. As for "influencing Alien", I think we are now on page 2 of the list for that accomplishment, heh heh. Also, I have 4 Russian sci-fi films on DVD and honestly I couldn't tell you their titles from sitting here at the keyboard but from your screen shots, I recognized "Planet of Storms" and as I only have the originals, I'm unaware of the Bogdonovitch contributions. I agree it looks GREAT! As do the other 3 that someday I'll drop back here and mention.

ther's polish post apocaliptic movie, called "obi- oba end of civilization" and it's really good one, btw. nice review and cool channel. Thanks

Seems like I watch Robinson Crusoe on Mars on a regular basis, as first saw it as a kid during some Saturday matinee double feature back in the day...I'll also mention Journey to the Seventh Planet from 1962 with John Agar and Miss Denmark 1951..the lovely Greta Thyssen.

No.

Barbarella that soundtrack

Planet of the Vampires is terrifying. Even demonic. There is a science fiction inner space movie which is truly remarkable. It is Fantastic Voyage.

You forgot about Forbidin Planet with the late great Leslie Nielsen and Walter Pigeon. It laid the groundwork for some great Sci-Fi TV shows like Babylon 5 the Great Machine on Epsilon 3.

It is a ratio of the best fiction by year with pioneer directors leading the way, innovation in low-tech years of movie making, unique plots with visionary writers, and popularity. I watched all of them in my youth. The next generation sets of movies should contain the Babylonian, Sumerian, Akkadian, Incan, and Toltec accounts, including the Vimana and Mayan accounts. All present stories of our creation as servants of the Gods and that we are a mixture of created beings from animals and their DNA so that these beings could live like Gods among us. We were animals to them in the beginning and we were modified by beings from space. What would be a better source of fiction than vain aliens conquering new planets? Would we do the same? I believe so since "they" are already in the DNA of our own history. You might say the Day of the Triffids came and went on this planet already. A joint China/US effort has already made a smarter monkey against moral indignations over genetic tampering globally. Sold we name the product the Thing? Or, perhaps after Enki. It may yet be a new Old Futures Video.

The Martian , I agree was a spin on Robinson Crusoe on Mars and surviving under bleak conditions. Crusoe on Mars gave me much more hope of finding life out there.

I was fascinated by all of these old movies as a kid. In my family of ten, I was the youngest. A black and white television was my babysitter. It brings me back to the days of hanging on the edge of my seat. Thanks for the foreign references too. I do not think I'd ever seen them. I have a mission now.

I don’t know if this space movie was late 1950s or 60s but I remember watching it on TV as a kid in the 70s and these astronauts at the end were running back to their spaceship and the last astronaut gets eaten by some blob or something and the screen is flashing and the other astronauts are helpless on the ship. I couldn’t find it since.

Of course 2001 Space Odyssey Hands down! But Robinson Crusoe on Mars ruled with accuracy and realism! (At that time) I seen as a kid on the big screen blew my mind and firmly planted my interest in the space race of the 1960,s they did the special effects beautifully and accurately way before Stanley Kubrick 2001 Space Odyssey masterpiece. As an adult that movie (Robinson Crusoe on Mars) is still good. I later discover it looks like they modeled the alien spacecraft off of the UFOs Describe by Kenneth Arnold.

Excellent video Eric. I subscribed because of it.👍🏻🍻🕯🌙🌟🚀