Show notes

As always there are spoilers ahead!

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If you are interested in the plot of the film you can read an overview on the wikipedia page here.

In 1953 writer Ray Bradbury released his magnum opus Fahrenheit 451. It quickly became a widely acclaimed cautionary tale about the dangers of censorship, authoritarianism and the effects of mass media on human ideas and connection.

One of the most prominent science fiction books it is easy to understand why François Truffaut, one of the French New Wave's most prominent directors, became utterly focused on making the story into a film.

The process had its challenges with producers, funding and a casting changes causing delays. The film was finally wrapped up and released in 1966 to both positive and negative reviews. It is an interesting watch if not a gripping one and my two expert guests unravel the ins and outs of how it came to be.

Ian Scott is a Professor of American Film and History at The University of Manchester. He has written extensively about politics and film in Hollywood including the book American Politics in Hollywood Film.

Phil Nichols is a visiting lecturer at the University of Wolverhampton and a researcher with a special interest in Ray Bradbury. He is Senior Consultant to the Ray Bradbury Centre at Indiana University and editor of The New Ray Bradbury Review. He is also the man behind the Bradbury 100 podcast and the Science Fiction 101 podcas

Chapters

00:00 Introduction

01:32 Fahrenheit 451: a sci-fi heavyweight

04:36 Truffaut and the book

11:03 Suburban scifi in the mid century

13:33 Politics of the story

15:07 Truffaut's perspective

20:01 Julie Christie's double role

26:50 Searching for Montag

34:29 Burning with her books

39:12 Bernard Herrmann's score

40:40 The 2018 remake

49:56 Bradbury's stage play

51:37 Recommendations

Recommendations:

Never Let Me Go (2010)

The Wild Child (1970)

NEXT EPISODE!

Next episode we will be discussing Fantastic Voyage from 1966! The film is annoyingly a little tricky to find online but can be rented easily on mainstream platforms in some countries. You can check the Just Watch website to see where it is available in your region.

As always there are spoilers ahead!

You can follow the podcast on social media on Threads, Instagram and Bluesky.

If you would like to be a patron of the podcast and get that amazing feeling of wellbeing that comes from contributing to the research, planning and anxiety that does towards making a podcast I would love to encourage it! You can join Patreon and for £3 or $3 a month you can get ad free version of the show. https://www.patreon.com/everyscififilm

Seconds is a visually striking and thoroughly uncomfortable film. A 1960s film that examines dissatisfied suburban living, mid-life crisis and the yearning for youth and freedom. I think it's vastly underrated which is probably something both of my genuinely amazing guests agree with. (Apologies for not offering more of a counterpoint to this view!)

Mark Bould is a professor of Film and Literature at the University of West England, Bristol. He has written/edited extensively about science fiction cinema.

Sherryl Vint is Professor of Science Fiction Media Studies at the University of California, Riverside. She has also written/edited extensively about science fiction.

Chapters:

00:00 Introduction

01:31 Frankenheimer's fantastic films

05:55 Science fiction in the 60s

07:55 The striking work of James Wong Howe

12:18 Saul (and Elaine) Bass credits

14:42 Mid Life Crisis in the 1960s

19:20 Dissatisfaction in the middle class

21:38 The Tennis Trophy

24:40 Rock Hudson and John Randolph

31:54 The Wine Stomp

37:02 Corporation as "The Monster" and PK Dick

38:48 Frankenstein and face surgery

41:44 The business model and Tech Bros

45:08 Legacy

50:39 Trivia tidbits

53:51 Recommendations

Recommendations:

Phase IV (1974)

Face of Another (1966)

Mark also mentions: Eyes Without a Face (1960) and Darkman (1990)

NEXT EPISODE!

Next episode we take a dive into the 1966 François Truffaut science fiction film Fahrenheit 451. The film is very annoyingly tough to get hold of on streaming platforms but can apparently be found on Fandango and you can search the Just Watch website to check where it might be available in your region. You can buy the DVD quite easily for not extortionate prices in many places. There do seem to be dodgy websites that also have the film but obviously I would never encourage you to search for such things.

As always there are spoilers ahead!

You can follow the podcast on social media on Threads, Instagram and Bluesky.

If you would like to be a patron of the podcast you can join Patreon and for £3 or $3 a month you can get ad free version of the show. https://www.patreon.com/everyscififilm

Apologies in advance for my butchering of Italian pronunciation during this episode.

Although we mentioned in the Planet of the Vampires episode the copycat nature of Italian cinema in the 1960s, The 10th Victim by Elio Petri does not fit that mould. The film has a definite style that may offer commentary on Italian film, comics and culture but looks to set a new mould for films coming out of Italy. Cultural change in Europe and America in the 1960s came in many different flavours and with different driving forces. My excellent guests help to unravel the cultural context of this stylish cult classic.

Stephen Gundle is a Professor of Film and Television at the University of Warwick. He has a special interest in Italian cultural history.

Leon Hunt is a retired Senior Lecturer of Screen Studies at Brunel University with a special interest in Italian Genre Cinema.

Chapters

00:00 Introduction.

01:17 Collectively written script

04:02 Italy in the 1960s

05:19 Marcello Mastroianni Commedia all'Italiana and global fame

09:33 Echoes of La Dolce Vita

15:02 Style over substance?

17:03 Gender roles

20:38 The violence of man

23:28 The gun bra, design and pop art

26:17 Comic book culture in Italy

32:46 Religion and belief systems

36:55 Changing Italian culture: American influence, economic growth and celebrity worship

45:52 Legacy

51:07 Recommendations for the listener

Recommendations:

Danger Diabolik (1968) directed by Mario Bava

Modesty Blaise (1966) directed by Jospeh Losey

La Dolce Vita (1960) directed by Federico Fellini

NEXT EPISODE!

You have two weeks to find and watch Seconds (1966) by John Frankenheimer as we finally head into 1966! The film is available to rent or buy on Apple TV in the UK, and for free on Kanopy in the US. You can check the JustWatch website for details of where it's available in your region. (Waves frantically at new global listeners!)

As always there are spoilers ahead!

You can follow the podcast on social media on Threads, Instagram and Bluesky.

If you would like to be a patron of the podcast you can join Patreon and for £3 or $3 a month you can get ad free version of the show. https://www.patreon.com/everyscififilm

Despite a failed pilot Star Trek made it to TV in 1966. Creator, Gene Roddenberry's vision of a future that was beyond the contemporary struggles of civil rights and racism and global Cold War tensions but very much aligned with the style of the 1960s. As a diverse crew faced alien planets and tackled ethical questions audience numbers dwindled and cancellation loomed. The show was finally axed in 1969 but a growing fanbase aided by syndication meant what could have been a small part of TV history actually became a huge phenomena.

My amazing Trekkie guests discuss the origins of my favourite franchise.

Julian Chambliss is a scholar and a professor at Michigan State University. He has taught Star Trek as part of his Media Race and Culture classes.

Carey Millsap-Spears is a professor of communications/literature at Moraine Valley Community College. She has written extensively about Star Trek including the 2023 book Star Trek Discovery and the Female Gothic.

Chapters:

00:00 Intro

01:36 Gene Roddenberry's pitch and the pilot episode

04:29 A new kind of frontier

08:34 The fans

11:06 Woke and the 1960s

17:26 The gothic in Star Trek

20:39 Captain Kirk as Casanova?

26:09 That kiss and Uhura

30:42 Utopia!

36:47 Propaganda

39:24 The Alien others

44:08 Technology, NASA and Nichelle Nichols

47:29 The Next Generation

51:52 Why do we love Star Trek?

54:32 Recommendations

Recommendations

The Centre Seat: 55 Years of Star Trek (2021)

StarTrek II: The Wrath of Khan

NEXT EPISODE!

You have two weeks to find and watch The 10th Victim (1965) by Elio Petri. Another Italian film (like last episode's Planet of the Vampires) but a very different feel. Although coupld contend with Mario Bava's Danger Diabolik (1968) for the most 60s film ever made! The film is available to rent online in many places. You can check the JustWatch website for details of what it's available in your region.

As always there are spoilers ahead!

You can follow the podcast on social media on Threads, Instagram and Bluesky.

If you would like to be a patron of the podcast you can join Patreon and for £3 or $3 a month you can get ad free version of the show. https://www.patreon.com/everyscififilm

Planet of the Vampires was directed by Mario Bava and released in 1965. American International Pictures had made money with Italian films such as Black Sunday (1960) but would often need to oversee many changes to make the films suitable for an American audience. Their solution was to provide a script and co-produce a film so they could control the content.

The film had a small budget of around $200,000 and although it definitely has its fair share of Schlock, Bava had a reputation for doing a lot on a small budget.

My guests unravel why Mario Bava's reputation and love for this film continue to grow.

Scott Higgins is Professor of Film at Wesleyan University as well as being the Curator of the Wesleyan Cinema Archives.

Russ Hunter is an Assistant Professor in Film & Television Studies at Northumbria University. He has a special interest in Italian genre cinema.

Scott says Eugenio Bava (Mario's Father) invented the Schüfftan process before Eugen Schüfftan after whom it was named. You can read more about this here: https://dcairns.wordpress.com/tag/schufftan-process/

Chapters

00:00 Introduction

01:46 AIP involvement

04:14 Italian cinema in 1965

09:01 Dubbing

14:31 Names changes and US appeal

17:28 Mario Bava

21:51 Scott's love for this film

27:12 Bava and Barry

29:22 Special Effects and the Schüfftan process

33:39 Production and Set Design

35:21 Style over coherence

38:33 The alien

41:35 Influences and origins

43:40 Vampires in name

44:20 Legacy

49:06 Recommendations

Recommendations:

The Green Slime (1968) by Kinji Fukasaku

Tu Vuo' Fa' L'americano by Renato Carosone

Danger: Diabolik (1968) by Mario Bava

Mario Bava: All the Colors of the Dark by Tim Lucas

NEXT EPISODE:

As we approach 1966 on the podcast it is time to talk about my favourite franchise which will be 60 years old this September! A little detour into the beginnings of Star Trek in two week's time.

As always there are spoilers ahead! (And the podcast is much more fun if you've seen the film first.)

You can follow the podcast on social media on Threads, Instagram and Bluesky.

If you would like to be a patron of the podcast you can join Patreon and for £3 or $3 a month you can get ad free version of the show. https://www.patreon.com/everyscififilm

Jean-Luc Godard is potentially the most prominent of the French New Wave directors. In the mid-60s his mind turned to science fiction and the result was a visually striking, choatic film about a dystopian world in which logic rules and love is punished.

If you find the film confusing you are not alone and I have two brilliant academic brains to help us out.

Roger Luckhurst is a Professor at Birkbeck, University of London. He has written/edited numerous articles and books on cultural history and film.

Douglas Morrey is an associate professor of French at the University of Warwick. He has a special interest in the French new Wave on which he has written extensively, including the 2005 book Jean-Luc Godard.

CORRECTION: In the podcast I mention Roger citing Alphaville having an image from Chris Marker's La Jetée but the image is actually Marker's photograph which is in the credit sequence but doesn not feature in La Jetée.

The book of poetry in the film Capitale de la douleur (Capital of Pain) is written by Paul Elouard.

Chapters:

00:00 Intro

01:40 French New Wave in 1965

03:38 Godard's influences for Alphaville

11:31 Eddie Constantine: The illogical Noir hero

16:43 Lemmy Caution and fascism

18:05 Alienation and confusion

25:52 Godard's technique and budgets

30:07 Sound design

32:30 The swimming pool execution scene

39:26 Love, poetry and Godard's divorce

47:00 Godard and women

49:30 Legacy

53:57 Recommendations

Recommendations:

• The Trial written by Franz Kafka and made into a film by Orson Wells released in 1962.

• Weekend (1967) by Godard.

NEXT EPISODE!

Next episode we will be talking about Planet of the Vampires, the low budget 1965 dubbed delight by Mario Bava. The film is campy (and for me quite hilarious) as well as being famed for inspiring Alien (1979). (Perhaps a little overstated in this regard?) You can find the film to rent on Amazon, Apple, Flixfling and may find it on free platforms with ads in your region. You can check the JustWatch website for more details.

As usual there are spoilers ahead!

You can follow the podcast on social media on Threads, Instagram and Bluesky.

If you would like to be a patron of the podcast you can join Patreon and for £3 or $3 a month you can get ad free version of the show. https://www.patreon.com/everyscififilm

This episode we track the birth of one of the longest running franchises. Dr Who was first broadcast in 1963 and with the help of some exterminating aliens a film was produced just a couple of years later. I speak to my wonderful Whovian guests about the origins, the hallmarks and the 1960s context of the infamous Doctor including the colourful and shiny 1960s feature films.

Paul Booth is a professor of Media and Pop Culture with a special interest in fandoms on which he has written extensively. He is co-editor of the book Adventures Across Space and Time: A Doctor Who Reader.

Lee Arnott is the co-host if the Problematic Gaze podcast. He is a social historian who is currently researching the the social history of Britain since the 1960s through the lens of Doctor Who.

Although Australian composer Ron Gainer wrote the music for Dr Who it was Delia Derbyshire at the BBC Radiophonic Workshop who produced the theme.

You can see the Delia Derbyshire clip I mention on YouTube here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qsRuhCflRyg

Chapters:

00:00 Introduction

01:41The BBC origins of the series

04:45 The first episode, changes and differences on the big screen

09:40 The Daleks and Dalekmania

13:20 WW2, Nazis and nuclear fears

19:37 More Daleks

23:33 The Doctor

27:33 What is canon

29:21 The Companions

35:13 The Tardis

38:05 Design

42:02 (The best ever) theme tune

45:46 Legacy

49:22 Success and favourite doctors

53:04 Recommendations

Recommendations:

Lee recommended The War Game (1965) and Paul recommended the book Dr. Who & The Daleks: The Official Story of the Films by John Walsh.

NEXT EPISODE!

Next episode we will be discussing the 1965 French New Wave science fiction film Alphaville by Jean-Luc Godard. It is easy to rent on main streaming platforms as well as other places in the US including Mubi and Kanopy. To find the film in your region you can visit the Just Watch website.

As always there are spoilers ahead!

You can follow the podcast on social media on Threads, Instagram and Bluesky.

If you would like to be a patron of the podcast you can join Patreon and for £3 or $3 a month you can get ad free version of the show. https://www.patreon.com/everyscififilm

First Men on the Moon was written by HG Wells and serialised in The Strand Magazine beginning in 1900. The book was published in 1901 a year before Georges Méliès kicked off science fiction cinema with La Voyage dans la Lune in 1902. (You can learn more about that film in episode number 2 The First Science Fiction Film Ever.)

Then in the swinging 60s as the space race was heating up a collection of brilliant sci-fi filmmakers go together to make a story about a Victorian British scientist going to the moon with his anti-gravity material Cavorite! And yet even the amazing Ray Harryhausen stop motion special effects were not enough to make this film a success. My amazing guests break down the origins and outcomes of this mid-century oddity.

Keith Williams is a Reader in English Literature at the University of Dundee where he runs the science fiction programme. He has a special interest in the pre 1945 period and is the author of the book H.G. Wells, Modernity and the Movies.

Matthew Rule-Jones is a senior lecturer in film studies at the University of Exeter and author of the book Science Fiction Cinema and 1950s Britain: Recontextualising Cultural Anxiety.

At 6:09 Keith is about to explain the contraption that Robert William Paul was planning based on HG wells Time Machine. I interrupt him as we've covered this in two episodes priot. You can access more information about that on episode 37 The Time Machine: HG Wells' Legacy in 1960s Sci-Fi at timecode 23:07 or in episode 9 The Invisible Man Exposed at timecode 38:29.

Chapters

00:00 Intro

02:23 HG Wells, selenites and Georges Méliès Trip to the Moon

06:57 Balancing act: Producer Charles Schneer vs Writer Nigel Kneale.

12:44 Box Office flop

15:12 Dreams of Empire and international cooperation

19:40 Steampunk sensibilities

22:26 The backdrop of the Space Race

26:58 Bedford and Cavor

33:20 Ray Harryhausen

37:50 NASA and the moon landing

41:12 Ant colonies and sci-fi

46:42 Legacy

50:10 Recommendations

Recommendations:

The First Men in the Moon (2010)

The Stone Tape (1972) available to view on YouTube here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uHgcpzzZspw

NEXT EPISODE!

The next episode will feature two films: Dr Who & the Daleks (1965) as well as Daleks' Invasion Earth 2150 A.D. (1966). These films are available to buy or stream on mainstream platforms like Apple and Prime as well as subscription services. The Just Watch website is a good resource for finding where films are available in your region.

I am very sorry but I have been unwell this past week. (But I am on the mend!)

Multiple visits to the hospital mean that although I have the next episode recorded I have not been able to edit it.

I've heard many podcasts serve up older episodes in this circumstance. Maybe an annoyance to those who have already heard all the episodes but for those who haven't since it is 2026 it's probably a good opportunity to watch Metropolis (1927) as this year is the year it was set. I have two remarkable and engaging academics speak about it.

Sonja Fritzsche is a professor of German Studies and an author/editor for many books about science fiction. She has taught courses on science fiction, utopia and Metropolis.

Noah Isenberg is a film historian and best-selling author. He is a professor at the University of Texas and editor of the book Weimar Cinema: An Essential Guide to Classic Films of the Era.

This episode was originally released in April 2024 and was episode 5 of the podcast.

I will hopefully be back in great health soon and the new episode on First Men in the Moon will be edited for release in two weeks.

As always there are spoilers ahead!

You can follow the podcast on social media on Threads, Instagram and Bluesky.

If you would like to be a patron of the podcast you can join Patreon and for £3 or $3 a month you can get ad free version of the show. https://www.patreon.com/everyscififilm

In 1958 the Peter George novel Red Alert was published about the dangers of nuclear war. A few years later when Stanley Kubrick was looking to make a (serious) film about the topic he was recommended the book.

Dr Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb was the resulting film. The film takes aim at military strategy, rhetoric and the people involved to give us one of the most famous satires in cinema.

It would be quite easy to double the length of this episode, but we've tried to fit as much as we can into the hour with my two remarkable guests.

Mark Bould is a professor of Film and Literature at the University of West England, Bristol. He has written/edited extensively about science fiction cinema.

Rodney F Hill is a Professor of Film at the Lawrence Herbert School of Communication at Hofstra University and has written extensively about film.

This is the article I mention by Eric Schlosser: https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/almost-everything-in-dr-strangelove-was-true

Chapters:

00:00 Intro

01:12 Source material

03:12 The threat of Lumet's Fail Safe

05:35 Herman Kahn, winnable nuclear war and the doomsday machine

08:25 Nazi scientist Wernher von Braun and Operation Paperclip

13:55 Nuclear policy and the Cold War

17:23 Doomsday comedy

25:51 Masculinity, techno-eroticism and bodily fluids

33:21 Peter Sellers

38:04 1960s satire boom

40:11 Production design of Ken Adam

41:25 Music

43:27 The changes to the film

46:32 Legacy

54:34 Recommendations

Recommendations: 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) and Fail Safe (1964).

NEXT EPISODE!

Next episode we will be talking about First Men on the Moon (1964). The film is based on the HG Wells novel and features stop motion animation by Ray Harryhausen.

It is is available to stream and rent from Apple. The Just Watch website can give you a list of where the film is available in your region.

Time for another detour! An introduction to Afrofuturism with two magnificent guests.

You can follow the podcast on social media on Threads, Instagram and Bluesky.

If you would like to be a patron of the podcast it would be greatly appreciated! You can join Patreon and for £3 or $3 a month you can get ad free version of the show. https://www.patreon.com/everyscififilm

The symbol mentioned in the podcast a few times is the Sankofa symbol which is a recurring symbol in Afrofuturism. It represents the idea that there are things that you go back for (and things you leave behind). You can read more about it on this wiki page: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sankofa

Julian Chambliss is a scholar and a professor at Michigan State University. He is the author of multiple books including Mapping Afrofuturism: Understanding Black Speculative Practice

Ytasha Womack is a filmmaker, cultural critic and author of the books Afrofuturism: The World of Black Sci-Fi and Fantasy Culture and The Afro Futurist Evolution: Creative Paths of Self Discovery.

Chapters

00:00 Introduction

01:18 Afrofuturism origin story

08:04 Afrofuturism and science fiction

11:44 Retro Afrofuturism: Of One Blood by Pauline Hopkinson

16:37 The diaspora and Afrofuturism

19:53 Dance and the individual as a nexus of time and space

23:24 Ancestry in Afrofuturism

25:32 Moving away from dystopia: Slavery as apocalypse

29:55 Optimism for the future

33:03 Holistic utopias and protopia.

35:43 Mystical frameworks

38:15 Alternative realities and the multiverse

41:38 Theory, practice and interconnectedness

46:21 Recommendations

Recommendations:

The Afro Futurist Evolution: Creative Paths of Self Discovery by Ytasha Womack

(I would also thoroughly recommend her book Afrofuturism: The World of Black Sci-Fi and Fantasy Culture.)

Agharta by Miles Davis

Blake; or The Huts of America: A Tale of the Mississippi Valley, the Southern United States, and Cuba by Martin Delany

Space is the Place by Sun Ra

Lee "Scratch" Perry

George Clinton

Mothership Connection by Parliament

Pedro Bell and Overton Loyd

Beyond the Black Panther exhibition at MSU

Rise podcast by Julian

Infinitum by Tim Fielder

NEXT EPISODE!

Next time we'll be talking about Dr Strangelove or: How I learned to Stop Worrying and love the Bomb (1964)! You can watch the film pretty much anywhere and it is readily available to buy or rent online from many platforms. I would also recommend watching Fail Safe from the same year because it is excellent, affected the production of Dr Strangelove and due to their similarities.