The Snow Devils (1967)

In the mid-1960s Antonio Margheriti teamed up with a couple of American producers to make four space operas, beginning with The Wild, Wild Planet (1966). The Snow Devils was part of this series, appearing in 1967. All four of these space operas take place in the same universe, much of the action takes place in space station Gamma One, sets and props were sometimes re-used. Today we’d call this a franchise. In fact I’d refer to it as the Gamma One franchise.

These movies are often patronisingly referred to as camp classics or sneered at as “so-bad-it’s-good” movies. This is rather unfair. Margheriti was perhaps no auteur but he was a professional who turned out good well-crafted entertaining movies in many different genres. He was not a hack. And he was not an Italian Ed Wood Jr. either. The Gamma One movies were low-budget productions but the people involved were doing exactly what Mario Bava did in movies such as Planet of the Vampires - they were trying to stretch limited budgets as far as they could whilst making movies that looked striking and interesting. These Gamma One movies do have an outrageous 60s Pop Art sensibility to them, but that’s a feature not a bug. They really are visually arresting. This was the 1960s vision of a science fiction future.

The special effects are crude but that’s just the nature of low-budget movie-making.

The Snow Devils is available on DVD in the Warner Archive series.

The Snow Devils opens in a weather station in the Himalayas. The crew have picked up some truly startling temperature readings. So startling that they’re reluctant to report them for fear of being thought crazy. And then all hell breaks loose at the station.

Commander Rod Jackson (Giacomo Rossi Stuart) and Captain Frank Pulasky (Goffredo Unger) from United Democracies Star Command are sent to the Himalayas. Young Star Command scientist Lisa Nielson (Ombretta Colli) wants to accompany them. She was engaged to be married to the commander of the weather station and she’s convinced he survived the disaster. Jackson vetoes her request but of course you know that she’ll find a way to join the expedition.

When their helijet is destroyed Jackson and Pulasky set off into the mountains on foot, with a native guide and several porters. And yes, Lisa Nielson has managed to tag along.

Given the fact that the weather station had been located in yeti country there are of course jokes made that what they’re looking for is the yeti, the Abominable Snowman. The locals refer to the yeti as Snow Devils.

Jackson and his team find the Snow Devils but they’re not all what Jackson (and the audience) might have expected. At this point the movie changes gears somewhat, moving into more overt science fiction territory. I’m not going to tell you what they actually find in the Himalayas because it’s supposed to come as a shock revelation (and it is definitely a surprise).

Now Jackson has a real fight for survival on his hands.

The movie will then switch gears again. This was promised as a space opera but so far all the action has taken place on Earth. That is about to change. We are going to get spaceships and space battles.

The acting is what you expect from this type of movie although since the Warner Archive disc includes only the English dubbed version it’s difficult to make a real judgment on the performances.

Since this is 60s Italian space opera you’re going to be hoping for outrageousness and craziness and you get plenty of both. You get cheap but cool sets as well. And the ultra-groovy bubble cars, which appear in other Gamma One movies as well.

There’s zero sex or nudity. These were clearly movies aimed at a family audience. There’s a very slight hint of romance - the glamorous Lieutenant Teri Sanchez (Halina Zalewska) obviously thinks Commander Jackson is pretty hunky.

The Warner Archive DVD offers a reasonably OK transfer with no extras aside from a trailer.

I reviewed the first of the Gamma One movies, The Wild, Wild Planet (1966), a while back. It’s one of the grooviest sci-fi movies of the decade and is very highly recommended. The second of the Margheriti space operas, The War of the Planets (1966), is also enormous fun.

The Snow Devils is a crazy ride but I don’t see that as being due to any lack of ability of the part of the people who made this movie. They set out to make a fun popcorn movie and they succeeded. Highly recommended.