Space Jockey (lost unfinished Phil Tucker film; 1953): Difference between revisions

Revision as of 21:36, 2 November 2022

Poster for Robot Monster, the film Tucker created after Space Jockey.

Status: Lost

Phil Tucker (1927-1985) is an American film director mostly known for directing the 1953 science-fiction movie Robot Monster, often listed among the worst movies of all time. Before Robot Monster, he started working on a movie that he never finished: Space Jockey an unfinished, unreleased film dating back to 1953.

Tucker describes the lost film as "probably the worst film ever made", "a real piece of shit" while he views his other films as "okay". Considering the infamous reputation that Robot Monster has, this brings a lot of speculation to many vintage B-movie fans.

The movie's title is similar to a famous nickname given to a deceased character in the 1979 Alien movie and a 1947 novel by Robert A. Heinlein.^[1] However, it is unknown if it is only coincidental.

Status

To this day, no copy or footage of Space Jockey has reemerged. Tucker himself was unable to recover a print.

Anders Runestad, who authored the book I Cannot, Yet I Must: The True Story of the Best Bad Monster Movie of All Time: Robot Monster, wrote on 20th July 2020 on forum Classic Horror Film Board that he recovered the script of Space Jockey. A copy was found in the possessions of Donnis Stark Thompson, a cast member of the film, and her son, Tok Thompson, decided to share it with Runestad. The script was published around 2021.

References

↑ http://www.nitrosyncretic.com/item-rarc.html

External Links

[1] ttp://www.nitrosyncretic.com/item-rarc.html

[1]

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+Phil Tucker (1927-1985) is an American film director mostly known for directing the 1953 science-fiction movie ''Robot Monster'', often listed among the worst movies of all time. Before ''Robot Monster'', he started working on a movie that he never finished: '''''Space Jockey''''' an unfinished, unreleased film dating back to 1953.
-'''''Space Jockey''''' is an unfinished, unreleased film by infamous film director Phil Tucker, dating from 1953.
+Tucker describes the lost film as ''"probably the worst film ever made"'', ''"a real piece of shit"'' while he views his other films as ''"okay"''. Considering the infamous reputation that ''Robot Monster'' has, this brings a lot of speculation to many vintage B-movie fans.
-==Backstory==
+The movie's title is similar to a famous nickname given to a deceased character in the 1979 ''Alien'' movie and a 1947 novel by Robert A. Heinlein.<ref>http://www.nitrosyncretic.com/item-rarc.html</ref> However, it is unknown if it is only coincidental.
-Phil Tucker (1927-1985) is an American film director mostly known for directing the 1953 science-fiction movie ''Robot Monster'', which starred one of the most infamous monsters of sci-fi cinema, Ro-Man - an alien looking like a gorilla wearing a diving helmet - and often listed among the worst movies of all time. However, it got a cult following after many years, and has become a B-movie icon on its own right.
-Tucker directed other exploitation movies, such as ''Pachuco'' (1957) about two Mexican-American hoodlums going to Mexico and ''Cape Canaveral Monsters'' (1960), about people turned into zombies by alien parasites.
+==Status==
+To this day, no copy or footage of ''Space Jockey'' has reemerged. Tucker himself was unable to recover a print.
-==Lost film==
+Anders Runestad, who authored the book ''I Cannot, Yet I Must: The True Story of the Best Bad Monster Movie of All Time: Robot Monster'', wrote on 20th July 2020 on forum ''Classic Horror Film Board'' that he recovered the script of ''Space Jockey''. A copy was found in the possessions of Donnis Stark Thompson, a cast member of the film, and her son, Tok Thompson, decided to share it with Runestad. The script was published around 2021.
-Tucker revealed that, shortly before making ''Robot Monster'', he started working on a movie that he never finished: '''''Space Jockey'''''.
-Himself describes this lost film as ''"probably the worst film ever made"'', ''"a real piece of shit"'' while he views his other films as ''"okay"''. Considering the infamous reputation that ''Robot Monster'' has, this brings a lot of speculation to many vintage B-movie fans.
+==References==
+{{reflist}}
-To this day, no copy, footage or sample of ''Space Jockey'' has reemerged. Tucker himself was unable to recover a print.
+==External Links==
+*https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0875973/
-The movie's title is similar to a famous nickname given to a deceased character in the 1979 ''Alien'' movie and a 1947 novel by Robert A. Heinlein. However, it is unknown if it is only coincidental.
-==Resurfacement==
-Anders Runestad, who authored the book ''I Cannot, Yet I Must: The True Story of the Best Bad Monster Movie of All Time: Robot Monster'', wrote in 20th July 2020 on forum ''Classic Horror Film Board'' that he recovered the script of ''Space Jockey''. A copy was found in the possessions of Donnis Stark Thompson, a cast member of the film, and her son, Tok Thompson, decided to share it with Runestad.
-The script is planned to be published around 2021.
-==External Link==
 *[https://www.amazon.com/Golden-Turkey-Awards-Michael-Medved/dp/B000KVLFRG/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?keywords=golden+turkey+awards&qid=1571421163&sr=8-1 ''The Golden Turkey Awards'' - Harry and Michael Medved (1980).]
 *[https://www.tapatalk.com/groups/monsterkidclassichorrorforum/phil-tucker-s-space-jockey-1953-lost-script-has-be-t78213.html Forum adressing the found script]