Sci-Fi films Not Released In Australia For Reasons Unknown.
Port Sinister (1953 ). Port Sinister is an interesting film. I wasn't released in Australia for reasons unknown. It was possibly banned by the Australian censor on horror grounds or it is possible for this independently made film the Australian distribution rights were not controlled by RKO. RKO only had release rights to the film in the U.S. from 1953 until the film was re-released by Mutual Productions in 1957.
It is interesting the image on the above British quad that should have shown a threatening giant crab has been replaced by a mountain. The film was re-released under the title of Beast Of Paradise Isle on a double bill in 1957 with Creatures Of The Jungle which was the re-release title of The White Orchid.
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The Atomic Submarine ( 1959 ) Another interesting film. It wasn't released in Australia for reasons unknown. It was possibly banned in Australia but I doubt this as it doesn't appear to be the type of film that would be banned. It was an independently made film released in the U.S.A. by Allied Artists. I found it was released in at lease two European countries along with Argentina. It is possible Allied Artists didn't have Australian release rights for this film.
Some Trivia obtained from the IMDb website.
The film inspired the film Voyage To The Bottom Of The Sea ( 1961 ) and the TV series Voyage To The Bottom Of The Sea ( 1964 ). it was also remade as an episode of that series.
The trailer for this Allied Artists release played down the science fiction elements and made it look more like a military action film.
King Dinosaur ( 1955 ) An early Bert I Gordon effort running a brief 63 minutes in screen running time. Has only a 1.9 rating on the IMDB website. Has been called one of the worst films ever made by some. One of the final films released by the Lippert Pictures organisation in the U.S.A. before their product, under the new name of Regal Films, was released by 20th Century Fox worldwide.
Could have been missed around the time that Lippert Pictures ceased operating and when a few companies were releasing some Lippert product but my feeling is nobody wished to release this film in Australia because it was so bad.
Jumped the gun. Soon.
Having some problems processing an image at present.
Project Moonbase ( 1953 ). The third of the Lippert Pictures U.S. releases not released in Australia.
From Hell It Came ( 1957 ). A combination Horror and Sci-Fi film produced by Milner Brothers Productions and originally released in the U.S.A. by Allied Artists Pictures. I am uncertain for the reason why it wasn't released in Australia.
The answer could be one of the following ----
Banned but no record found to confirm this.
Paramount Pictures when they obtained Australian distribution rights in the late 1950's to AA product and had a large backlog of product, the film was left out of the current and backlog of titles bought due to the large number of films that were available.
The film was rejected by Paramount Pictures as being simptly terrible. Only has a 3.4 rating score on IMDB and Leonard Maltin rated it 1 & 1/2 out of 7.
The Amazing Colossal Man ( 1957 ) and War Of The Colossal Beast ( 1958 ) were originally released in the U.S.A. by American International Pictures ( AIP ). Although theatrically released in New Zealand they never reached Australian shores. The reason for their non appearance is unknown. They were either banned, although no records have been located that show that they were, or they were just not picked up for Australian release due to their poor quality.
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The original image reinstated.
It is now established that The Atomic Submarine was distributed in New Zealand as per the following daybill image with the milder Y censorship certificate applied. This surely would rule out the film being banned in Australia one has to think.
It now certainly appears to me that the film, which would have been a Paramount release if it has been imported here, wasn't picked up for release in Australia. Allied Artists product around this time was being released in Australia by Paramount but in New Zealand by International films.
( Wil )