Arthur C. Pierce
Writing
Biography
Pierce, a native of Dallas, enlisted in the US Navy during the Second World War serving as a combat photographer in the Pacific under Edward Steichen. Following the war, Pierce unsuccessfully attempted to produce a film about US Navy submarines entitled The Silent Service starring Robert Montgomery. He studied drama and worked as an actor and stage manager in various stage productions. Beginning in 1948, Pierce worked for Raphael G. Wolff Studios, an industrial film production company, for three years. Pierce acted as a cameraman contributing to over 100 industrial films made throughout North America. In 1952 he joined the Howard Anderson Company that produced special effects for various motion pictures where he acquired a strong knowledge of optical effects. Pierce entered the world of screenwriting through his friend Mark Hanna, a screenwriter and actor. His first work was 1959's The Cosmic Man starring John Carradine that had many of the same ideas as The Day the Earth Stood Still. Pierce then wrote the screenplay for Beyond the Time Barrier for Robert Clarke and Edgar G. Ulmer. This was a low-budget film designed to exploit The Time Machine. Pierce also appeared as one of the mutants. Renowned and typecast for low budget science fiction, Pierce worked his way up to producing and directing The Human Duplicators and Mutiny in Outer Space both without credit.[citation needed] Pierce's first directorial credits were Women of the Prehistoric Planet (1965) and the non-science fiction The Las Vegas Hillbillys (1966). Pierce also wrote several spy-fi films including The Human Duplicators (1965), Dimension 5 (1966), and The Destructors (1966). In the 1970s Pierce wrote for the American television series Fantasy Island and The Next Step Beyond.
Known For
In the future world of the year 2087, freedom of thought is illegal and the thoughts of the world's populations are controlled by the government. A small band of "free thinkers" send a cyborg back in time to the year 1966 to prevent a scientist from making the breakthrough that will eventually lead to the mass thought control of the future. Our time traveler soon discovers he is not alone when government agents from the future try to prevent him from carrying out his mission.
Cyborg 2087
A space ship crash lands on the third planet of a distant solar system, killing all hands except for a young boy named Tang. The rescue ship arrives some 20 years later. One of the crew, a girl named Linda meets Tang and falls in love with him. They are attacked by the native humanoids of the planet and many of them are killed off. Also, the crew encounters many strange beasts on this strange, but somewhat familiar world.
Women of the Prehistoric Planet
An American intelligence agent, aided by a Chinese-American female agent, uses a time-travel belt to thwart Chinese operatives who are attempting to import to Los Angeles the materials to make an atomic bomb.
Dimension 5
After a herd of reindeer are mysteriously found dead following a meteor crash in a remote part of Lapland in northern Sweden, soldiers and a geologist are called out to investigate.
Terror in the Midnight Sun
Demonstrating that a little knowledge is a dangerous thing, a convicted strangler studies the paranormal and finds a way to render himself invisible. Once he escapes, he sets out to find and eliminate five women who remind him of the mother he murdered. A police lieutenant sets out to safeguard them and bring the invisible killer to justice.
The Astral Factor
An expedition to the lunar ice caves contracts a deadly moon-fungus. Stopping en route they contaminate a space station with the fungus, which soon begins to take over the entire place.
Mutiny in Outer Space
In 1960, a pilot testing an experimental rocket powered aircraft accidentally flies into the future and finds himself in a sealed city whose people suspect he is a spy from outside their walls, but who want to keep him to procreate with the ruler's daughter because the majority of the inhabitants are sterile.
Beyond the Time Barrier
A strange sphere settles down in a California canyon, causing both the scientific and military communities to gather around to investigate.
The Cosmic Man
US Navy battles monsters unearthed from the frozen arctic.
The Navy vs. the Night Monsters
A futuristic underwater sea-lab is having problems with a UFO that's parked between them and a nearby deep ocean trench. As they investigate, they attract the unwanted attention of a dangerous creature who puts the scientists and crew in danger.
Destination Inner Space
An alien is dispatched from a faraway galaxy to take over the Earth by "duplicating" humans and creating a race of zombies.
The Human Duplicators
Two boys, Chuck and Sam find a time capsule in a cave and take it to Professor Seateck. The professor finds that the capsule contains a message that had been sent to the planet Meeca whose inhabitants helped Earth in its defense against attacks by the Space Islands in 1960. Sam, Chuck, and the Professor travel to Meeca with the Meecan robot Robo. They are attacked by the Space Islands en route but arrive safely to meet with the friendly Meecans.
The Adventures of Sam Space
A Hillbilly hits the big time in Las Vegas.