Ib Melchior
Writing
Biography
Ib Jørgen Melchior (born September 17, 1917) is a novelist, short story writer, film producer, film director, and screenwriter of low-budget American science fiction movies, most of them released by American International Pictures. He was born in Copenhagen, Denmark. Melchior's novels include Code Name: Grand Guignol, Eva, The Haigerloch Project, The Marcus Device, Order of Battle: Hitler's Werewolves, Sleeper Agent, The Tombstone Cipher and The Watchdogs of Abaddon. His non-fiction includes the books Quest: Searching for Germany's Nazi Past (with co-author Frank Brandenburg) and Lauritz Melchior: The Golden Years of Bayreuth, the latter a biography of his father, the opera singer and movie star Lauritz Melchior. With his wife, L.A. architect Cleo Baldon, Ib Melchior wrote the non-fiction books Reflections on the Pool: California Designs for Swimming and Steps & Stairways. Melchior also wrote Hour of Vengeance, a play based on the Viking story of Amled that also inspired William Shakespeare's play Hamlet. In 1982, it was awarded the Hamlet Award for best playwriting by the Shakespeare Society of America. As a filmmaker, Melchior wrote and directed The Angry Red Planet (1959) and The Time Travelers (1964). His most high profile credit was as co-screenwriter (along with John C. Higgins) of Byron Haskin's critically acclaimed Robinson Crusoe on Mars (1964). He cowrote the screenplays for two U.S.-Danish coproductions, Reptilicus (1961) and Journey to the Seventh Planet (1962), and provided the English language script for Mario Bava's Planet of the Vampires (1965). For television, he wrote "The Premonition" episode for the second season of the original The Outer Limits series. The episode was broadcast in 1965. Melchior's short story The Racer was adapted as Paul Bartel's cult film favorite, Death Race 2000 (1975), starring David Carradine and Sylvester Stallone and produced by Roger Corman. It was later remade as Death Race (2008), starring Jason Statham and Joan Allen, directed by Paul W.S. Anderson and produced by Tom Cruise. He claims to be the creator of the original idea upon which Irwin Allen based his television series Lost in Space, although he never received onscreen credit for this. In 1960, Melchior had created an outline for a series he called "Space Family Robinson", which later became a Gold Key comic book. Ed Shifres' book Lost in Space: The True Story is a detailed documentation of how Irwin Allen allegedly plagiarized Melchior's script, with the two outlines presented side by side. Decades later, Prelude Pictures hired Melchior as a consultant on its Lost in Space feature film adaptation, but later sold his contract to New Line Cinema, its production partner on the film. New Line agreed to pay Melchior a $75,000 production bonus and $15,000, but refused him his contractually promised two percent of the producer's gross receipts from the film.
Known For
The Outer Limits is an anthology tv series of self-contained sci-fi-horror stories, sometimes with a plot twist at the end.
The Outer Limits
Terminal Island, New York: 2020. Overcrowding in the US penal system has reached a breaking point. Prisons have been turned over to a monolithic Weyland Corporation, which sees jails full of thugs as an opportunity for televised sport. Adrenalized inmates, a global audience hungry for violence and a spectacular, enclosed arena come together to form the 'Death Race', the biggest, most brutal event.
Death Race
Men Into Space is an American science-fiction television series broadcast from September 30, 1959 to September 7, 1960 by CBS which depicted future efforts by the United States Air Force to explore and develop outer space. The black-and-white filmed show starred William Lundigan as Col. Edward McCauley.
Men Into Space
Carl Lucas / Frankenstein has won four of his races and needs to win one more to win his freedom. Before his final race, Lucas and his team, car and all, are transferred to another prison where they will compete in a Death Race in the desert. Also, at the same time, Ceaser runs into a marketer who wants to franchise the Death Race program.
Death Race: Inferno
In the world's most dangerous prison, a new game is born: Death Race. The rules of this adrenaline-fueled blood sport are simple, drive or die. When repentant convict Carl Lucas discovers there's a price on his head, his only hope is to survive a twisted race against an army of hardened criminals and tricked-out cars.
Death Race 2
In a boorish future, the government sponsors a popular, but bloody, cross-country race in which points are scored by mowing down pedestrians. Five teams, each comprised of a male and female, compete using cars equipped with deadly weapons. Frankenstein, the mysterious returning champion, has become America's hero, but this time he has a passenger from the underground resistance.
Death Race 2000
A prehistoric monster called Gigantis emerges alongside another creature named Angurus.
Gigantis, the Fire Monster
Stranded on Mars with only a monkey as a companion, an astronaut must figure out how to find oxygen, water, and food and companionship on the lifeless planet.
Robinson Crusoe on Mars
A Marine unit on a Japanese-held island in the Philippines tries to hook up with local Filipino guerrillas.
Ambush Bay
A comprehensive story of Hollywood's horror and science fiction films of the 1950s, told by the people who made them.
Hollywood in the Atomic Age: Monsters! Martians! Mad Scientists!
After landing on a mysterious planet, a team of astronauts begin to turn on each other, swayed by the uncertain influence of the planet and its strange inhabitants.
Planet of the Vampires
The first manned flight to Mars returns after having been out of communications since it had arrived on Mars. What would it reveal?
The Angry Red Planet
A portion of the tail of a prehistoric reptile is discovered in Denmark. It regenerates into the entire reptile, which proceeds to destroy buildings and property and generally make a nuisance of itself. It can fly, swim, and walk, and has impenetrable scales, which makes it difficult to kill.
Reptilicus
Research scientists experimenting with time warps are accidentally propelled forward into an unbearable future.
The Time Travelers
A space expedition to Uranus is menaced by a giant brain that can make illusions come true.
Journey to the Seventh Planet
A teenager finds her wayward sister running with thieves in San Francisco.
Live Fast, Die Young
Director Garry S. Grant’s insightful documentary celebrates the work and legacy of auteur filmmaker Mario Bava, the grand master of Italian horror and the man known by many as “the Italian Hitchcock.”
Mario Bava: Maestro of the Macabre
A silent film character is stuck in a German theater and wants to return to his film.
My Lovely Monster
Near the end of the war in Germany, GI Steve Boland, a self-described "sharp-operator", meets a German girl, Ilsa, and they fall in love. Ilsa's brother Karl, whom she has not seen in three years, and his fellow Nazi Ludwig visit Ilsa. Karl proudly informs her that he and Ludwig are "Werewolves", a group of Nazi assassins parachuted behind Allied lines for the purpose of killing Allied High Command officers. She and Steve go to Army Intelligence with their information, where Steve is immediately arrested for being A.W.O.L. Captain Melton of Army G-2 intervenes on Steve's behalf, as G-2 has had a suspicion about the existence of the "Werewolves" but no concrete info before now.
When Hell Broke Loose
Tom is confronted by his parents about being a "dope fiend" for using marijuana.