Saturn 3 (1980)

Director:

Stanley Donen

Writers:

Martin Amis (writer)
John Barry (story)

Release Date:

15 February 1980 (USA)

Genre:

Adventure | Sci-Fi | Thriller

Tagline:

Trapped between unnatural love and inhuman desire

Plot:

Two lovers stationed at a remote base in the asteroid fields of Saturn are intruded upon by a retentive...

Plot Keywords:

Robot | Saturn | Space | Female Nudity | Minimal Cast

Awards:

3 nominations

Cast

Farrah Fawcett	...	Alex
Kirk Douglas	...	Adam
Harvey Keitel	...	Benson

Also Known As:

Saturn City (USA)
Saturn Three (Philippines: English title)
The Helper (USA) (working title)

Runtime:

88 min | 103 min (uncut)

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby (35 mm prints) | 70 mm 6-Track (70 mm prints)

Certification:

Canada:18A (Ontario) | Iceland:12 | Germany:12 | Australia:M | Norway:18 | UK:15 | USA:R | Argentina:13

Filming Locations:

Shepperton Studios, Shepperton, Surrey, England, UK

Company:

Incorporated Television Company (ITC)

Trivia:

Colin Chilvers modeled "Hector" on a drawing by 'Leonardo da Vinci'.

Goofs:

Crew or equipment visible: Very visible wires that lift Captain James off the floor when Benson murders him.

Quotes:

[first lines]
Announcement: Captain James, your presence on pad 73, immediate, urgent.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in "The Big Bang Theory: The Lizard-Spock Expansion (#2.8)" (2008)

Nudity and violence in outer space.

It's hard to imagine a more peculiar choice of director for this sci-fi thriller than Stanley Donen. Donen made some great films in the 50s and 60s (Singin' In The Rain, Seven Brides For Seven Brothers, Charade), but here he's in disappointing form. Partly that may be due to the fact that the project was originally to be directed by John Barry, but Donen "inherited" the responsibility when Barry quit due to ill health. However, Donen should not be made to shoulder all the blame. The script by Martin Amis leaves the actors to contend with some bad lines and situations. Elmer Bernstein contributes a forgettable music score which is well below his usual standard. And even the actors - all of them talented - seem indifferent to the project. Kirk Douglas, for example, seems to have accepted the role simply to enjoy some saucy nude scenes with sexy co-star Farrah Fawcett.

Essentially, the story is a three-handed thriller (or, four-handed, if you count Hector the droid). Saturn 3 is Titan, the third moon of Saturn (hence the name), and it is here that scientists Adam and Alex (Douglas and Fawcett) live in blissful isolation, developing food supplies for people on Earth. Adam and Alex not only work together - they sleep and shower together too, which is a pretty enviable arrangement for Adam (who is about 30 years older than his sexy assistant). Into this perfect space oasis comes psychopathic Benson (Harvey Keitel), another scientist who has recently murdered a shuttle captain. Benson has brought with him a droid named Hector, supposedly to speed up the workload. However, Hector turns out to be a particularly unstable droid, particularly when the randy robot develops a liking toward Alex. Eventually it becomes clear that neither Adam nor Benson can control the droid, and with Hector determined to kill anyone who stands in the way of himself and Alex, that becomes something of a problem.......

If Saturn 3 is a story of jealousy and desire, then it needs more than a sex-starved droid to generate credibility. If it is a sci-fi actioner, then it needs more action. If it was conceived as a sci-fi thriller then it most assuredly needs more thrills. The film emerges as a rather muddled and unappealing mess, with flashes of eroticism and very sporadic flashes of action. It marks a low point in Donen's directorial career, and is too forgettable to be remembered as a significant sci-fi work. Most of the folks associated with this one probably don't give it pride of place on their CVs.