The Bamboo Saucer

The Bamboo Saucer (1968)

To Control Its Power Is To Rule The World

A flying saucer hidden in a Red Chinese peasant village is sought by teams from the United States and U.S.S.R. On finding it, they band together to explore the saucer and take a trip into space.

Date of release
1968-10-23
TMDB
5.2 / 10 (19)
Runtime
1h 43m
Genres
Science Fiction
Director
Frank Telford

Casting

Interesting facts

  • Filmed in: California

The Bamboo Saucer is an independently made 1968 Cold War science fiction film drama about competing American and Russian teams that discover a flying saucer in Communist China. The film was re-released in 1969 under the title Collision Course with a reduced edited runtime of 90 minutes.

Production

Jerry Fairbanks was a producer and sometimes director of a variety of cinematic short subjects series such as Strange as It Seems and Popular Science. A 1954 film trade article stated that Fairbanks was preparing his first theatrical motion picture, titled Project Saucer that was to be filmed in widescreen and color.

Fairbanks persevered and had a collaborator, Frank Telford, rewrite the screenplay by Alford "Rip" Van Ronkel and special effects man John P. Fulton with Telford directing the film in 1966. Fairbanks contacted the office of the United States Secretary of Defense about his screenplay. In an April 12, 1966 reply, the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense informed Fairbanks that they had a "negative reaction" to Project Saucer.

Fairbanks incorporated the changes in the finished screenplay. Co-screenwriter, associate producer, and special effects expert John P. Fulton died during filming. The film was retitled The Bamboo Saucer, though it had no relation to the 1967 published science fiction novel The Flight of the Bamboo Saucer. The experimental X-109 aircraft was actually Air Force stock footage of a Lockheed F-104 Starfighter.

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