# ID the Movie! **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [October 21, 2015, 11:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/id-the-movie/735408 "2015-10-21T23:01:34Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![CandidGamera](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/candidgamera/32/2878_2.png) [@CandidGamera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CandidGamera)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2015, 11:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/id-the-movie/735408/1 "2015-10-21T23:01:34Z")
I come to the greatest repository of pop culture trivia minds on the internet - okay, that may be an exaggeration - for help in identifying a movie. Difficulty : I was told about this movie by a friend, and have not seen it myself. He remembered the title being something like ‘Doors’, and it was a 1970s French film that he believed inspired 1994’s Stargate. There was a technological or mystical set of devices that could be attached to doorways to make them portals to any other doorway with a similar device attached, regardless of distance. Annnnnny help? ---
**Author:** ![CandidGamera](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/candidgamera/32/2878_2.png) [@CandidGamera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CandidGamera)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2015, 1:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/id-the-movie/735408/2 "2015-10-22T13:11:05Z")
Nothing? I am shocked, dismayed and flabbergasted. You guys get most of these in like, twelve seconds. ---
**Author:** ![Mudshark](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f04885/32.png) [@Mudshark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mudshark)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2015, 6:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/id-the-movie/735408/3 "2015-10-23T06:10:45Z")
It really does sound familiar, and I spent almost an hour looking through my old sci-fi movies, but came up with nothing. I hope someone has an answer, it sounds interesting. Could it have possibly been Italian? And do you know where they went when they walked through the portals? ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2015, 8:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/id-the-movie/735408/4 "2015-10-23T08:18:03Z")
Was it perhaps _[The Terrornauts](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Terrornauts)_? That was a 1967 movie involving teleportation. It was a British movie but it was partly set in France. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2015, 11:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/id-the-movie/735408/5 "2015-10-23T11:14:29Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > Was it perhaps _[The Terrornauts](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Terrornauts)_? That was a 1967 movie involving teleportation. It was a British movie but it was partly set in France. Doesn’t sound like the OP’s description. The Terrornauts is based on a Murray Leinster novel, _The Wailing Asteroid_, and had a wonderful but completely misleading poster: > **[the terrornauts poster - Bing](http://www.bing.com/images/search?q=the%2Bterrornauts%2Bposter&view=detailv2&qpvt=the%2Bterrornauts%2Bposter&id=6560709922FC310F3EAB95D068ADBD48E8439FA8&selectedIndex=1&ccid=sC6dZTR7&simid=608052462311509429&thid=OIP.Mb02e9d65347b255d23e802eb5f13207do0&ajaxhist=0)** > > Intelligent search from Bing makes it easier to quickly find what you’re looking for and rewards you. In reality, the movie looked like this: > **[the terrornauts poster - Bing](http://www.bing.com/images/search?q=the%2Bterrornauts%2Bposter&view=detailv2&qpvt=the%2Bterrornauts%2Bposter&id=065A006CDCA11F1AB849AD7F7528D38680F198ED&selectedIndex=12&ccid=IXFNGSYR&simid=608009147579302743&thid=OIP.M21714d1926110e36c633cdc8ae79852eo0&ajaxhist=0)** > > Intelligent search from Bing makes it easier to quickly find what you’re looking for and rewards you. You can read more than you want to about it here: > **[The Terrornauts](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Terrornauts)** > > The Terrornauts is a 1967 British science fiction film directed by Montgomery Tully and starring Simon Oates and Zena Marshall. It was produced by Amicus Productions and based on the 1960 novel The Wailing Asteroid by Murray Leinster, adapted for screen by John Brunner. Space scientists foil an alien invasion of Earth. > Project Star Talk is based at a UK radio telescope site; its mission is to listen for radio signals from other intelligences. Dr Joe Burke leads the project, assisted by his sm... > [@](#): > > Upon arrival at the asteroid, the team is greeted by a robot that takes them through a series of tests. After each test, they are provided with rewards such as food for the intelligence test, a weapon for the motivation test and a “Knowledge Cube” for the knowledge test. After a tour of a control room, they are then brought to a chamber with a small platform and a figure in a chair, who simply happens to be the long dead caretaker of the base. That’s my recollection of the film, which I saw a long time ago. It reminds me of a _Star Trek the Next Generation_ script. ---
**Author:** ![CandidGamera](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/candidgamera/32/2878_2.png) [@CandidGamera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CandidGamera)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2015, 1:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/id-the-movie/735408/6 "2015-10-23T13:26:31Z")
> [@Mudshark](#): > > It really does sound familiar, and I spent almost an hour looking through my old sci-fi movies, but came up with nothing. I hope someone has an answer, it sounds interesting. > > Could it have possibly been Italian? And do you know where they went when they walked through the portals? As I said, it’s a third-hand description, so yes, it could have been Italian. I believe the portals led to other worlds, like in Stargate, but more specific, I don’t have. I can ask the original viewer, though… ---
**Author:** ![CandidGamera](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/candidgamera/32/2878_2.png) [@CandidGamera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CandidGamera)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2015, 1:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/id-the-movie/735408/7 "2015-10-23T13:27:37Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > Was it perhaps _[The Terrornauts](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Terrornauts)_? That was a 1967 movie involving teleportation. It was a British movie but it was partly set in France. Nein. He was very specific on the turning-doors-into-portals device. ---
**Author:** ![Aquadementia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aquadementia/32/555_2.png) [@Aquadementia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aquadementia)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2015, 1:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/id-the-movie/735408/8 "2015-10-23T13:32:39Z")
Sounds like a third hand description of **Monsters Inc.** from someone that has seen it in France. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2015, 3:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/id-the-movie/735408/9 "2015-10-23T15:03:27Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > You can read more than you want to about it here: > > [The Terrornauts - Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Terrornauts) You’re telling me I can read more about it at the link I used in my post? ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2015, 4:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/id-the-movie/735408/10 "2015-10-23T16:08:34Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > You’re telling me I can read more about it at the link I used in my post? Yep – didn’t click the link in your post. ---
**Author:** ![CandidGamera](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/candidgamera/32/2878_2.png) [@CandidGamera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CandidGamera)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2015, 4:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/id-the-movie/735408/11 "2015-10-23T16:11:47Z")
Additional data : I asked the fellow about where the doors led, and he said this : “French revolution (the past), some desert place (which is where the movie took place mostly I think), some place filled with fire (insert Hell jokes here)” So they seemed to move through time as well as space. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2015, 4:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/id-the-movie/735408/12 "2015-10-23T16:36:07Z")
I can’t think of any direct matches. Some points are similar to the 1964 low-rent **The Time Travellers** – portals to different times, desert, fire (IIRC). But no French Revolution, and it’s not a French movie from 1970 > **[The Time Travelers (1964 film)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Time_Travelers_(1964_film))** > > The Time Travelers is a film directed by Ib Melchior and starring Preston Foster, Philip Carey, Merry Anders, Steve Franken, and John Hoyt. (Delores Wells, Playboy's Miss June 1960, has a bit part, as does superfan Forrest J Ackerman.) The film inspired the 1966 TV series The Time Tunnel, as well as the 1967 remake Journey to the Center of Time. The plot involves a group of scientists who find that due to an electrical overload their time-viewing screen suddenly allows them to travel through time... In fact, the only French Time Travel movie from that time frame that Wikipedia lists is **La Jetee** , which doesn’t match the description at all. Besides, if it had been La Jetee the things that would have stuck in one’s mind would be the weird, organic Time Machine, the fact that it’s in black and white, and the fact that the film is really a string of still images. (The film was the basis for the later film and TV series **Twelve Monkeys**.) ---
**Author:** ![sideshowkar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/5e9695/32.png) [@sideshowkar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sideshowkar)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2015, 4:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/id-the-movie/735408/13 "2015-10-23T16:40:19Z")
Time Bandits actually has similar elements: Time travel, obviously, although not through doors (but there is a wardrobe that kicks the time travel part of the story off) French revolution (the past) - The Napoleonic Wars Some desert place (which is where the movie took place mostly I think) - Mycenaean Greece Some place filled with fire (insert Hell jokes here) - the movie ends with a house fire ---
**Author:** ![CandidGamera](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/candidgamera/32/2878_2.png) [@CandidGamera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CandidGamera)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2015, 5:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/id-the-movie/735408/14 "2015-10-23T17:10:49Z")
I thought of La Jetee, but no, not it. The movie was in color, I have also confirmed. And this guy would know Time Bandits. I think. I’m pretty sure.