Beneath the Planet of the Apes (1970)

 "The're going to kill you, and then dissect you. In that order."

This is, perhaps, a mainly predictable sequel in which another human astronaut- Brent- arrives on the tail of Taylor and discovers the same society in a slightly more ecomomical manner. It seems, at first as though we're getting a rerun of the first, but with a B-movie actor (James Franciscus, of the splendid Valley of Gwangi) instead of an A-list one- although Charlton actually has a significant role here.

Yet ultimately, as the apres invade the Forbidden Zone, after a nice bit of gorilla vs chimpanzee conflict, we learn more, as it now seems the Zone is inhabited by telepathic humans (I love how we don't hear their voices as they interrogate Brent, but his responses are carefully worded so we can follow...) who feel very futuristic and worship a nuclear bomb.This is all delightfully twisted, especially the extended fifty megaton version of "All Things Bright and Beautiful", culminating firstly in all of them removing their suspiciously convincing masks to show their ravaged faces, then a scuffle, then sudden armageddon, which makes me rather interested in how come we shall be getting several more sequels. It's all delightfully bonkers.

The underground bomb worshippers were a definite influence on The Face of Evil, fellow Doctor Who fans. And we get no fewer than two former foes of Adam West's Batman in Maurice Evans and Victor Buono. The latter plays a character calls "Fat Man." Although Don Pedro Colley plays a character called "Negro"which is... yeah, 1970 was a different time. Fortunately.