Tie Fighter and Saber FX from a '50's sci-fi flick?

[Roy Batty]

I didn't know where to post this, but I was hoping someone here could shed some light on this. While watching an episode of MST3K, the movie the bot's were riffing on was 1961's "The Phantom Planet". While watching this cheesy movie, I heard something VERY familiar...when the aliens initiated their attack on the good-guys' planetoid (looks like fried chicken), I swear I heard the sounds of a Tie Fighter and a Lightsaber (when the blades strike one another). The reason I am asking is, that I read somewhere that sound mixer Ben Burtt said he created the sound of the Tie Fighter by, "combining distorted elephant bellows with the sounds of a car driving on wet pavement." I am NOT disputing Burtt's word, but I watched this scene over and over, and I still think these sounds are in there. Maybe it was Lucas' way of paying homage to vintage sci-fi movies. I don't know. But I thought I would post a link to the original movie, and hopefully someone here could advise me as to the origin of these sound effects, and see if someone agrees (or not). Since learning of the "Wilhelm scream" used in Episode IV (for a stormtrooper dying/falling), I have truly become a nerd when it comes to identifying sounds used in movies.

https://youtu.be/WcW6rxPrIuc

The Tie Fighter and Lightsaber sounds I am referring to begin with the attack on the planetoid by the aliens (1:01:11 to 1:04:29).
I believe it is used for the alien's themselves (1:10:32 to 1:10:48).

Again, I am sorry if this is not the correct forum for this, but being a prop and scale modeller (as well), I didnt think I should've posted this question there. Thank you.

 

[The Searcher]

I gave it a listen myself, and I think what you’re hearing is a combination of already strange and distorted sound effects used in the production of the film and some distortion applied from the digital transfer. The result (at least to me) is only similar in that the sound has gone through a distortion process that has created an unintentionally similar sound to the TIE fighter sound. As for the lightsaber sound, I think that’s just more distorton caused by noise and the transfer.

 

[robn1]

There is a similar sound, it could even have been made by using elephant sounds. I'm sure it's more coincidence than anything else. The howl of truck tires on the highway makes a similar sound.

 

[EDGSW]

You'll hear the actual elephant roar used for the TIE fighter sound in this clip from "The Roots of Heaven" 1958. Sound starts at 40 seconds.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZfHnEN9ecFw

I too have fun catching sounds from different sources used and reused in movies. I love catching the old Star Trek TOS bridge sounds in the Twilight Zone and other 50's / 60's tv series.

 

[KojiroVance]

I was amused as the monster is setting the brunette down, supposedly she’s unconscious but she moves her arm to help support her….

I’ve heard that roar before in Tarzan and jungle films ... elephants usually. That Burtt used them slightly distorted for the TIE fighters is IMHO just an imaginative redirection. Our brain sees a space fighter and doesn’t get the connection.

 

[MisterScrub]

BTW, That is Richard Kiel in the alien outfit.

 

[Runner]

Yeah the TIE fighter's main sound was pulled from the 20th Century Fox sound library that Ben had access to at the time. You can hear it in lots of movies from the 50's & 60's. I had hear that the saber clashing sound was an original creation of Ben's done by hitting dry ice onto metal of some sort. I hear it to in OP's linked movie so he certainly could have borrowed parts of the clash from exsisting sound sources as well.