Wednesday, July 2, 2014

Queen of Outer Space (1958)

How bad is it? It's one of the camp classics of the 1950's.
Should you see it? Yes. Probably more than once.

As if "Cat Women of the Moon" and "Fire Maidens of Outer Space" weren't enough, Zsa Zsa Gabor stars in this third film about an all-female alien race. A rebel Venusian wants to save four male Earth astronauts, but the evil queen hates all men. The queen wears a mask because of injuries she suffered in a war against a male society. Props, including a giant spider (a la Cat Women and Fire Maidens), came from earlier and better films - Forbidden Planet, World Without End and Flight to Mars. The Venusians wear mini-skirts, silk stockings, boots and lipstick. The queen turns a disintegrator ray on Earth and "perhaps the lives of everyone on Earth may depend upon Captain Patterson's sex appeal." This was reportedly penned by Ben Hecht, with humor added by Charles Beaumont, who worked on Three Stooges shorts. This is one of those films where everyone knows they're in a silly movie, but they play it straight and don't force laughs.

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