2+5: Missione Hydra (1966)

User Rating:

3.5/10   

Director:

Pietro Francisci

Writers:

Ian Danby (adaptation) (English version)
Pietro Francisci (writer)

Release Date:

October 1977 (USA)

Genre:

Sci-Fi

Plot:

Aliens from the constellation Hydra crash-land on the island of Sardinia. A prominent scientist, his daughter...

Plot Keywords:

Spaceship | Alien | Sardinia | Mutiny | Kidnapping

Cast

Leonora Ruffo	...	Chaena
Mario Novelli	...	Paolo (as Anthony Freeman)
Roland Lesaffre	...	Prof. Solmi
Kirk Morris	...	Artie
Alfio Caltabiano	...	Bellsy
Leontine May	...	Luisa Solmi (as Leontine)
Nando Angelini
Giovanni De Angelis
Mirella Pamphili		(as Mirella Panfili)
John Sun
Antonio Ho
John Chen
Gordon Mitchell	...	Murdu

Also Known As:

2+5 Mission Hydra
Star Pilot (USA)
Star Pilots (reissue title)

Runtime:

89 min

Country:

Italy

Language:

Italian

Color:

Color (Eastmancolor) | Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

USA:PG

Company:

Golden Motion Pictures

Trivia:

This film uses several chunks of footage from Doomsday Machine (1972), including re-dubbed and uncredited clips of Casey Kasem (as a flight controller), Grant Williams and Henry Wilcoxon. That movie, in turn, took most of its exterior effects (at least the ones used in this film) from Yôsei Gorasu (1962).

Goofs:

Factual errors: The spaceship crew repair their craft in outer space with no helmets.

Film may have been put together like the Frankenstein monster!

This motion picture is interesting to watch, if for no other reason, then for analysis. It purports to have taken upon itself a complicated history. One fact is known, that of the original release date in Italy of 1966, although a website or two will show 1965. What happened since then is anyones guess. Yes, there was a 1977 release in the United States under the Monarch Releasing Corporation. The titles, "Star Pilot" and "Star Pilots" are given. Yet in the video release by Sinister Cinema the title is shown as "2 + 5: Mission Hydra" although the Monarch Releasing Corporation credit is also listed seemingly indicating this is the same version as the 1977 US dubbed release. The real confusion starts with the footage from other movies spliced in at some points. Another website claims the movies "Kaiju Daisenso(1965)" and "Yusei Gorasu(1962)" are interwoven with the plot. This may very well be, but Casey Kasem is also clearly seen. This would appear to be from "The Doomsday Machine" which had a checkered history of its own, being made in 1967(a year after "2+5"), but released in 1972. So therefore this footage must have been added only in the US release, though "2+5" premiered in West Germany in 1967. Various running times(84, 89, 90 + 92) are given as well depending on what source you refer to. The bottom line on this former late night favorite is, for the male viewers there is Leontine May(who dominates) and for the female viewers, Kirk Morris(pseudonym of Adriano Bellini) and Gordon Mitchell. It should also be mentioned for the classical music crowd, that although the credit is given on the IMDb for "theme from Toccato & Fugue in D Minor by JS Bach", it is not mentioned that it is under the direction of Leopold Stokowsky.