Beast in Space (1980) La bestia nello spazio (original title)

Director:

Alfonso Brescia

Writers:

Alfonso Brescia (screenplay)
Alfonso Brescia (story)
(more)

Release Date:

13 May 1980 (Italy)

Genre:

Sci-Fi | Adult

Plot:

In the future the struggle for space superiority has forced humanity to search the cosmos for a rare...

Plot Keywords:

Planet | Sex | Alternate Version | Softcore | Bare Breasts

Cast

Sirpa Lane	...	Lt. Sondra Richardson (as Shirpa Lane)
Vassili Karis	...	Captain Larry Madison (as Vassilli Karis)
Lucio Rosato
Umberto Ceriani	...	Dr. Green
Maria D'Alessandro	...	Erika Grant
Giuseppe Fortis
Dada Gallotti
Giuseppe Lauricella
Marina Hedman	...	Frieda Henkel (as Marina Lotar)
Iren Szeremi		(as Irene Szeremi)
Claudio Zucchet
Claudio Undari	...	Onaf (as Robert Hundar)
Venantino Venantini	...	Juan Cardoso
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Benito Pacifico	...	Fighter in Nightclub (uncredited)
Bruno Romagnoli	...	Man in the Nightclub (uncredited)

Directed by
Alfonso Brescia		(as Al Bradley)

Writing credits (in alphabetical order)
Alfonso Brescia		screenplay
Alfonso Brescia		story
Aldo Crudo		screenplay
Aldo Crudo		story

Original Music by
Marcello Giombini		(as Pluto Kennedy)

Cinematography by
Silvio Fraschetti

Film Editing by
Carlo Broglio

Production Design by
Mimmo Scavia		(as Bartolomeo Scavia)

Costume Design by
Elena De Cupis

Makeup Department
Anna Angeloni	....	hair stylist
Vincenzo Angeloni	....	makeup artist

Production Management
Antonio Pittalis	....	production manager

Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Massimo Carocci	....	assistant director

Art Department
Alfredo D'Angelo	....	set designer

Sound Department
Pietro Spadoni	....	sound technician

Camera and Electrical Department
Roberto Calabró	....	still photographer

Costume and Wardrobe Department
Maria Luzietti	....	seamstress

Other crew
Alfredo D'Angelo	....	tapestry
Giuliana Gherardi	....	script supervisor
Franco Pasquetto	....	master of arms

Production Companies

• LU.MA.FIN.
• Nais Film
• S.I.G.M.A. E.CO.

Distributors

• Cinema International Corporation (CIC) (1980) (Italy) (theatrical)
• CAV Distributing (2008) (USA) (DVD)
• Cinefear (????) (USA) (VHS)
• Severin Films (2008) (USA) (DVD)

Also Known As:

"La bestia nello spazio" - Italy (original title)

Runtime:

86 min | Germany:70 min | 92 min (hardcore version)

Country:

Italy

Language:

Italian

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Filming Locations:

Incir De Paolis, Rome, Lazio, Italy

Company:

LU.MA.FIN.

Trivia:

The original film lab negative used for the Region 1 DVD release of this movie by Severin was purchased at a bankruptcy auction in Rome, Italy.

Movie Connections:

Spin off from The Beast (1975)

Why couldn't THIS film have gotten lost in space?

Relatively young and uncontrollably horny space fleet commander Captain Larry Madison (Karis) takes a break from seducing bar-girls and getting into drunken fistfights with rivals to actually do his job.

On his mission to an unknown world he notices amongst his new crew is one Lt. Sondra Richardson (Lane), a woman who looks like Radha Mitchell with a hangover. He enjoyed a brief tryst with her after a bar pick-up and didn't call. Now things are awkward especially now that they have to work together on a potentially dangerous mission.

In real space missions, crews train together for years and form bonds of professional trust which limit the possibility of one of them running into a casual encounter and having to get past personal stuff that has no place on a mission. They are seldom captained by guys who get into drunken bar fights and use their status to pick up women or staffed with female crew who bed down with a potential crew-mate. But the crew seen here just meets and takes off together.

The captain's unprofessional adventures in bars have not only caught up with him as it relates to his work colleague. No sooner are they off into the cosmos than a ship with some of the guys he beat up in a bar attack the vessel and damage it to the point where it has to go on a unscheduled emergency detour to an uncharted planet.

On the planet they are hosted by a seemingly benevolent raconteur (Hundar) who treats them to a sumptuous dining experience after which they engage in frottage then full on coitus.

Low-budget sci-fi from around the same time like the infamous Inseminoid (1981) are similarly hastily assembled malignant crossbreeds of the respective Star Trek and Alien franchises.

You get the typical depiction of computerized instrumentation that the screen gave audiences of the time. Metallic boxes with lots of flashing lights and phony levers and gauges and instruments that look like they are doing something but are in fact just flashing on and off. The sets were less important than the acting.

But the inexplicable pornographic tangent this particular title goes on, while not unexpected given the opening scenes, does start rather abruptly and without much subtlety or proper pacing by showing the crew watching a couple of horses having sex and then begin touching themselves. Quite frankly it was more than the tackiness of it all that made me feel slightly nauseous.

I can only wonder if the actors knew they were going to be in a production with a pornographic tangent. The cast assembled here has people who were, in several notable cases, generally known for soft-core sex films even though this looks like, for the most part just typical b-movie sci-fi.