In the "future" year of 1985, a team of astronauts - Captain Neal Patterson (Eric Fleming), Lieutenant Mike Cruze (Dave Willock), and Lieutenant Larry Turner (Patrick Waltz) - undertake a mission to escort eminent scientist Professor Konrad (Paul Birch) to the space station that Konrad helped devise. A strange beam destroys the station, and envelops their spacecraft, forcing it to crash land...somewhere. It turns out that they've landed on Venus, where the population is made up entirely of women. They're led by the man-hating, crazed villainess Queen Yllana (Laurie Mitchell). Fortunately, not every woman is on the Queens' side, and a few brave women try to help the men escape, including gown wearing Venusian scientist Talleah (none other than Zsa Zsa Gabor).
Fans have debated for years as to whether this was INTENDED to be a parody of science fiction or not. As it is, it's a campy delight: colourful entertainment shot in CinemaScope, with some amusing sets and special effects. (There's also one hell of a hilariously unconvincing alien spider.) It's also hard for any red blooded male to knock any movie that puts such sexy costumes on its attractive female cast. You have to hand it to the Venusians for rocking those miniskirts. It takes quite a while to really get underway, as the "opening" credits don't start until a 15 minute prologue is over. Quite a novelty for 1958. The story - credited to Ben Hecht, of all people - inspired a screenplay by Charles Beaumont that never passes up an opportunity for a sexual joke.
Other than the rather dispirited looking Fleming, our male leads look content with the arrangement, and you can't blame them. The performances suit the material, with Zsa Zsa having a bit of a wink in her eye, and Mitchell going delightfully over the top as the antagonist of the piece. Mitchells' character, and others, wear masks that have you really interested to know what they look like underneath. The revelation is effective.
"Good" fun for fans of 1950s sci-fi.
Seven out of 10.
Fans have debated for years as to whether this was INTENDED to be a parody of science fiction or not. As it is, it's a campy delight: colourful entertainment shot in CinemaScope, with some amusing sets and special effects. (There's also one hell of a hilariously unconvincing alien spider.) It's also hard for any red blooded male to knock any movie that puts such sexy costumes on its attractive female cast. You have to hand it to the Venusians for rocking those miniskirts. It takes quite a while to really get underway, as the "opening" credits don't start until a 15 minute prologue is over. Quite a novelty for 1958. The story - credited to Ben Hecht, of all people - inspired a screenplay by Charles Beaumont that never passes up an opportunity for a sexual joke.
Other than the rather dispirited looking Fleming, our male leads look content with the arrangement, and you can't blame them. The performances suit the material, with Zsa Zsa having a bit of a wink in her eye, and Mitchell going delightfully over the top as the antagonist of the piece. Mitchells' character, and others, wear masks that have you really interested to know what they look like underneath. The revelation is effective.
"Good" fun for fans of 1950s sci-fi.
Seven out of 10.