| Major Cast | |
|---|---|
| Zsa Zsa Gabor | as Talleah |
| Eric Fleming | as Capt. Neal Patterson |
| Dave Willock | as Lt. Mike Cruze |
| Laurie Mitchell | as Queen Yllana |
| Lisa Davis | as Motiya |
| Paul Birch | as Prof. Konrad |
| Patrick Waltz | as Lt. Larry Turner |
| Barbara Darrow | as Kaeel |
| Marilyn Buford | as Odeena |
| Mary Ford | as Venusian Girl |
| Marya Stevens | as Venusian Girl |
| Laura Mason | as Venusian Girl |
| Lynn Cartwright | as Venusian Girl |
| Kathy Marlowe | as Venusian Girl |
| Coleen Drake | as Venusian Girl |
| Tania Velia | as Venusian Girl |
| Norma Young | as Venusian Girl |
| Marjorie Durant | as Venusian Girl |
| MPAA Rating: | Unrated |
| Production Company: | Allied Artists Pictures |
| Distributors (USA): | Allied Artists Pictures (theatrical) Warner Home Video (VHS/DVD) Warner Archive Collection (Blu-ray) |
| Release Date (US): | 9/07/1958 |
| Running Time: | 80 minutes |
| Languages: | English |
| Domestic Box Office: | $? |
| Foreign Box Office: | $? |
| Production Budget: | $? (Est.) |
Captain Patterson and his crew are ordered on a routine mission to Earth's Space Station A, 10,000 miles up. They are disappointed; they hoped for a Mars exploration mission. They are promised they will get one after this mission, but Professor Konrad, designer of the station, has noticed serious problems aboard it that he will describe once they are under way.
They blast off normally, but as they near the station, it is destroyed by a powerful beam of mysterious origin. The same beam targets their ship, and they accelerate at emergency maximum. The thrust knocks them out, and they wake up after the ship has plowed into a snowbank. They don't know where they are, but the air tests breathable so they decide to explore below the snow line. (With artificial gravity turned off, the natural value reads 0.88 of Earth's.) There they find a dense jungle, and the Professor concludes they are on Venus.
They make a fire when night falls. Lt. Cruze takes the first watch while the others sack out, saying he couldn't sleep anyway. Soon he dozes off, and wakes up to find himself surrounded by women wearing short dresses and high heels — and carrying ray guns. Speaking English, these women conduct them to the city of Khadi where no men are seen. They are held in an audience chamber until masked Queen Yllana appears and condemns them to death for their plan to attack Venus. There is no reasoning with her; they are locked up to await her pleasure.
It turns out, though, that many wish to be rid of Queen Yllana. Talleah leads this rebel faction, and with her help the men escape the city. They aim to reach the Beta Disintegrator with which Queen Yllana plans to destroy Earth and disable it. But a party of loyal women overtakes them. Thinking quickly, Captain Patterson has Talleah pretend to have captured them, and they are taken back to Queen Yllana in the city. They manage to tie her up, and Talleah dons her mask to issue the order to shut down the Beta Disintegrator. But Yllana foils this plot and takes them to the Disintegrator so they can watch their planet's destruction. There are tense moments as Yllana fires up the weapon. But Talleah has said there are rebels working at the Disintegrator facility. Perhaps...
This film is based on the story "Queen of the Universe" by Ben Hecht, a screenwriter with noteworthy films including Scarface, Nothing Sacred, It's a Wonderful World, and Alfred Hitchcock's Notorious to his credit.1
This film is not particularly noteworthy. Watching it, I noticed similarities to World Without End, another film directed by Edward Berndt. The ship seen in space comes from that film, and the snippit of crash scene seen comes from it.2 The crew take similar actions after the crash. Beyond that, there is only the similarity of a population of young women greatly in need of men.3
The film's plot is fairly coherent if one accepts the premise of surviving a crash on a habitable Venus, but the action is hokey: Well-coiffed women running around the jungle in short dresses and high heels, toting a variety of sidearms4 and, after Yllana's plot fails, smooching with the men as they prepare to leave in their now-repaired ship. Conveniently, Talleah's technicians make contact with Earth, which orders them to stay on Venus and await rescue.
In short, Queen of Outer Space falls into the category of "Lovelorn females on another world rescued by men from Earth" which bloomed and faded in the fifties.5 It is noteworthy only for the twist of Yllana's radiation-induced madness,6 and for the presence of Zsa Zsa Gabor as Talleah. Both she and Laurie Mitchell (Yllana) do a competent job of acting — as competent, that is, as the plot demands.
My Rating:
4 out of 10
Capsule review: This is a mediocre film, watchable mostly for the presence of Zsa Zsa Gabor and the other beauties.
| IMDB Rating: 4.6 | Raters: 2,240 |
To contact Chris Winter, send email to this address.