Queen of Outer Space

Plot synopsis:
We open with a long shot of a rocket awaiting launch. Captain Neal Patterson (Eric Fleming), Lt. Mike Cruze (Dave Willock) and Lt. Larry Turner (Patrick Waltz) wait outside the Colonel's office. When admitted they are introduced to Professor Konrad (Paul Birch) and told their next assignment is to take Konrad to the Space Station. They express disappointment at such an unimportant assignment, but Col. Ramsey (an uncredited Guy Prescott) cryptically tells them, "There are indications of serious trouble up there. Professor Konrad will tell you about it when you're underway."The crew prepares for launch when Konrad arrives. He explains the importance of the Space Station as a launching point for all future space missions. Outside, Larry is saying goodbye to his girlfriend (an uncredited Joi Lansing). With Larry back on board, Prof. Konrad is strapped into his bed for launch. The crew grimaces with the G-forces of acceleration until they reach orbit. They navigate towards the Space Station. Konrad tells Patterson about the true nature of the mission, "They've made some disturbing observations from the Space Station. Apparently we have some deadly neighbors in outer space. The Earth may be in mortal danger." At that a ray of energy from an unknown origin flashes across the screen. Multiple shots get closer to the Space Station until one makes a glancing blow. The next shot is a direct hit and the wheel-shaped craft is destroyed. The beams are approaching the spaceship, Starfire. They try to outrun the energy force and are struck. The force accelerates the craft to an incredible speed. Later they will discover the speedometer broken above the maximum pegged value. Capt. Patterson was injured by a piece of flying debris.Title and credits roll [15 minutes into the movie] over a star field. They approach a planet and crash land in the snow. The crew awakens to take stock of their situation. They deduce they are on the planet Venus and discover the air is breathable. Below the snowline they enter a jungle with strange plants and no sound at all. A strange pulsating sound pierces the silence and Prof. Konrad correctly observes, "My guess is that was an electronic signal of some kind." They build a camp fire and bed down for the night. Larry takes the first watch. Mike took the watch that brought morning, but he dozed off. As a result, he didn't notice until too late the crew were surrounded by the inhabitants of the area. Women in short shirts, clear plastic high-heel shoes, and carrying ray guns take them hostage. They are marched back to the city. Once inside the city they get the impression that strangers, and particularly male strangers are not welcomed. They are brought into the Council Chamber for an audience with the rulers of Venus.A curtain parts and Queen Yllana (Laurie Mitchell) and her council, all wearing masks, take their seats at a table on a raised platform. Yllana introduces herself, "I am Yllana, ruler of the city of Kadir and queen of this world." Next she asks, "Why are you here?" Patterson introduces himself and his colleagues, then explains, "We came from Earth on a peaceful mission, but our ship was thrown off course, and we crashed here." The Queen does not believe the Earthmen. She and her council adjourn to decide their fate. Motiya (Lisa Davis), the blond woman that Larry found so captivating, leaves to tell Talleah (Zsa Zsa Gabor) of the Earthmen. Talleah, the leader of the resistance movement on Venus, decides to visit the Earthmen and decide for herself if they can be trusted to help her cause. The Earthmen are returned to the Council Chamber to hear the decision. The Queen pronounces that, "You came here to spy on us, to prepare for invasion. What is the plan of attack? You will die!" They are returned to the prison quarters.Konrad voices his concern, "I have a sense of foreboding about them. A feeling of something monstrous, evil." Patterson adds, "I'm beginning to think our being here isn't an accident." He concludes the energy beam originated on Venus. Talleah visits the Earthmen. She tells them their lives are in great danger. She confides that she is one of many who want to overthrow the Queen and makes a deal, "If you help us, we are going to help you." Then she drops the bombshell, "The Earth is going to be destroyed." Talleah tells of an interplanetary war Venus had ten years earlier with Mordo. Most of the cities were destroyed and lost to the jungle. Yllana led the revolt and took over from the men. Many were killed, but the men she needed are kept on a prison colony moon, Tyrus, that orbits Venus.An escort detail comes to take Capt. Patterson to see the Queen. Konrad noticed the Queen had an interest in Patterson and advises he try to charm her. Betraying her true feeling for Patterson, a jealous Talleah says, "I hate her! I hate that Queen!" Yllana joins Patterson in her bed chamber. She tells him, "Bring me a glass of wine, Captain, and one for yourself." She sits, provocatively on the edge of the bed, showing a lot of leg. They drink. The charm appears initially to be working until she warns, "If you do not give us a truthful explanation of your visit here, the Council sentence will be carried out to the letter." She does provide an escape provision for the handsome Captain. She admits to a desire for him. He asks her to take off her mask, but she refuses. By way of warning, she shows him preparations of the Beta Disintegrator that will be used to destroy the Earth. In a moment of weakness she allows Patterson to unmask her. He is shocked by the visage. Severe radiation burns have left the angry Queen with a scarred face of blue and black skin, with open red sores. "For that you will die," she proclaims. Yllana replaces her mask and calls her guards to escort Patterson back to his cell. When alone, she removes her mask, looks at her face in the mirror and sobs uncontrollably. Patterson explains to his colleagues, "It was atomic radiation that disfigured her. I think its affected her mind." The four are taken to see Talleah in her lab. She introduces another of her circle, Kaeel (Barbara Darrow). Talleah tells Patterson they have no time to waste. She has learned that the Queen plans to destroy the Earth in two days. They plan to walk through the jungle to the site of the Beta Disintegrator and destroy it. Before they can leave, the guards search the lab. Since Talleah is still considered loyal she continues to work as the others hide. When the guards leave, Talleah frees her comrades and the Earthmen and they make their way through the city and escape outside.Odeena (Marilyn Buferd), who brought the Earthmen to see Talleah, has been captured and brought before the Queen. She protests her innocence, and is lulled into a sense of safety when the Queen reassures her, "Odeena has always been loyal to her queen. Release her. You may go." As she turns to leave, Yllana pulls a ray gun from a guard and blasts her into smoke. Outside the city, Talleah, Patterson and the others are under radar and searchlight detection. They conclude they are safest in a cave. The guards are searching in the jungle for them. Larry leaves the safety of the group to explore the cave system. Larry is observed by something that watches from a rock ledge above him. A giant red-eyed spider pounces down on him. He screams and fights it off. The commotion draws the rest to his aid. A blast with a ray gun soon reduces the spider to a smoldering shadow on the ground. They build a fire and wait in the cave. Patterson, Larry and Mike get to know their female companions on a more intimate basis. Konrad remains unattached, so he volunteers to go gather more wood for the fire. Outside he discovers the search party of guards have found their trail and are closing in fast. They devise a plan to have Talleah pretend to capture and march them back to the city.The Queen oversees final preparations on her Beta Disintegrator. She returns to the city to confront the Earthmen, unaware Talleah is no longer loyal. But Talleah reveals herself, "I don't want your reward. One move and I kill you." Patterson orders Yllana to give orders to suspend all work on the Beta Disintegrator. Talleah adds an order of her own, "You will contact the guards on Tyrus and tell them to free all the men." Yllana pretends to comply, goes to her bed and pulls a ray gun out from under a pillow, but is quickly disarmed. Patterson pulls her mask off and gives it to Talleah to masquerade as the Queen to give the orders. They tie up the Queen and hide her behind a screen. Motiya and Kaeel leave to warn their partisans at the weapon site. The masked guards enter the Queen's chamber. Talleah orders them out, but Yllana kicks over the screen revealing the plot. Talleah is disarmed and unmasked. The Queen is restored to power. Yllana delays the execution of the traitors until after she destroys the Earth, but promises, "For her treachery, Talleah will die last, and most horribly of all." Yllana makes one more appeal to Patterson for his love and attention, but her disfigured face even repells her guards.The Earthmen are taken to the jungle site of the weapon. While Yllana gloats, Motiya and Kaeel signal their mission is completed. On a giant screen the Earth is seen suspended in space. The Queen threatens, "It took untold millions of years to create the planet you call Earth. Watch it closely Earthmen. It will be destroyed in a matter of seconds. Watch it!" Yllana presses the button to start the machine. It whirrs up to speed, then makes an unexpected sound of distress. The Queen presses the button again, but all that happens is a screeching sound. She pounds on the button but still nothing happens. The machine explodes and a small fire erupts inside. The Queen enters the main operating room to work it manually. Every lever she throws only makes things worse. More explosions and more fires. A fight between the loyalists and resistance breaks out. A final fireworks display reduces the Queen to a burnt out carcass.Sometime later the Earthmen and citizens of the city assemble in the Council Chambers. A new Queen, Talleah, and her court assume their places on the dais. Talleah announces that the ship has been repaired and the Earthmen can now leave for home. They prepare to depart, but are delayed by a message for the Queen, "The electronic tele-viewer is working. Earth answers us." Colonel Ramsey tells the crew that their orders are, "Not to attempt a return flight in the Starfire. I will not risk his life or the lives of his men in a patched-up ship. Therefore, Captain, you and your crew will remain on the planet Venus until a relief expedition can reach you." We close with Patterson and Talleah embracing, then each principle cast member gets a credit and close-up.

Tags: satire

Review:
But after the captain rebuffs the evil queen's advances and the plot turns to action, the film starts taking itself seriously and its sense of goofy fun dissipates quickly.But, in fairness to Bernds: if he wasn't in on the joke, neither were any of his cast, who perform with earnest sincerity throughout.Although the film was made by Allied Artists (Monogram after their name change), some expense seems to have been spent on it: it's in color & Cinemascope and the sets, although gaudily and colorfully fake, are extensive.
Because of the film's reputation, those involved in the production were undoubtedly anxious to rewrite history to salvage their professional reputations.Favorite scene: Zsa Zsa's attempt to impersonate the queen by donning her mask and issuing orders in her imperious and distinctive Hungarian accent, then being shocked when the ruse fails..
Everybody involved seems to be having a good time, with the exception of lead Eric Fleming, who goes through the movie with a "when this is done I'm gonna strangle my agent" look on his face, but it's a fun movie to watch.
Somebody who heard that story passed it on to someone else, and eventually it became "Queen of Outer Space." Hecht sued the producers when he heard it was being made into a film, and as part of the settlement he got a story credit.)It's still a fun movie, although by no standards could it be considered a good one.
Steve Rhodes (newsgroup review) sums it up best when he says, "'Queen of Outer Space' is a parody of science fiction films.
Whether it meant to be so at the time is another question."  This is prime material for MST3K (very similar to "Fire Maidens from Outer Space"), but they might be avoiding "Queen" because it almost makes fun of itself.
the hideous queen with her mask, the statuesque women of Venus, the death ray, the giant spider-beasts..and Zsa Zsa. Of course, now I see the film for the campy delight it is and was intended.
Happily, logic has nothing to do with it; the Venus La Gabor inhabits bears no resemblance to anything in our solar system.Not for the first time in movie history - I'm thinking "Fire Maidens from Outer Space" here - Venus turns out to be the province of buxom, slightly past their prime showgirls, and there's nary a man in sight.
It has everything: the 1958 view of life in 1984, space catastrophe, sex (well, sort of), Zsa Zsa, a man-hating queen with a shocking secret, babes in short togas, and the funniest plot ever.
Zsa Zsa Gabor (a former `Miss Hungary') plays one of the Venusian women who defies the evil Queen of Venus (Lauren Mitchell) and falls in love with one of the four Earth men who lands on their planet.
The queen hates all males because her face (which she hides behind a mask) was scarred in a war the women once fought against the now-extinct Venusian men (an idea perhaps borrowed from `Abbott and Costello Go to Mars').The captive Earth astronauts go nuts over the sexy dames, all of whom look just fine in their futuristic miniskirts.
The mission commander is Eric Fleming (`Rawhide' and `The Conquest of Space'), and one of the crewmen is Paul Birch (`Not of this Earth').The best thing you can say about this movie is that it gives the audience a look at numerous props from more worthy 1950s science fiction movies: the astronauts' uniforms and the Venusian women's outfits are all borrowed from `Forbidden Planet' (along with a few blasters).
Outrageous 1950s Sci-Fi. When one starts watching this movie, one gets a feeling that this might be a fairly serious, good sci-fi film...then the rocket lands on Venus, and all credibility simply vanishes.
The astronauts are then captured by a patrol of women in high heels (who also shout "Bagino!" over and over), and the familiar "men-encountering-love-starved-female-civilization" plot begins.The movie does have some interesting twists: The deadly "Beta Disintegrator" with which the evil queen is planning to destroy earth; the queen's advanced acne-like skin condition; gloriously saturated color photography; Paul Birch as the bookish scientist who is uninterested in the nubile Venusian women; and of course Zsa Zsa Gabor, who gives an interesting performance as the Chief Scientist on Venus (!).This movie is outrageously male-chauvinistic (even for the 50s) and has some of the dumbest dialogue in the cosmos.
Paul Birch, typically a pretty good actor, does a shameless job in this film smiling constantly and his scene where the space station is destroyed and he is suppose to look disconcerted is a real hoot!
One of the oddest things about this film (besides Zsa Zsa Gabor's Venusian/Hungarian accent) is that the costumes and minor props like rayguns all came from Forbidden Planet.
Four American astronauts blast off into space and discover Zsa Zsa Gabor in this truly strange 1958 film--a movie which actually received fairly positive reviews at the time but which is today regarded as a cult classic of the "so bad it's good" variety.The story is trivial.
A space ship carrying four American astronauts is struck by a mysterious ray and forced down on Venus--which is ruled by evil Queen Yllana (Laurie Mitchell), who has banished men from the planet and who now determines to kill our heroes and blow up the earth for good measure.
Along the way we encounter lots of leggy, busty women in short chiffon skirts, silly special effects that include a large rubber spider, and a doomsday machine that looks like it has been slapped together from cardboard and spray paint.The script was written by Charles Beaumont, a writer of no particular talent, and alternates great stretches of flat dialogue with accidentally funny one-liners, most memorably Zsa Zsa Gabor's "I HATE zat Queen!" The film was directed by Edward Bernds, prolific creator of grade C movies during the 1940s and 1950s, and in general consists of people standing around looking like they wished they had something to do.
Zsa Zsa Gabor aside, the most recognizable performer is Dave Willock, who appeared in close to two hundred films and television programs between 1939 and 1972, most often in small but charming character roles."So bad it's good" movies really are a matter of personal taste; one person's hilarity is another's boredom.
Now, when you go around looking for truly awful films, you can do no better (or worse) than to start with "The Queen of Outer Space"..
What other movie offers mini skirted Venusian women in high heels, giant phony spiders, incredible dialgue, and wide beamed Zsa Zsa Gabor all rolled into one??
Even though the effects aren't all they could be and the acting could use some help I love this movie and suggest you rent it to watch it even if you have already seen it as you might like it better the second time around..
You just need to enjoy its campiness and silliness.Filmed in Cinemascope, "Queen of Outer Space" offers laughable special effects, cheap-looking sets, a contempt for the laws of physics, a juvenile conception of future technologies and fashions, chase scenes with almost no action, and even a monster that's as threatening as a throw pillow.Still, it can be fun to watch a film that features corny dialogue and a Venusian rebel who speaks with a Hungarian accent and indulges in numerous costume changes.
Zsa Zsa Gabor is the rebel, and she plans to overthrow her man-hating queen when she is not applying her makeup or working in a laboratory that looks like the workshop of a flower arranger.The Earthmen who crash on Venus are imprisoned (a goulash archipelago?)by the evil queen but they are distracted by the all-female population of Venus.
The crew lands on a tropical jungle like planet (contrary to the real Venus which is 800 degrees Fahrenheit at it's surface temperature),anyway the crew comes across a group of Mini skirt clad Females with ray guns in hand.
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.
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.
Zsa Zsa Gabor, like all women, is from Venus in this mercifully short science fiction film that is determinedly Z grade in dialogue and production budget despite being filmed expensively in colour Cinemascope.A group of astronauts in 1985 go on a routine mission to a space station and end up in Venus.
Astronauts, including Baby Jane Hudson's Father land on the planet of Venus in 1985 (the film was made in 1958) and encounter beautiful Venusian women in mini-skirts (correct for '67) and flat-screen TVs (correct for today).
The women explain how the aliens and the earth people can understand each other (Plan 9 From Outer Space) is the only other sci-fi film to explain this) and yet when they slip into their native tongue, the main word they speak is "botchino!" For an Allied Artists film (formerly Monogram), the film is fairly lavish, in CinemaScope and color, with a decent musical score and gorgeous Zsa Zsa Gabor as the heroine.
Colorful sci-fi has Zsa Zsa Gabor and numerous other beautiful females trapped on the planet Venus, which is under the ruling of a man-hating feminist.
It's Not an Easy Task to Achieve a Movie as Awful as This One. In a decade -the 50's- where us moviegoers were not very hard on sci-fi or horror films because the genre was in demand and many of them became little classics even with their natural technological limitations ("Creature of the Black Lagoon", "The Fly", "The Incredible Shrinking Man"), this one was really bad and impossible to defend.If you just consider that Zsa Zsa Gabor is the main star you can imagine what you could expect from the rest of the cast.
Miss Gabor has always been a less than mediocre actress; in fact I can't recall an acceptable performance out of her."Queen of Outer Space" has no highlights whatsoever, it looks cheap and is boring; costumes and settings are standard or worse (it's impossible to imagine the guys are in Venus).
The story could not be less original (the destruction of the earth by aliens that look exactly like us).The face of the masked evil queen would have been something to maintain some sort of interest on; but not even that, director Edward Bernds shows it five minutes after she makes her appearance.Real bad product.
In "Queen of Outerspace", men bump into a planet inhabited completely by young women in short skirts of all colors.
One of these masked people is their Queen, Yllana, who wants to destroy the Earth with a beta disintegrator that they recently used to destroy a space station.Zsa Zsa plays Talleah, a dissenter who wants to fight Yllana but needs the men to help.
Queen of Outer SpaceThe upside to a planet without men is no weightless toenail clippings floating about.Thankfully, the gravity on the planet in this sci-fi film is similar to Earth.When they crash-land on Venus, Capt.
It's not long until the captain and his men learn of one of the queen's advisor's (Zsa Zsa Gabor) plan to overthrow her reign of misandry.In doing so, they uncover the terrible deeds that lead to man's banishment from Venus, and of the man-made atrocity that marred the monstrous monarch.A B-Movie through-and-through, Queen of Outer Space is not only a cautionary tale about mankind's warmongering, but also a progressive piece of feminist fiction that unfortunately succumbs to the sexism of 1958.Incidentally, banished Venusian males went on to colonize the first gay-friendly planet.Yellow Lightvidiotreviews.blogspot.ca.
It can be summed up in a nutshell: Astronauts in a plastic rocket ship land on Venus which is populated only by luscious females in short skirts and one over-sized rubber spider, and their evil queen hates men.
This trashy but Technicolor-shot sci-fi piece from Allied Artists was surprisingly given a Special Edition DVD release by Warners under their "Cult Classics" banner along with the even more notorious ATTACK OF THE 50 FOOT WOMAN (1958) and the still elusive THE GIANT BEHEMOTH (1959).Despite having (as the theatrical trailer would have it) "the most talked about woman" of the time, Zsa Zsa Gabor in the lead, she plays a Venusian lady scientist(!) who (predictably) falls for strapping American astronaut Eric Fleming.
Curiously, the film has a 15-minute pre-credits sequence showing the four goofy astronauts' (including a disappointingly wooden turn from NOT OF THIS EARTH's Paul Birch) ascent into space and turbulent journey through the stars as their hokey spacecraft (whose sheer wobbliness hardly disguises its model origins) is detoured towards the man-less planet Venus.
Needless to say, the Venusians are split over the arrival of the men: there are those who adhere to Mitchell's ultra-feminist credo while others follow Gabor's example and are all over the three young astronauts; by the end of it, when they are ordered by their superior officer on Earth to remain on Venus for a year, even the previously discarded Birch is surrounded by a bevy of smooching ladies!!
Campy Fun. Queen of Outer Space (1958) ** (out of 4) A spaceship with four men run into some sort of ray, which pulls them onto the planet Venus where the entire place is being ran by women.
An evil Queen (Laurie Mitchell) plans to destroy the Earth with this ray but the men and a female scientist (Zsa Zsa Gabor) have other plans.
Zsa Zsa Gabor stars(but does not play the title character!) in this unbelievably stupid, poorly made science fiction film(a failed satire of the genre?) A manned spaceship flight to Venus finds it populated exclusively by beautiful women, under the reign of tyrannical queen Yllana, who hates men, and was responsible for leading the revolt against them, exiling the survivors to a penal colony on the moon.
Some Venusian women want the men back, and so team up with the astronauts to take down the queen, and stop her from destroying the Earth with a "super weapon" as well.
In the years just before he went into long running Rawhide where he co-starred with Clint Eastwood, Eric Fleming got a shot at dubious screen immortality when he became the leading man to Zsa Zsa Gabor in Queen Of Outer Space.
Destroy earth and all the wicked aggressive male populace whose women have not overthrown male domination on that planet and have established an Amazonian society such as they had on Venus.But some like Zsa Zsa want men again, they're useful for some things and when earth astronauts Eric Fleming, Paul Birch, Dave Willock, and Patrick Waltz get thrown off course and land on Venus, the guys get involved in the sexual power play politics of the planet.This film is positively hysterical because it's so bad.
It's not a bad idea to watch "Forbidden Planet" before seeing "Queen of Outer Space".
Four men on a space ship -- ramrod Captain Neal Paterson (stolid Eric Fleming), smooth ladies man Lt. Larry Turner (smarmy Patrick Waltz), jolly Professor Konrad (a delightfully lively Paul Birch) and antsy comic relief Lt. Mike Cruze (annoying Dave Willock) -- land on the planet Venus and discover that men have been outlawed and women reign supreme.
All men have been disposed of and now all citizens are long legged sexy women under the rule of a masked Queen Yllana(Laurie Mitchell).
Patterson and crew are held captive, but gets help from a Venusian scientist Talleah(Zsa Zsa Gabor), who needs aid in defeating the evil Queen and restoring men to the planet.Very low budget, borrowed cheep sets, hasty script...but all in color.
She leads a group opposed to the Queen's ways and does what she can to help the men escape.Queen of Outer Space is another of those movies that I find very difficult to rate.
The movie is a mix of Zsa Zsa as a scientist who can't stand still without posing, some inspired set design, vivid colors, leggy Venusian women in short skirts and high-heels, wacky dialogue delivered with a completely straight face, arcane sexist jokes, and some of the best unintentional (at least I think it was unintentional) humor you can find.
Oddly, while Venus SHOULD have had a totally noxious atmosphere and ship-crushing pressure, naturally it is rather Earth-like and the air is breathable.The four crew men are soon taken prisoner and are taken to go see the planet's insane queen, Yllana.
The captain also learns that the queen plans on letting the men live BUT blow up the Earth with something like the "illudium q-36 explosive space modulator"!
It's Zsa Zsa Gabor and her fellow Venusians - All ray-gun toting, mini-skirted beauties in high heels who speak perfect English.This unintentionally camp, Sci-Fi, B-Movie from the glorious 50's is so utterly cornball, with the cheesiest-looking sets and special effects imaginable, that the viewer can't help but laugh out loud at its outright preposterousness.Queen Of Outer Space's story centers around the arrival of the first manned mission (by the USA) to Venus.When 4 "butch-as-ever" astronauts make their initial touchdown on Venus they are promptly confronted and taken prisoner by a pack of high-heel clicking Venusian lovelies.The Queen of Venus, Yllana, soon makes a royal appearance.
The most chutzpahtic of the three was undeniably Zsa Zsa, who brings her iconic Hungarian accent to the Planet of Love in "Queen of Outer Space".
Zsa Zsa (who allegedly was unimpressed with being surrounded by a bevy of beautiful women half her age), plays Talleah, part of a revolution against the masked queen who is planning to destroy the Earth.