QUEEN OF OUTER SPACE (1958)
Tagline: Millions of Miles Through The Unknown Universe!
(Sci-Fi, Fantasy, I’m Your Venus) [PG]
Note: This movie was never given an MPAA rating, but it likely would have been a PG just due to a few scary scenes.
I'm going to allow myself the exquisite pleasure of watching you while I obliterate the Earth.
In this one, a rocket is headed to a space station in orbit, and the next thing we know the crew of four lands on freakin Venus. The planet just happens to be loaded with women who are ruled by a Queen named Yllana. The goal of these women is to destroy the earth, but the Queen is opposed by a faction that doesn’t like the plan led by Talleah.
First off, the fact that these Venus women speak English is explained. They have been monitoring earth’s behavior and customs for years. The reason is a bit wonky, but at least they offer one. A lot of sci-fi flicks never explain this. Not even STAR WARS. Some of the sets in this movie are pretty solid, but others look like what you would get if a bunch of kids was asked to redo the inside of a Casino in Vegas. However that isn’t what it was, many were actually sets and props used in the movie WORLD WITHOUT END (which had an extremely similar plot). It’s pretty hilarious. I do find it funny how many people thought this was a parody. It’s definitely nowhere near as cheesy as CAT-WOMEN ON THE MOON or even MISSLE TO THE MOON.
Acting wise sci-fi icon Paul Birch plays Prof. Konrad and his acting is almost too good for this movie. So much to the point where it feels like he’s overacting, but he also adds even more credibility to an already solid cast. Birch is most famous for NOT OF THIS EARTH and THE 27TH DAY among others. We also get Eric Fleming who plays Capt. Neal Patterson. Fleming is good in this but was most famous for this and CONQUEST OF SPACE. The lead actress is Zsa Zsa Gabor who was pretty much timeless and live to be 99 which is amazing. I liked her in this role, but the poster is a bit misleading. Gabor doesn’t play the Queen, she actually plays Talleah. This is also her only 1950s sci-fi movie, but she was in over 80 movies and TV projects. Apparently, Zsa Zsa was pretty jealous of the other Venusian girls on the set which made shooting the film very difficult. A lot of the Venusian girls were beauty contestant winners, but some were actresses as well. Barbara Darrow who plays Kaeel in this was also in THE MONSTER THAT CHALLENGED THE WORLD. Lynn Cartwright was also in THE WASP WOMAN, Laura Mason was in THE BOWERY BOYS MEET THE MONSTERS and Marilyn Buferd who plays Odeena was in THE UNEARTHLY.
In the 1950s if you went to space you were probably going to see a giant spider and this movie is no exception. Probably the goofiest thing about this whole movie is the crazy multicolored spider attack. I think some of the masks the leaders of the Venusians are wearing also led to some of the criticism this movie got, but the costumes and all of that were pretty standard 50s “women are in charge” fare. I will say if people are ripping on some of the secondary acting, then I don’t blame them. It’s pretty rough. On top of all that the machine that is supposed to blow up earth sounds like a garbage truck breaking down, but in the grand scheme of things, this film actually is just slightly less interesting than MISSLE TO THE MOON. I kind of do with they had thrown at least one more alien in here that wasn’t another space spider, because that would have made it better.
What was pretty fantastic about this was all the glorious cheese this thing had to offer and the script trying to sneak in at least 2 love stories on top of world domination.
Overall, QUEEN OF SPACE gets a 5 out of 7. The color is impressive, but I think black and white might have served the “effects” side of things better.
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