Movie Review: Queen of Outer Space (1958)
Synopsis: In the year 1985, a spaceship crew consisting of Captain Neal Patterson, Lt. Mike Cruze and Lt. Larry Turner are ordered to escort Professor Konrad to a space station in Earth's orbit. While enroute, a mysterious beam destroys the station and causes damage to their ship that results in them landing on Venus. Believing the planet to be uninhabitable, they are surprised to discover it is populated by beautiful women under the rule of Queen Yllana. They learn the men have either been killed or imprisoned by Yllana following a war with another planet that left her disfigured and the queen plans to destroy Earth before it has a chance to declare war on her planet. Their only hope is a group of women who hope to overthrow the queen so they can be with men again.
Who's in it? The movie stars Zsa Zsa Gabor, Eric Fleming, Laurie Mitchell, Lisa Davis and Dave Willock.
Review: I've had Queen of Outer Space in my movie library for a couple months now and never found the time to watch it. That finally changed this morning and, after seeing the film for the first time, I have to say it was about what I thought it would be but also exceeded my expectations a bit too.
I'll start out by saying, as would be expected, there is a lot of things that are dated when it comes to this movie. This includes everything from inter-planetary space travel by the 1980s to various sexual stereotypes when it came to the female characters. Just the fact some of the women, led by Talleah (Gabor), wanted to overthrow the dictatorship just so they could fall in love with men tells you a lot about that.
That said, the plot actually wasn't all that bad. Queen Yllana (Mitchell) might have been dismissed a bit by the male characters and their 1950s gender standards, but she proved to be a powerful dictator with a very firm and swift agenda. Her iron grip on her planet meant the lives of the astronauts was in jeopardy and there was no clear way for them to prevent her from using advanced technology to destroy Earth. In fact, as far as classic science fiction goes, I think she might have been one of the better villains.
While the ending didn't have a whole lot of surprises, it wasn't overly predictable either, at least not as predictable as it could have been. There were a few moments of suspense as well as a decent final battle. Plus, the very end managed to keep things lighthearted and upbeat as a counterbalance to some of the violence that happened prior.
Final Opinion: I didn't have high expectations for this film and, as I mentioned, some parts were a bit dated. However, it was a fun movie to watch, and I'm glad I finally gave it a chance.
My Grade: B
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Here are some reviews of other movies from 1958:
Movie Review: In the Money (1958)
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