Queen of Blood ** (1966, John Saxon, Basil Rathbone, Dennis Hopper, Judi Meredith, Florence Marly) – Classic Movie Review 4844

‘Turns the Milky Way into a Galaxy of Gore.’ Director Curtis Harrington’s 1966 B-movie Pathécolor sci-fi horror film is based on the screenplay for the 1963 Soviet film Mechte Navstrechu [A Dream Come True] and stars John Saxon, Basil Rathbone, Dennis Hopper and Judi Meredith, and Harrington’s friend Florence Marly as the Alien Queen.

Judi Meredith plays communications expert and astronaut Laura James, who monitors strange signals being received from outer space at the International Institute of Space Technology in 1990. Dr Farraday (Basil Rathbone), Laura’s boss, discovers the signals come  from an alien race, who are sending an ambassador to Earth. Laura then receives a video log showing that the aliens’ spaceship has crashed landed on Mars, and a rescue team is sent out from Earth.

It is produced by Roger Corman, Gene Corman, George Edwards and Samuel Z Arkoff, and was released by American International Pictures in a double bill with Blood Bath. It also used special effects footage from the Soviet films Mechte Navstrechu [A Dream Come True] and Nebo Zovyot [The Sky Calls] (1959).

Harrington said: ‘The film is entertaining and I feel I was able to say something within the context of the genre.’ He felt Ridley Scott’s Alien (1979) received inspiration from his film, saying: ‘Ridley’s film is like a greatly enhanced, expensive and elaborate version of Queen of Blood.’

The great Rathbone was reduced to being paid $1,500 to act for a day and a half plus $1,500 for half a day on Voyage to the Prehistoric Planet (1965), another movie using Russian film footage.

Saxon said his scenes were shot in seven to eight days and that Hopper ‘was trying very hard to keep a straight face throughout’. He added: ‘Basil Rathbone had one day. He came on and he was a very, very distinguished gentleman. He did his scene. But he got annoyed, because they didn’t get the sound right on his first take, and they asked him to come back. He dressed down the director.’

Modest though it is, Universal were sufficiently impressed to hire Harrington and producer Edwards to make Games (1967).

2016 brought a Blu-ray Special Edition from Kino Lorber.

© Derek Winnert 2017 Classic Movie Review 4844

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