Queen of Blood
This week’s movie was “Mechte Navstrechu,” (“A Dream Come True”), from the Soviet Union’s Odessa Film Studio in 1963. It was directed by Mikhail Karyukov and Otar Koberidze, who co-wrote the script with A. Berdnik and Ivan Bondin. Preparations are being made to launch the first spaceship to Mars. Cosmonaut “Andrei,” (Boris Borisenko), broadcasts one of his songs into space. It is detected on the planet Centuria and the aliens decide to investigate this strange message. The lovely “Etanyia,” (T. Pochepa), commands the enormous spherical spaceship to Earth, but the craft malfunctions and crashes on Mars. The Soviets launch the spaceship “Ocean” on a rescue mission and recover the alien woman from her escape pod on the Martian moon Phobos.
This movie has gorgeous production values and special effects. Unfortunately that’s all it has to offer. The characters are undeveloped and uninvolving, and the film is dramatically flat. The climactic first contact with the rescued alien takes place offscreen, and is just described by the cosmonauts in a television broadcast. This isn’t a very good movie at all. It is only slightly longer than an hour, but it feels longer.
Producer Roger Corman, (1926-2024), bought this movie to cannibalize the special effects. Once again Corman assigned Curtis Harrington to write and direct the picture. This week’s other movie was “Queen of Blood” from AIP in 1965. Basil Rathbone plays “Dr. Faraday,” who is in charge of the space agency. When an alien spaceship crashes on Mars the decision is made to launch a rescue mission. The crew consists of “Allan Brenner,” (John Saxon), “Laura James,” (Judi Meredith), and “Paul Grant,” (Dennis Hopper). They succeed in rescuing the exotic “Alien Queen,” (Florence Marly). On the way back to Earth the Alien kills Grant and gorges on his blood! She is a Space Vampire! But she is also very fragile. Laura accidentally scratches the Alien and she bleeds to death in seconds! But before the movie closes we discover that the Alien has laid a clutch of pulsating eggs! (The eggs are actually condoms, just for the record.)
This film is no masterpiece, but it is entertaining in a silly sort of way. It benefits from a good cast. Of all the Soviet movies that Roger Corman modified for American audiences, this is probably the best. It is also the only one that is actually better than the original version.
Dr. Faraday’s unnamed assistant in this picture is portrayed by “Forrest J. Ackerman,” the beloved editor of “Famous Monsters of Filmland” magazine!
“Queen of Blood” was novelized by author Charles Neutzel. It was published by “Greenleaf Classics,” which specialized in pornographic literature. This paperback featured a cover painting of the Alien Queen completely nude! (The movie had no nudity or sexuality at all.) This book is now a highly sought after collectors item.