1950s Science Fiction Hidden Gems Part Three
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- čas přidán 26. 07. 2024
- 1950s science fiction cinema had some strangely specific sub-genres.
One of them was the planet of beautiful women.
This time around I look at three of these movies:
Fire Maidens Of Outer Space : amzn.to/45ha2Cu
Cat Women Of The Moon: amzn.to/47FS8uO
Queen Of Outer Space: amzn.to/3OZhVGS
00:00 Foreshadowing
00:32 Fire Maidens Of Outer Space
06:48 Cat Women Of The Moon
13:32 Queen Of Outer Space
22:03 Jungle Adventures In Space
23:02 Outro
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Wonderful series of nostalgic reflections on some underloved flicks of the 50s.
Thanks!
I definately agree with the Lost Jungle theme. It is also another step in the women in sci-fi and fantasy always being ill dressed for their job (of whch I include the original Star Trek). In a few decades, men are exploing and fighting in metal armor and woman are doing it in gold bikinis.
Yeah the chainmail bikini this was weird. I had a friend who made one. They had to line it with cloth because it was cold and it pinched in various places.
I watched Fire Maidens of Outer Space last year for the first time. I couldn't stop laughing. Cheesy but fun.
I know, right?
These are just the sort of films which turned me into a film buff as a teenager. Fire Maidens deserves to be better known as a sort of British equivalent of Plan 9 from Outer Space (a film I love dearly). On a more pedantic note, Eric Fleming played Gil Favor on Rawhide, not Wagon Train. To be fair, it was basically the same show but with cows instead of people.
Yep, cows, people, all the same... 😉😝😀
Some supernatural force put a glitch in the algorithm and brought me to your channel. You are my kind of movie lover. Not pretentious or narrow-minded. As a child I lived in the fantasy world of my television. I quite preferred it to the physical one. You've brought back many happy memories of that time. I've just subscribed to your channel and look forward to more videos.
Thank you, welcome aboard. 😀😉
If memory serves, the crash landing in the beginning of Queen of Outer Space is lifted directly from World Without End, a movie in which astronauts land on 26th Century Earth and realize the surviving human race is suffering from, what do you know, reduced virility. Funny how that kind of crisis keeps turning up. Thanks, Ter.
Yeah, that crisis probably reflects the ageing of the screenwriters. 😀
The footage from World Without End was itself borrowed from an early '50s film Flight to Mars! By coincidence, the same shot is used to represent a crash landing on each of our three terrestrial planets. Ya can't take that rocket anywhere!
Fire maiden’s. Classic MST3K. Love that movie
It's 100% silly AF, which gives it a unique charm.
Marie Windsor is one of my favorite 50s actresses, I really liked her in the film noir The Narrow Margin. I'll have to give Cat Woman of the Moon a watch. Queen of Outer Space looks like fun, that's going on my list. I had the weirdest flashback when you mentioned Cannonball, I had totally forgotten about that show. It must have been the early 60s when I watched that! Great video!
I have deep knowledge of old tv shows. I am a river to my people. 😀
Frank Zappa wrote a song about this type of movie. It's called " The Radio Is Broken " from his 1983 album " The Man From Utopia ". He name-check Sonny Tufts (and others) and there's a Uranus joke in there too!
Sonny Tufts is also in this. czcams.com/video/I6Pag7EBuGQ/video.htmlsi=_sADb1kkk6tLvqPh
Sounds wonderful.
Love the Parody of Cat Women in 'Amazon Women On The Moon'!
It's more a parody of Queen of Outer Space. Even the costuming is similar.
"Just Imagine" (1930) was the first film with the female planet concept (including a big dance number). "Abbott and Costello Go to Mars" (1953) started the '50s trend and has some really gorgeous women from Venus. "Missile to the Moon" (1958), a slightly upscale remake of Cat Women of the Moon, has the same spider puppet -- plus cool rockmen. A much better film overall. "Have Rocket Will Travel" (1959) has a real giant tarantula chasing The Three Stooges around, but no female civilization (I guess they blew their budget on the process-screen spider). "Nude on the Moon" (1962) is an amusing "nudie-cutie" variant on this theme.
Nudie cuties are fun.
Saw Fire Maidens of Outer Space on MST3K. Seen Amazon Women on the Moon as well. Charles Beaumont wrote many episodes of the Twilight Zone.
He did.
FireMaidens is notable for an early use of classical music.
It was in the public domain, which made it cheap to use. 😀
I've watched these movies alot, but never saw Queen in color on tv. She is also a favorite of mine.
All three are mad films.
Paul Birch was also in "The War of the Worlds". He was one of the three men blasted by the Martian heat ray.
Yep. I love versatile character actors.
I am old enough to remember Wagon Train and Ward Bond was the Wagon master. Gil Favor was the trail boss in Rawhide. Just a bit of pedantry on my part. I can't help it, I am a know it all. Enjoy the content, these hokey films are a real hoot!
They are great fun in a cringey way.
I can imagine that Stanley Kubrick was up late one night and watched Forbidden Planet and Queen of Outer Space back to back then immediately phoned MGM to order all the sets, models, etc. from 2001 be destroyed because he didn't want them to end up in Queen of Outer II! I hate dat qveen! lol
Kubrick had control but not that much control. Anyway, sequels weren't as much of a thing in the 60s unless it was spy movies or Italian westerns.
@@terrytalksmovies I think you missed the humor in my post 🙂
@@KelebrimbearXnope. But good try. 🙂
All three are fun little movies. Definitely better with a few beers or some wine.
That's true. 😀
Nice one Terry.. 2 Hidden Gems I've never heard of let alone seen . I have an affection for Queen Of Outer Space for all the reasons you stated. The screen grab of the Zsa Zsa Gabor poster ( which I proudly own a copy of) suggests SHE is the Queen Of Outer Space . A misdirection of what seems to be a trope of 50s SciFi Posters? Robby the Robot carrying Anne Francis on the Forbidden Planet poster ( never happened). Tobor The Great poster carrying it's female lead etc. I'd love to hear you discuss some of the amazing Science Fiction Posters (and not so good) of this era. Great Video
I'll be hitting more 50s SF in future.
The "monster" carrying the woman goes back to the pulp covers. Didn't matter if it was in the movie. There are several good books on 1950s sci-fi movie posters.
The space suits of the astronauts in Queen from the Outer Space came from Forbidden Planet
They do.
Beaumont did great work with Rod Serling.
People have said he worsened his condition by popping Bromo seltzer to settle his stomach, which contains a LOT of aluminum . . . .
It's hard to know sixty years later but his loss diminished genre fiction.
@@terrytalksmovies In a big way. great talent.
Terry, Gil Favour was a character in Rawhide, not Wagon Train.
Ward Bond was in that one. I also just remember Cannonball
My mistake. Mea culpa. 😀
1:44 *Are those the SAME meteors as from Tobor's flight test simulator?*
Now I'm going to have to skim both!
Might be.
Thanks Terry, I really enjoyed the reviews. Queen of Outer Space was parodied by a funny Canadian tv show called SCTV. The costumes and the sets were hilariously well done.
Plus Amazon Women On The Moon. A compare and contrast between those two shows how great the parody is.
Now I'm feeling a little dim. I really thought Queen of Outer Space was made in earnest, just kind of weird. But it being a spoof DOES make a lot of sense. Thanks.
My pleasure @McLir
LOL! I went to see this movie with Raquel and Denise tonight, Terry! It was being hosted by drag performer Hedda Lettuce as part of her "Sci-Fi Summer" series....
I both laughed and cringed at the blatant sexism of the movie-maybe I would've been less uncomfortable if I'd realized it was stupid-on-purpose....
Which one?
@@terrytalksmovies - oh, sorry!
QUEEN OF OUTER SPACE-so I recognized the image right off!
Almost reached the end and have been anticipating a major plus about Fire Maidens, I watched this as a kid on TV, repeatedly on "Million Dollar Movie". The score held me. borrowed from Borodin, the Russian composer. Used as a theme for a Broadway musical. Top redeaming factor..
The musical was Kismet. MGM made a good musical about it in the 1950s.
I highly recommend Joi Lansing's music vids. Hubba Hubba Hubba!😃
Thanks for the tip.
Saw all three in the theatre at the Saturday Matinee. They recycled the films over the years. Queen is on my list. I did not realise that Cannonball got a TV release in Australia. With only one season I figured it did not get an Australian or UK release. Thanks for the reviews. Most enjoyable.
Always a pleasure, Garfield.
William Johnstone replaced Orson Wells in the Shadow. Victor Jory was in the Saturday morning serial
Thanks for the correction @jupiterpaul 😀
Good point about lost jungle films on a different planet. These are fun Saturday afternoon or late night hosted movies. The climax in Queen of Outer Space seems like a pillow fight with ray guns.
I like a happily ever after movie, particularly in goofy science fiction movies.
I have owned all three of these for quite a while. They're all a fun time, but the absolute kicker is when ZsaZsa says "Oh zhat queen! I hate zhat evil queen!". Everytime I've screened it for someone new, I have to pause the film, to wait for the hysterical laughter to calm down. Saw them all at my Tuesday Summer Kiddie Matinees, so I've actually had the dubious pleasure of seeing them first on the Big Screen. Great choices for a triple bills!
Thank you. They're all fun as a three movie marathon.
There was a funny skit about these movies in the comedy anthology movie Amazon Women on the Moon (1987)
I said that in the video.
Ty so much
You're welcome!
I know that I can see a couple of these films on Tubi, and may well give them a go at least Queen of Outer Space.
Go for it. It's wry fun.
The Queen of Venus sounds like Marvin the Martian, who wants to destroy the Earth because "it obstructs my view of Venus." Hmmm... (Both are 1958.) The other 'Queen in Space' film I can think of is the Soviet Russian production "Aelita: Queen of Mars." There is "Life As Propaganda" in all it's glory.
Stay safe in this best of all possible worlds comrades!
Marvin had a really shitty idea of how planets orbit the sun. 😀 There are a few 1920s Soviet science fiction movies worth watching. Aelita is one, Algol is another.
Cannonball was one of my favourite American shows during the 60s; great intro music. I loved the 60s shows with a travelogue premise like Route 66, The Fugitive, The Littlest Hobo etc.
Paul Birch was creepy in Not of This Earth, another low budget sci-fi. Nevertheless, I loved that film.
Apparently Mary Ford, she of the Les Paul & Mary Ford team was in Queen Of Outer Space as a Venusian Girl. I wonder if she played the Venusian Gibson Les Paul? I haven't seen that film but intend to check it out. Thanks for the recommendation Terry.
Yep those picaresque shows had such broad concepts that any kind of story could be fitted into the format.
Love these cheesy/cheesecake movies! World Without End 1956 is similar altho it takes place on a future post apocalyptic earth after a Mars flyby. Cheers
There are a whole bunch of them. Second features on double bills but entertaining.
I recently re-watched "The Atomic Submarine" and had forgotten how terrible it was, I think I've had sandwich's that cost more than that movies budget!
I mention it because Joi Lansing of "Queen of Outer Space" fame was in it as well. She also was the featured character in the Adventures of Superman season six episode "Superman's Wife."
Joi Lansing was in everything in the 50s and 60s.
The women must have used up the costume budget for QUEEN, because the men had to use leftover space suits from FORBIDDEN PLANET.
Yes but the sets are a little too sketchy.
@@terrytalksmovies ???
@@creech54 they could've spent more on sets and less on frocks.
@@terrytalksmovies Ah, OK! My main point was just to point out the reuse of the FP costumes. Didn't know if everyone caught that.
Another good episode and a great selection, but a lopsided trilogy. You might have included "Missile to the Moon" in there: essentially the same plot as Fire Maidens and Cat Women, with dancing, leotards, caves, and a spider. What all three films have in common is conniving naive and misguided women who can't kill a spider, and men who would rather leave with the loot than stay behind on a planet where they are surrounded by beautiful women (also, don't forget Devil Girl from Mars, where a beautiful woman who can fly a spaceship arrives on earth to kidnap men so she can repopulate Mars -- and they put up a fight). Also, in your obsession with Sonny Tuffs sins, you forgot to mention the only way Marie Windsor could break free of the Cat Women's spell was to be slapped! All this to say Queen of Outer Space probably belongs next to Abbot and Costello Go To Mars -- also set on Venus. Love the show!
I'll cover Missile to the Moon in a future episode.
You forgot one, Terry, "Nude on the Moon", 1961.
I didn't forget it, I ignored it. I might do some Doris Wishman movies in future.
"But, none of them have plastic surgery." Belly laffs.
Thanks 🙂
Well, real V2 rockets did show up in the British countryside a decade earlier. They just didn't land like a SpaceX rocket like this. Somehow, I missed this one! Will check out Fire Maidens OF Outerspace.
Check them all out! They're worth it. The V2 in the film was one the US captured at Peenemunde which they took back to White Sands and launched.
@@terrytalksmovies The yanks actually captured the Dora-Mittelwork (and attached concentration camp) and took their V2s direct from the production line built into the cave. They were in a hurry because that area was in the soon-to-be Russian zone. The Russians actually captured Peenemunde, but there were few V2s left following the RAF raid and very fierce fighting. (Thanks to the book Operation Crossbow.)
"feel free to self-medicate while you watch it cos it may improve the experience" lol! Thank you, you read my mind...but honestly are there enough drugs in the world to inoculate oneself against such cinematic crime? i can imagine a drinking game where any time a piece of product placement occurs you take a shot of something strong!
Sound Of Freedom is a cinematic crime. These ones are just silly fun/
@@terrytalksmovies True. just read an article where the director of " Sound of Freedom" was defending his work against the publicity "efforts" of Jim Caviezel!! Aside from distinct possibility ol' Jim has completely lost his marbles the director was desperate to separate the maga crowd, from his film, and err...adrenochrome? WTF?! i wonder if its at least bad enough to be the next "The Room". Think i'll save my pennies for "Queen of Outer Space"!
Deffo seen the last two. Entertaining in their own weird ways..
They's silly fun and worth a rewatch.
Terry: The movies you have profiled are a “Trifecta of Fun”.
For me, it’s going to be a Saturday night evening of cocktails and gummies. 🍸
What’s up on your list next week?
I'll let you know next week. Even I don't know yet.
Wowie! I haven't thought of Cannonball in decades. It's just a coincidence that I became a truck driver and drove for 14years!
I'm sure it's no coincidence, George. 😀
Ya, you're probably right about that Terry.
@@terrytalksmovies
Fire Maidens from Outer Space is an example of what I was saying yesterday.....they want £28 plus postage for
what you describe as a poor film. I was willing to try it (all the actors on screen are familiar English actors), but come on that's equivalent of a 26 episode series.
That's crazy money for a movie like that.
Another fun set of reviews for films that at times barely deserve the attention, lol! but you remind me why even the worst entertainment is worth another go or three. Just received my copy of the Aussie book "Book of The Banned" by Simon Miraudo, about the long, and at times cringe-inducing history of film censorship (and classification) in this country. Though I've just started it, i can tell it's one you'll get a lot of value from. I know film is your specialty but, if you do enjoy it perhaps consider giving it the "Terry Talk" treatment?
I've got Simon's book on the desk here. It's thorough and WTF at the same time.
@@terrytalksmovies cool. looks like I've got a fun read ahead of me! I wonder if anyone will consider doing a "Not Quite Hollywood" style film of it.
@@jackfriend4u Possibly.
Sonny Tufts was in a really good John Payne film noir The Crooked Way...probably by mistake...Marie Windsor was often in movies that wasted her talent( Such was Hollywood at the time)...She did appear in several good films though including The Narrow Margin, The killing, and Force Of Evil...she also modelled for the artist Vargas...
Yep. Marie Windsor was very underrated.
Just a couple of things:
The exotic and beautiful Marie Windsor is superb in the Sci-Fi adventure, The Jungle.
Why pick on Brian Donlevy, who has 1,000 times the talent of Sonny Tufts?
The reason the rocketship is fat & stubby in the takeoff scene of Queen of Outer Space is because it was standard format stock film that had to be optically stretched to Cinemascope format. Think of people who don't watch their TVs in the proper aspect ration...
Donlevy was a drunken shouty Quatermass. Tufts was a drunken shouty spaceship captain in Cat Women. There's the parallel.
I mentioned that the spaceship was flattened. I think it looks good but the palm trees look crazy.
@@terrytalksmovies Well, being a drunk or drug abuser would disqualify many in the business from being regarded. You don't like his portrayal of Quatermass, okay, you have that right of course. But a random pot shot isn't necessary. Val Guest directed him to be the Quatermass as he was, and Guest liked it fine. And Donlevy was still a much better actor than Tufts, am I not right?
Are you related to the guy? He was shouty and implausible as Quatermass.
@@terrytalksmovies No I'm not a relative. Try to be serious and less petty, my friend. You seem pretty sharp and more open-minded in your commentary. It's a matter of record that Val Guest directed him that way and was happy with the result. Guest softened him a bit for Quatermass 2. In it, Quatermass had much more sympathy for people in general than in the first outing. You do have the right to dislike the portrayal the director wanted. Once again, I contend Donlevy was a vastly superior actor than Tufts, and I doubt that can be in dispute. He deserves credit for his body of work even if you dislike his Quatermass. You should see The Virginian of 1946 if you have not yet, in which he portrays the gunfighter Trampas. It also stars Joel McCrea, and GET THIS, Sonny Tufts is in it as well. THX for letting me say my piece.
@@themoviemaniac8416I agree. Donlevy was good in a number of things, like The Big Combo but he's a poor match for Quatermass. I was being a bit cheeky with the relative thing, sorry about that. Donlevy is better than Tufts, who was a privileged man-baby who wanted to be an actor and didn't put in the hard yards learning his craft.
Do you think The lost children is the same kind of movie just in a almost isolated island city backdrop
Are you talking about The City Of Lost Children?
Love all three of these movies, although I could never understand why the Catwomen were so badly dressed. Usually the women in these movies was one of the attractions, I really like Paul Birch, he starred in one of my favorite Roger Coreman 50's movie Not of This Earth.
Yeah, Birch was a solid character actor. Even as a villain I liked his work.
I thought Rocket ship X-M was the first to have a woman on board the ship. I think it came out in 1951.
Frau Im Mond did it in the 1920s. 😀
😃 And the spacesuits are from the forbidden planet!!!
They were!
Is "Fire Maidens of Outer Space" the one where they play "Stranger in Paradise"?
The original music by Borodin, yes.
The Queen of Outer Space is a classic in my book.
It's tongue-in-cheek fun.
Zaza Gabor in Queen of Outer Space: Zee airth eez een great daingair - Eet has zompting to do wiz zee Beta Disintegrator Ray.
Hungarians have a lot of trouble losing their accents in English. 😉
@@terrytalksmovies I'm sure I'd have a hard time losing my accent in Hungarian!
Hmm. Peculiar definition of "gem." LOL.
My 50s gem/guilty pleasure is "Angry Red Planet."
Some gems are only semi-precious stones. 😀 Angry Red Planet is weird.
@@terrytalksmovies It is soooooo weird. Great late night movie.
Cool monsters,though
These are sort of ERB stories made before the ERB Boom of 1963-'65 . . . . .
So were the Tarzan movies. 😀
@@terrytalksmovies Literally. Although, these are more like his Mars, Venus, Pellucidar Moon, Beyond the Farthest Star and Caspak novels though.
There were a lot of these re-published in 1963-'65 (Otis Adelbert Kline, Ralph Milne Farley) and new stuff (Ln Carter's Thongor of Lost Lemaria)
A moment in popular culture . . . .
1:40 of COURSE they dodge meteror showers. To this day they ALWAYS have to dodge meteor showers. It is almost mandatory that spaceship movies have a disaster onboard either a meteor shower or an internet explosion. These are fun rainy Saturday afternoon movies, but not "good" by any real standard, I agree. Yet for some reason they are still known when other
"quality" films have fallen into the dustbin of history.
Quality films are interesting. I just watched Woman's World from 1954 and it's sexist AF. Some movies are forgotten because they couldn't or didn't want to move things forward.
@@terrytalksmovies I'll have to look that one up.
I may be stating something you and many of your audience know-- Charles Beaumont wrote for the Original Twilight Zone, along with Matheson and Serling himself, among other writers...including an adaptation of a Bradbury story.
Yeah. If you can find them Beaumont's short story collections are great, too.
Gil Favor was on Rawhide, not Wagon Train.
True. Thanks.
Actually, the queen was scarred in the nuclear war waged by men, understandably ticking her off.
Yep but she went the Thanos route rather than working toward fixing things.
Thank you for pointing this out.
Young Gene Roddenberry ....😮😮 ????
LOL
I can sympathize with having an odd unexplained like of a 'bad' movie. I have NEVER been able to understand why i like 'From Hell It Came' so bloody much🤦🏿♂️🤷🏿♂️ it's...awful..but i enjoy the hell out of it.
Sometimes you just want to be entertained by awfulness. 😀
Probably better to have a London Cockny playing an American than the reverse, right Mr. Van Dyke.
Really, per mythology, Hestia should have been trying to fry someone called Aphrodite . . . .
Sonny Tufts had a career as an actor because he was 4F in WWII. Must other leading men where either serving (Gable, Powers, Stewart, Fonda et al.), WWI vets (Tracy, Bogart, Pat O'Brien, Walter Brennan and Jack Benny) or 4F (also Gregory Peck who had injured his back badly studying dance to be a better actor and was a pacifist).
Beefy leading men were a fashion for a while. Mitchum was the best but there was also Aldo Ray.
Seeing those Sci Fi movies where Earthmen end up on a planet with young beautiful women and they are the only men , makes me curious and want to be the last man on Earth, just to see if is true what all those women have been saying to me for years!
If you were the last man on Earth, you would be hooked up to a milking machine, mate.
'Fire Maidens Of Outer Space' ... yeah I've always thought it was 'From' not 'Of'.
I first saw it on TV with my twin brother. I was about 8 years old. He was too. The monster scared the '$%^&' out of me. I've seen it once since and now I realise it's just a terrible movie. For me, it tussles with 'The Terrornauts' for being the worst science fiction movie ever produced in the UK.
I think I need to find a bottle of good cognac and a copy of 'Queen Of Outer Space' ... and enjoy. That movie looks and sounds like fun.
Sometimes worst can be entertaining.
Fire Maidens beats Plan 9 From Outer Space for worst film of all time in my opinion. I think it was probably a 'quota quickie'.
Quota quickies were in the thirties and forties if I recall correctly. This was just a cheapie.
Quota Quickies were made until the 1960 Film Act
@@terrytalksmovies
@@portland-182 Thanks!
Hidden gems? More like hidden tu**ds. Amiright? Charles Beaumont wrote some of the best TZ episodes.
They're not turds. Dumb entertainment, yeah, but they're fun.
@@terrytalksmovies Lottsa fun.
Feel free to self-medicate …
Don’t mind if I do.
Enjoy!
RAWHIDE!!! He played Gil Favor in RAWHIDE!!!! C'mon read your homework 😐!!
I will.
@@terrytalksmovies God love ya Terry😃🙏🏾💥
@@waltergiles86yeah, nah. I'm an atheist. ;-)
Borodin I believe.
Yep. Borrowed from Borodin.