Fire Maidens of Outer Space

My one memory of this appalling movie is of the spaceship's captain extinguishing his cigarette to announce "gentlemen, it's time for us to synchronise our LONGINES watches with the LONGINES master clock." At which point, the screen is filled with a shot of a very large, very ordinary looking wall clock with a prominent LONGINES logo on its dial. The camera lingers....and lingers....meanwhile, the viewer makes a mental note "must buy Omega next time."

If I had a dollar, no better make that five dollars in these inflationary days, for every time Cy Roth's name appeared on the screen during the opening credits for this film I'd have enough to make my own movie! A bunch of British astronauts take an exploratory trip to the 13th moon of Jupiter (a neat trick in itself since this was made in 1956 and Jupiter's 13th moon was not even discovered until the late 1970's!) and discover a race of mini-skirted sex kittens who are the descendants of the survivors of Atlantis who left Earth some 3000 years ago! There is only one man on the planet and he is quite old so the girls welcome the arrival of young, virile men. Now in real life the guys would probably dismantle the rocket and live happily ever after. But do they in this movie? NOOOOOOOOOOOO! They are veddy proper Englishmen and they just want to go home! ("I'm a happily married man." one of them even states with quite the stiff upper lip.) Oh, there is one other male on the planet, a weird mutant known as The Creature. This has got to be one of the most laughable monsters in movie history. A skinny guy in a black bodysuit with clearly visible zipper and an unmoving fright mask. Yow! Even Larry Buchanan's monsters weren't that bad! Susan Shaw and Jacqueline Curtis are the Fire Maidens who get the most screen time but in the crowd is Kim Parker who would go face-to-whatever with the FIEND WITHOUT A FACE in 1958. This movie used to run on late-late shows all the time. It desperately needs to be released on video for a new generation to see. Yes kids, once upon a time people actually paid 35 cents on Saturday afternoons to see stuff like this.

If you like Borodin's "Prince Igor," "Stranger in Paradise," or "Kismet," DO NOT WATCH THIS MOVIE, because you will never again be able to hear that music without dissolving into fits of uncontrollable laughter. Otherwise, go for it: it is every bit as bad as others have described and, in my humble opinion, makes "Plan Nine from Outer Space" look like a masterpiece.

Okay now let me get this straight, the people of Atlantis escaped their sinking continent by blasting off into space where they colonized the 13th moon of Jupiter so 3000 years ago. Now only a dozen or so are left and they are all young, attractive women and just one middle aged man who claims to be the father of all of them. As a certain pointy eared TV character might say, "Fascinating captain." This movie has got to be the culmination of many male fantasies all rolled into one. A bunch of guys from Earth land on the on the planet, which has breathable atmosphere and plenty of sunlight despite being hundreds of millions of miles further from the sun than Earth. They encounter a bunch of miniskirted, barefoot, submissive women (one of whom even exclaims "Men at last!" so you know what has been on their minds!) and get a chance to play hero by defeating a monster called The Creature (a man in a black bodysuit and a monster mask). Unique to say the least. Actually I found myself liking it because of its very ineptness. The photographer never lets us forget the girls sex appeal since the camera is often on ground level giving us a good look at their legs and there is also a long interpretive dance scene. I would say they don't make them like this anymore but the truth is the do, you can find movies similar to this on USA Network every Saturday night at 3 AM.

written, produced, and directed (already we're in trouble!) by Cy Roth, this is a film about empire building, megalomania, and a quest for vindication. By whom? By Cy Roth, that's by whom! Actually, this is a movie about five chain-smoking, er, "astronauts" who fly their V-2 rocket through some dangerous looking stock footage to the 13th moon of Jupiter where they discover: Atlantis(!), a bunch of pretty young girls running around in what look like tennis skirts, a laughably bad monster, and the sad realization that none of them should ever have quit their day jobs. This movie is so indescribably bad, so incredibly inept - the whole thing looks like it was shot in somebody's back yard - that it has to be seen to be believed. And through it all, the strains of Borodin's "Polovetsian Dance No. 2" aka "Stranger in Paradise" repeat and repeat and repeat like bad take-out. Take our word for it: see this movie once, and you will never again be able to listen to the aforementioned music without conjuring up visions of this awful, execrable film.