"Queen of Blood", a.k.a. "Planet of Blood", is a reasonably enjoyable low budget science fiction picture, executive produced by Roger Corman, and written and directed by Curtis Harrington ("Night Tide", "The Killing Kind", "Ruby"), who uses a fair amount of footage from two big budget Soviet productions, "Mechte Navstrechu" and "Nebo Zovyot", and writes his own story around it.
In 1990, mankind makes contact with aliens who crash land on one of Mars' moons. A sole survivor is brought on board the humans' spaceship, yet she's decidedly deadly: a seductive blood sucker with green skin, a nice tall head of hair, and frightening eyes and smile. Ever engaging John Saxon is young hero Allan Brenner, pretty Judi Meredith his love interest Laura James. Basil Rathbone, in one of his final movie roles, is great fun as the exuberant Dr. Farraday. Dennis Hopper, who'd acted for Harrington in "Night Tide", is well meaning astronaut Paul Grant. Robert Boon as Anders Brockman and Don Eitner as Tony Barrata offer fine support, with a small role for none other than Forrest J. Ackerman as Farraday's aide.
While the movie is ultimately a little too slow and talky for its own good, Harrington and a capable crew give this amusing B picture a pretty good look, doing appreciable things in terms of colour. It gets off to a nice start, with the opening credits slowly playing out over paintings by John Cline, and accompanied by eerie stock music composed by Ronald Stein (who's billed as Leonard Morand).
All things considered, there are some effectively creepy moments to appreciate in "Queen of Blood", especially in the second half. Among the crew are Stephanie Rothman, director of drive-in flicks like "The Velvet Vampire" and "Terminal Island", as the associate producer, and Gary Kurtz, future producer of "Star Wars" and "The Empire Strikes Back", as the production manager. Best of all is the performance of Czech born actress Florence Marly in the title role, who has an incredible presence and makes a Hell of an impact without having to utter a word. The ending is also an interesting combination of being both somewhat happy and yet full of doubt, with a wary attitude towards the ways of scientists. Fans of the genre should find this an acceptable diversion.
Seven out of 10.
In 1990, mankind makes contact with aliens who crash land on one of Mars' moons. A sole survivor is brought on board the humans' spaceship, yet she's decidedly deadly: a seductive blood sucker with green skin, a nice tall head of hair, and frightening eyes and smile. Ever engaging John Saxon is young hero Allan Brenner, pretty Judi Meredith his love interest Laura James. Basil Rathbone, in one of his final movie roles, is great fun as the exuberant Dr. Farraday. Dennis Hopper, who'd acted for Harrington in "Night Tide", is well meaning astronaut Paul Grant. Robert Boon as Anders Brockman and Don Eitner as Tony Barrata offer fine support, with a small role for none other than Forrest J. Ackerman as Farraday's aide.
While the movie is ultimately a little too slow and talky for its own good, Harrington and a capable crew give this amusing B picture a pretty good look, doing appreciable things in terms of colour. It gets off to a nice start, with the opening credits slowly playing out over paintings by John Cline, and accompanied by eerie stock music composed by Ronald Stein (who's billed as Leonard Morand).
All things considered, there are some effectively creepy moments to appreciate in "Queen of Blood", especially in the second half. Among the crew are Stephanie Rothman, director of drive-in flicks like "The Velvet Vampire" and "Terminal Island", as the associate producer, and Gary Kurtz, future producer of "Star Wars" and "The Empire Strikes Back", as the production manager. Best of all is the performance of Czech born actress Florence Marly in the title role, who has an incredible presence and makes a Hell of an impact without having to utter a word. The ending is also an interesting combination of being both somewhat happy and yet full of doubt, with a wary attitude towards the ways of scientists. Fans of the genre should find this an acceptable diversion.
Seven out of 10.