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Released by: MGM
Released on: 3/15/2011
Director: Curtis Harrington
Cast: John Saxon, Basil Rathbone, Dennis Hopper
Year: 1966
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The Movie:
Queen Of Blood is one of those odd AIP/Roger Corman anomalies, the likes of which just don't get made anymore. As the story goes, Roger Corman saw some nifty footage of space ships made for a pair of Russian science fiction films. He was impressed and bought the footage, which found its way back to AIP where he had writer/director Curtis Harrington whip up a quick script to incorporate it. A few days later, Queen Of Blood was born.
Set in the distant future of 1990, the film begins when a scientist named Dr. Farraday (Basil Rathbone) picks up some radio signals from an alien ship that is on its way to visit our planet. Unfortunately the ship crashes on Mars, and Farraday has to set up a rescue team. He sends a trio of astronauts - Laura James (Judi Meredith), Paul Grant (Dennis Hopper) and Anders Brockman (Robert Boon) - out to Mars to see what they can see, but what they see isn't much and there are apparently no survivors. A second ship, piloted by Laura's hunky boyfriend Allan Brenner (John Saxon), makes a second visit and is more successful and he joins up with Laura and her crew to transport the unconscious alien back to Earth for further studies.
When they get back to Earth, the curvy green skinned female alien (Florence Marly), turns out to have a thirst for human blood and, to complicate matters further, she's also got the ability to hypnotize human victims into giving it to her - it'll be up to Allan and the rest to stop her before she lays waste to everyone around her!
While the inserted footage from Russia sticks out like a big swollen sore thumb, Harrington actually deserves a good bit of credit for managing to craft a story that incorporates the footage without bringing the film to a jarring halt. The film's low budget is obvious throughout but some creative filmmaking helps to make this one a whole lot of fun while the excellent use of color makes this a treat for the eyes. The effects are handled reasonably well here, at least in comparison to other low budget sci-fi films of the era, and Harrington's film has the benefit of an excellent cast.
Dennis Hopper is a lot of fun in his supporting role here and Basil Rathbone is always a kick, particularly in movies like this. He doesn't get as much screen time as his prominent screen credit would make you think he would, but he's good in the part. The real starts are John Saxon and Florence Marly. Saxon is as suave and as charming as ever, a man's man and a perpetual stud, while Marly just has a really commanding presence when she's all dolled up in her green face paint and beehive hairdo. Ultimately the movie might be a bit hokey by modern standards but it's got enough going for it that it's pretty tough not to have a good time with it. It's well paced, it's stylish and it's just a whole lot of fun.
Video/Audio/Extras:
MGM's manufactured on-demand DVD-R looks surprisingly good in this 1.85.1 anamorphic widescreen transfer which looks to preserve the film's original aspect ratio. Colors are nice and bold and bright without looking too pumped up or artificially boosted, while skin tones look nice and lifelike. Black levels are strong, even if they occasional minor compression artifacts, and there are no problems with heavy print damage indicating that either the source was very clean or MGM did some restoration here. The inserts where the Russian footage has been spliced in don't look quite as good as the other material and were probably shot on different stock, but aside from that there's nothing to complain about here.
The English language Dolby Digital Mono mix is also fine. There are no problems with the dialogue at all and the levels are well balanced. Some scenes are just a bit on the flat side but for an older feature, really, there's nothing to complain about here.
Extras? None, just a bland static menu and chapter stops. There isn't even a trailer here (though you can view that on the imdb if you want), which is a shame, as the trailer for this movie is pretty rad.
The Final Word:
Despite the lack of extras, this is a hard one to pass up. Saxon and Rathbone are fun and the direction is decent. Lots of great sets and set pieces, some endearing and entertaining performances and loads of weird atmosphere make Queen Of Blood a blast. MGM's DVD-R is pricey and not only that, it's barebones, but it does offer up the film in very good quality.
