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Released by: Kino Lorber
Released on: December 1st, 2015.
Director: Curtis Harrington
Cast: John Saxon, Basil Rathbone, Dennis Hopper, Judi Meredith
Year: 1966
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The Movie:
1966's QUEEN OF BLOOD is a low budget triumph with a bizarre production history. Producer Roger Corman - always on the lookout for a bargain, scooped up some Russian space footage from a film made in the old USSR at rock bottom prices. Corman then hired director Curtis Harrington (NIGHT TIDE) who cleverly stripped out any narrative elements and created a fresh script that could mingle the elaborate space sequences with new material featuring a cast recognizable to a Western audience including Dennis Hopper, John Saxon and Basil Rathbone.
In the far future of 1990 (!), space travel to the moon has become routine. But the International Institute Of Space Technology is more interested in Mars. The basic plot of QUEEN OF BLOOD revolves around astronauts sent to Mars to retrieve the alien survivor of a ship's crash. There's a moderately complicated amount of interplanetary to-ing and fro-ing with a botched early mission and stranded astronaut named Don (Tony Barrata) and that beautiful Soviet footage, but it's important to understand the limitations under which this film was made. At just under 90 minutes, Harrington does a masterful job of padding out the running time with the integrated footage. It doesn't advance the plot particularly, but it's cool looking enough to stop the film from dragging.
The core of the plot revolves around astronauts Brenner (John Saxon), Laura (Judi Meredith), Paul (Dennis Hopper) and Robert (Anders Brockman) who are sent under the supervision of Dr. Farraday (Basil Rathbone) to retrieve a wounded and stranded alien from the planet Mars. She (the alien, despite her green skin and inability to speak mostly resembles a female human) is found and brought aboard the ship and then the gang are headed for home.
QUEEN OF BLOOD really works when it's confined to the claustrophobic confines of the ship. As the crew try to ascertain what makes the alien tick as she begins to recover the film starts to take on the character of a twisted Star Trek episode. Turns out her diet of choice is human blood - of the male variety. There's quite a few great creepily atmospheric sequences where Harrington uses color and lighting to amplify the tension. Since the alien has a bizarrely seductive quality, her scenes with the male actors have a disturbing sexual undertone. Hopper in particular is really good with the Czech actress (Florence Marley) that plays the Queen. Saxon gets by well with his usual charisma and Rathbone does solid work in a very chatty role. In fact, QUEEN OF BLOOD is a bit talky, but the jargon is well written so it keeps the viewer's attention. This is a film also filled with glowing colors and a pop art vibe that recalls the later original PLANET OF THE APES. Makeup is outstanding with the Queen looking terrific. Everything here has that difficult to capture mix of the dated and the timeless.
With its clever and prescient ending, remarkably able production values despite its bargain basement budget, and fun horror plot, QUEEN OF BLOOD is a treat. Harrington would go on to have a fairly uneven career but this and NIGHT TIDE are his finest films.
Video/Audio/Extras:
Kino have done a good job with a very difficult project. The 1.85:1 framed AVC encoded image struggles with the rougher Russian footage but it's never disastrous due to the excellent color reproduction. The Harrington stuff, on the other hand, looks quite lovely. Facial closeups reveal lots of detail. The transfer is colorful but not blown out and black levels are good. You can clearly differentiate between the two film sources, but overall this is a strong presentation.
Audio is handled by a 2.0 DTS-HD MA track that has some balance problems and an occasional tendency to crackle in the upper register but I never missed a line of dialogue. The marvelous score could have used a slightly stronger track though.
As far as extras go, in addition to the theatrical trailer, film expert Robert Skotak gives a great twenty minute history of the movie that fills in a lot of the gaps about this oddity. This is one of Kino's better featurettes and well worth a look. Producer Roger Corman covers some of the same ground in his separate six and a half minute chat, but it's always a pleasure to see him and hear his wonderfully melodious voice.
The Final Word:
QUEEN OF BLOOD is a successful melding of vampiric horror and space age terror. While hardly explicit, it has some nifty and creepy pop art mojo. It could have been a disaster considering the production history, but is actually a first rate example of the horror/sci-fi genre. Kino's Blu is a solid upgrade from the old DVD-R and is recommended.
Click on the images below for full sized Blu-ray screen caps!
