Queen of Blood (1966) Online

It's 1990 and earth has finally made its first contact with extraterrestrials on Mars. Which they have told earth through radio waves that they actually plan to visit earth. Although something goes wrong in their attempt and an expedition is sent to Mars to find any survivors. In which case they discover a green skinned lady. On their trip back the crew encounter that their new passenger has a deadly fixation for blood.

"Planet of Blood" is a cheap little hybrid picture by director / writer Curtis Harrington. He turns in one very solid Sci-fi / horror yarn which is held together by capable performances from John Saxon and Dennis Hopper and some strikingly eerie visuals that go a long way in plastering the film with an atmospherically moody embrace. The haunting story is quite languid, but keeps things rather firm and planted throughout the material are a few surprises and neat touches. The astute plot is quite original and has a variation that would go on to influence (with such others like "It! The Terror From Beyond Space" and Bava's "Planet of the Vampires") the masterpiece "Alien". Some might find the pacing quite slow going and a jargon packed script terribly chatty, but I found it more often interesting with the questions that are raised than boring. If action and mayhem is what you want, it doesn't really kick into gear until the final 30 minutes, where it ends on a surprising final note.

The production looks quite colourful with suited special effects (from a Russian sci-fi flick) that simply does the job. Visually, there are some wondrous lighting compositions and cardboard sets sprayed with a vibrant colour scheme. An otherworldly music score builds up some rustling tunes that rattle along. Harrington's direction is commendably focused and stylishly tailored. Performances are good with the likes of Basil Rathbone, Judi Merdith and Florence Marley as the mysteriously hypnotic and silent alien woman. Watch out for her "Look into my eyes" sequences. John Saxon chimes in with his usual impressive performance and a young Dennis Hopper is sound. Also Forrest J. Ackerman makes a minor mark in the last minute of the flick.

For it's budget, it's a well-presented and exceedingly slow burn premise with a sterling cast.

"Queen of Blood" is also known as "Planet of Blood". It was released by American International around 1966.Reguardless of it's low budget,it is a combination of science fiction and horror, with more attention being paid to it's sci-fi side.Cult movie fans should notice that it is actually a foreign movie bought by American International and reworked for american audiences.Curtis Harrington(writer and director)did a fine job on the film. John Saxon would later star in "Planet Earth", a film that closely resembles this movie.I wouldn't be surprized if Gene Roddenberry saw this thriller and hired John Saxon to star in "Planet Earth".If you get the chance, watch this movie, it's pretty good.

Sometime in the 1990's I believe, the Earth has sent many ships to space and is awaiting the arrival of an alien to Earth after sending various stress signals. A crew of three astronauts(including a young Dennis Hopper and Judi Meredith)go to their planet when some kind of problem arises. It seems this race is dead or dying, and the scientists on Earth want to explore their culture and, unbeknownst to them, their anatomy. Another expedition is needed to go after the first with two more astronauts led by John Saxon. In control at home is Doctor Farraday, played with enthusiasm by Basil Rathbone. What the astronauts find on this dying planet(actually one of its moons) is a creature that is horrific yet strangely sexually hypnotic. The creature is in definite female form wearing what has to be one heck of a tight body suit that shows every...and I mean every curve, peak, and valley. Florence Marley plays this vision of beautiful horror. Her face is green and her hair rises up like some kind of testy beehive. She says nothing but acts with her face and facial movements. One side note about this alien presence. It feeds on blood. Well, you can guess what happens to sundry members of the crew as she/it vampirizes them. The innovative part of the script is that most of the people in charge are more concerned with saving the "beast" for the acquisition of knowledge rather than the, in many cases their own, preservation of life. This is definitely something laced throughout the Alien movies. Queen of Blood is a very innovative film that uses some insightful direction from Curtis Harrington with what looks like an obviously small budget. Harrington used clips from a Russian scinece fiction film to show the rockets and other large scale sets. But despite its small budget, Harrington manages to create a film that is haunting, eerie, and strangely beautiful, not to mention adding some good scares and some thought-provoking questions about science and its ends. He uses colors most inventively...blue, red, green hues all over. The acting is adequate. Its fun to see Mr. Rathbone, although he looks very tired and old. Mr. Sci-Fi himself, Forry Ackerman, has a bit part and oddly enough the best scene in the film at the end...a real unexpected climax. Be sure to give Queen of Blood a try...the first half or so is somewhat boring and slow, but it does pick up and I think is an excellent foray in the world of intelligent sci-fi.

Is 'Planet Of Blood' a good movie or a good bad one? I've watched it three times this week and I'm still not sure. The print on the DVD I bought was lousy, yet there looked like there were some impressive visual images for a 1960s b-grade sci fi movie. The acting was variable to say the least, ranging from inept to quite good. The script has some silly moments and the whole movie is incredibly dated, yet there was a few genuinely creepy moments. Good, bad, camp, forgotten gem, however you describe this movie there's one thing for sure, it's entertaining! It's certainly an improvement on AIP's goofy 'Voyage To The Prehistoric Planet', released the previous year, which was also directed by Curtis Harrington, produced by Roger Corman, and included stock footage recycled from a Russian SF movie. Both movies also featured Basil Rathbone in small supporting roles. The main reason most people (myself included) will hunt this one down is to see cult favourites John Saxon ('Enter The Dragon', 'Cannibal Apocalypse') and Dennis Hopper ('Easy Rider', 'Blue Velvet') co-star as astronauts. Saxon ("That's one bad thing about space trips - no banana splits!"), Hopper, Judi Meredith, and Don Eitner are sent on a mission to Mars to retrieve a crashed alien space ship. The year is 1990(!) and man has unsuccessfully searched for life on other planets. Unexpectedly alien transmissions are received, but the alien ship crashes before it can reach Earth. Saxon and co. eventually find a survivor, a mysterious green skinned female (Florence Marley), who they rush back to Earth. That's when the trouble starts... 'Planet Of Blood' is lots of fun for fans of 1960s SF, Roger Corman, John Saxon and/or Dennis Hopper. p.s. Keep an eye out for Forrie Ackerman!

Remember-- this was 1966! No Computers. No CGI. EVERYTHING done by hand.

And for those of you who were old enough to see this on TV-- I say watch it again-- WHY? Because you very likely saw it in Black & White. And you saw it in the old square ratio TV-tube ratio. And probably worse-- you may have seen a video store VHStape repro with all the washed out colors, scratchy, jittery juddering that came with a haphazard transfer.

This movie was a true Screen production. And I recently streamed a clean video reproduction of this gem via Netflix to my Flatscreen and I was amazed at the quality of the entire show and taken in by the Movie itself.

One-- it's an ironic chuckle to see a movie purporting to be 30 years into the future- 1990! on my Flatscreen via the Internet.

Two- It's a Monster Movie. What Movie from the Age of Outer Space doesn't have One? And like all Monsters we know and love-- this one likes and prefers Blood. . .But Doesn't like unattached girlfriends.

The setup and the story is very cohesive. The science isn't too wild and doesn't have too much hand-wavium. This movies was intended as a SERIOUS SCIENTIFIC outer space entre to the screen. So excuse the fact that they travel to Mars inside of a few days instead of MONTHS, or the fact that they've intercepted a signal ". . .within our Galaxy, but from outside our solar system. . ."

The scenes from the alien planet are cool and definitely otherworldly. And the depiction of Mars is actually pretty realistic, considering what they knew back then.

And the 'Monster'. She's worth watching. She's acting totally and only with her glowing white eyes, Her writhing red lips and her white, white teeth. And she is enjoying herself! When I first saw this when I was kid, I thought I heard a scary bee-like buzzing whenever they focused on her lips-- but I guess that was a vacuum tube inside the TV Set and not the movie (Yes, That's how OLD I am!)

Pluses:

Woman are portrayed as Levelheaded and intelligent, though seems that the world of the future was only populated by Platinum Blondes.

It's a story about meeting an alien culture, albeit a bloodthirsty one. So it makes sense that after you find that your alien guest sleeping peacefully in her bunk with a delightful dab of blood on the corner of her lip after gorging on one of your crewmembers-- the scientist of the group talks about donating blood in shifts to keep her satisfied. And of course, you know that HE will be Next!

For the Nerds in us, they actually gave a nod to interplanetary travel restrictions on Time and Fuel. (despite the fact that the alien rocket crossed interstellar space in a matter of days-- but hey, they were a race of advanced Plant Vampires with Laser heat Vision! They're allowed to break the laws of physics)

Bring your friends over and watch this one after Midnight with chips and dip.

I saw this movie on late night TV as a teenager. It scared myself and my younger brother so much we never made it to the end. About 20 years later I caught it on TV again and though It didn't have the same impact, I could still see what made it so frightening to me back then. Atmosphere.

Excellent ALIEN precursor is yet another take on the PLANET OF THE VAMPIRES school of post Eisenhower sci-fi that always tells the tale of a humanoid space crew who follows an eerie, alien signal to a mysterious world shrouded in storms where they encounter an Alien life form that invariably tags along for a ride home. IT! TERROR FROM BEYOND SPACE is the earliest example of the story I can think of, Antonio Margheriti had a go at the idea in his GAMMA ONE QUADROLIGY films (all of them have hintings of the story cycle in one form or another), then Mario Bava made his stunning 1965 film, a movie so ahead of it's time that even now it doesn't suffer from age.

QUEEN OF BLOOD does, but in a good old nostalgic kind of way, rather than just being klunky and old fashioned like IT! Like Margheriti's neato flicks with their model space ships and Captain Video space corps, QUEEN OF BLOOD has a visual appeal to it that is decidedly different than Bava's arty, swirling hallucination. John Saxon and Dennis Hopper play two of the crew of a human ship sent in the year 1990 (yep! just 24 years ahead of when it was made, an optimistic idea if ever) to look for survivors of an Alien mission to Earth which crashed on Mars. Basil Rathbone is sharp and enunciates with his usual flair as the lead scientist of the Earth Space Corps Interplanetary division, or whatever, who directs the mission from a control panel on an auxiliary stage. He also lends credibility and class to what is really a cobbled together production combining footage from at least TWO Russian made sci fi epics from the early 1960's with some low budget but strikingly effective film shot on real world locations or soundstages that re-define the Russian footage to tell this story.

And while it may sound confusing the end result is almost seamless, not so much padding out the American film so much as serving as the framework upon which the story is woven. The film has a very rich feel for color and texture, especially with how the planet side footage works during the big rescue scenes. It is ten times more effective than the modern day budgeted recent efforts like RED PLANET and MISSION TO MARS in making the viewer feel like they are on a different world and not just watching actors in suits in front of a blue screen. The crew find a survivor, it's a she, she has an amazing bod & interesting lips, and eventually she starts draining the blood of the crew during their trip home for reasons that are never really explained. By the time they get home though, she has died after apparently spawning a Jello Egg Mould Delight complete with gross, giggly little somethings that are promptly scooped up by the military scientists upon landing on Earth. Dan O'Bannon has never cited this film as one of his influences, but he must have seen it and drew upon what he saw for his ALIEN script, eventually.

The film also sets or reinforces some important story conventions that became staples of the ALIEN litany: The mixed gender crew, the importance of mealtimes (as always to be consumed off modular looking trays with oddly shaped utensils that look like dentistry tools), and the inhospitable nature of space as the crew don their pressure suits to conserve resources or suffocate. There is a burial at space, an emergency landing, a sequence involving a ship's log, specialized medical technology and a space ship that becomes a haunted house. Saxon and Hopper are excellent, Richard Boone comes off well as the captain of the ill fated mission, but the real star of the film is probably the combination of the Russian and American footage -- a bizarre sort of social accommodation for 1966 to say the least. It's also relatively short (83 minutes or so) and half over before you know it.

One curious link to later films involving the ALIEN litany are the green giggly Jello eggs -- Luigi Cozzi must have been thinking about them when he made his splatter extravaganza ALIEN CONTAMINATION, which also has nasty, viscous spewing green pod things that spit death. It's sort of nice to imagine one as the evolution of the other, though fans of model and costume 1960s sci-fi might find Cozzi's zest for slime a bit heady. You can find that QUEEN OF BLOOD DVD through amazon.co.uk, look for a seller who will ship to the US but make sure you have a machine that will run their DVDs. It's worth it, and you won't wear out the VHS wheels on a precious old rental tape by playing it over and over and over again.

7/10. Excellent, actually!!

"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.

The thing that really stands out in this film is the visual style which was largely borrowed from a Russian Science Fiction classic. I'd really love to see that film.

Of course the rest remains a lot of fun to watch as a young John Saxon and Dennis Hopper take flight to Mars and although it's paced a little too slowly, I still get a kick out of this movie especially the scene where the Alien Queen first sees Laura James. A likely inspiration for LIFEFORCE and possibly even ALIEN (although NIGHT OF THE BLOOD BEAST , IT! THE TERROR FROM BEYOND SPACE and PLANET OF THE VAMPIRES are other contenders).

I get the feeling at the end of this that a further ending was originally planned given all the hints Saxon was dropping about the Earth's light on his face.

This movie uses footage from a Soviet film, Mechte Navstrechu (1963). I hope the Soviets got paid something for it, because it is really artistic. The Soviet film is currently available on YouTube. It's interesting to compare the two stories. The Soviet film is an optimistic story about how wonderful a meeting between humans and aliens might be. The aliens overhear a love song about apple trees flourishing on Mars and decide they'd like to get in contact with us. Maybe not surprising, there's an American or English scientist named Laungton who can't believe the aliens could really have good intentions. But it turns out that Soviet cosmonauts, after one sacrifices his life for the cause, manage to rescue a beautiful alien woman and bring her back to earth, and happiness ensues.

The American film takes the rather eerie footage from early in the film and turns it into a vampire story. The aliens intended to come to earth to take over our planet and suck our blood. I believe that much of the footage they took of the astronauts/cosmonauts investigating the alien space ships is identical with the original film. Only when the camera focuses on the faces of the American astronauts is it different.

I have to say I like the American version better, in spite of its rather less edifying message. I think maybe Roger Corman, who had a role in putting the American film together, recognized the eeriness potential of the early Russian footage. I think the Russia film makers, in spite of their obvious artistry, didn't realize how the eeriness of the early part clashed with the rather schmaltzy love story and music at various points in the film.

However, the Russian footage is absolutely fascinating. I've watched it again and again.

I noticed that a reviewer said this drew from another Russian film, Nebo Zovyot (1959). I watched that and never noticed anything from Queen of Blood.

Queen of Blood was a 60s Corman produced quickly which recycled elaborate special effects sequences from a Russian scifi epic about heroic space exploration and matched them with cheaply shot footage of a plot about a bloodsucking, green skinned female alien who was clearly the inspiration for the big haired Martian girl from Mars Attacks.

The plot is strikingly similar to Alien. The creature gets on board after the crew pick up an SOS signal from a faraway planet. She bumps off the crew one by one but they are reluctant to kill her at first because they have been ordered to bring an alien life form back to earth. She even has an elongated head and lays eggs.

I caught the original Russian film called "A Dream Come True" at London's BFI a few years ago and it looked gorgeous, but its conflict free high-mindedness and lack of drama made it a bit of a snooze. I was hoping to get the beauty of the Russian film with something more trashily entertaining, but the Russian sequences (shot in 4:3) have been heavily cropped at top and bottom and reprinted on grainy stock, which pretty much ruins them.

The main thing to commend about the US film is Florence Marly, the actress who plays the alien, she does a good job at being strange and otherworldly, aided by some clever lighting. Otherwise this lacks the visual ingenuity of Mario Bava's similar "Planet of the Vampires", which also has close similarities to Alien and which creates a ravishingly beautiful alien planet with limited resources and the ingenious use of special effects (literally smoke and mirrors).

The film features Dennis Hopper in an early career high as an alien snack.

Queen of Blood (1966)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

Earth finally manages to make contact with an alien form but that form crashes on Mars so astronauts are sent to try and rescue any survivors. Allan Brenner (John Saxon) and Laura James (Judi Meredith) both have different opinions on the mission but soon they are fighting for their lives when the Queen alien (Florence Marly) turns out to be a vampire.

QUEEN OF BLOOD isn't your average horror film. If you're familiar with Curtis Harrington then you know he liked to go more towards the art house than the drive-in. His feature film NIGHT TIDE is one of the strangest horror movies that you'll ever see and QUEEN OF BLOOD is just as weird on many levels. I know a lot of people praise Mario Bava for PLANET OF THE VAMPIRES and how he managed to turn a low-budget into a great looking production. I think Harrington really deserves the same credit because this movie certainly looks wonderful even if the film itself isn't a complete success.

What does work here are the terrific visuals. You've got the budget of your typical low-budget nature but Harrington makes sure you can't tell that by looking at the picture. I really loved the use of color throughout the film and especially the glowing reds. The colors certainly leap off the screen and manage to grab and hold your attention. Another plus is that we've got an excellent villain in the female vampire. I really loved her look with the green colors and there were some great scenes with the red blood just dripping from her that was quite effective.

Another plus is that we've got a good cast with both Saxon and Meredith doing a nice job with the lead roles. Marly is also quite good in the role of the vampire and we've got Basil Rathbone and Dennis Hopper in small roles. The film certainly does have some flaws including its story, which is rather unoriginal and there's no question that the psychedelic nature doesn't always work in regards to its story. Still, QUEEN OF BLOOD is an interesting picture visually and certainly worth watching.

"Queen of Blood" is one strange drive-in movie from the forgotten mid- 60s, when rubes in late-model cars flocked to the local outdoor movie palace in exotic locales throughout the Midwest. One of those rubes was myself. I never forgot this odd movie, which was unlike anything else I'd seen splashed over a screen bordered by Ohio cornfields.

Now that QOB is available on DVD, a revisit is definitely in order for all lovers of esoteric sci-fi. QOB debuted in 1966, one year after AIP's "Voyage to a Prehistoric Planet". Both films were directed by Curtis Harrington. Viewing both in chronological order, it's apparent that they were both made at the same time and released a year apart. Both are paste-up films utilizing obscure Russian sci-fi intercut with American inserts. Both share the same artist's paintings under the opening titles. Both share exactly the same American sets and poor Basil Rathbone late in his illustrious career playing two different super scientists with different names wandering around the same cheap sets made of cardboard and aluminum foil. His peering out the round porthole window onto some alien landscape painting does not change between movies. As for leading ladies, "Planet" features fading beauty Faith Domergue ("This Island Earth") in a Nembutal-laced performance, "Queen" features Judi Meredith who was scant years away from "Jack the Giant Killer" where she starred with Kerwin Mathews in a complete and terrible rip-off of Harryhausen's "7th Voyage of Sinbad".

QOB is the superior movie, however much things on screen stayed the same. Questionably, QOB is one of the many precursors to Ridley Scott's "Alien", which in itself was a complete pastiche of other sci-fi epics of the 50s and 60s fueled by a huge budget and better effects. QOB features cult favorites John Saxon, and soon to become "Easy Rider" counter-culture icon Dennis Hopper playing dinner victim with creepy Florence Marley, the titular Queen of Blood. Marley's space vampire is pretty unforgettable, mute with glowing eyes while sporting a white beehive hairdo under a bizarre Gothic cathedral of a space helmet. The movie is by turns psychedelic, moody, claustrophobic, and surprisingly scary in places. Also briefly seen in the last moments of QOB is Famous Monsters magazine editor Forrest Ackerman, hauling around Marley's eggs which will probably spell disaster for Earth when they hatch.

Audio fans will recognize some strange mash-ups here, sound effects lifted from and blending both "Forbidden Planet" (1956) and "War of the Worlds" (1953). AIP pictures were shameless in appropriation, which is part of their legend. Director Harrington did better his second time out for AIP, giving QOB a shady charm that's hard to pinpoint. Not easy to forget, it's certainly worth a look for aficionados.

As a child of the 60s/70s, I realized (in hindsight, of course) how many of the wonderfully effective B-movies I remember were made by one man; Curtis Harrington. Films like THE DEAD DON'T DIE (scary, zombie/noir TV movie), WHO SLEW AUNTIE ROO? (psychotic HANSEL & GRETEL-like movie) and many others. This film has plenty for modern audiences to laugh at, granted; but, in many ways it is the precursor to ALIEN. As much, if not more so than Mario Bava's PLANET OF VAMPIRES. The film uses Russian special effects footage from NIEBO ZOWIET(c.1960) as a way to inject production value into a very low budget frame. And what the hell, it works! The actors, especially Basil Rathbone(yes, Sherlock Holmes himself) are pretty stiff (although a very young Dennis Hopper tries to be more 'natural'). However, Florence Marley as the Vampire Queen is (to this day) an utter show stopper. With her deliberately unnatural smile and balletic body language, she truly seems alien. She makes this movie work! Forry Ackerman's cameo at the end with the 'eggs' is also very effective. Like the Weyland/Yutani Corporation of the ALIEN movies, one realizes Ackerman's inviting disaster on a planetary scale. Nice, nihilistic ending (I miss those once in awhile!). When I was younger, this movie really got to me. As I watch it now, I'm still impressed with Ms. Marley's work. And Harrington's efficient storytelling. Yes, the 'Space Institute' sequences are a little too 'Johnny Astro-Rocket Boy' for even my taste (and I can forgive a lot if a movie works), but once the movie gets into space, it starts to gel. Some details (the continuity between the Russian footage space suits with the American made suits, the interactive lighting during the rocket launches, etc.) are nicely handled. It's gratifying to see care applied to even the lowest budget films. This is no Ed Wood, "see-what-I-made-in-my-backyard-for-six-bucks -and-a-pint-of-scotch?"effort(although those films are hypnotic in their own hideous way). One of the lessons gleaned from movies like this is that a low budget need not be a show killer. This is a simple, effective, ALIEN prototype with a few decent scares and a very effective antagonist/monster. A nice little lesson in getting some good bang for your buck, from Curtis Harrington.

Basil Rathbone, Dennis Hopper and John Saxon star in this piecemeal sci-fi horror using a ton of great special effects from some Russian film, as far as I've read somewhere anyway. That doesn't detract from the fact that the special effects are great for their time, and really groovy to boot. In fact, things only slow down a bit when we get to the actual story line.

Some aliens announce that they'll be dropping by Earth for a visit and perhaps a pint or too, but their ship crashes on Mars. Rathbone, being the head honcho, dispatches Hopper and a crew to go and find any survivors. They don't find any, but a follow up ship containing Saxon lands on Mars' moon Phobos and finds a female survivor. He leaves his buddy behind and takes a rescue ship over to Mars, where he joins up with the rest of the crew, who then set off home with their green skinned, creepy looking cargo.

This alien, with her beehive hairdo, evil grin, and green skin, is rather creepy to begin with, but when her eyes start glowing and she chows down on a crew member things take off. It's scientific research (the Captain's wishes to keep feeding the alien blood so they can get her back to Earth to study) versus common sense (Saxon just wants to destroy the thing, and quite rightly too). What will prevail? And what will the survivors do with the surprises that the aliens left on the ship?

Keep in mind: This film is PG, and made in the sixties, so don't go expecting Alien. The first half is full of those funky special effects from that other film, and the latter half, although not as fun, still has that creepy, silent alien prowling around. Dennis Hopper looks to be still in his teens and John Saxon gets to say lines like "I've only got paper moon money". What more do you want?

Okay, gore and nudity, but what else?

The producers of this film owe thanks to the Russian film, Mechte navstrechu, for keeping costs down by providing critical footage.

But, the sci-fi effects are dazzling, and the color is brilliant, especially for a film from the 60s. I wish our current astronauts wore suits as colorful as the ones in this film.

It also features some good actors: John Saxon, Golden Globe nominee for The Appaloosa, the same year; two-time Oscar nominee, famous swashbuckler, and the definitive Sherlock Holmes, Basil Rathbone; a very young two-time Oscar nominee, Dennis Hopper; Mr. Science Fiction, Forrest J Ackerman, who is credited with creating the term sci-fi; and, of course, Florence Marly (in one of her last films) as the Queen of Blood.

Interesting precursor to Alien.

(aka: PLANET OF BLOOD)

Wow, I remember this from late night TV back in the 70s, only it was with a grainy print that was continually interrupted by commercials. This is strictly a low budget AIP affair using lots of stock footage from Russian science fiction films from the early 1960s.

An alien ship that has crash landed on Mars sends out an SOS to earth for help. Two rocket ships take off from the Earth's moon and head there only to find one dead alien body and a female alien with green skin and silver pointed hair that makes her look like something out of the old Star Trek TV show. She doesn't speak. Not one word. However she does feast on human blood.

The first one she kills is a young clean-cut Dennis Hopper. She sucks him bone dry of all his blood. The rocket ship team then feed her blood plasma in order to keep her satisfied from killing any of the others, even though the head pilot (John Saxon) objects and wants her destroyed. When they run out of plasma before they get back to Earth, she kills the commander by hypnotizing him and then draining his blood.

After Judith Meredith again talks Saxon out of killing her, he ties her up but she burns through the rope with those hypnotic eyes of hers and almost kills Saxon in his sleep. Meredith walks in on this and in the ensuing fight, scratches the alien woman thereby killing her. She drips green blood all over the floor. It seems this alien race are a bunch of hemophiliacs and can die from the slightest of injuries.

But that's not all. She also laid green eggs all throughout the ship that look like pink balloons covered in green jell-o. (laughs)

After they land back on Earth, Saxon wants them destroyed because they're dangerous, but head scientist Basil Rathbone refuses and wants them kept for study. It's amusing watching Forrest Ackerman carrying them on a silver tray when they take them off the ship. It looks like he's carrying dinner. (laughs)

The rocket ship interior is low budget enough and so long as you don't take it too seriously. It's a good way to pass the time if you want to check out the more obscure, cheesy sci-fi from the 60s.

4 out of 10

I found this movie to be disturbingly good. I only saw it once but have never forgotten it. I enjoyed watch this movie build to it's obvious conclusion. For those who are not a part of the misguided in the name of knowledge movies. This movie may seem silly and pointless. But to those of us in that group the movie is a great way to remember all of those movies that were so bad that they are good. The costumes of the vampire alien are so campy that they have to be seen to be believed. And her hairstyle has to be seen just for the laughs it will bring. All in all one of those movie that should be seen just for the sake of camp.

Cold, but intelligent sci-fi horror flick from director Curtis Harrington made on a shoe-string, using special effects from a foreign source to save money. Harrington depends on the scientific aspects of the story while keeping the look of the film(for the exception of the marvelous alien sets, closer to the decade's previous horde of sci-fi horror flicks keeping elements in tighter confinements meaning the ship in which a small crew(including John Saxon, Dennis Hopper, Judi Meredith & Robert Boon)have brought on board an alien queen vampire who uses a hypnotic ability to "freeze" men so that she can feast on their blood. Her people were supposed to come to earth as "greeters", but instead wind up on Mars' moon. Only the Queen survived. They do not know of her mental telekinetic powers and each fall prey to her. The ending is quite rewarding and inspired(..and influential)..it has an apocalyptic quality that feeds into how science can perhaps lead to total destruction of the human race. Can desiring to learn and study alien life outside our own lead to the threat of complete distinction? Such a powerful question from a low-budget, no-money sci-fi horror.

Cheap and shoddy though it is I have to say that Queen Of Blood has one interesting story line and as such is a bit better than some of Roger Corman's effort.

It's always fascinating to me how inevitably the science fiction films get it wrong via time. Made in 1966 Queen Of Blood has us beginning interplanetary expeditions in 1990. We've gone beyond Pluto but not with anyone human on board.

In any event Judi Meredith has been monitoring signals from space for years and now someone is responding to her. It's a distress call from a ship that has landed on Mars. Astronauts John Saxon and Don Eitner are sent and they find Florence Marly a beautiful alien queen with an appetite for human blood or any blood will do.

Of course that's far from the end of it and the alien reproduction is nothing like earth humans do it.

Basil Rathbone is in this as the head scientist and for someone who did classic roles in his prime like Tybalt and Sherlock Holmes he looks a bit pained to be working here. But the man was a pro.

The ending is original and shocking which is why you should see Queen Of Blood.

All right, here's the plot of "Queen of Blood." A space ship gets a signal from a crashed alien craft. The crewmen land, rescue a strange female creature and take her with them back to Earth. But during the voyage the creature starts picking off the Earthlings one by one, until she's killed by the ship's one female crew member. Sound familiar? Of course, this is a Roger Corman cheapo pasted together from footage of a Communist SF flick intercut with a couple of days of Hollywood shooting, including what was probably two or three hours of work from Basil Rathbone and Forrest Ackerman. Ridley Scott was able to considerably pump up the material two decades later. But why writer-director Curtis Harrington didn't sue Alien's producers for plagiarism is beyond me.

Remember seeing this at the theater, most of it. With the chance to see the complete film, found myself pretty impressed. Quite a bit to offer for a B feature. A real young Dennis Hopper and some neat, but cheap, special effects. Earth has finally received contact from outer space; in 1990 radio waves from aliens inform us to expect visitors, but the spacecraft crashes on Mars. Many nations send rescue craft to search for survivors. A U.S. crew finds a lonely green skinned female survivor, with a strange fixation...deadly fixation.

This film is directed and co-written by Curtis Harrington and along with Hopper, starts John Saxon, Basil Rathbone and Judi Meredith. The Green Woman is seductively played by Florence Marly.

Until reading the background information on QUEEN OF BLOOD here on this site, I was genuinely impressed by parts of the movie- parts that I now realize were lifted from OTHER movies... What a difference an Editor can make... The Alien sequences (the aforementioned LIFTED sequences) are eerie and Alien in the extreme and very much worth seeing; the rest of the movie, not so much. QUEEN OF BLOOD taken altogether isn't really a BAD movie, but now I know that it's not a particularly GOOD movie, either. (The Queen herself could suck my Blood anytime, but now I've got to track down the movies from which the really interesting parts were taken to find out just how good THEY were...) (Oh: the Alien eggs revealed at film's end were yet another Steal by Dan O'Bannon and Ridley Scott when they concocted ALIEN.) Thanks to whoever did the research for the heads up.

The alien 'Queen of blood' is the best thing about this garish little thriller, bubbling over with vampiric creepiness.

Unfortunately the first two-thirds of the running time are a bit stolid, relying heavily on time-consuming stock footage from a Russian science fiction film.

But there's a satisfying atmosphere of hallucenogenic otherworldiness, and it's obviously a major source for "Alien' (1979), which in some (but by no means all!) respects it is superior to, with a neat twist ending and an avoidance of leaps in the dark cliches.