"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.
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.