QUEEN OF OUTER SPACE (1958)
Article #114 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing date: 7-8-2001
Posting date: 11-21-2001

Whan a space station is destroyed by a mysterious ray, several astronauts in a rocket ship investigate. They are pulled onto the planet Venus where they discover a race of miniskirt-wearing, man-hungry women and their queen with a mutilated face. From then on, you’re too distracted to pay attention to the story.

Ben Hecht was responsible for the story idea. It was written by “Twilight Zone” regular Charles Beaumont. William Beaudine, Jr., the son of William “One-Shot” Beaudine, was assistant director. I mention him because I originally mistook him for his father, who is the only one of these people I’d suspect would be involved with a project like this. There have been several movies where space-farers have encountered mini-skirt wearing all female societies on other planets, and they’re all pretty dumb; this is no exception, but at least it feels as if it was intended to be a comedy. The special effects are pretty cheesy, especially the spider in the cave that always seems to appear in movies of this ilk. And then there’s Zsa Zsa Gabor.

Actually, pointing out flaws in movies like this is like shooting fish in a barrel. It’s also like trying to play the role of Hamlet in a production that also features Pamela Anderson in the role of Ophelia; you can do your damnedest, but you’ll eventually realize that no one is paying any attention to YOU. I have a word for movies like this—they’re “centipede” movies. I call them this because the second you hear the word “centipede,” all you can think about are the legs.