MovieChat Forums > Queen of Outer Space (1958) Discussion > Dialogue To Die For

Dialogue To Die For

posted 10 years ago by spookyrat1
23 replies | jump to latest

Capt. Neal Patterson: The ray that destroyed the space station and knocked us off our course may have originated right here.

Lt. Mike Cruze: Oh, come off it! How could a bunch of women invent a gizmo like that?

Lt. Larry Turner: Sure, and even if they invented it, how could they aim it? You know how women drivers are.

and if that didn't get you breathless:

Capt. Neal Patterson: I love you.

Talleah: If love is what makes your heart tick, then I love you too.

Oh! Be still my beating heart!

[–] hobnob53 10 years ago

And all this from an original story by Ben Hecht!!

The rampant sexism seems overdone even for 1958...let alone 1985.

"I hate zat Qveen!"

[–] namaGemo 10 years ago

The sexism seems about right for the time. I don't know a movie from the fifties that was rampantly anti female intelligence and strength.

[–] hobnob53 10 years ago

You "don't know a movie from the fifties that was rampantly anti female intelligence and strength"? There were lots of them!

[–] Eric-62-2 10 years ago

Lieutenant Turner I guess had been listening to Bob Newhart's "Driving Instructor" routine.

[–] hobnob53 10 years ago

Soon after making this movie Lt. Turner (Patrick Waltz) actually married his Venusian lover Motiya (Lisa Davis). They remained husband and wife until 1972, when she divorced him, I think for a Martian. Later that year Waltz died of a heart attack at 48. I believe he was cremated and his ashes sprinkled across the Queen's boudoir. So very sad.

"Twenty-six million miles from Earth, and the little dolls are just the same."

[–] ZolotoyRetriever 10 years ago

^lol
I'd give the poster a break... Probably meant to say wasn't, not was. I'm pretty sure it was a typing mistake.

[–] hobnob53 10 years ago

Yeah, but you know, on a thread where we're talking about bad dialogue....

Anyway, I wasn't being nasty, just clarifying. Like covering the plot holes in QOOS.

[–] ZolotoyRetriever 10 years ago

I hear you. The bad dialogue and plot holes in this film were enough to make my eyes roll right out of my head. Be that as it may, it's a fun flick to watch, what with the eye-candy ladies and endearing 50s-era sci-fi corniness. Plus, the print they show on TCM is a crisp, wide-screen color presentation. Quite beautiful, actually!

[–] hobnob53 10 years ago

Absolutely. I've been a fan of this movie since the early 60s when it turned up on NYC TV. And when I finally saw it in widescreen in the 90s it was like discovering a whole new civilization on some far-off planet. The DVD as well as TCM's print are in surprisingly excellent shape, which, considering all the major films contemporary with QOOS that are desperately in need of restoration, is clearly a sign of somebody's skewed priorities.

"Bochino!" (Or is that a word from the Italian section of Venus and therefore spelled Boccino?)

[–] ZolotoyRetriever 10 years ago

a word from the Italian section of Venus and therefore spelled Boccino?

That's what I was thinking: it sounded very Italian. I thought it would be funny if every time that woman said "Boccino!", a little old Italian waiter (the only man remaining on the planet!) suddenly appeared from a side door carrying a bottle of wine... from the Boccino region of Venus.

[–] hobnob53 10 years ago

Yes, and I always thought that shot of the city they take the spacemen to looked like a Tuscan village in the Middle Ages. There was even a church bell ringing during the scene. It certainly didn't look like the sleek, modern, futuristic super-city of a technologically advanced civilization with ray guns capable of pulverizing a planet 26 million miles away. I expected a bunch of monks and peasants to show up lugging carts laden with chickens, pigs and a few dozen plague victims.

"Boccino! Tutte à la pizzería!"

[–] ZolotoyRetriever 10 years ago

I actually don't remember that exterior shot of the city you speak of. It must have been brief, or maybe I wasn't paying attention at that point. But yeah, that sounds odd that they wouldn't have created some sort of futuristic-looking metropolis to go along with the other aspects of their Venusian "civilization". It probably should have included a mega-mall where the women could shop for all those trendy outfits and high-heeled shoes they were wearing.

[–] hobnob53 10 years ago

It was right after the scene where the women capture the guys. They yell "Boccino!", shove the men off, begin to march away to a soundtrack of martial music, and the scene dissolves to a still shot of the capital city of Kadi (?). That's our little Tuscan village. I think it's actually a painting, and not one done for the movie -- it looks like a medieval print of some kind, but a bit too classy for this picture. Whatever, it's just an establishing shot and lasts about five seconds, punctuated by the sound of bells. I actually think that one brief sequence made more of an impression on me the first time I saw the film than anything else. Even at age 10 I thought it was pretty weird.

[–] ZolotoyRetriever 10 years ago

Thanks, hobnob. I just replayed the film and now I see that scene of the city. You are correct, it appears to be a painted backdrop, and definitely has a medieval look to it.

One more thing that comes to mind: whatever happened to the blond bombshell near the beginning who kissed one of the astronauts (Lt. Turner) goodbye, then stood there and watched the rocket blast off? I don't think we ever got her name, nor did she reappear later. Maybe she's still there, waiting for Turner to return?? I loved the way she was standing close enough to be hit with a blast of the rocket exhaust. The look on her face was downright orgasmic!

[–] hobnob53 10 years ago

The Earthbound blond was good old Joi Lansing. I don't think her character even had a name. She was her usual breathlessly sexual self, but the point when she really looked orgasmic wasn't when she got blasted by the exhaust, but just before, when the countdown was nearing its end and there was a shot of her holding her hand between her ample breasts, which were visibly heaving up and down as she breathed in ever more rapidly as the tension of the take-off continued to, you should pardon the expression, mount.

Obviously Larry dropped her like a sack of very prominent potatoes once he met the alien creature he wanted to marry (and is Venusians' anatomy the same on the inside as humans'?). Out on the launching pad or at the altar, she was stood up.

But worry not. The very next year Joi showed up as Arthur Franz's girlfriend in The Atomic Submarine. And he didn't dump her, not even for Brett Halsey.

And also in 1958 she was a policewoman who pretended to marry Superman in order to nab a gang of crooks.

[–] ZolotoyRetriever 10 years ago

Thanks for the info on Joi Lansing. As to The Atomic Submarine, I noticed a while back that the full movie can be found on YouTube, and I have been meaning to watch it. Now that I know that Joi Lansing is in it, I must get to it soon. Oh, joy!

[–] hobnob53 10 years ago

It's in a set from Criterion, believe it or not, that came out several years ago, called "Monsters and Madmen". Two horror and two sci-fi flicks from the late 50s and early 60s. A really good set, but The Atomic Submarine is the best. People seem to have a soft spot for this earnest if slightly goofy little movie. Great cast and zippy score too. The set is full-fledged Criterion, not Eclipse. Normally $80, but during a Barnes & Noble Criterion sale it can be had for $36. Such a sale is going on right now even as I write.

Incidentally, poor Joi Lansing died quite young, in 1972 at age 44, of cancer. Very sad, of course. She did try but just couldn't make a major breakthrough. But she was fun while it lasted.

She actually died the same year Patrick Waltz -- Larry -- did, of a heart attack at 48. So they were together in the end!

PS: I just checked. They died 6 days apart -- she on August 7, 1972, he on August 13. Of a broken heart, I'm sure.

[–] ZolotoyRetriever 10 years ago

Interesting info, hobnob. Thanks for the research! (Not to take away from Criterion's business, but, some of the other movies on that Criterion special set you mention are also available to watch on YouTube. Will try to watch The Atomic Submarine tonight, computer permitting [am having hard drive problems. Ugh!]).

Sad about Lansing and Waltz dying so young. Sometimes we tend to forget that actors and actresses can have short, tragic lives, too!

[–] hobnob53 10 years ago

If you see TAS maybe we can discuss on that board.

I won't watch movies on my computer and certainly not on YouTube. Just a prejudice, and a preference. I prefer to see stuff on a reasonably-sized TV screen with decent sound and no internet problems. I like to own my movies anyway. I still prefer real books to Kindle, too.

Yeah, call me as loony as the creators of Queen of Outer Space. Which is pretty insulting when you think of it!

[–] ZolotoyRetriever 10 years ago

Yes, agree with you about real books, and, I too prefer to watch a movie via the DVD experience, preferably on a big-screen TV. That being said, I do appreciate the Internet - be it YouTube or any of those other public domain sites that host free movies - as a convenient resource for watching a movie, and for discovering rare or hard-to-find movies. I'm not always willing to rush out and spend the gas, time and bucks to buy or rent a DVD, you see...

Also, it's not so hard to connect a modern-day laptop or desktop computer to the back of a modern, flat-screen TV monitor (say, using an HDMI-to-HDMI cable connection). Then you don't feel like you're watching the movie on a little computer screen.

I will be watching The Atomic Submarine just as soon as I get my computer back from repair (as mentioned, the hard-drive crashed, so I will be without the laptop for about another week. I am currently sitting at a computer up at a local public library... lo and behold, they have disabled YouTube access, so I can't watch any movies here. I wouldn't want to anyway. I want to bring it up on my laptop, then patch over to my big-screen TV. I'll do a follow-up on the TAS board when I get a chance.)

Take care, and salute to all firemen! (...as my state of Washington proceeds to smolder with fires here and there and everywhere.)

[–] hobnob53 10 years ago

Oh, I understand everything you say. I can appreciate using something like YouTube or Hulu or whatever when other venues aren't available. But I do prefer the real thing whenever possible. Of course, I watch things that I don't buy, though I do sometimes make blind purchases. Not entirely blind, of course -- I always have some idea of what I'm getting into!

But I'm glad you don't like to watch movies on a tiny computer screen. I wondered whether you hooked up to something bigger! But then there are those delays in viewing caused by computer repairs and uncooperative libraries. Does the library have DVDs...maybe a copy of TAS?

I hope you see this before too long, but most especially I trust you're not in the path of the northwest wildfires, getting worse all the time I'm afraid. When I took wildfire training it was the lengthiest, most exhausting fire training of any type I'd ever done -- much tougher than structural and other types of fires. A terrible, dangerous job. Take it easy, ZT.

[–] dalldorfw 9 years ago

Many say that this was written as a satire so I could have been mocking the sexism of the 50's. I'm not entirely sure, but it did show the women building sophisticated technological dodads so it's quite possible, then again the 'disintegratey lazer thing-gy, whatever the hell it's called' did inexplicably blow itself up and maybe we were supposed to think that was due to having been built poorly by feeble female hands and with feeble female brains. Then again, maybe it was just lazy writing from a screen writer getting fed up with the project and desperately wanting to end the movie. Who knows?

[–] beepstein 9 years ago

I had always assumed that the Beta Disintegrator had been sabotaged by Zsa Zsa's friends.