Mission Stardust (1967)

MISSION STARDUST is a very cheap and cheerful Italian science fiction B-movie with a cast that includes good and bad aliens, a race of killer robots, and plenty of flying saucer mayhem. It was shot on the sun-drenched Canary Islands. It seems to be posited as a kid's movie because it's too sloppy and laughable for any adults watching to take it seriously. The cast includes Eurospy veteran Lang Jeffries as the wooden hero and a minor appearance for Dakar, the black actor later to appear in the likes of ZOMBIE FLESH EATERS. The film features plenty of action and effects, but none of them are remotely believable, and the repeated shots of floating people and vehicles had me laughing out loud every time they appeared. Overall, it can only be described as a piece of so-bad-it's-occasionally-hilarious cinema.

In the 1960s, the Italians made some incredibly kooky sci-fi/fantasy films. They're filled with wonderfully over the top sets, groovy 60s tunes and a sensibility that is pure camp. Films like "Danger Diabolik" and "Mission Stardust" are examples of this campy and silly style of movies that we'll never experience again.When this sci-fi movie starts, some astronauts discover a ship on the moon--and it ain't one of ours. A couple aliens are aboard and they welcome the humans...well, one welcomes them. The other is an inexplicably angry and disdainful hot lady--which ultimately means it'll take the love of one of our sexy he-man heroes to tame her! So why (other than for the woman to score) did these two come to the moon and approach our astronauts? It seems that one of them is dying and needs medical help. So far, this is a really cool movie with kitschy sets and music and I enjoyed it. Unfortunately, when they all went to Earth things slowed down...a lot. In fact, it all became tedious as wave after wave of ultra-stupid and greedy men kept attacking the alien ship! With the loss of momentum, the film stopped being fun after a while. As a result, I only mildly recommend it.

*Spoiler/plot- Mission Stardust(4...3...2...1...Morte), 1967. Aitor planetary aliens have crashed on the moon, and Earth astronauts have found and volunteer to help them with medical and engineering assistance. They take the sick alien leader back to Earth to have a crime syndicate try to steal the alien advanced secrets. The aliens and Earthmen fight together to do the right thing in co-operation.*Special Stars- Lang Jeffries, Essy Persson, LIus Davila, Pinkas Braun, Stefano Sibaldi, John Karlsen.*Theme- Goodwill and help is universal.*Trivia/location/goofs- Italian, Spain, and Germany co-production. Experience: The 'Weiner Mobile' lunar car, hear the annoying 'alien' female vocal mood & scene incidental music with no musical instruments accompaniment. Watch for the Perry Rhodan sci-fi novels paring of international crime czar/spies and astronaut heroes.*Emotion- I have not heard to read any of the Perry Rhodan sci-fi novels. But I found their premise interesting and unique in this film. The added plot twist of espionage and crime to make this film more dramatic and enjoyable. There are some interesting alien robots featured in this film, also.*Based On- Perry Rhodan sci-fi novels.

Not bad for a movie made 1967 (keep in mind that this was the same time period as the original Star Trek series, whose first season was 1966). Also since the movie was originally filmed in German you'll have to forgive the dubbing which make it look like one of those bad Chinese Kung Fu movies thats been dubbed into English. Although credited with the screenplay I find it hard to believe that Kurt Vogelmann (who wrote some of the Perry Rhodan books) had much in the way to do with the movie. The plot shares some major details of the first two or three Perry Rhodan books, which were more like short stories than full fledged books but takes a few detours to make it fit into a single movie. If you're a fan of the books this is worth a look.