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.

Take Dennis Hopper, give him a leading role, and hand hi ma script written by Curtis Harrington. Then allow Harrington to direct said picture. What do you get? "Night Tide", one of the single greatest horror films in movie history. However, if you do the same thing, put it in space and throw in a green-skinned alien, you have "Queen of Blood".Let's be fair. It's a 1960s b-movie with no budget and recycled images from a Russian film. If you have to steal from Russia to make your movie, that's a sign right there that you're in trouble. But, accounting for the low budget, and ignoring this, it's not actually a bad film. I mean, compare Mario Bava's "Planet of the Vampires". Bava is by far a bigger name than Harrington... but I would say "Queen of Blood" is the better film.And the plot, really, is not that bad. Some have said they see the beginnings of "Alien" in this one. Of course, many films have been said to be precursors (including "Dark Star") so I don't believe much of that unless I hear it from the creators themselves (and Dan O'Bannon is sadly passed).

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.

Queen of Blood is a low budget sci-fi flick that is often seen as an inspiration for the classic 'Alien'. Whether or not the film was an influence I don't know; although the two films do share some similarities. The film actually reminded me of a sub-par episode of Star Trek; yet in spite of that, there are some good ideas on display here and for what it's worth (which admittedly isn't much), Queen of Blood is not a bad little sci-fi flick. The film has an obvious low budget which is a hindrance but it overcomes this with an interesting plot line. The film takes place in the future (actually 1990) and follows a plot that starts with scientists receiving a distress call from a space ship that crash landed on Mars. Naturally they decide to send another team in on a rescue mission and when they arrive they discover only a single survivor - a green skinned female alien! They decide to bring her aboard the ship and after trying to help and talk to her, they find their efforts to be abortive. The alien's actual intention is revealed when she begins drinking the blood of the crew.It's actually a shame that this film wasn't better as it features a mouth watering cult cast! John Saxon is excellent as always in the lead role and he receives good support from the likes of an aging Basil Rathbone and a young Dennis Hopper. Queen of Blood is clearly not an actor's film, but it's still nice to see these actors on screen together. The budget impacts most on the special effects and we're treated to some shocking space scenes, as well as an alien that is just a woman painted green. The film fails at delivering anything that looks even remotely futuristic and that does distract from the plot line more than just a little bit. The film is apparently put together from a couple of different sources and that would make sense as the plotting is often uneven and sometimes doesn't make a great deal of sense. Still, it would be silly to go into a film like this expecting a masterpiece; and even though I generally don't like low budget sci-fi, I was still mostly happy with what I got. Overall; this is not a must see film, but it's decent enough and I can recommend it.