Queen of Blood

In the year 1990, space travel is well-established, humans having had landed on the Moon twenty years earlier. At the International Institute of Space Technology, communications expert and astronaut Laura James monitors strange signals being received from outer space. Laura's superior, Dr. Farraday, translates the signal and discovers that it is from an alien race, who are sending an ambassador to Earth. Soon after, however, Laura receives a video log showing that the aliens' starship has crash-landed on Mars. The Institute launches a rescue mission aboard the spaceship Oceano, which includes Laura and astronauts Anders Brockman and Paul Grant. Oceano travels through a sunburst, suffering some damage, before completing the journey to Mars and locating the downed alien craft. Anders and Paul investigate and discover a single dead alien aboard. Faraday deduces that the surviving crew may have been rescued, so an observation satellite will be needed to locate the alien rescue ship. Laura's fiancé Allan and fellow astronaut Tony volunteer. They travel on the spaceship Meteor to Phobos, one of the two moons of Mars, where they launch the observation satellite. Tony finds an alien spaceship on Phobos. He and Allan are able to enter, finding an unconscious but still-living female alien. As their rescue ship holds only two, one of them must stay behind, so they toss a coin and Tony stays. Allan and the female alien arrive on Oceano, joining Laura, Paul and Anders. The alien regains consciousness and smiles at the three men, but not Laura. The alien refuses to eat all food offered and will not let Anders take a blood sample. That night, as Paul is guarding the alien, she attacks and kills him, draining his blood after first hypnotizing him. The surviving astronauts decide to keep her alive by feeding her blood from the ship's plasma supply. When this supply runs out, she kills Anders and feeds on him, leaving Laura and Allan the only humans aboard. The alien then attacks Allan, but Laura interrupts her before she can kill again. Laura scratches her in the struggle, and the alien screams in terror, quickly bleeding to death. Laura and Allen then find alien eggs hidden aboard. Allan hypothesizes that she was royalty, likely a queen (assuming human-like inbreeding among royalty, hence her hemophilia), and was being sent to Earth in order to breed. Their spaceship lands safely, but Earth authorities decide to study the alien eggs rather than destroying them outright, as Allan has urged. ==Cast==

• John Saxon as Allan Brenner • Basil Rathbone as Dr. Farraday • Judi Meredith as Laura James • Dennis Hopper as Paul Grant • Florence Marly as Alien Queen • Robert Boon as Anders Brockman • Don Eitner as Tony Barrata • Forrest J. Ackerman as Farraday's Aide ==Production==

Development Harrington had made his name with the feature Night Tide, which impressed Roger Corman enough to offer the director a film project. "Of course, I would like to do a more individual film than Queen of Blood", said Harrington at the time, "but I can't get the financing. However, the film is entertaining, and I feel I was able to say something within the context of the genre". Harrington says "Roger paid for the whole thing" and "it was a personal, private Roger Corman production." Queen of Blood was made using special effects from the Soviet films Mechte Navstrechu (A Dream Come True) and Nebo Zovyot (Battle Beyond the Sun). Harrington made Queen of Blood back-to-back with Voyage to the Prehistoric Planet, which also incorporated footage from the Soviet films. Both Harrington films starred Basil Rathbone. However Queen of Blood was an original story of Harrington's whereas Voyage was mostly the original Russian film with some scenes added. Harrington estimated that 70% of the film was his; Harrington hired George Edwards to act as line producer. The director met Edwards when the latter produced a stage production of Tennessee Williams' The Garden District. They collaborated well together and would go on to have a long professional relationship. Harrington called Edwards "the kind of producer who had an uncanny ability to anticipate the needs of a director. He had a wonderful sense of humor, which enabled him to deal equally with the temperament of stars and the vagaries of writers." Corman's name does not appear on the final film. Harrington says this is because Queen of Blood was made with a non-union crew, and Corman had signed a contract to work with the unions. Harrington says A Dream Come True was about a queen from another planet. He wanted to do a film about a vampire in outer space and had to make her female to match the Russian footage. Harrington also said Dennis Hopper, who had been in Night Tide "was like a part of my little team by then" so he also agreed to appear in the movie. Shooting The film was shot at Major Studios in downtown Los Angeles, shortly before they were bought by Robert Aldrich. He added in another interview, "I took it seriously, at least while on camera; Dennis had a hard time doing even that." Harrington said the film was shot in six days. "Basil Rathbone had one day (on the set)", added Saxon. "He came on and he was a very, very distinguished gentleman. He did his scene. But he got annoyed, because they didn't get the sound right on his first take, and they asked him to come back. He dressed down the director." Basil Rathbone was paid $1,500 to act for a day and a half on Queen of Blood, and $1,500 for half a day on Voyage to the Prehistoric Planet (1965), another film that incorporated Russian film footage. Rathbone ended up working overtime and missed a meal. The Screen Actors Guild demanded overtime pay, plus a fine for the meal violation, but producer George Edwards produced footage that showed the delay was because Rathbone had not memorized all his lines and insisted on skipping lunch. According to one account, the budget for this and Voyage to the Prehistoric Planet came to $33,052. Another said the films cost $65,000. Harrington has said they cost $60,000, then $50,000, though he admits to not being sure. ==Release==

Queen of Blood was released in the United States in March 1966. Even before the release, its quality was sufficient for Universal to hire Harrington and producer George Edwards to make the feature film Games. Harrington says Queen of Blood had particularly impressed Ned Tanen. Harrington says Roger Corman promised him a $1,000 bonus if the film went into profit and the producer honored this, albeit after some prompting. A novelization of Harrington's original screenplay was written by pulp writer Charles Nuetzel. The biography about Forrest J. Ackerman erroneously suggests that Harrington based his original screenplay on a book by Nuetzel. The novel is back in print as an ebook available online. On December 1, 2003, Queen of Blood was featured at the Sitges Film Festival in Spain. ==Reception==

In her review of a double bill with the feature Three in the Attic, Renata Adler of The New York Times called Queen of Blood the livelier of the two films. Harrington later wrote, "Some years later, it was very flattering to realize that I had created the prototype for a whole series of science-fiction movies dealing with monstrous creatures from outer space." ==Sequel==

Alien queen actor Florence Marly made a 16 mm sequel to Queen of Blood titled Space Boy! Night, Neal and Ness in 1973. ==See also==