News

Laurie Mitchell, who portrayed the villainess who faces off against Zsa Zsa Gabor on the planet Venus in the campy 1958 sci-fi classic Queen of Outer Space, has died. She was 90.

Mitchell died Thursday of natural causes at a long-term care facility in Perris, California, author and horror/sci-fi movie aficionado Tom Weaver reported.

In Allied Artists Pictures' low-budget Queen of Outer Space, based on an idea from two-time Oscar-winning screenwriter Ben Hecht, four men from Earth on the way to a space station crash on Venus in the year 1985, when the "age of space travel begins."

The crew are ...

Laurie Mitchell, who portrayed the villainess who faces off against Zsa Zsa Gabor on the planet Venus in the campy 1958 sci-fi classic Queen of Outer Space, has died. She was 90.

Mitchell died Thursday of natural causes at a long-term care facility in Perris, California, author and horror/sci-fi movie aficionado Tom Weaver reported.

In Allied Artists Pictures' low-budget Queen of Outer Space, based on an idea from two-time Oscar-winning screenwriter Ben Hecht, four men from Earth on the way to a space station crash on Venus in the year 1985, when the "age of space travel begins."

The crew are ...

“I hate her! I hate dat qveen!” Despite being one of the most maladroit sci-fiers of the ’50s, color and ‘scope and Zsa Za Gabor’s hilarious accent make this Allied Artists offering a must-see head scratcher. Bad taste! Tacky art direction! Infantile sexist humor! The word on the street is that the Me Too movement has this embarrassing howler on their kill list.

Queen of Outer Space

Blu-ray

Warner Archive Collection

1958 / Color / 2:35 widescreen / 80 min. / Street Date September 25, 2018 / available through the WBshop / 21.99

Starring: Zsa Zsa Gabor, Eric Fleming, Laurie Mitchell, Dave Willock, Paul Birch, Lisa Davis, Patrick Waltz, Barbara Darrow, Joi Lansing, Marilyn Buferd, Mary Ford, Marya Stevens, Laura Mason, Lynn Cartwright, Kathy Marlowe, Coleen Drake, Tania Velia, Norma Young, Marjorie Durant, Gerry Gaylor, Brandy Bryan, Ruth Lewis, June McCall.

Cinematography: William P. Whitley

Film Editor: William Austin

Sam Gordon and Ted Mossman: Props

Visual Effects: Jack Cosgrove...

All hail Bert I. Gordon, who singlehandedly carved out his own niche in ‘fifties monster folklore, and even won a battle or two against those sharpies at A.I.P.. His puppet people were originally just ‘Fantastic,’ but they had to be made into a menace with the “A” word usually reserved for icky poo Giant Leeches, Crab Monsters and 50-Foot Women.

Attack of the Puppet People

Blu-ray

Scream Factory

1958 / B&W / 1:85 widescreen / 79 min. / The Fantastic Puppet People, Six Inches Tall, I Was a Teenage Doll, War of the Puppet People / Street Date November 14, 2017 / 27.99

Starring: John Agar, John Hoyt, June Kenney, Susan Gordon, Michael Mark, Kack Kosslyn, Marlene Willis, Ken Miller, Laurie Mitchell, Scott Peters, June Jocelyn, Hank Patterson.

Cinematography: Ernest Laszlo

Special Effects: Bert I. Gordon, Flora M. Gordon

Original Music: Albert Glasser

Written by George Worthing Yates

Story, Produced & Directed by Bert I. Gordon

It’s easy...