The Ship of Monsters

At a glance this title may not stand out, but it's worth your time, being a bit of a rare treat: a decently made B-flick with a sense of humor. That humor hasn't been lost in translation or obscured over time, either.

The premise: After many wars, Venus needs men, so they dispatch Gamma and Beta to scrape the bottom of the galactic barrel for any males they can manage to collect. (Seriously, any.) Next stop is Earth, where they meet a romantic, singing cowboy who's much less revolting than the others, but romance may be the least of the threats about to send the mission into chaos.

Beyond those basics, try to go in as unspoiled as you can manage. This movie has a handful of twists, and they really are more effective and funnier that way. The Ship of Monsters will certainly hit the B-sci-fi-horror spot with its black-and-white low budget aesthetic and wacky effects, but the film knows what it's doing, and entertains all on its own. Refreshing if you're used to uneven or lackluster old productions that need riffing to get through.

I couldn't help but like this film. It has a crazy plot about Venusians running out of men and sending two utterly gorgeous women to earth to capture some men. They already have some weird creatures on their ship, which presumably are also to mate with! They meet a singing cowboy, played with great charm by Eulalio Gonzalez, who has to teach them what love is. Cue monsters, a robot and a vampire ...and, of course, love. The effects are generally pretty awful but the ship is cool and there are some very nifty devices, including a computer which is a sort of Wikipedia, a zapper which freezes people, a ray gun (more like a fire gun) and a handy box carried on the hip which is a deadly weapon. Great fun, however ridiculous it is. The star is Gonzalez but Ana Bertha Lepe is extremely seductive...and the swimming costume pilot's uniform is a welcome addition to the plot!

What a really great but ridiculous film starring one of the Wrestling Women (Lorena Velasquez) of Mexican films of that series. When I use the word "great", I really mean "so bad it's good".

The premise of the film is the old "taking Earthlings back to Venus, or a planet of your choice, to breed". Why the men of Venus can't cut the mustard is never made clear but nevertheless, it's the ever-popular Pipporo who gets the nod. He rides through the Mexican landscape warbling from the saddle while, somewhere behind a cactus, an accordion provides the back-up music. As might be expected, he is unwilling to make the trip to Venus, even though the aliens are wearing fishnet hose and reallllly high heels. So the girls unleash on mankind, some of the worst monsters conceived in film but to no avail. Pipporo 'aint leaving and in the end, the invaders are repulsed with weapons that wouldn't stop a gang of senior citizens on Valium.

This film is such fun that you have to love it. Check out the skeleton with a cow's head that keeps repeating "Ha, Ha, Ha". It's a blast!!!!

A low-budget Mexican science fiction movie with 'borrowed' Russian special effects about two Venusian women in space-bathing-suits (and their robot) who are searching for men to help repopulate their planet PLUS a singing cowboy, a vampire, space monsters, and a hint of interplanetary miscegenation - what more could anyone want?! The film stars Mexican comedian Eulalio González and despite some grisly scenes (at the expense of the very improbable looking monsters) is played strictly for laughs. Some of the special effects (such as the space-walk) were lifted from the excellent Russian futurist documentary 'Doroga k zvezdam' (1957), the rest are strictly bottom-of-the-barrel (except an oddly effective glimpse of the 'vampire' in flight). 'Ship of Monsters' is weird stuff but it is entertaining enough in a singular way and deserves to be better known in cult-film circles.

This is my favorite Mexican Sci-Fi film of the 1950's. Two voluptuous alien women round up hideous space monsters, including a giant tiki with an exposed brain, a spider, a cyclops, and a sabre-tooth tiger skeleton, with the help of a singing cowboy and a giant robot. Lorena Velazquez (Wrestling Women vs. the Aztec Mummy, Santo vs. the Vampire Women) is particularly lovely as one of the alien women. The sets are amazing, and the atmosphere is wonderfully retro-futuristic.