The Ship of Monsters

A Mexican Sci-fi/Western starring the late but always great Piporro and Ana Bertha Lepe. This is a sui generis movie because the b-movie market in México during the late 50's was really poor in production values mainly but this movie is the exception. This is probably the best of it's kind. I mean, the best b-sci-fi flick Mexican movie of probably 50 years. It's no wonder this movie it's ahead of it's time mainly because it's heavily influenced by American productions but still the effort is recognized. GREAT f/x and art direction. This is a likable, entertaining, cultural movie.

An earth Mexican cowboy is the only hope for humanity to confront four monsters that have been commanded to destroy: animals and humanity mainly. The monsters are really cool and you can see the effort of the production. There is a cyclops monster in the likes of "Clash Of The Titans", a short martian with a gigantic brain, an ape type gigantic monster, and a skeleton in the likes of "Sinbad and his 7th Voyage". All of them are menacing but Piporro faces them with his comedic Norteño attitude and his gun. After a first encounter with them, he goes to a local cantina (bar) and with the aid of a beer and Tequila he recovers his strenght and faith and faces the monsters for once and all. Oh and there's also room for some Norteño singing! Piporro delivers a comedic performance that relies on his on-screen charisma and his over the top Norteño attitude. He is supposed to be the brave cowboy but he gives the character his own charm.

Lorena Velázquez is really beautiful and sexy and delivers a great performance as the aspiring Mars Queen. She's always great and this is no exception. She looked gorgeous and sexy with his one-piece outfit. Hot. And her dialogs are very evil! There's always a room for cheese and in these performances there wasn't exception.

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.

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.

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.

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!