Queen from Outer Space (1958)

I just finished watching the film Queen from Outer Space (1958). This movie was incredible for it's period futuristic style. It was a story, set in the future: 1980s, about astronauts going into outerspace. At this time, going into space was relatively casual and frequently done. This movie was also incredible for the bright colors of the backgrounds and costumes, and exaggerated aspects that gave a fake feeling, like the large spider that attacked one of the astronauts, the rocking of the space ship, and the interactions between the astronauts and the women of the planet Venus.

This film was clearly a push against the women's lib movement. The astronauts called the women "dolls" and spoke disrespectfully towards the women, as if what they were saying was petty, even though what they spoke of was killing the astronauts.

The Venutians wore objectifying little dresses, and almost fully ran their society. Zsa Zsa, for example, is a scientist, but at the same time we can't forget that they keep some Venutian men (banned from Venus long ago) in a little space station next to Venus so they could keep mathematicians and other man professions around.

Democracy (can't forget this was made during the Cold War) and the importance of traditional physical beauty for women are also themes of this movie. The queen is bitter and evil because she is ugly. Her beautiful face was destroyed by men during the last war from radiation. Now she wears a mask but she is still so ashamed by her ugliness.

While the film did not suggest that women couldn't run a planet on their own, but did suggest that an evil totalitarian had no place in running a government, the film struggled with the idea that women and men are equal. The astronauts were stunned by the beauty of the Venutians, but at the same time they immediately felt a sense of superiority. They talked back to the queen as she imprisoned them. The captain tried to woo the queen, and he even de-masked her as no one had done before to reveal the ugliness of the most powerful woman on the planet. This move shows that even the foreign prisoner man has more power than the queen.

The astronauts were cocky, and had an attitude as if they could have any woman they wanted, and in fact they could! When they were together trying to escape the queen, the atronauts took the position of dominance, rather than the women. For example, the women had the guns, and pointed them, but the men easily grabbed the guns away from the women and took control of the situation, while the women stood behind them helplessly. This seems unnatural in the setting of a planet run by women.

The women in this film really were just bitter, angry women, who were just waiting to be the objects of desire, rather than an empowered civilization. This is so strange! Yet predictable from this era.

I laughed at the outrageousness of this paradox, enjoyed the exaggerations, and was entertained by this film.