Long Live the Queen

Using footage taken from higher budget Soviet sci-fi productions and combining them with newly shot low budget footage, Queen of Blood is a little wonder of a movie. Cheap, ill-paced and flatly written, it nevertheless has something about it. Something ethereal, intangible. And while it's got everyone from Basil Rathbone and John Saxon to Dennis Hopper and Forry Ackerman (yes, that Forry Ackerman!) it's Florence Marly*, as the Queen of Blood, that gives it that something special. Director Curtis Harrington gives her a nice intro, pulling the camera in close as she comes to on the American ship, after being found unconscious on the Martian surface. As she's gawked at by Hopper, she slowly opens her eyes until she spies him and gives him a smile. Later, she kills him for his blood but honestly, she's the sweetest villain you're ever likely to see.











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*Sadly, she died of a heart attack at only 59. A brief bio can be found here.