Flicks of Shame: what's a nice actor like you doing in a movie like this?

Planet of Blood (1966)

Dennis Hopper has enjoyed a rather curious career. On the one hand, he was one of the leading lights of the independent movie boom that overturned the old studio system in the Sixties, directing and starring in the seminal Easy Rider, cameoing in Apocalypse Now and turning in iconic performances in cult classics such as Blue Velvet, Quentin Tarantino’s True Romance and Sean Penn’s directorial debut, The Indian Runner.

On the other hand, he’s also provided unhinged villainy in bombastic blockbusters like Speed and Waterworld, and graced shamelessly commercial ventures like the ill-fated Mario Bros movie (see: Bob Hoskins). And then again, there are curious movies like Planet of Blood, made when Hopper was just emerging from years of bit parts in studio westerns and small roles in TV shows.

A bargain basement sci-fi potboiler with ideas larger than its budget, our story begins in the futuristic wonderland of 1990, at the International Institute of Space Technology where everyone wears nifty space age jerkins and a sign written in a zany space typeface reads “Astro Communication”. Despite the size of the building, the Institute is apparently staffed by roughly twelve people, of which only four are astronauts.

Leader of the pack is Allan Brenner (John Saxon), who is engaged to fellow space expert Laura James. Anders Brockman is their commanding officer, while rounding out their pitifully small roster are Tony Barrata and Paul Grant (played in a surprisingly understated manner by the young Dennis Hopper). In charge of the whole enterprise is Dr Farraday, a part which requires horror icon Basil Rathbone to do little but sit behind a desk.

Two tasks dominate the proceedings – a manned trip to Mars and a mysterious radio signal from space. As luck would have it, the two overlap nicely. The radio signal is a message from an alien race, tipping us off that they’ve sent an ambassador to Earth. Unfortunately, the alien craft crashes on Mars, forcing our bold crew to make their journey earlier than planned.

It’s here that the story becomes improbably complicated – for reasons that will become apparent later. Setting off in the Oceano, Brockman, Laura and Paul are the first to reach the red planet, but the alien craft is abandoned, with just one deceased extra-terrestrial inside. Relaying this info to Farraday, the doctor reasons that the alien crew must be elsewhere on the planet – presumably in an escape pod. With the Oceano having burned off too much fuel during its descent, Allan and Tony embark on a second rescue mission. The larger Oceano II won’t be ready in time, so they instead blast off in the Meteor, a smaller craft.

As they won’t have enough fuel to get to Mars and back, their plan is to launch an observation satellite to locate the alien’s escape pod, stop off on Phobos, one of the Martian moons, and from there use a short range rescue ship to reach the stranded humans.

Remarkably, luck is on their side and it turns out that the alien ship is also on Phobos. Just a short walking distance from where they landed. Inside they discover a living – but unconscious alien. An unconscious female alien, no less.

This convoluted series of events is punctuated by numerous interludes depicting imaginatively painted alien vistas, outlandish spacecraft taking off and landing, plus strangely silent humanoid figures working in what appears to be a giant bubble. This is because almost all the special effects shots in Planet of Blood are lifted from the 1963 Russian movie, Mechte Navstrechu (or A Dream Come True). Armed with this knowledge, it’s easy to see how the plot of Planet of Blood was often crudely fitted around the available footage depending on how many people need to be in a location, or which spaceship they fly off in.

The whole Phobos subplot is the most obvious evidence of this, since there’s no obvious reason for all this cavalier ship-swapping, although the Soviet markings on many of the external rocket shots may also tip you off.

Once the female alien is brought to the Oceano on the Mars surface, the story finally kicks into gear. Once revived, we discover that the slinky female is bright green and sports an astonishing bee-hive haircut. With her towering locks and jade complexion, she resembles nothing more disturbing that a troll doll pin-up. It’s our pal Dennis Hopper who is given the task of looking after her. Clearly smitten, even though she looks old enough to be his mother (and is, you know, green), he coaxes her into taking a sip of water, but is unable to tempt her into sampling the Earth delicacy known as “cookies”. It soon becomes clear why she’s not keen on solids – the mute alien temptress is a vampire, and her first snack is somewhat predictably the most disposable member of the cast. Thus we bid adios to Dennis Hopper, his drained corpse discovered with the wrists gnawed open.

With the remains of Dennis Hopper duly jettisoned into the void of space, an argument breaks out between Brockman and Allan. The scientific Brockman wants to study the creature, while Allan just wants to kill her. This meaty debate on the importance of emotional detachment in scientific study comes to an abrupt end when the she-beast chomps on Brockman as her next course. Allan is next on the menu, but Laura conveniently disrupts the meal and scratches the space vampire in the process. The creature screams and runs off. A groggy Allan and Laura track her down, and discover she has bled to death, the first (and probably only) movie monster to be defeated by an acute case of haemophilia.

The movie ends with the Oceano returning to Earth, bearing a cargo of alien eggs. Dr Farraday, finally given an excuse to stand up, is giddy with excitement. The final ominous shot shows Farraday’s assistant collecting the eggs for study with due care and attention. With no gloves or protective clothing, he loads them onto a dinner tray. Way to go, science!

Hopper’s performance is one of the most fun in this obscure patchwork of a movie. From a dinner scene in which he calls John Saxon “Tony, baby” – even though Saxon’s character is called Allan – to the wide-eyed glee with which he plays his scenes opposite the alien vampire, it looks a lot like he’s often making it up as he goes along – and having a whale of time in the process. Which probably isn’t far from the truth.

Need to know: John Saxon, of course, went on to become quite a cult figure in his own right. Most famously, his black belt Karate skills found him fighting alongside Bruce Lee in Enter The Dragon, while horror fans will know him best for his role as Nancy’s father in A Nightmare on Elm Street (see: Johnny Depp) and Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors (see: Patricia Arquette). Observant sci-fi fans may also recognise Dr Farraday’s assistant, who so carefully carries away the alien eggs at the end - it’s Forrest J. Ackerman, founder of Famous Monsters of Filmland magazine, and widely recognised as the Godfather of Science Fiction.

Planet of Blood has also been known by the titles Queen of Blood, Planet of Terror, Planet of Vampires and the rather self-explanatory The Green Woman. The plot is similar to that of the 1958 monster movie It! The Terror from Beyond Space, in which the crew of a mission to Mars are killed off by an alien creature. The same template would, of course, also provide the backbone for Ridley Scott’s 1979 smash hit, Alien.

For more space vampires, with the added bonus of near-constant full frontal nudity, see: Patrick Stewart.

Honorable mention: Hopper’s first ever lead role, in the bizarre 1961 cult oddity Night Tide, is also worth tracking down – especially as an excellent DVD edition exists. He plays a young sailor on shore leave at Venice Beach who falls in love with a girl who works in the pier sideshow as a mermaid. Weird thing is, everyone keeps saying she’s a real mermaid – and that her last two boyfriends ended up dead, floating in the surf. Night Tide marked the first collaboration between Hopper and Curtis Harrington, who would go on to direct Queen of Blood also. A likably quirky little independent offering, it aims for restrained chills rather than goofy horror and mostly succeeds. Except for the sequence in which Hopper dreams he’s being raped by an octopus. That’s kinda silly.

Availability: Planet of Blood is available on DVD, though you may find the British Region 2 disc is easier to find.

		Planet of Blood (1966) Dennis Hopper has enjoyed a rather curious career. On the one hand, he was one of the leading lights of the independent movie boom that overturned the old studio system in the Sixties, directing and starring in the seminal Easy Rider, cameoing in Apocalypse Now and turning in iconic performances in cult classics such as Blue Velvet, Quentin Tarantino’s True Romance and Sean Penn’s directorial debut, The Indian Runner. On the other hand, he’s also provided unhinged villainy in bombastic blockbusters like Speed and Waterworld, and graced shamelessly commercial ventures like the ill-fated Mario Bros movie (see: Bob Hoskins). And then again, there are curious movies like Planet of Blood, made when Hopper was just emerging from years of bit parts in studio westerns and small roles in TV shows. A bargain basement sci-fi potboiler with ideas larger than its budget, our story begins in the futuristic wonderland of 1990, at the International Institute of Space Technology where everyone wears nifty space age jerkins and a sign written in a zany space typeface reads “Astro Communication”. Despite the size of the building, the Institute is apparently staffed by roughly twelve people, of which only four are astronauts. Leader of the pack is Allan Brenner (John Saxon), who is engaged to fellow space expert Laura James. Anders Brockman is their commanding officer, while rounding out their pitifully small roster are Tony Barrata and Paul Grant (played in a surprisingly understated manner by the young Dennis Hopper). In charge of the whole enterprise is Dr Farraday, a part which requires horror icon Basil Rathbone to do little but sit behind a desk. Two tasks dominate the proceedings – a manned trip to Mars and a mysterious radio signal from space. As luck would have it, the two overlap nicely. The radio signal is a message from an alien race, tipping us off that they’ve sent an ambassador to Earth. Unfortunately, the alien craft crashes on Mars, forcing our bold crew to make their journey earlier than planned. It’s here that the story becomes improbably complicated – for reasons that will become apparent later. Setting off in the Oceano, Brockman, Laura and Paul are the first to reach the red planet, but the alien craft is abandoned, with just one deceased extra-terrestrial inside. Relaying this info to Farraday, the doctor reasons that the alien crew must be elsewhere on the planet – presumably in an escape pod. With the Oceano having burned off too much fuel during its descent, Allan and Tony embark on a second rescue mission. The larger Oceano II won’t be ready in time, so they instead blast off in the Meteor, a smaller craft. As they won’t have enough fuel to get to Mars and back, their plan is to launch an observation satellite to locate the alien’s escape pod, stop off on Phobos, one of the Martian moons, and from there use a short range rescue ship to reach the stranded humans. Remarkably, luck is on their side and it turns out that the alien ship is also on Phobos. Just a short walking distance from where they landed. Inside they discover a living – but unconscious alien. An unconscious female alien, no less. This convoluted series of events is punctuated by numerous interludes depicting imaginatively painted alien vistas, outlandish spacecraft taking off and landing, plus strangely silent humanoid figures working in what appears to be a giant bubble. This is because almost all the special effects shots in Planet of Blood are lifted from the 1963 Russian movie, Mechte Navstrechu (or A Dream Come True). Armed with this knowledge, it’s easy to see how the plot of Planet of Blood was often crudely fitted around the available footage depending on how many people need to be in a location, or which spaceship they fly off in. The whole Phobos subplot is the most obvious evidence of this, since there’s no obvious reason for all this cavalier ship-swapping, although the Soviet markings on many of the external rocket shots may also tip you off. Once the female alien is brought to the Oceano on the Mars surface, the story finally kicks into gear. Once revived, we discover that the slinky female is bright green and sports an astonishing bee-hive haircut. With her towering locks and jade complexion, she resembles nothing more disturbing that a troll doll pin-up. It’s our pal Dennis Hopper who is given the task of looking after her. Clearly smitten, even though she looks old enough to be his mother (and is, you know, green), he coaxes her into taking a sip of water, but is unable to tempt her into sampling the Earth delicacy known as “cookies”. It soon becomes clear why she’s not keen on solids – the mute alien temptress is a vampire, and her first snack is somewhat predictably the most disposable member of the cast. Thus we bid adios to Dennis Hopper, his drained corpse discovered with the wrists gnawed open. With the remains of Dennis Hopper duly jettisoned into the void of space, an argument breaks out between Brockman and Allan. The scientific Brockman wants to study the creature, while Allan just wants to kill her. This meaty debate on the importance of emotional detachment in scientific study comes to an abrupt end when the she-beast chomps on Brockman as her next course. Allan is next on the menu, but Laura conveniently disrupts the meal and scratches the space vampire in the process. The creature screams and runs off. A groggy Allan and Laura track her down, and discover she has bled to death, the first (and probably only) movie monster to be defeated by an acute case of haemophilia. The movie ends with the Oceano returning to Earth, bearing a cargo of alien eggs. Dr Farraday, finally given an excuse to stand up, is giddy with excitement. The final ominous shot shows Farraday’s assistant collecting the eggs for study with due care and attention. With no gloves or protective clothing, he loads them onto a dinner tray. Way to go, science! Hopper’s performance is one of the most fun in this obscure patchwork of a movie. From a dinner scene in which he calls John Saxon “Tony, baby” – even though Saxon’s character is called Allan – to the wide-eyed glee with which he plays his scenes opposite the alien vampire, it looks a lot like he’s often making it up as he goes along – and having a whale of time in the process. Which probably isn’t far from the truth. Need to know: John Saxon, of course, went on to become quite a cult figure in his own right. Most famously, his black belt Karate skills found him fighting alongside Bruce Lee in Enter The Dragon, while horror fans will know him best for his role as Nancy’s father in A Nightmare on Elm Street (see: Johnny Depp) and Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors (see: Patricia Arquette). Observant sci-fi fans may also recognise Dr Farraday’s assistant, who so carefully carries away the alien eggs at the end - it’s Forrest J. Ackerman, founder of Famous Monsters of Filmland magazine, and widely recognised as the Godfather of Science Fiction. Planet of Blood has also been known by the titles Queen of Blood, Planet of Terror, Planet of Vampires and the rather self-explanatory The Green Woman. The plot is similar to that of the 1958 monster movie It! The Terror from Beyond Space, in which the crew of a mission to Mars are killed off by an alien creature. The same template would, of course, also provide the backbone for Ridley Scott’s 1979 smash hit, Alien. For more space vampires, with the added bonus of near-constant full frontal nudity, see: Patrick Stewart. Honorable mention: Hopper’s first ever lead role, in the bizarre 1961 cult oddity Night Tide, is also worth tracking down – especially as an excellent DVD edition exists. He plays a young sailor on shore leave at Venice Beach who falls in love with a girl who works in the pier sideshow as a mermaid. Weird thing is, everyone keeps saying she’s a real mermaid – and that her last two boyfriends ended up dead, floating in the surf. Night Tide marked the first collaboration between Hopper and Curtis Harrington, who would go on to direct Queen of Blood also. A likably quirky little independent offering, it aims for restrained chills rather than goofy horror and mostly succeeds. Except for the sequence in which Hopper dreams he’s being raped by an octopus. That’s kinda silly. Availability: Planet of Blood is available on DVD, though you may find the British Region 2 disc is easier to find.
Text © 2008 Dan Whitehead. No cut and paste, y'hear? All images remain the property of the offending studios and their reproduction is covered by Fair Use law.