Mission Stardust, a favourite of mine
I was maybe around 12 or 13 years old. It was a lazy Sunday afternoon in Howell, New Jersey back in the late 70’s. My parents were out and I was home alone which I liked. I flipped on the television and on channel 9 this weird music from a movie was playing. The movie just started. Listening to the music and seeing the opening credits, I thought it was going to be a boring movie, but there was nothing else on TV that was interesting. So I decided to watch it. I ran to the kitchen to get some snacks and sat down on the carpet in front of the TV. As the movie progressed, I realize it was cool. I liked it. I really liked it. It was definitely a low budget B-rated Italian movie with dubbed English but it worked. Ever since, I have been hooked on this. It was many decades later in Malaysia I found it again. I watch it a couple of times a year, every single year. Sometimes low budget movies work for me.
They had a neat gadget. It had three buttons and a screen. One button neutralized gravity and it can lift objects into the air. The second function was to contact the mother ship. The third function makes a force field for the person that nothing can penetrate. As a kid, I thought that was neat.
I do hope you can watch this movie and enjoy it as much as I did.
Tsem Rinpoche
Cast
- Lang Jeffries as Perry Rhodan
- Essy Persson as Thora
- John Karlsen as Crest
- Pinkas Braun as Larkin
- Gianni Rizzo as Criminal Leader
- Ann Smyrner as Dr. Sheridan
- Joachim Hansen as Dr. Manoli
- Luis Dávila as Mike Bull
- John Bartha as General Roon
- Tom Felleghy as Moreland
- Daniel Martín as Captain Flipper
Release
Mission Stardust opened in Rome in August 1967 with a running time of 95 minutes. It was later released in West Germany in October 1967 under the title Perry Rhodan–SOS aus dem Weltall with a 79-minute running time. It was later released in Spain as Órbita mortal with a 92-minute running time. It opened in Los Angeles in October 1968.
Reception
In a contemporary review, Variety noted the dubbing in the film, stating that it was “only fair” and that the special effects were “crude, the color uneven, but the very audaciousness of the admixture keeps the attention.” The review also praised the rock music film score by Anton G. Abril.
This film is based on the popular pulp novel series Perry Rhodan. The story begins with the spacecraft Stardust being launched from Earth to explore the moon in an attempt to discover new deposits of a new element, much more powerful than Uranium or any other source of energy ever discovered. The plot takes a strange approach with the Stardust being taken over by a mysterious force from another planet light years away called Arkonide, causing it to land on the Dark side of the Moon, and out of contact with Earth. Meanwhile on earth, an organized crime boss has planted an agent amongst the crew of the Stardust to attempt to take the energy source somehow, if it is found. Soon Perry Rhodan, the hero and his crew discover an alien starship which has had to make an emergency landing on the Moon due to technical problems. The ship is commanded by the Alien Crest and the strong willed female captain Thora. The earth astronauts are informed that Commander Crest, one of the last great scientists of their dying civilization is very ill.The Stardust’s Doctor is asked to examine Crest and he recommends to fly to earth to meet the famous doctor who is well known to help with leukemia. Crest and Thora agree to go. Within their standby smaller ship, Crest and Thora together with the astronauts from earth make a flight to earth. That’s where the adventure begins!
On earth, Captain Thora is kidnapped by a crime Lord and tries to steal Arkonide technology. To save Thora, Commander Crest outfits the earth astronauts with Arkonide battle gear. They rescue Thora, defeat the drug lord and the doctor is able to save Crest’s life. Interesting things happen along the way and the robots on the Arkonide ship are neat. They send out laser rays from their eyes that dissolves a person completely and answers to emergency command of “akoma”. Their mission successful where they are able to treat Crest and they soon depart for the moon back to their mother ship.
Here is the actual movie! Enjoy!!
Some scenes from the movie. The movie is in colour.
The earth astronauts first come in contact with the spaceship from Arkonide.
Captain Thora from Arkonide.
Birds eye view of the inside of the Arkonide ship.
The powerful space ship from planet Arkonide.
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First time coming across this old science fiction film Mission Stardust, and sounds really like an interesting and funny movie. Will try to take time to watch the movie clips. Thank you very much Rinpoche and blog team for this cool sharing!???
First time coming across this old science fiction film Mission Stardust. Well……interesting story of astronauts sent to the moon and found a stranded ship of the Arkonides. The beautiful Commander Thora trying to save scientist Crest, along with a crew of robots, sound exciting. Happy ending after all. It’s a long long time since I last saw a science fiction film.
Thank you Rinpoche for this interesting sharing.