Fire Maidens from Outer Space
Encyclopedia
Fire Maidens from Outer Space (1956
), released in the USA as Fire Maidens of Outer Space, is a 78-minute black-and-white science fiction
feature film
. It was a British "quota quickie", written, produced and directed by American filmmaker Cy Roth
as a collaboration between Cy Roth Productions and Criterion Films, and distributed in the UK by Eros Films and in the USA by Topaz Film Co.. The film starred Anthony Dexter
as the lead astronaut, Susan Shaw
as a "fire maiden" who befriends him, Paul Carpenter
as the expedition captain, and Jacqueline Curtis as the "fire maiden" leader. There were 13 additional "fire maidens". The music score featured cues excerpted from the opera Prince Igor
by Alexander Borodin
. Leonard Maltin
, in his TV and Video Movie Guide, says that "you haven't lived until you've seen the Fire Maidens dance to 'Stranger in Paradise
' by Borodin."
(which, in real life, wasn't discovered until 1974) and the sending of a crew of five British, chain-smoking male astronauts, armed with handguns, to investigate. On the moon, they rescue Hestia, a beautiful girl, who is being attacked by a monster. They subsequently discover New Atlantis, a dying civilization, a colony of the original Atlantis
. There are only seventeen people left, all women save for a single middle-aged man, Prasus, the girls' "father" (presumably adoptive). Prasus hopes the spacemen will stay and help him destroy the monster, "the man with the head of a beast". Duessa, the leader of the women, determines to hold them captive to use as mates. The monster lurks outside the city's walls, but breaks into the city and kills Prasus along with several of the women, including Duessa. It is killed by the earthmen, and the remaining women decide to let them return to earth. Hestia returns with them, and the astronauts promise to send spaceships back to rescue the rest.
The film featured a creature (given no actual name in the film), a male hominid around six feet tall from Jupiter's 13th moon. Described in the movie as a "man with the head of a beast", the creature is slender, with dark, pitted skin and is impervious to bullets. The anonymous actor playing it wears dark, tight-fitting clothing with clearly visible zippers.
In November 1992, Fire Maidens of Outer Space was featured as an episode of movie-mocking television show Mystery Science Theater 3000
.
1956 in film
The year 1956 in film involved some significant events.-Events:* October 5 - The Ten Commandments opens in cinemas and becomes one of the most successful and popular movies of all time, currently ranking 5th on the list of all time moneymakers * February 5 - First showing of documentary films by...
), released in the USA as Fire Maidens of Outer Space, is a 78-minute black-and-white science fiction
Science fiction film
Science fiction film is a film genre that uses science fiction: speculative, science-based depictions of phenomena that are not necessarily accepted by mainstream science, such as extraterrestrial life forms, alien worlds, extrasensory perception, and time travel, often along with futuristic...
feature film
Feature film
In the film industry, a feature film is a film production made for initial distribution in theaters and being the main attraction of the screening, rather than a short film screened before it; a full length movie...
. It was a British "quota quickie", written, produced and directed by American filmmaker Cy Roth
Cy Roth
Cy Roth was an American film director, writer and producer who made several low-budget films in the 1950s. Born in Chicago, he is known to have made just three films. The last of them, Fire Maidens from Outer Space , was made in the UK and has acquired a cult reputation as one of the worst science...
as a collaboration between Cy Roth Productions and Criterion Films, and distributed in the UK by Eros Films and in the USA by Topaz Film Co.. The film starred Anthony Dexter
Anthony Dexter
Anthony John "Tony" Dexter was an American actor known for his resemblance of Rudolph Valentino, whom he portrayed in the 1951 biographic Valentino. Dexter sometimes used the pseudonym Walter Craig...
as the lead astronaut, Susan Shaw
Susan Shaw
Susan Shaw was an English actress.Shaw began her film career in 1946 when she was signed to a contract by the J. Arthur Rank Organisation...
as a "fire maiden" who befriends him, Paul Carpenter
Paul Carpenter (actor)
Paul Carpenter was an Canadian actor and singer.He sang with Ted Heath and His Music in the 1940s.-Selected filmography :* Landfall * Albert R.N. * The House Across the Lake...
as the expedition captain, and Jacqueline Curtis as the "fire maiden" leader. There were 13 additional "fire maidens". The music score featured cues excerpted from the opera Prince Igor
Prince Igor
Prince Igor is an opera in four acts with a prologue. It was composed by Alexander Borodin. The composer adapted the libretto from the East Slavic epic The Lay of Igor's Host, which recounts the campaign of Russian prince Igor Svyatoslavich against the invading Polovtsian tribes in 1185...
by Alexander Borodin
Alexander Borodin
Alexander Porfiryevich Borodin was a Russian Romantic composer and chemist of Georgian–Russian parentage. He was a member of the group of composers called The Five , who were dedicated to producing a specifically Russian kind of art music...
. Leonard Maltin
Leonard Maltin
Leonard Maltin is an American film and animated film critic and historian, author of several mainstream books on cinema, focusing on nostalgic, celebratory narratives.-Personal life:...
, in his TV and Video Movie Guide, says that "you haven't lived until you've seen the Fire Maidens dance to 'Stranger in Paradise
Stranger in Paradise (song)
"Stranger in Paradise" is a popular song from the 1953 musical Kismet and is credited to Robert Wright and George Forrest. Like all the music in that show, the melody was based on music composed by Alexander Borodin, in this case, the "Gliding Dance of the Maidens," from the Polovtsian...
' by Borodin."
Synopsis
The story involves the discovery of signs of life on the 13th moon of JupiterLeda (moon)
Leda , also known as ', is a prograde irregular satellite of Jupiter. It was discovered by Charles T. Kowal at the Mount Palomar Observatory on September 14, 1974, after three nights' worth of photographic plates had been taken...
(which, in real life, wasn't discovered until 1974) and the sending of a crew of five British, chain-smoking male astronauts, armed with handguns, to investigate. On the moon, they rescue Hestia, a beautiful girl, who is being attacked by a monster. They subsequently discover New Atlantis, a dying civilization, a colony of the original Atlantis
Atlantis
Atlantis is a legendary island first mentioned in Plato's dialogues Timaeus and Critias, written about 360 BC....
. There are only seventeen people left, all women save for a single middle-aged man, Prasus, the girls' "father" (presumably adoptive). Prasus hopes the spacemen will stay and help him destroy the monster, "the man with the head of a beast". Duessa, the leader of the women, determines to hold them captive to use as mates. The monster lurks outside the city's walls, but breaks into the city and kills Prasus along with several of the women, including Duessa. It is killed by the earthmen, and the remaining women decide to let them return to earth. Hestia returns with them, and the astronauts promise to send spaceships back to rescue the rest.
The film featured a creature (given no actual name in the film), a male hominid around six feet tall from Jupiter's 13th moon. Described in the movie as a "man with the head of a beast", the creature is slender, with dark, pitted skin and is impervious to bullets. The anonymous actor playing it wears dark, tight-fitting clothing with clearly visible zippers.
In November 1992, Fire Maidens of Outer Space was featured as an episode of movie-mocking television show Mystery Science Theater 3000
Mystery Science Theater 3000
Mystery Science Theater 3000 is an American cult television comedy series created by Joel Hodgson and produced by Best Brains, Inc., that ran from 1988 to 1999....
.