La nave de los monstruos (1960)

...aka: Nave del mostri, La
...aka: Ship of Monsters, The

Directed by:

Rogelio A. González

Never released in the United States and also never dubbed or subtitled in English, this crazy little B-movie is still well worth checking out even if you don't understand the language. Voluptuous Venusian beauties Gamma (Ana Bertha Lepe) and Beta (Lorena Velázquez) are sent by their Queen (Consuelo Frank) across the galaxy to gather male specimens to help repopulate their planet. After having some problems with their spaceship, they're forced to crash land on Earth and end up in a small Mexican town. The first person they run across is amiable singing cowboy Lauriano (Eulalio González); a widower with a young son who seems to spend most of his time riding around on a horse or hanging out in the local saloon. Also aboard the ship is a big, specially-equipped cardboard-box robot named Tor as well as four different kinds of monsters. One is a little alien with a giant head, giant eyes and an giant exposed brain. There's also a scaly cyclops, something that looks like a giant spider with flexible arms and a lizard with pinchers. The monster designs are pretty great in a cheap movie kind of way and better yet, all of the monsters talk! I had no idea what any of them were saying, but the voices were hilarious.

While Gamma and Lauriano start getting romantic, the evil Beta is up to more devious things. She turns out to be some kind of vampire who turns into a giant flying bat at one point, attacks a man and sucks his blood! She also seems power-mad and eventually unleashes the monsters into the town. One of them eats a cow! Another beats a horse to death! Things lead up to a climax which features an impalement, an eyeball exploding when hit with a rock shot out of a slingshot, a melting head and one of the monsters being set on fire! Not enough for ya? The alien babes also have plenty of gadgets at their disposal, including plastic ray guys that shoot fire, a teleportation device and a box that can freeze people. And in addition to being a cheap horror/sci-fi film with shoddy effects and comic sound effects, it's also a musical, with three songs being performed by our hero, as well as a song-and-dance number set in a foggy cave.

The lead actor (apparently a famous comedian in Mexico) seems almost like Mexico's answer to Gene Autry here, except he has a personality and his acting isn't wooden. The lead actresses both look good and seem to be having fun, especially the lovely Velázquez, who is best known in America for starring in a series of cult classic "Wrestling Women" flicks. The effects are silly as can be and enjoyable (some of the better space shots were actually swiped from a 1958 Russian film) and there's some pretty good cartoonish set design, particularly the interiors of the spaceship. I wouldn't even consider this "so bad it's good" because it seems well aware of what it is the entire time and doesn't take itself seriously. Hell, during the opening credits, they even list all the "monsters of the galaxy" (Uk, Utirr, Tagual, Tor and Zok) along with the human actors. And it ends with a duet being performed by the robot and a jukebox! Fun stuff.

★★1/2