Fire Maidens from Outer Space (or Fire Maidens of Outer Space in the US), is a 1956 British independent black-and-white science fictionfeature film. It was written, produced and directed by American filmmaker Cy Roth as a collaboration between Cy Roth Productions and Great Britain's Criterion Films, and distributed in the UK by Eros Films and in the USA by Topaz Film Co. The film stars Anthony Dexter, Susan Shaw, Paul Carpenter and Jacqueline Curtis.[3] There were 13 additional "fire maidens". The music score features cues excerpted from the opera Prince Igor by Alexander Borodin.
The discovery of an Earth-like atmosphere on the 13th moon of Jupiter leads to the sending of a crew of five 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 remnant of the original Atlantis who escaped when that continent sank. There are only seventeen people left, all women save for a single elderly man, Prasus, whom the girls revere as "father". Prasus hopes the spacemen will stay and help him destroy the monster, which is a slender, male hominid creature, around six feet tall with dark, pitted skin, impervious to bullets, and described as a "man with the head of a beast".
Luther Blair learns from Hestia, however, that Prasus rules New Atlantis as a tyrant and wants to keep the earthmen there to mate with the girls. Duessa, one of the women, overhears Blair and Hestia conspiring to escape and encourages the other fire maidens to bind her and sacrifice her. The monster, which lurks outside the city's walls, breaks into the city and kills Prasus along with 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 with husbands for the rest.
The Monthly Film Bulletin review credits Lito Carruthers as editor, and Scott MacGregor as assistant director.[1][4] However, MacGregor is credited onscreen as production and art supervisor, John Pellatt receives screen credit as assistant director, and Lito Carruthers is credited as Lighting Cameraman (Director of Photography). Carruthers' contribution to the film has not been confirmed.[4]
Release
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Reception and reputation
In a contemporary review, The Monthly Film Bulletin stated: "Even the most dedicated connoisseurs of the artless are likely to find this British attempt at science-fiction something of a strain on their patience."[1]Kine Weekly wrote: "Science fiction extravaganza, decorated with lightly clad damsels.... Its story far exceeds the bounds of credibility, but tongue-in-the-cheek presentation only disarms criticism.... The picture, staged on a very modest, not to say meagre, scale, is, despite the presence of the monster, more of a folk dance display than an outer space thriller. Anthony Dexter, imported from America, Susan Shaw, Harry Fowler, Paul Carpenter, Sydney Tafler and other well-known players do their best to pep up the fantastic script, but retire defeated. Les girls are definitely the film's main attraction."[5]
From retrospective reviews, Halliwell's Film and Video Guide describes the film as "a strong contender for the title of the worst movie ever made, with diaphanously clad English gals striking embarrassed poses against cardboard sets".[6]
In Phil Hardy's book Science Fiction (1984), a review described the film as "a bottom-of-the barrel piece of British Science Fiction", and that "the film's one claim to fame is its extensive use of classical music (mostly Borodin) as background music, a trick that Stanley Kubrick deployed with far more aplomb in 2001: A Space Odyssey".[7]
The DVD Talk website stated Fire Maidens from Outer Space "may be among the worst-ever professionally produced science fiction films"[8]
In November 1992, Fire Maidens of Outer Space was featured as an episode of the movie-mocking television show Mystery Science Theater 3000.
Analysis of racism and colonial themes
Although the film Fire Maidens from Outer Space (1956) has primarily been mocked by critics for its low budget and poor technical quality, from the perspective of cultural and film studies, it reflects the racial biases and Eurocentric clichés of the 1950s.[9] The reflection of racism in this film can be analyzed through several layers:
Othering and dehumanization of "The Creature"
In this film, the antagonist, "The Creature," is described as a being with "dark, pitted skin." In the study of Cold War-era science fiction cinema, such creatures often served as symbols of the racial "Other" or as a threat to the purity of white Western women.[10] The dehumanization of this creature and its description as a "savage" that must be destroyed by civilized armed men reflects the racial anxieties of that era regarding miscegenation and the perceived threat of "primitive" societies to Western civilization.[9]
White Savior cliché and colonialism
The narrative structure of the film is built upon the white savior trope. Five male astronauts (all of whom are white and represent Western powers) enter an unknown land to save a "dying" civilization. This civilization, described as a remnant of Atlantis, consists entirely of white women. This imagery, where white men use technology and weaponry to restore order to an "incapable" society, is rooted in 19th and 20th-century colonial thought, in which white people saw it as their duty to export "civilization" to other societies.[10]
Racial purity in the representation of New Atlantis
The film portrays "New Atlantis" as the pinnacle of beauty and civilization, yet this depiction is entirely Eurocentric. All 17 fire maidens are selected according to Western European beauty standards, and there is no trace of racial diversity in a civilization that supposedly originated from a global lost continent.[11][pageneeded] This conscious choice in casting promotes the idea that a "Utopia" or superior civilization is necessarily one that is racially pure and white.
Intersection of racism and sexism
Racism in this film is intertwined with Sexism. The women of Atlantis are depicted as prizes for the white astronauts. The film's final promise to send spaceships back with "husbands for the rest" emphasizes that the survival and perfection of this civilization are only possible through union with civilized white men; an idea that was heavily aligned with concepts of White supremacy during the film's production era.[10]
12Bill Warren. Keep Watching the Skies: American Science Fiction Films of the Fifties, 21st Century Edition. McFarland & Company, 2009. ISBN0-89950-032-3.
123Biskind, Peter. Seeing Is Believing: How Hollywood Taught Us to Stop Worrying and Love the Fifties. Pantheon, 1983. ISBN978-0394721156.
Walker, John, ed. Halliwell's Film and Video Guide 2000. London: HarperCollins, 1999. ISBN978-0-0627-3692-5.
Warren, Bill. Keep Watching the Skies: American Science Fiction Films of the Fifties, 21st Century Edition. (Greatly expanded edition) Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Company, 2009. ISBN0-89950-032-3.
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