| Mission Stardust | |
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| Directed by | Primo Zeglio |
| Screenplay by |
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| Story by | Karl Heinz Vogelmann [1] |
| Produced by | Ernst R. von Theumer [2] |
| Starring | |
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| Edited by | Renato Cinquini [1] |
| Music by | Anton G. Abril [1] |
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Release dates |
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Running time | 95 minutes |
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Mission Stardust (Italian : ...4...3...2...1...Morte) is a 1967 science fiction film based on the early novels of the popular German Perry Rhodan series by K.H. Scheer and Walter Ernsting. [3]
In a quest to find a source of radioactive material more powerful than uranium, Major Perry Rhodan leads a four-man mission to the Moon on the rocketship Stardust.
On the Moon, they find a stranded Arkonide spaceship, where Commander Thora is trying to save a scientist named Crest, along with a crew of robots. The earthmen find that Crest is suffering from leukemia, for which there is a cure available on Earth. Perry and others take an Arkonide shuttlecraft to Earth to bring back a doctor with the cure.
One of the Earth crewmen is a traitor, however, supplying information to a crime lord who is after the radioactive material, but who sees the encounter with the Arkonides as providing an opportunity for an even greater prize. The crime lord arranges to replace the doctor and nurses with his own people, and upon arriving at the Arkonide ship they kidnap Thora in a bid to gain Arkonide technology.
However, Crest provides Rhodan and Bull with Arkonide technology, which helps them rescue Thora as well as the real doctor, who is able to cure Crest. They soon leave the Moon in the Stardust, promising to return with materials the Arkonides need to repair their spaceship.
Mission Stardust opened in Rome in August 1967 under the title 4... 3... 2... 1... morte with a running time of 95 minutes. [5] 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. [5] It was later released in Spain as Órbita mortal with a 92-minute running time. [5] It opened in Los Angeles in October 1968. [5]
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." [1] The review also praised the film score by Anton G. Abril and Marcello Giombini. [1]
From retrospective reviews, Gary Westfahl in his book The Spacesuit Film: A History, 1918-1969 noted that the film contained "shoddy special effects" and recalled "Saturday afternoon serials more than science fiction films of the 1960s". [3] Westfahl referred to the film as "one of the era's most reviled genre films." [3]
Perry Rhodan is a German space opera franchise, named after its hero. It commenced in 1961 and has been ongoing for decades, written by an ever-changing team of authors. Having sold approximately two billion copies worldwide, it is the most successful science fiction book series ever written. The first billion of worldwide sales was celebrated in 1986. The series has spun off into comic books, audio dramas, video games and the like. A reboot, Perry Rhodan NEO, was launched in 2011 and began publication in English in April 2021.
Men Into Space is an American black-and-white science fiction television series, produced by Ziv Television Programs, Inc., that was first broadcast by CBS from September 30, 1959, to September 7, 1960. The series depicts future efforts by the United States Air Force to explore and develop outer space. The series' star, William Lundigan, played Col. Edward McCauley.
Cat-Women of the Moon is an independently made 1953 American black-and-white three-dimensional science-fiction film, produced by Jack Rabin and Al Zimbalist, directed by Arthur Hilton, that stars Sonny Tufts, Victor Jory, and Marie Windsor. The film was released by Astor Pictures.
Science fiction authors have designed imaginary spacesuits for their characters almost since the beginning of fiction set in space.
Gary Wesley Westfahl is an American scholar of science fiction. He has written reviews for the Los Angeles Times, The Internet Review of Science Fiction and Locus Online. He worked at the University of California, Riverside until 2011 and is now an adjunct professor at the University of La Verne.
They Came from Beyond Space is a 1967 British Eastman Color science fiction film directed by Freddie Francis and produced by Max J. Rosenberg and Milton Subotsky. The film stars Robert Hutton, Jennifer Jayne, Zia Mohyeddin and Bernard Kay. The screenplay was written by Subotsky, based on the 1941 novel The Gods Hate Kansas by Joseph Millard.
Stuart James Byrne was an American screenwriter and writer of science fiction and fantasy. He published under his own name and the pseudonyms Rothayne Amare, John Bloodstone, Howard Dare, and Marx Kaye.
Space opera is a subgenre of science fiction that emphasizes space warfare, with use of melodramatic, risk-taking space adventures, relationships, and chivalric romance. Set mainly or entirely in outer space, it features technological and social advancements in faster-than-light travel, futuristic weapons, and sophisticated technology, on a backdrop of galactic empires and interstellar wars with fictional aliens, often in fictional galaxies. The term does not refer to opera music, but instead originally referred to the melodrama, scope, and formulaicness of operas, much as used in "horse opera", a 1930s phrase for a clichéd and formulaic Western film, and "soap opera", a melodramatic television series. Space operas emerged in the 1930s and continue to be produced in literature, film, comics, television, video games and board games.
Destination Space is a 1959 American science fiction television film. It was produced and written by Rip Van Ronkel and directed by Joseph Pevney.
Mission Mars is a 1967 American science fiction film. It was produced by Everett Rosenthal, with a screenplay by Mike St. Clair from a story by Aubrey Wisberg, and directed by Nick Webster.
Moonfall is a 1998 hard science fiction novel by American writer Jack McDevitt. The book depicts the impact of an interstellar comet on the Moon and how the catastrophic effects are handled. The novel was nominated for the Nebula Award for Best Novel in 1998.
Space travel, or space flight is a classic science-fiction theme that has captivated the public and is almost archetypal for science fiction. Space travel, interplanetary or interstellar, is usually performed in space ships, and spacecraft propulsion in various works ranges from the scientifically plausible to the totally fictitious.
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