Fire Maidens of Outer Space (1956)

I like the storyline of this show,it attract me so much

Excellent but underrated film

This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

It's amazing what you can find when you're not looking. While surfing through the various sites I usually frequent to watch free movies, I stumbled across this inept little monstrosity hidden among poverty row horrors and cardboard cutout sci-fi. Released at the very beginning of the drive-in double-features golden age, Fire Maidens of Outer Space is arguably one of the worst films ever made.Fire Maidens of Outer Space concerns a team of male astronauts who are launched from Earth to research one of Jupiter's Moons. When they arrive however they are greeted by a population of beautiful women seeking mates to continue the species. As far as plots go, it's not the worst sci-fi concept; it's somewhere between season 3 of Lost in Space (1965-1968) and Gene Roddenberry slumming it. Yet what sets Fire Maidens apart from other mediocre sci-fi; what makes it closest to the spirit of Ed Wood than any other movie in 1956 is it's abysmal failure on all fronts.The direction can be best described as shoot and point; giving no reference points, establishing shots and worse still, stealing all the atmosphere. The dialogue is asinine with so many poorly conscripted plot points and utterances seemingly taken out of Leave it to Beaver (1957-1963). Actors sit and stand in front of cobbled together sets that flimsily sway whenever blocking is required. When the crew stumbles around outside in what looks like a public park, the camera keeps a distance if only so the crew can avoid having to wait for a permit. As for the acting itself; well, let's just say its as cardboard as their spaceship.Now by this point, fans of infamously bad director Ed Wood might have pricked their ears up. Does Fire Maidens truly saunter past that line of just plain awful into Plan 9 from Outer Space (1959) open DVD case at your own risk awful? Yes, Fire Maidens does reach that low, low bar, offering the same shoddy workmanship, sluggish editing and absurdly contrived goofiness you would expect. What's more Fire Maidens rewards an already suffering audience with pretentious Greek character names and blaring classical music screeching in the background. Who knew that a movie featuring a grousing scab monster would also feature a five minute interpretive dance about Grecian urns. Thanks movie for making me feel like being stuck in a dentist's waiting room, trapped under something heavy.Seriously, Plan 9 (1959) is actually a better movie. If Fire Maidens of Outer Space was made today, it would be on the dusty top shelf of a Freshman film student's dorm closet. It simply wouldn't be viewed unless that said student wanted to feel embarrassed. By virtue of being made in 1956 when out-of-control teenagers weren't really paying attention to the screen, the film did find distribution. Now we can see it on youtube.com for free. Thank goodness for the modern age. Because of it we get to watch bad movies for free insuring the only thing we waste is our time.

"Fire Maidens of Outer Space" is among the very cheapest and crappiest looking films of the 1950s. I am not at all exaggerating when I say that it makes "Plan 9 From Outer Space" look big-budgeted by comparison! After all, the space ship is just old footage of V-2 tests, the 'moon' they land on looks pretty much like Indiana and the sets and outfits must have set the film back a whopping $38.79! Yes, it's incredibly cheap and stupid looking--but is the film otherwise any good? A group of ultra-horny human men take a space voyage to Jupiter's 13th moon. There, they discover the lost city of Atlantis....and this makes absolutely no sense whatsoever. They are then welcomed by Prossus--a man who claims to be the last male survivor of this mythical city. Because they are dying out, that's why they contacted the astronauts. The problem is a monster that is both indestructible AND has the head of a man.Much of this film seems unscripted and pointless, so the script and direction aren't exactly the picture's strong points! A great example is the sexy(????) dance number set to "Stranger in Paradise"---which is odd since these Atlantians have been on this moon long, long before Borodin wrote this public domain piece! Why do they dance and gyrate in such a pointless manner?! I guess it's just filler...as is much of the movie. The acting also is rather poor and stilted. In fact, nothing in the film is particularly interesting or done with any sense of quality and it's generally very boring. I would place this among the very worst sci-fi films of its era and can only think of films as bad...not really worse.If you want to see it (and I cannot for the life of me think WHY you would), then a very poor copy is available on YouTube.

Sixty years after seeing "Fire Maidens" more than once on late-night TV on our local station in Ohio, I obtained a copy of the movie on DVD and saw it again last night. Wow, everything the other IMDb reviewers say about this movie is true. It's a real stinker.As a kid, though, I was intrigued by the exotic music from Borodin, which was the only aspect of the movie that gave a sense of being on another planet. Otherwise, the movie looked and felt exactly as if it had been made in someone's basement (for the interiors) in New Jersey (for the exteriors). But I never got tired of that music.I don't recall being turned on by the scantily clad women in their several dances to this music, though I was of an age when I might have been, and it was an era when just a glimpse of leg could be exciting. Now, of course, the dances can't stand up to our world of 24/7 sex. But as an adult I enjoyed the dances because the dancers were so hilariously inept.I kept wondering how Borodin would have reacted to this movie!

Despite inept dialogue, cramped sets, second-string acting, penny-pinching special effects, and time-wasting "B"-picture shuffling, this low-budget, sci-fi yarn is not all that unentertaining. Decided assets include: (1) The plot, neatly combining the Atlantis legend with Theseus and the Minotaur; (2) a bit of effective Minotaur make-up by Roy Ashton; (3) a few flashes of directorial skill by Mr Roth; and (4) not least, a bevy of really beautiful fire maidens led by the very charming Susan Shaw (one of my favorites, I must admit) and the agreeably villainous Maya Koumani.Camp followers will also enjoy the zippy music score comprising a few snatches of Khachaturian's "Saber Dance" with generous excerpts from Borodin's "Polovetsian Dances". If you close your eyes, you can almost imagine yourself listening to the soundtrack of M-G-M's Kismet.True, Dexter makes a wet hero, and Carpenter is even more soppy, but who cares?