“Chihuahua, where the people are fine and valiant, with big hearts.”
Due to atomic war, Venus doesn’t have any men. A phalanx of phallic rockets are manned (or womaned) with beautiful Venusian pilots. Sent by the Queen (Consuelo Frank) they are charged with exploring the universe and finding male specimens to bring back to Venus. The most perfect of them will be used to create a new race for Venus. Gamma (Ana Bertha Lepe) and Beta (Lorena Valazquez) who is actually from planet Wu, are teamed together on this vitally important mission.
They travel around all over the universe and gather a menagerie of male specimens from every planet they encounter. With their ship now laden with a “Whitman’s Sampler” of monsters from the far reaches of space they experience engine trouble and must land on Earth to make repairs. In the meantime the cargo of male monsters is getting restless. They are frozen and hidden in a cave until the ship can be repaired. While their robot Torr makes the repairs, the women explore the planet. Well, Chihuahua Mexico at least.
Laureano (Eulalio Gonzalez ‘Piporro’) is a singing Mexican cowboy. He is also a dissembler and teller of tall tales. A liar. He meets Gamma and Beta. They report back to the Queen of their discovery. The Queen tells them to return with the human male when the ship is repaired. They visit Laureano and meet his little brother Chuy (Heberto Davila Jr.).
Laureano and Gamma fall in love. Beta gets jealous. She turns into a vampire lady and drinks the blood of a human. Blood drinking is a no-no. The Queen tells Gamma that Beta must be disintegrated. Beta doesn’t like that idea. She tricks Gamma and steals the freezing devise. Beta plans on taking over the Earth for her vampire race. She goes to the cave and thaws out all the monsters. They run amok.
“The Ship of Monsters” AKA “La Nave de Los Monstruos” was released in 1960 and was directed by Rogelio A. Gonzalez. The movie is a Mexican comedy/sci-fi/horror/western made in Spanish. (Sub-titles available) I’m not sure how well the sub-titles were done, but they were a hoot. I laughed more than I should have.
When I first heard of this movie I thought, cool, lots of monsters on a space ship. My kind of movie. I had no idea what I was in for. I have to say it is the most bizarre movie I have ever seen. It is a stew of genres that in some cases may never have been put together before. Sexy women space ship pilots in bathing suits and high heels. A space ship that is larger on the inside than it is on the outside. (Now where have I heard that before?) Extraterrestrial monsters, a singing Mexican cowboy, a dance number, a sexy vampire lady, and romance. What more could you ask for?
There are four monsters on the ship. Tawal a creature with an over-sided brain and bug eyes from Mars. He is a prince. Uk a giant one-eyed, three fingered, Cyclops creature from a Fire Planet. He is a king. Crassus, a poisonous spider creature from the Red planet, and Zok a skeleton creature with the body of a human and the skull of an animal. Then there is the robot Torr. He falls in love with a juke box.
My one complaint is that I would have like to have had more monster screen time and less singing cowboy. Otherwise it is a delightfully strange piece of Mexican hodge podge.
Ana Bertha Lepe was Miss Mexico in 1953. Lorena Velázquez was Miss Mexico in 1960.