Attention people of Earth. This is Krankor exploration force speaking.
When evil aliens from outer space threaten the Earth, mild mannered boot black Waku-san (Tatsuo Umemiya) jumps into action as the Prince of Space. Television broadcasts all over the Earth are interrupted by the view of an alien space ship and a menacing voice telling the people that the Phantom of Krankor (Joji Oka) is on the way to Earth aboard his interstellar space ship.
The voice states that the ruler of Krankor will be arriving at 8 o’clock the next evening. He warns the planet that anyone who does not obey him will die. Waiting for them when they land is a welcome committee of government agents, police, and a few kids. The Phantom begins wiping out everybody.
Out of nowhere comes another space ship, this time with the Prince of Space on board. The Phantom’s men begin shooting at the prince. He dodges. Running out of energy the Phantom decides to back off for awhile. In their next encounter the Phantom tries to kidnap those meddlesome kids, but the Prince of Space pulls out his magic wand (not that one) and begins shooting at the Phantom’s henchmen.
The Phantom does not state why he is on Earth but we learn that Professor Macken (Ushio Skashi) has developed a revolutionary rocket fuel. It is more advanced than what the Krankorians have so it’s only natural that the Phantom would be after it. The Phantom manages to steal the formula, lose the Prince of Space in a meteor storm and kidnap a bunch of scientists, Macken included. His ultimate goal, the domination of Earth.
“Prince of Space” AKA "Planet Prince" was released in 1959 in Japan and an Americanized version was released to the US in 1960. The director was Eijiro Wakabayashi. Known as space operas or invasion movies these TV and theatrical serials and movies featured an enemy from outer space and a hero to fight the bad guy. “Flash Gordon” and “Buck Rogers” were big in the 30’s and “Captain Video” in the 50’s. Japan had their own version of these heroes. “Prince of Space” was one of them. Originally comprised of two movies called “Planet Prince” and “Planet Prince: The Terrifying Spaceship”, in 1959, for the US release, they were combined into one 95 minute movie called “Prince of Space”.
As with most of these low budget serial type shows the special effects were also low budget. OK, so the noses of the Krankor people needed a little work, but their antennas were adorable. The whole movie is just a charming piece of what a 50’s kid’s movie is all about. Not much different than the Power Rangers. The movie is low on back story and character development. That’s not surprising since the movie itself was based on a TV series. Since everyone already knew the characters there was no need to rehash the origins of the Prince or anybody else. We don’t know where he came from or how or why he decided to hide himself as a shoe shine boy.
Space rocks 101: Asteroid: a large rocky body in space, in orbit around the Sun. Meteoroid: much smaller rocks or particles in orbit around the Sun. Meteor: If a meteoroid enters the Earth's atmosphere and vaporizes, it becomes a meteor, which is often called a shooting star. Meteorite: If a small asteroid or large meteoroid survives its fiery passage through the Earth's atmosphere and lands on Earth's surface, it is then called a meteorite. Apparently the Phantom of Krankor is not familiar with Earth terms. What he passed through in space was not a meteorite shower, but more likely a meteor storm.