EDITOR’S NOTE: Mission Stardust was on Chiller Theater on Saturday, September 26, 1970; Saturday, January 9, 1971 at 1:00 a.m. and Saturday, July 6, 1974 at 1:00 a.m.
Known in Italy as 4…3…2…1…Morte, in West Germany as Perry Rhodan – SOS aus dem Weltall and in Spain as Órbita mortal, this euro-pulp blast-off is based on the literary titan that put German science fiction on the map: the legendary Perry Rhodan series by K.H. Scheer and Walter Ernsting.
Major Perry Rhodan (Lang Jeffries) leads a four-man crew aboard the rocketship Stardust to the Moon in search of radioactive material even punchier than uranium. But instead of just finding space rocks, they stumble upon a stranded Arkonide spaceship, a crew of clunky robots, and Commander Thora (Essy Persson), who is desperately trying to save a sick scientist named Crest. The diagnosis? Leukemia. The cure? Back on Earth!
Of course, this being a 1960s Euro-co-production, a straightforward interstellar medical run immediately gets hijacked by an Earth crime lord (Gianni Rizzo) who thinks alien technology and space minerals are a fantastic career change. He swaps out the rescue doctors with his own goons and kidnaps Thora to hold the cosmos hostage. Because nothing screams syndicate hustle quite like interstellar extortion.
Complete with a swinging score by Anton G. Abril, Mission Stardust trades heavy Hollywood budgets for no-budget fun. Directed by Primo Zeglio and written by Sergio Donati and Zeglio, it feels like the kind of movie I watched as a kid on gray, rainy days.
You can watch this on YouTube.
