Help! Has anyone seen a movie called Starcrash?

[Gwangi]

Just got back from a Caroline Munro film fest in Hollywood and one of the features that unfortunately, I could not catch was a film called “Starcrash”, an Italian sci-fi space flick made in the late 1970s. Of course it will have obvious references to that other space movie, but in watching the trailer, I wasn’t sure if it was a rip-off or a parody of “Star Wars”.

Certainly, it had SW influences along with Flash Gordon. But the real deal that caught my attention was the huge influence from Ray Harryhausen. It even had a seen clearly inspired from “Jason and the Argonauts” where Talos was attacking Jason and his men. Because of that, I badly wanted to watch it (and because it has Caroline as well!). But is a movie that has both Marjoe Gortner AND David Hasseloff expected to be good?

As for seeing Caroline, she is wonderful and still very beautiful. It was great to see some of her features on the big screen like “At the Earth’s Core” which took me back to my youth. (Director Kevin Conner was there as well). And “The Golden Voyage of Sinbad” which turned out to be a 30th anniversary reunion with director Gordon Hessler also there and to my wonderful surprise (at least for me) Sinbad himself, John Phillip Law! And man, is he tall! It was a great time, I just wished I had seen “Starcrash”.

[Xenorama ™]

I've seen it. It's pretty much a rip of STAR WARS, combined with some Harryhausen rips (Talos and skeletons mostly). It was made by Luigi Cozzi (I have his book!) and is essentially a fan film that got lucky.
Wish I had known about Caroline being up there, I'd like to have gone.
STARCRASH is available on R2 DVD with an English track. There's also a sequel apparently that I've never seen.

[RoadWarriorYajuta]

www.badmovies.org/movies/starcrash/

Has some audio and video stuff here plus pics from the film.

[Gwangi]

Thanks guys. I knew I could count on you!

[Xenorama ™]

Our pleasure.

[Shonokin]

I don't remember the particulars but I did see it at the drive in. I wanted to go because of the animation and to see Caroline of course, but back then, mainly for the animation. I remember seeing an article in Starlog and commercials on tv that showed the silver robots with the swords. Back then that was super cool.

[Preston]

Yes,I enjoyed Starcrash, but then again I enjoy anything and everything that has Spaceships in it. I understand the film was made in Italy. Can anybody list for me any other Italian-made sci-fi films? As for Caroline Munro, I recall she also starred in the film CAPTAIN KRONOS, Vampire Hunter. A very OFFBEAT mixture which combined the gothic with swashbuckling in that Kronos hunts vampires while also engaging in much Swordplay. Just that novelty alone made it worth a look-see. There was talk of a sequel but it never materialized. What was never explained to me is how Kronos obtained a JAPANESE sword. Actually he uses BOTH a European sword and a Japanese sword. Why use both?

[Xenorama ™]

Italian space operas include:
BATTLE OF THE WORLDS, WAR OF THE PLANETS, SNOW DEMONS, DEMON PLANET (aka VAMPIRE PLANET? I forget now, think it's overrated anyway- the Bava one), WILD, WILD PLANET (part of the Gamma III series), MISSION STARDUST (cool Perry Rhodan movie) and even THE GREEN SLIME can be included. I'm sure I've missed some.

[Gwangi]

David's the man. He knows it all!

As for "Captain Kronos" I saw that at Caroline's movie fest. And it was the very first time that I had seen it and thought it was quite good.

And yes, how did he get that samurai sword? Some of the advertisements for this movie at the Egyptian Theater stated “just think of him as a European Toshiro Mifune fighting vampires!”

[celamowari]

Actually...PLANET OF THE VAMPIRES. Otheres include ASSIGNMENT : OUTER SPACE with the immortal RIK VON NUTTER and THE HUMANOID with Richard Kiel. Also many more Star Wars ripoffs than I want to list.

Here's the new URL for the STAR CRASH website : www.pachanko.com/starcrash/

[Preston]

Now that you, Gwangi, mentioned both Toshiro Mifune and Sinbad, did you see Mifune in LOST WORLD OF SINBAD? Unusual to see Japanese actors doing the Arabian Nights. I wonder if that was the Only movie in which that happened. Now here is an unusual bit of trivia which most fans don't know---unless they used to watch all those Samurai television programs shown in Hawaii. That is, co-starring with Mifune in the Sinbad film was actor ARISHIMA ICHIRO. What's noteworthy about Arishima was that he acted as Gorozaemon for many episodes in the TV-series ABARENBO SHOGUN. Currently being re-run here in Hawaii are the old 1970s episodes, so Arishima is included. In the TV series, Gorozaemon(Arishima) was responsible for the safety of the Shogun Yoshimune. But the Shogun very often infuriated and exasperated Gorozaemon because Yoshimune would often sneak out into town, disguised as a Hatamoto samurai named Shinnosuke. Assisting the Shogun on those outings was Ninja Sukehachi played by none other than MIYAUCHI HIROSHI (yes, the actor who played Kamen-Rider!!).

[Xenorama ™]

It's not really a "Sinbad" movie- it's original title is SAMURAI PIRATE and was changed by AIP to a more expoitable one (imagine that!).

[GrimGhost]

I own the old media precord of this movie...It's chumpy but in a soda and popcorn kinda way (Which is not to be confused with a "beer and fried chicken kinda way...you need the original Humanoids From The Deep for that.)
The DVD from France has the sequel to Starcrash but it's essentially a lame version of the first.

[harvestmoon38]

There's a sequel to that movie?

[celamowari]

Sorta kinda. Read all about "Escape From Galaxy 3" here - www.pachanko.com/starcrash/reviews3.html