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Topic: STAR CRASH - 2 x 400ft - Piccolo Film

Jean-Marc Toussaint
Film God

Posts: 2392
From: France
Registered: Oct 2004

posted December 05, 2008 10:41 PM

This review was originally written for the Out of the box series of articles in Small Format.
Since there was a lack of space in the issue featuring the Piccolo brand, the text was printed in the last issue.

STAR CRASH, The Adventures of Stella Star - PICCOLO – 2x400ft
German title: Star Crash, Sterne Im Duell
French title: Star Crash, Le Choc des étoiles

Following the international success of Star Wars, italian director Luigi Cozzi (aka Lewis Coates) shot this incredibly silly space epic for a minuscule budget. One could say that the result is rather cheesy but when you trully look at it, Star Crash is more a work of love. Cozzi is a well of knowledge as far as scifi is concerned, and his film encapsulates most of the genre’s elements.

The plot? We follow the adventures of space-babe Stella Star (Caroline Munro) and android-pilot Akton (tv-evangelist turned actor Marjoe Gortner).
Wandering through the cosmos, they encounter an Emperor (Christopher "what the heck am I doing here?" Plummer) and his son (pre "Knight Rider" David Hasselhoff), an evil grinning count (Joe "Maniac" Spinnel) leading a super space fortress that looks like a giant claw, a tribe of amazons and their giant sentry, a clan of cavemen, a pair of mechanical golems that seem to be assembled from an old Erector set, a fleet of human torpedoes and an armada of spaceships made out of styrofoam packing parts. There’s so much zaniness in the feature that it’s impossible to list everything here. Hats off to the editors who created the cut-down for Piccolo. Although they were unable to keep all of the action, they managed to shoe-horn quite a bunch of it into these two reels (ie- there’s A LOT happening in less than 35 minutes!)

The digest is presented in letterbox, keeping the original theatrical image ratio within the 1.33 super 8 frame. Colours are fantastic, picture quality is on par with the later Piccolo releases such as « Das Boot » or « The Kids are Alright ». The sound is in German but can be redubbed with a DVD.

There’s also a grainier black and white 200ft cut-down of the second reel available through the Revue brand.

All persons who consider themselves serious science-fiction connaisseurs will certainly look down on this title but Star Crash, in a way, is probably closer to the old Flash Gordon and Buck Rogers serials than Star Wars ever was. If you’re into B-movies and in for a good time, get your lightspeed coordinates right and go for it!

[ December 12, 2008, 08:08 AM: Message edited by: Jean-Marc Toussaint ]

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Osi Osgood
Film God

Posts: 10204
From: Mountian Home, ID.
Registered: Jul 2005

posted December 06, 2008 10:10 AM

It sounds like it might be on the par with another gem from around then, "Battle Beyond The Stars" with none other than John Boy from the "Waltons". A very CHEESY sci-fi, but VERY enjoyable.

Is this on the par with "Hawk the Slayer" in cheesiness? Hawk the Slayer set the bar pretty high for hold your nose cheesiness, (well, anything with Jack Palance for the last forty years would have to have a major cheese factor. I wouldn't be surprised if Jack wouldn't take a movie unless it was real bad!)

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Jean-Marc Toussaint
Film God

Posts: 2392
From: France
Registered: Oct 2004

posted December 07, 2008 02:14 PM

I love Battle Beyond the Stars. Pure old Roger Corman product. On par with other NWP productions such as Forbidden World and Galaxy of Terror, which were trying to cash in on Alien.

Star Crash, as I said, is much more a work of love, and it really feels like it, as cheesy as it may be. It's got that real serial feeling.

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Osi Osgood
Film God

Posts: 10204
From: Mountian Home, ID.
Registered: Jul 2005

posted December 07, 2008 02:52 PM

Jean ...

There was another film that tried to cash in on that idea of making a movie much like a serial ...

"AMAZON WOMEN FROM THE MOON"

I think it was done by National Lampoon, and it was like "The Groove Tube", But it did it so well, that people just didn't get it.

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Jeff Chaney
Junior
Posts: 20
From: Long Beach, CA, USA
Registered: Jan 2008

posted December 08, 2008 01:10 AM

Man I would kill for a print on StarCrash..I love that film. About a year or so ago I watched the film here in Los Angeles with Caroline Munro in the audience. She said she had not seen the film in years and was surprised by all of the laughter. She implied that when they made the film everyone took it very serious. I think this is one of the reasons that films like this and the fun 50's sci fi stuff works so well, the people working on the films were so serious, it was only once they added the special effects (as in the Giant Claw, etc.) that the deadpan seriousness becomes so funny.
Cheers
Dino

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Jean-Marc Toussaint
Film God

Posts: 2392
From: France
Registered: Oct 2004

posted December 08, 2008 02:12 AM

Jeff, I was also fortunate to have a drink with the lovely Miss Munroe a few years ago when she came here to promote the release of the special collectors edition of the Region 2 DVD of Star Crash. A friend was MCing the whole event and he had asked me to tape it. I wonder what happened to that video. Miss Munroe couldn't believe that the film had such a group of devoted fans.
Cozzi, I had met several times, both in France and in Rome, as I am a huge fan of his two "Hercules" films starring Lou Ferrigno.

Osi: Amazon Women is a small 10/15 minutes skit that was intentionnaly made with parody in mind to look like cheesy 50's scifi films. Not my favorite from the movie, I like "Bullshit or not" better (this segment was directed by Joe Dante).

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