Fire Maidens from Outer Space
Entry updated 9 June 2025. Tagged: Film.
UK film (1956; vt Fire Maidens of Outer Space). Criterion Films. Directed and written by Cy Roth. Cast includes Owen Berry, Paul Carpenter, Jacqueline Curtis, Anthony Dexter, Susan Shaw and Richard Walter. 80 minutes. Black and white.
Following the discovery of the Earth-like 13th moon of Jupiter, a nuclear-powered Rocket ship lifts off from the American-British Astronomical Station in Surrey; the five-man crew is led by US nuclear scientist Luther Blair (Dexter). After a three-week journey, interrupted only by a meteorite storm, they arrive. Radio contact is made by the inhabitants, who tell them in English where they should land; bizarrely, when notifying Earth of their arrival, the crew neglects to mention any of this.
Soon they rescue a woman attacked by a bestial man (Walter): she takes Blair and Captain Larson (Carpenter) into a walled estate with a statue of Aphrodite in the main building; Blair identifies the architecture as "late Minoan", whereupon an old man appears and corrects him: it is "late Atlantis", for they are in New Atlantis. The man's name is Prasus (Berry), the last surviving male (see Last Man), who has been monitoring them (it is implied this includes their preparations on Earth) and declares they must destroy the "indestructible" beast. He also introduces Hestia (Shaw), the woman they saved, and his twelve or so other "daughters" (the title proves to be an honorific). Later Hestia tells Blair the women are Prasus's prisoners and, when the continent of Atlantis sank (see Disaster), her ancestors came to this world, believing Earth's other continents would suffer the same fate.
Hestia switches a drugged drink intended for Blair with Prasus's, leaving the latter unconscious for most of what follows. The eldest daughter, Duessa (Curtis) – angered that Hestia and Blair are falling in love (the law of Atlantis says the eldest should be married first) – has Hestia tied up, then prepares to sacrifice her to the God of the Sun (see Religion); she dances in front of the torchlit alter for some time. Meanwhile, the rest of the crew have been searching for Blair and Larson: after scaring off the beast – identified as a Neanderthal (see Apes as Human) – with a grenade, they tunnel under the impregnable wall of the estate only to be captured by the other daughters and brought to watch the sacrifice. Meanwhile Blair, who has been locked in his room, discovers that moving a chair opens the door and leaves to free Larson.
The Neanderthal enters the estate through the tunnel, kills the recently awakened Prasus then wanders into the sacrifice, killing Duessa before a gas grenade thrown by the newly arrived Blair causes him to fall into the sacrificial fire and die. When Prasus's body is discovered Hestia – now the eldest – is declared Queen of Atlantis; she says she is going to Earth but will return. When another daughter mentions Prasus had promised them all husbands, Blair reassures them there will be further expeditions from Earth. The Spaceship departs.
Fire Maidens from Outer Space is a dull film enlivened a little by the bad science (see Scientific Errors), bad plotting and a small budget, all common B-movie flaws. Some films overcome this with zest or charm, but here the flat, straight-faced approach is leavened only by finding Humour in how long it takes an attractive secretary to enter a room and reach her boss; or the American-British Astronomical's Station command centre; or the spaceship's controls (mainly a steering wheel and two parallel levers, the latter receiving intense close-ups whenever operated). [SP]
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