Space Thing

Producer David Friedman says that SPACE THING was made because, as of 1967, no one had yet made a sci-fi nudie movie. But apart from the "outer space" setting, there is no legitimate science- fiction in SPACE THING. The derivative spaceship sets and costumes are really all that separate SPACE THING from, for example, BOAT THING or TRAIN THING.

The narrative structure of SPACE THING is compartmentalized to allow for all the staple elements of Friedman's "adult" entertainment, but without a plot there's no purpose to anything that happens, beyond serving as mere spectacle.

So SPACE THING unsurprisingly works best as a spectacle. The sex scenes are tepid and truncated, but the women are very pretty. The color print used by Something Weird is gorgeous. But since this film is of the substance and character of cotton candy, SPACE THING badly needs a second feature to bring the disc up to snuff. The HEAD MISTRESS/FANNY HILL DVD (a Friedman double-feature from Something Weird) is a much better value.

This "special edition" is for Friedman/SWV completists and the most rabid (i.e., uncritical) sci-fi collectors only.

The special effects? Colored cotton balls for asteroids, and plastic models bought in a hobby shop for the spaceships, hung on thread to simulate flight. One of them is a model of the flying saucer from the TV series The Invaders and the other is a model of the good ship Enterprise from Star Trek, saucer section removed, and hung upside down! Friedman says he wasn't even aware that it was upside down while making the movie! Evidently he wasn't a Trekker.

But he was a fan of the pulp magazines in his youth, in particular Amazing Stories (as was Steven Spielberg!) and Planet Stories. The latter especially because of its lurid covers which always featured a scantily-clad woman in danger from a horrible monster of some sort. He says he wanted to capture some of the sexy fun of those colorful covers, and to a degree, he did, by uncovering some sexy girls with impressive special effects of their own.

The commentary is about the only interesting thing in the special features of this DVD. There's an overlong and somewhat boring gallery of poster art, repetitive and not too well done, a couple of short subjects, scene index, trailer, and that's about it. If you want sci-fi on a shoestring, and a G-string, this movie's for you!

David Friedman sits down with video distributor Mike Varney (sp?) to discuss the making of this obscure "nudie cutie," and Friedman is none-too-hesitant to call it the worst film ever made. He's not far off. As stated before, watching the movie without the commentary is needless, there's nothing to it really. Lots of T&A, some space ship models and some very bare sets (no pun intended). The stories that Friedman and Varney recount are the best part, from the history of the theaters this type of movie played in, to how Friedman got around the legalities of using the Starship Enterprise in this celluloid schlock.

If you're a fan of bad sci-fi or T&A flicks, this is a definite must!