The Ship of Monsters

81 minutesCountryMexicoLanguageSpanish

The Ship of Monsters (Spanish: La nave de los monstruos) is a 1960 Mexican comic science fiction film. It was produced by Jesús Sotomayor Martínez, directed by Rogelio A. González, and starred Eulalio González, Ana Bertha Lepe and Lorena Velázquez. The screenplay, by Alfredo Varela, Jr., was based on a story by José María Fernández Unsáin.

In the film, two Venusian women are in search of potential mates. They land in Mexico and fall for a singing cowboy.

Two Venusian women, Gamma (Lepe) and Beta (Velázquez), are sent on a mission by their queen (Consuelo Frank) to search for males to repopulate the planet. Along the way, they and their servant, Tor the robot, acquire a colorful array of male extraterrestrial creatures in their "ship of monsters", including Martian prince Tagual, Uk the cyclops, Utirr the spider and skeletal Zok.

Landing in Mexico, Gamma and Beta become enamored with singing cowboy Lauriano (Eulalio González).

• Eulalio González as Lauriano Treviño Gómez
• Ana Bertha Lepe as Gamma
• Lorena Velázquez as Beta
• Consuelo Frank as Regente de Venus
• Manuel Alvarado as Ruperto
• Heberto Dávila, Jr. as Chuy Treviño Gómez
• Mario García "Harapos" as Borracho
• José Pardavé as Atenógenes
• Jesús Rodríguez Cárdenas

Filmstruck critic Jeff Stafford called it "one of the more exotic genre hybrids that emerged from Mexico in the early sixties, mixing sci-fi, horror and Western elements into something uniquely original".^[1]

Beth Accomando of KPBS praised the film, saying, "You'll find deliciously low budget sets Ed Wood would die for; a know-it-all robot; babes in bathing suit space uniforms; and a refreshing Mexican take on American sci-fi conventions".^[2]

• The Ship of Monsters at IMDb