Red-Barracuda A mission to the moon discovers a couple of aliens who are stranded there in a large spacecraft. It turns out one of them has leukaemia, so the astronauts agree to return with them to earth to seek out a physician who can treat this. But there are unenlightened/corrupt human forces to contend with back on terra firma.For me this was a film of two parts – the sci-fi section on the moon and the more action-orientated section on earth. My issue with the film was that the first bit is much more interesting but only constitutes about a third of the movie. Once the action relocates to Earth it loses a lot of its interest and becomes a slightly tiresome action caper. I guess that overall this awkward combination of sci-fi with a crime/action story is one of the things that makes Mission Stardust quite distinctive. But for me its good parts were loaded at the start, meaning that by the end it felt a little disappointing to me.It's a 60's sci-fi film, so some slack has to be given regarding effects work. Quite a lot of them are really bad here but there is some decent model work for the spacecraft, while the robots were pretty original in design. The moon scenes in general were pretty well done and had a sort of Star Trek original series type of charm. The lead male characters were quite forgettable but the lead female alien Thora was quite striking and a good character. It is also worth pointing out that, like a lot of Italian genre movies of the time, it has a very good soundtrack as well. So, there are good things about this film but overall there weren't enough to save it from its tedious aspects.

oscar-35 *Spoiler/plot- Mission Stardust(4...3...2...1...Morte), 1967. Aitor planetary aliens have crashed on the moon, and Earth astronauts have found and volunteer to help them with medical and engineering assistance. They take the sick alien leader back to Earth to have a crime syndicate try to steal the alien advanced secrets. The aliens and Earthmen fight together to do the right thing in co-operation.*Special Stars- Lang Jeffries, Essy Persson, LIus Davila, Pinkas Braun, Stefano Sibaldi, John Karlsen.*Theme- Goodwill and help is universal.*Trivia/location/goofs- Italian, Spain, and Germany co-production. Experience: The 'Weiner Mobile' lunar car, hear the annoying 'alien' female vocal mood & scene incidental music with no musical instruments accompaniment. Watch for the Perry Rhodan sci-fi novels paring of international crime czar/spies and astronaut heroes.*Emotion- I have not heard to read any of the Perry Rhodan sci-fi novels. But I found their premise interesting and unique in this film. The added plot twist of espionage and crime to make this film more dramatic and enjoyable. There are some interesting alien robots featured in this film, also.*Based On- Perry Rhodan sci-fi novels.

Judexdot1 I have seen listings for "4-3-2-1 Morte", and "Orbital Mortal" as seperate films. other data suggests 2 films produced at the same time with much the same cast and crew. titles are listed for US english dubbed releases years ago, as "Countdown To Death", and "Mission Stardust". Now this listing says it's all one film, and I have serious doubts. I love "Mission Stardust", though I agree it is not a very faithful Rhodan adaptation. as for the poor effects, I strongly disagree. Antonino Margherhetti's spaceship effects are top notch for the time of the film, and quite lovely in design. Excellent special effects work from a moonlighting director, who had started italian cinematic SF with "Assignment Outer Space"!

Elvis_untot ... this Movie has absolute nothing to do with that great SF-Novel.But I think it could be fun to watch with a few friends/drinks and with Plan9 to adjust your brain on the right level.