Starcrash (film)

Starcrash
Year	1978
Directed by	Luigi Cozzi (as Lewis Coates)
Produced by	Nat Wachsberger Patrick Wachsberger
Written by	Luigi Cozzi & Nat Wachsberger
Music by	John Barry
Studio	Nat and Patrick Wachsberger Productions New World Pictures (USA)
Cast	Caroline Munro Marjoe Gortner Christopher Plummer David Hasselhoff Robert Tessier
Run time	92 minutes
Riffed in	Experiment #1106

For the MST3K episode, see MST3K 1106 - Starcrash.

Starcrash is a 1978 Italian-made space opera directed by Luigi Cozzi (aka Lewis Coates). It was co-written by Cozzi and Nat Wachsberger (one of the producers), with additional dialogue by R.A. Dillon. Music is by John Barry.

Starcrash is one of several sci-fi/space opera-type films that were made in the late 1970s/early 1980s in an attempt to capitalize on the popularity of Star Wars.

Plot

A pair of roguish space travelers evade law enforcement and discover part of a villainous warlord's plan to conquer the galaxy. They are drawn into an effort to defeat the evil usurper which sends them on a perilous adventure through outer space.

Cast

• Caroline Munro - Stella Star
• Marjoe Gortner - Akton
• Judd Hamilton - Elle the robot
• Christopher Plummer - The Emperor
• David Hasselhoff - Prince Simon
• Robert Tessier - Thor
• Hamilton Camp - voice of Elle
• Joe Spinell - Count Zarth Arn
• Nadia Cassini - Corelia

Notes

• As was common practice for European films at the time, most of the film was not shot with sync-sound, the dialogue to be dubbed later. As a cost cutting measure, Caroline Munro was not flown to Los Angeles for the recording sessions. Stella Star's voice was supposedly recorded by Marjoe Gortner's then-wife, actress Candy Clark (though Clark later claimed that it is not her voice).
• Joe Spinell and Caroline Munro would appear together again in 1982's The Last Horror Film, which was co-written by Judd Hamilton and directed by David Winters (director of Space Mutiny).
• At the time of production, Caroline Munro was married to Judd Hamilton (the actor in the Elle costume).
• Starcrash was distributed in America by New World Pictures, a company owned by Roger Corman. Corman insisted on edits adding up to over five minutes of footage in an effort to improve the pace and clarity of the film.
• Before being riffed on MST3K, Starcrash was used in Episode 3 of Mystery Fandom Theater 3000.
• German TV series SchleFaZ also used Starcrash for an episode, also in 2017.