...4...3...2...1 Morte - a Torgo Future Shock!

Meet a man who, when it comes to Youtube, says pish to people who only post trailers and pours scorn on those that just upload clips. Somehow an individual known only as Torgo has managed to post a series of entire full-length motion pictures in his ongoing series - Torgo's Movie Drive-In!

One movie in particular which caught my fancy is 1967 Eurotrash Sci-Fi mish-mash ...4...3...2...1 Morte, also known as Mission Stardust, SOS Aus Dem Weltall, Mortal Orbit, Operation Stardust and You Only Live Once - a somewhat downbeat cash-in on the then current Bond epic. Under any title, it's based on a long running series of novels starring German über-astronaut PERRY RHODAN and, as far as I'm aware, can't be purchased on any half-decent format - a few old VHS tapes can be had, but this is the 21st century, baby - who wants to watch one those?.

In my opinion this sexed up slice of 60s psychedelia deserves a spruce up and DVD release as it’s dubious pleasures are hard to enjoy whilst squinting at a tiny Youtube branded screen. Nonetheless we're indebted to Torgo for giving us all a chance to gawp at it in the first place. Any movie that features the moon being menaced by space-spies, alluring aliens and rampaging robots is surely worth a watch?



Rhodan is portrayed by Canadian thesp Lang Jeffries, with Swedish Essy Persson co-starring as his skin-tight space suited squeeze. Director Primo Zeglio was a prolific director of Spaghetti Westerns whilst co-screenwriter Sergio Donati helped pen Leone's Once Upon A Time in the West, Fistful of Dollars and the underrated Duck You Sucker/Fistful of Dynamite.

Thankfully it's soundtrack and glorious theme song can be obtained via all the usual sources. The latter was most recently heard flogging underarm deodorant - perhaps not exactly the illustrious future composer Marcello Giombini had in mind back in '67.