Showing posts with label Sybil Danning. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Sybil Danning. Show all posts

Tuesday 22 December 2020

Battle Beyond the Stars (1980)

Costume Design by Durinda Wood

Produced by the infamous Roger Corman under his New World Pictures banner and directed by Jimmy Murakami with special effects work by James Cameron, Battle Beyond the Stars was a slightly more cynical effort than Starcrash, by explicitly copying Star Wars‘ own trick of lifting from Kurosawa movies, but it does have a unique visual flare – after all, this was the most expensive movie Corman had ever produced (‘low-budget’ by Hollywood standards even then), and film of his did have a knack for turning out stylish despite the thrifty funding.

The protagonist, Shad (Richard Thomas) is clad in a simple beige outfit with his jacket has a charmingly waved pattern to its fabric, as well as the similarly-shaped pads on the knees.
Shad's people, the Akira, wear fairly simplistic gowns, vests and dresses; most notable among them is Lux (Marta Kristen), who wears a lilac dress with darker patches.
Some of the Akira wear gowns and tunics with popped collars, especially the elders, and some wear a vest with lighter panelling around the shoulders. Also of note are the weather satellite crew who wear vests of a similar design to Shad's, over their jumpsuits.
During the disrupted Akira wedding, two dresses are seen; the first is adorned with a floral braid, the second is pink in hue but barely seen.
When Shad journeys out to find mercenaries to help his planet, he ends up on the spacestation of their planet’s old ally Dr Hephaestus, whose daughter Nanelia (Darlanne Fluegel) is the only real lifeform on the station, everyone else being androids who wear specially made jumpsuits fitted with zippers and buckles on the shoulders, topped off with a cap.
Nanelia wears a mauve jumpsuit with blue lining and white trim on the belt and cuffs.
The first 'warrior' enlisted to save the Akir is Cowboy (Goerge Peppard) who true to his name, is dressed like a stereotypical cowboy in the stetson and plaid shirt, though his jacket and trousers are made of a ridged 'futuristic' material, as well as the trousers being specially cut at the waist, revealing another pair of leggings underneath.
One of the first ‘alien’ crews to help Shad and his friends is the lizard-like Cayman of the Lazuli (Morgan Woodward), always clad in what looks very similar to a straitjacket, but olive-green.
Cayman travels with the brutish Quepeg (Steve Davis) clad in a similarly bondage-like outfit of straps all over him, as well as being a riff on the tribal warrior archetype.
Cayman also travels with two members of the diminutive 'Kelvin', dressed like in silver robes with large raised collars.
The other alien team is the hive-mind Nestor (Earl Boen, as the ‘main’ voice of it), five aliens clad identically in white gowns, that later on in the film show they have golden tubing round the shoulders and neck.
One of the more notable guest roles in the picture was Robert Vaughn as Gelt, who is first seen wearing a futuristic riff on a cavalry shirt, with shiny panelling on the front, later on wearing a dark blue jacket with ribbed panelling around the shoulders over it.
It just wouldn’t be a 'Star Wars wannabe' space opera film without a female lead in skimpy getup, and who else was fit for the job but Sybil Danning, this time playing Saint-Exmin of the Valkyrie warriors. When first introduced she sports a ludicrous outfit of foam headpiece, necklace and bra(!), in an outfit that describing as ‘risque’ would be an understatement.
Danning’s second outfit as Saint-Exmin is even more lurid, in a latex black and pink lined bodysuit thats been cut to be as revealing as possible, topped off with pink headscarf and black skullcap, long flowing hair, and jewellery all over her. Between this and similar roles in Luigi Cozzi's Hercules and Howling 2: Your Sister Is a Werewolf, it really did seem that Danning’s contract in the early 80s demanded her to be in as many lurid risque getups as much as possible.
John Saxon plays the villainous warlord Sador, leader of the Malmori mutants, who wears a futuristic uniform consisting of a silvery tunic with raised brown shoulders and collar, as well as a sash coated in various patches.
Sador’s deputies are clad in more drab woolen versions of his shouldered tunic, with his second in command having a double sash-like belt over his, and his chief torturer wearing a uniform with a visible button flap. These uniforms were also reused (and worn with hard hats) in the other Corman-produced Star Wars ripoff Space Raiders a few years later - Corman loved to reuse anything he had from previous films.
The soldiers of the Malmori force wear black versions of the tunic, with modified helmets (according to Wood herself, the helmets were originally Spanish military helmets from the WWII era) Almost all the soldiers are identical barring a few who seem to sport recoloured versions of the crewman helmets, and are joined in battle by Sardor’s lieutenant, dressed the same but with a mask covering his hair and top of his face, and his tunic having beige panelling.

Hercules (1983)

Costume Design by Adriana Spadaro

Luigi Cozzi's footloose adaptation of the Labours of Hercules played with more comic book and pulp scifi imagery than the various Italian peplum films that preceded it, or the various sword & sorcery films it was released amidst, such as the previous year's Conan the Barbarian.

Adriana Spadaro's costume designs for Hercules reflect the pulpy vibe, with the costumes ranging from typical ahistorical fantasy fare, to more 'space age' feeling costumes. The studded leather loincloth worn by Lou Ferrigno is a classic 'peplum' look updated for the 1980s.

A golden armor bodice was also designed for Mirella D'Angelo as Circe, the bodice and boots fitted with blue fabric tassles.
In an earlier appearance, a tattered robe, split into two sides of fabric colours, is worn as part of Circe's guises as an old crone. The costume is completed with a sculpted headdress.
A more 'Orientialist' dress, pastiching classic Middle Eastern clothing was designed and made for Ingrid Anderson as Cassiopea, with a white veil complimenting the look.
Another, much more racey feeling dress was made for Anderson in the Minos palace scenes, consisting of a shiny collar with strips of fabric trailing around her body; the nipples are covered with plastic clamshells. A special crown was also made.

(I am assuming, due to the film's relative budget and ambition, that all the crowns, tiaras and armor was actually made for the film (though presumably made out of plastic rather than metal) and not just borrowed from earlier peplum films).

Various tunics in different colours and patterns were made for the extras playing guards. The Theban guards in the film's opening wear powder blue tunics with white panelling around the edges, while the captain's wear tunics of deeper blue with white panelling and red piping. The guard commander is differentiated with his tunic having more panels of white fabric on the bottom half. At least two of the captain costumes were reused by Spadaro in the opening scene of The Adventures of Hercules.
The Minos guards in the film's finale wear black tunics with speckled panelling over the edges, and are worn with vinyl capes; the tunics and capes were reused by Spadaro to clothe extras playing 'Eurac' soldiers in Sergio Martino's dirt-cheap and dreary 2019: After the Fall of New York, possibly weathered to make the speckled panelling appear darker.
An orange vinyl tunic and kilt were made for William Berger as as the tyrant Minos, the tunic adorned with a tan cape and no doubt plastic 'armor' painted to resemble gold or brass. The costume was worn again by Berger in the sequel The Adventures of Hercules.
Sybil Danning starred as the villainess Ariadne, wearing a skimpy dress resembling a leotard with holes cut to show off the breasts. It is worn with gold boots a dark blue cloak
Spadaro designed a second dress for Danning, a blue and orange design heavily influenced by ancient Minoan clothing - the costume is mildly inaccurate, because despite amply showing Danning's bosom it's still not full frontal nudity! The dress is completed with a skirt of cut up streamers of fabric.
The film's action regularly cuts to the gods Zeus, Hera and Athena, portrayed respectively by Claudio Cassinelli, Rossana Podesta and Delia Boccardo. Spadaro designed a pair of contemporary-feeling and rather futuristic feeling dresses for Podesta and Boccardo, both of them fitted with translucent fans and panelling. For Cassinelli, Spadaro designed a white robe with thick tubing all over and foam green panels and lining.
Spadaro designed perhaps the most camp costume of all for Eva Robbins in her turn as Dedalos, consisting of a spandex bodysuit with teal chest plating and codpiece, a wide-collared shiny cape, and a helmet adorned with wings. The costume was worn again by Robbins in Cozzi's follow-up The Adventures of Hercules.