Galaxina

Galaxina

Galaxina (1980)

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Dorothy Stratten was murdered by her husband and manager Paul Snider on August 14, 1980, two months after the film's release.

She was twenty years old and had been named Playboy's Playmate of the Year shortly before filming began. Snider's near-constant presence on set caused visible tension that her co-workers noted and could do nothing about.

While the film was in post-production she left Paul Snider for director Peter Bogdanovich and began filming They All Laughed. Much of this is dramatized in Bob Fosse's excellent film Star 80.

GALAXINA (1980) is a low-budget science fiction comedy directed by William Sachs - the same William Sachs who directed The Incredible Melting Man - set in the year 3008, concerning the crew of an Intergalactic Police cruiser on a mission to retrieve a powerful blue crystal.

It parodies Star Trek, Star Wars, and Alien with the enthusiasm of someone who loves all three and the resources of someone who can barely afford a ticket and a bucket of popcorn. The alien planet resembles the American West because Paramount Ranch was available. The Batmobile from the 1966 Batman television series appears in one scene. The laser sound effects were taken from Battlestar Galactica.

Principal photography began January 14, 1980. Severe rainstorms during the shoot caused sets to collapse. Producers cut pages from the script rather than extend the schedule.

The cinematographer was Dean Cundey, who would go on to shoot The Thing, Back to the Future, and Jurassic Park. The special makeup effects were by Christopher Walas, who would later win the Academy Award for The Fly.

The film opened June 6, 1980. The advertising campaign retained the contractually obligated line "And introducing Dorothy Stratten." The Los Angeles Times called it one of the more tasteless ad campaigns in recent memory.

About the Film

She's too good to be true...and too real to be otherwise.

Directed By
William Sachs
Runtime
95 minutes
Released
June 6, 1980
Certification
R
Country
United States of America
Starring
Dorothy Stratten, Stephen Macht, Avery Schreiber, Lionel Mark Smith, J.D. Hinton
More Credits
Genres
Comedy, Science Fiction
Language
English
Origin
US
Studios
Marimark Productions, Crown International Pictures
Written By
William Sachs
Cinematography
Dean Cundey
Also Starring
Tad Horino, Ronald Knight, Percy Rodriguez, Angelo Rossitto, Susan Kiger
Budget
$5,500,000
Box Office
$4,865,000

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  2. Sorry I’m a bit confused about the view of The Los Angeles Times calling the advertising campaign as tasteless.
    When the film was released and the advertising campaign had the line “And introducing Dorothy Stratton” she was still alive.
    If she had died before the film’s release, yes the introducing line would be tasteless but she died two months later.
    Is the advertising campaign meant to predict what might happen to someone involved in the production of a movie, two months after the release date.

    1. Andrew Chamen Great question! I actually cut some text for brevity, and I realize now I cut too much. Galaxina was initially pulled after Stratten’s death, then rereleased. Also, as it was a low-budget B-movie, it was not released all at once all over the country. Limited prints were struck and these rolled out over almost a year.

  4. The movie is VERY self-aware and just plain silly. Stratton’s murder cast such a pall over the film there was no way it could have ever recovered. It pops up now on dvd as part of cut-rate collections of films that are mostly in the public domain or otherwise totally obscure and unknown.

    2. Nope, saying that it’s “obscure and unknown” is dead wrong. Galaxina is VERY well acknowledged in the SciFi community and has quite a cult status, partly because of its parodic jabs at the “big” ones, like Star Trek, Star Wars and Alien.
      Furthermore, calling it a “low-budget B-movie”, as I read in another comment, is as bad as calling a film a “movie-movie”. That’s what the term “B-movie” refers to – a low budget. It has nothing to do with whether a film is “bad” or “good”.

      1. Christer Thunborg “obscure and unknown” was describing most of the movies in those collections of 50 movies for $20 kinda things. Wasn’t meant to describe Galaxina necessarily. It’s certainly one of the better and more high profile films in the set I have it in from Mill Creek.

  6. I saw the ad for Galaxina in Starlog, the art was done by Frazetta. From that image alone I had made it to be something grand, regal above Star Wars in quality.

    Quite disappointing…

  7. I remember that whole “Star 80” summer..i was living in Westwood Village, right around the corner from her death house (they used the same house in the movie)…we had the same landlord and he told us the story. Creepy….

  10. It had more success when it got out on the VHS rental market as people were curious about its notoriety but not curious enough to pay to see it in the theaters. I was a bit too young for it but my dad – who was a distributor – allowed us to borrow a copy to bring home. It may have accelerated my puberty a bit

      2. Keith Yamada “History is just a graveyard of broken dreams, Keith! Time is a cruel monster that eats everything you love, until you’re just a forgotten speck of dust in an endless, freezing void!”

  15. I saw the movie, it was great in my opinion and funny. But I didn’t know that happened. That is one problem I told my sisters years ago about, never ever date a man that have jealous tendencies.

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