Starcrash

1979

LP: Carerre CA 631.67333 (French)
LP: Polydor 2374 138 (German)
LP: Durium DAI 30314 (Italian)
CD: Silva FILMCD 085
CD: BSXCD8846

Silva CD:

1. Main Title (2:37)
2. Escape into Hyperspace (1:49)
3. Captured (2:10)
4. Launch Adrift (1:22)
5. Beach Landing (2:10)
6. The Ice Planet / Heading for Zarkon (3:04)
7. The Emperor's Speech (3:18)
8. Strange Planet / The Trogs Attack (2:37)
9. Akton Battles the Robots (2:16)
10. Red Ball Attack (1:00)
11. Space War (4:38)
12. Goodbye Akton (3:32)
13. End Title (2:53)

1. Main Title (2:50)
2. Hyper Space (1:50)
3. Larkon Space City (2:35)
4. The Haunted Stars (2:10)
5. The Trogs Attak (sic) (3:40)
6. Stella's Theme (3:35)
7. The Red Ball Attak (sic) and Space Walk (4:05)
8. Battle at Space Fortress (4:35)
9. Actons Laser Fight (2:25)
10. The Ice Planet (1:45)
11. The First Circle of the Universe (3:20)
12. End Title (3:40)

This is the most recent CD (Jan 2009) from BuySoundtrax. It appears to be pretty much identical except track 4, "Launch Adrift," which is twenty seconds longer here, and the inclusion of a seven minute suite of incidental music.

1. Main Title (2:36)
2. Escape into Hyperspace (1:49)
3. Captured (2:09)
4. Launch Adrift (1:42)
5. Beach Landing (2:09)
6. The Ice Planet / Heading for Zarkon (3:03)
7. The Emperor's Speech (3:17)
8. Strange Planet / The Trogs Attack (2:37)
9. Akton Battles the Robots (2:16)
10. Red Ball Attack (1:00)
11. Space War (4:37)
12. Goodbye Akton (3:31)
13. End Title (2:53)
14. Suite (7:14)

The Movie

I saw this in the theater—how sad is that? As I mentioned in my review of Moonraker, in 1979 I was sci-fi nuts and I went to see anything that had space ships and lasers and such. Unfortunately this was one of them. Caroline Munro was Stella Star, a string-bikini-clad intersteller heroine in what was supposed to be a bunch of James Bond-type movies. Caroline Munro was great eye-candy but it wasn't enough. Marjoe Gortner and David Hasselhoff, who seem like nice people in interviews, are in an awful lot of bad movie and shows and should be considered ill omens. I think this is on most people's short lists of the worst movies ever made.

The Music

I have no idea why Barry made this film—he must have owed a lot of money to Vinnie the Shark. I suppose he did the best he could with what was on screen (nothing), but I don't think the score is worth much either. It sounds like the stuff you hear on British sci-fi series from the early 70's.

Release Notes

The LP was released in Europe but never made it out in the UK or North America. The fact that the movie sank faster than the Titanic probably had something to do with that. It wasn't until Silva Screen decided to pair it up with Until September that it got a wide release—this time on CD. I am not aware of the music showing up on any compilations, though it is part of a couple of bootlegs, usually matched up with other space operas like The Black Hole.

In Jan 2009, BSX released a new CD. The music cues are the same, within a second here and there, except for a slightly longer "Launch Adrift" and an additional track at the end: a 7-minute suite. The suite combines versions of "Space War" and "Goodbye Akton." Personally, I think it's the best track on the CD. I've never been very fond of this soundtrack, but the suite combines two pieces, one slow and rather melancholy, and one bright and upbeat: and they're the most Barry-esque on the album.