Zeta One

On May 19th 1970, Herbert Aronoff of The Montreal Gazette had this to say;


"Somewhere in the depths of British depravity there lies a magazine called Zeta One. Much like a comic book but more like a sexy version of the Italian 'fumetti', its story content is a mixture of kinkery and nudity told in vivid, luridly coloured photographs. All quite boring"


Personally I think old Herbie (as he perhaps was never called) was being a bit harsh. Then again, maybe kitsch nostalgia is what makes Zeta magazine, with its photo strip of near Barbarella style space age and espionage stories, so interesting now.

In 1969, Tigon obviously thought there was something of interest to Zeta magazine's mildly erotic stories set on the faraway planet of Angvia too, (as if Amazonian nearly nude Goddesses from space could ever be anything other than of interest?!) and they produced a feature film entitled Zeta One  - or The Love Factor as it was known in the US. A film which featured Dawn Addams as the titular Zeta,  comedy stalwarts James Robertson Justice and Charles Hawtrey as the villains and an occasionally Zapata moustachioed dull as ditchwater lead called Robin Hawdon as hero spy James Word ('My word is my Bond' geddit?) It has gone down in history as a laughably bad, leaden, continuity disastrous inept flop. But which immediately captures our interests in the copious opportunities of glimpsing the skimpily clad figures of Valerie Leon, Yutte Stensgaard and many more (including Anna Gael, now Anna Thynn, Marchioness of Bath no less) made available to us  

Indeed, Valerie made such an impression (and why wouldn't she?) that she took centre stage in the arty Italian film poster

Which rather puts this poster effort and it's accompanying lobby cards to shame

Here's a bit of the 'plot' taken from a press release, should anyone actually feel the need to concern themselves with the 'plot' that is

 

 And here's some US advertising, featuring the final poster art with their official The Love Factor title

And a cinema bill ad from 1973 which goes with a different title and ad campaign (from Film Ventures International) altogether

But sadly none of this push could save a turkey, no matter how retrospectively kitsch and fun it can appear, and the final word on the film must go to dear old Herbie again in his review of the film taken from the aforementioned article ....


"In true sexploitation manner, however, nothing much more  than the naked truth is ever revealed. And the naked truth is that sexploiters such as Zeta One should never be allowed to aspire towards Zeta Two"

The view from space?! ;)