I first watched the 1959 black and white English film, The First Man
Into Space (Satellite Of Blood in the U.K.), on television, as an eight
or nine year old child. I believe it was on a twilight double bill with
The Unearthly Stranger, another British horror film, made a few years
later. Like many similar films, The Quatermass Xperiment or The
Crawling Hand, this low budget film has a standard premise. But, like
The Unearthly Stranger, it is a bit more literate and enjoyable a sci
fi romp. The odd thing is that it was one of four The Criterion
Collection titles in a release called Monsters And Madmen, as all four
films were produced by the same people, Amalgamated Films- a sort of
junior rival to the American AIP (Roger Corman’s folks), and the Hammer
Studios of England.
The short 77 minute film, directed by Robert Day, a journeyman director
with scant credits to his name, outside of Amalgamated and the horror
and sci fi genres, rises above its cousins with some good moments in
the screenplay, written by Wyott Ordung, John Croydon, and Charles F.
Vetter, minimal exposure to the astronaut-cum-monster, and good use of
black and white cinematography and fairly effective scoring. Granted,
none of it will challenge fans of Akira Kurosawa or Bernard Herrmann,
but for its genre, it’s quite impressive, especially considering its
low budget and re-use of stock military footage, including cockpit
shots of the legendary Chuck Yeager during some historic flights.
Although shot in England, the stock footage, use of nighttime forest
shots, and some random pickup shots in the New Mexico desert,
adequately convinces one that the tale, indeed, does take place near
White Sands.
The plot is propelled less by the Dumbest Possible Action, and more by
that old standby: sibling rivalry. It follows Commander Chuck Prescott
(Marshall Thompson, later of television’s Daktari fame, but also
talented veteran of many B films) who doubts his younger brother’s bona
fides to pilot the first experimental rocket into outer space. The
brother is Lieutenant Dan Prescott (Bill Edwards), and he yearns to get
the Y-13 rocket going. He is a cowboy, an arrogant wannabe playboy,
with a sexy Italian girlfriend, Tia Francesca (Marla Landi), who just
happens to be a ‘scientist.’ After an initial flight succeeds, a second
flight is prepared, and Chuck worries of Dan’s cockiness. Chuck’s boss,
Captain Ben Richards (Robert Ayres, another well known B film and
television actor), head of the New Mexico Air Force Space Command (this
was made pre-NASA), disagrees, and Dan undergoes physical and
psychological tests to prepare himself for the next trip, and is under
the care of the prototypical (although implied, not stated) Nazi
defector doctor, Doctor Paul Von Essen (Carl Jaffe, yet another
venerable minor actor).
The second flight proceeds, and Dan gets careless. At 600,000 feet,
when he is supposed to descend, he continues to climb to nearly 300
miles, then loses control of the ship, via anoxia, and has to abort,
when space dust (one of many laughable scientific inaccuracies in the
film, such as breaking ‘the controllability barrier’- huh?, and Von
Essen’s using an x-ray machine while he and others are not standing
behind a lead barrier) encrusts him and the ship. Dan is presumed dead,
after the rocket plane is recovered. But, it is encrusted in some more
dust. Then, killings of cattle and people occurs nearby, After
investigation, Chuck concludes it is Dan who is the blood drinking
monster. How this mutation has occurred is not known, but Dan soon ends
up back at the Space Command, and is lured into a high altitude
chamber. Inside, with his brother, Dan recovers his senses, and speaks
a bit, of what happened, and dies claiming that he just had to be the
First Man Into Space. The film ends with solemn intonations, from Dr.
Von Essen, about the dangers of exploration, and there always being men
willing to risk it all. Chuck and Tia, meanwhile walk down a hall,
together.
The DVD package is solid, and was the first
in an aborted series devoted to B films (similar to the no frills
Eclipse Series). The film is shown in a 1.33:1 aspect ratio. There is a
brief making of featurette called Making Space, the original theatrical
trailer, four radio spots, and a photo gallery. There is also an audio
commentary with sci fi film historian Tom Weaver and producer Richard
Gordon. It’s a solid commentary, but one with a goodly amount of dead
air. Weaver is enthused, but instead of exploring more deeply into the
making of the film, he seems content to merely prattle on about real
space history. There are some interesting anecdotes on Gordon’s past as
a producer, and on related films he, and his brother Alex, made, but,
overall, there’s just not much heft that is mined in the stale question
and answer format used. It’s too bad because it’s so rare that B films
get this sort of treatment, and to squander it is a shame. Even worse
is when both men mispronounce the similar film The QuaterMass Xperiment
(aka The Creeping Unknown, in the USA) as Kwaitermass, rather than
Quarter-mass.
All in all, First Man Into Space is a solid example of mid-level 1950s
science fiction. It’s not on par with Invasion Of The Body Snatchers,
Forbidden Planet, Gojira, nor The Day The Earth Stood Still, but it’s
amongst the better entries in the second tier, and a good deal of the
‘believability factor’ has to be credited to the always underrated
Marshall Thompson. In both presence and ability, he was one of the few
B film actors it can honestly be said it was a shame that he wasted his
talent in them. The obvious exemplar of this was Vincent Price, but not
even Price could pull off military and leading man roles the way
Thompson did. And, although he eventually did garner some level of fame
on television, to me, he will always be best recalled in such films as
this, where the joy received, especially to young boys, was always far
greater than it reasonably should have been. And how many films, A, B,
C, or Z, can claim that?
--
The Dan Schneider Interviews: The Most Widely Read Interview Series in
Internet History
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Roger Ebert calls Dan Schneider, 'observant, smart, and makes every
effort to be fair,' and states,
'What is remarkable about these many words is that Schneider keeps an
open mind,
approaches each film afresh, and doesn't always repeat the same
judgments.
An ideal critic tries to start over again with every review.'
--
Member of the Internet Film Critic Society (IFCS)
Criterion Collection and Classic DVD Examiner
www.examiner.com/x-19688-Criterion-Collection-and-Classic-DVD-Examiner
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www.Cosmoetica.com
Cosmoetica: The Best In Poetica
www.Cosmoetica.com/Cinemension.htm
Cinemension: Film's Extra Dimension
--
The Dan Schneider Interviews: The Most Widely Read Interview Series in
Internet History
--
Roger Ebert calls Dan Schneider, 'observant, smart, and makes every
effort to be fair,' and states,
'What is remarkable about these many words is that Schneider keeps an
open mind,
approaches each film afresh, and doesn't always repeat the same
judgments.
An ideal critic tries to start over again with every review.'
--
Member of the Internet Film Critic Society (IFCS)
Criterion Collection and Classic DVD Examiner
www.examiner.com/x-19688-Criterion-Collection-and-Classic-DVD-Examiner
--
www.Cosmoetica.com
Cosmoetica: The Best In Poetica
www.Cosmoetica.com/Cinemension.htm
Cinemension: Film's Extra Dimension
