An overlooked film from the late '50s that has a very obvious influence in some of the most praised films of later years.

     An expedition to Mars (circa 1973) ends in catastrophe as all the crew, save the Captain, are murdered.  A rescue mission arrives on Mars, picks up the remaining crewman, and set out to return to Earth.  The first ship's captain, played by Marshall Thompson, protests his innocence, blaming the killings on an alien creature, despite evidence that some of his crew may have died from gunshot wounds.  Then people on the return flight start disappearing...

     This movie is essentially the 50s version of Alien. Short of the aliens using the humans for breeding material (something done in other classic films, notably Night of the Blood Beast), there is little fundamental difference. Take this film, add some elements from Mario Bava's Planet of the Vampires, and you've basically GOT Alien, even down to the monster hiding out in the airducts.

     Surprisingly well handled, this film obviously still isn't grand opera--it's a monster movie, but in the best tradition of that genre, it puts a group of people together in a trapped situation against a killer force, and it works.  Lighting is kept stark, with a lot of deep shadows, keeping the monster less distinct and, therefore, more mysterious (considering it's just a 'man-in-rubber-suit" situation, undoubtedly the best approach).

     Part of the success of this film must go to the script written by Jerome Bixby, the noted writer who did episodes of The Twilight Zone and the original Star Trek.  He avoids writing the stock characters we've seen in countless other films, and keeps the jeopardy real, close, and dangerous to these characters we can empathize with.    The romantic subplot is minimal and kept out of the way;  no characters are comic-relief cartoons.  Its a solid script and a classic concept.

     Although the sets seem too large for the interior of a spaceship, they are nice too look at.  No cheap square flats here--each of the round decks have full ceilings, and a gangway leading up to upper decks.  Though the entire movie takes place on this ship (save for brief scenes in an office on Earth), we never get the impression that we are constantly seeing the same scenery because the production was cheap.

     Drawbacks include the execution of the monster suit itself (if this film had a more impressive monster design, it would have a much greater reputation as a classic) and some occasionally poor special effects (like the spaceship floating lethargically through space).  The rocketship design itself, however, is very nice, the standard shape with some of the influence of then-current fighter jet styling.



3 ½ rocketships (out of five).