After the first manned Mars expedition crashes down on the planet, a rescue ship commanded by Colonel Van Heusen (Kim Spalding) is sent to rescue any survivors. There is only one member of the first flight left alive, its commander Colonel Edward Carruthers (Marshall Thompson). Carruthers tells a somewhat wild tale about his men and himself having been attacked by some sort of creature, but Van – as everyone calls him - is utterly convinced Carruthers somehow managed to murder all nine of his colleagues to stretch his food rations from one year to ten. He’s so convinced of Carruthers’ guilt, Van has already ordered an instant court martial back on Earth for the man.
Not all of the rest of Van’s crew is quite as convinced of Carruthers’ guilt as their boss is, but believing the man or not isn’t going to be much of a question very soon, for the monster that killed the first expedition has managed to sneak on board the ship and is now using the time until they can land on Earth to make a meal out of the new load of Earthlings.
A rather more obvious influence on the tone and structure of Alien than the A.E. Van Vogt story that film supposedly ripped off, this is one of the very best works of multi-genre low budget director for hire Edward L. Cahn. It has a tight, mostly clever script by Jerome Bixby that makes much of the claustrophobic (and cheap) spaceship location this nearly completely takes place in, understands and applies concepts of suspense and escalation, and doesn’t spend too much time on the horrors of 50s SF romance.
Atypical for a 50s low budget movie, there seems to have been quite a bit of care spent on the look of the production, aiming for the sort of work-a-day future that would only really start to dominate science fiction films for a time beginning in the second half of the 70s – I’d even see Star Wars as part of this lived-in look. It is still a cheap 50s SF horror movie in technical look and feel, but one that puts visible thought and effort into making things feel real.
The monster suit – by AIP stalwart Paul Blaisdell – is a good example for this as well: while it certainly never looks real (most probably also never looked real to a contemporary audience), it has more weight and design sense than you’d usually see in this sort of thing, turning it into a much more believable presence and menace. It does help that Cahn makes quite a bit of use of shadows and half shadows when showing it, not exactly hiding its weaknesses but making it at once more plausible and more menacing.
Generally, Cahn works a lot more with expressive light and shadow than you’d expect when you’ve seen some of his AIP movies, generally keeping things visually interesting and atmospheric. Here, he also shows a hand for simple yet striking effects work: the EVA scene for example may be realized in quite an obvious manner, yet it never feels goofy or too old-fashioned to work.
Apart from being tight and effective, there are also some moments here that can at least be read as attempts at further depth. At least, if you squint in just the right way, you might read the film’s treatment of the increasingly unhinged Van as a tacit, practical criticism of the kind of square-jawed know-it-all manliness 50s science fiction loved even more than other genres did, with the less obviously manly Carruthers who is allowed to fear and be troubled by things but then proceeds to make the right decisions presented as the more human as well as more effective alternative. Let’s just keep away from the film’s gender politics, where the main roles of the female crew members appear to be bringing coffee and presenting emotional-sexual support. There’s an astonishing amount of massaging and hand-holding of sick men that’s more than a little perturbing to modern eyes. Nursing practices really have changed rather a lot, apparently.