Spaceways

I like Spaceways, but it is a pretty average movie on all fronts (for the fifties). Even though it does have the lovely Eva Bartok in it, and was directed by Hammer Film's legendary Terence Fisher, the film's main problem is that it can't decide what type of genre film it is, with all the various story elements running around. We've got a early British science fiction (hence the title, of course), a murder mystery, and a bit of early Cold War thriller all tumbled together.

The performances by all are solid if stereotypical, but the effects consist primarily of using the same stock footage of V-2 experiments that viewers would come to know and sometimes loathe in many movies later on (Fire Maidens From Outer Space, King Dinosaur, etc., etc.). The movie also seems to end a bit abruptly.

Luckily, the DVD of the movie is available at mall music/video stores for about $6 (I got my in a double pack with Kronos for $10), so it is at least affordable for the 50's Sci-Fi Completest out there.

Many reviewers have unfairly criticised this film for lack of accuracy in the space portion of this yarn. Well, in 1953 we knew very little about space, so that must be forgiven.

As so little was known about space in those days, the writers had to fill out a good proportion of the film with a fairly standard love/mystery story, including a nice little plot twist.

I enjoyed this film as it had good performances from all the actors. It's definitely worth a view.

1952's "Spaceways" was an early Hammer Films example of low key science fiction (Britain's first since H.G. Wells' 1936 "Things to Come"), as well as the practice of importing a Hollywood star to headline, the recently blacklisted Howard Duff supplied by coproducer Robert L. Lippert, who also provided stock spaceship footage from his own "Rocketship X-M." Dr. Stephen Mitchell (Duff) is among the leaders of a government approved research project to send an orbiting satellite into the earth's atmosphere, as a way to monitor activities all over the world. A possible security breach occurs with the simultaneous disappearance of Mitchell's wife, along with a fellow scientist with whom she was having an affair; military investigator Smith (Alan Wheatley) reaches the conclusion that Dr. Mitchell killed them both and ensured the recent failure of their latest rocket (stuck in orbit indefinitely) by draining enough fuel to allow the presence of two corpses. This 'perfect crime' scenario understandably angers Mitchell, who volunteers to prove his innocence by going up in space himself to recover the first rocket, though only mice and monkeys have previously been used as guinea pigs. Not as bad as it certainly could have been, with Alan Wheatley showing the dogged determination of Peter Cushing in his probing and eventual discovery of the truth. For those impatiently wondering if we ever blast off, well, it's saved for the final reel of this 76 minute picture. Leading lady Eva Bartok provides eye candy but not much else in the thinly written part of the female scientist who quietly loves Duff's oblivious Mitchell, only revealing her feelings after his wife vanishes. The Hungarian-born beauty was making just her sixth feature, but had earned recent acclaim in Burt Lancaster's "The Crimson Pirate" (also starring Christopher Lee), and after a decade of tabloid headlines for off screen affairs would retire from the screen following her best known genre effort, Mario Bava's "Blood and Black Lace" in 1964. "Spaceways" shows obvious signs of its radio origins from the pen of Charles Eric Maine, who later adapted his own screenplays for "The Atomic Man" and "The Electronic Monster," the final result scripted by Hollywood's Richard H. Landau and Hungarian-born British writer Paul Tabori. As a Hammer production from Michael Carreras and assistant director Jimmy Sangster, it's a pleasure to see Terence Fisher at the helm, as he also was for "Stolen Face" and "Four Sided Triangle" eventually to make his horror debut with 1957's "The Curse of Frankenstein."

Much better than what the rating here suggests, "Spaceways" is a fine combination of science fiction, domestic melodrama, a show of force from the North, and Cold War intrigue (curiously in a quite discreet and elegant manner, without overt anti-Communist propaganda). It was skilfully directed by Terence Fisher, before his better known horror motion pictures were made, and as early as 1953 he handles the different elements in a very clever way, suggesting a darker subplot in the realm of horror cinema, than what the mystery finally turns out to be: secluded in a military-ruled modern fortress, a group of men and women carry on a space program, but things get complicated when an adulterous couple disappears as the launching of a rocket to the outer space fails. Visually attractive special effects in spite of its low budget, "Spaceways" is definitely worth a look.

This movie was a lot better than I expected.While it was another short movie with extended periods of nothing and the plot wasn't the greatest, the acting is above average and the movie isn't boring.They do a good job of covering the bases and making sure there are no plot holes but the plot is so average that it doesn't help that much.A scientist is accused of killing his wife and another man and putting them in a rocket and sending it into space.Instead of telling them to look for the those people, he just jumps in a rocket to go get the other rocket and prove they aren't in it.The best thing about the movie is that their space program is realistic, it doesn't work.Four stars, give it a shot.