While this film may be slightly better than PLAN 9 FROM OUTER SPACE, at least technically speaking, overall it is much more dull and less fun to watch. In fact, during the first twenty or thirty minutes I kept finding my self falling asleep. I don't think this says a lot about my sleep habits but more about how tedious and uninteresting the film was--at least for the first half or so. About the only interesting things at all are that there is an important crew member ("Al") who is Black (a little unusual for 1960) and it's fun to watch the Captain and Al make fun of the reporter who they were forced to take along with them on the mission. In the second half, things pick up a bit (they couldn't have gotten any slower or duller--otherwise audience members would have begun committing suicide), as they are called away from their mission to rescue the Earth. It seems some space ship built by the Earth is screwed up and its engines will vaporize the Earth when it returns. So it's up to the useless reporter to spring to action and save them all--and teaching us an important lesson that when the safety of the planet is in question or you need someone who's an expert in astrophysics, get a reporter.
By the way, the special effects were awful--even by 1950s or early 1960s sci-fi movie standards. As usual, the space rockets have flames that come out at an angle (due to gravity--which should NOT be a factor in the vacuum of space), they wear silly silver suits and there are a lot of useless dials and gizmos. The film was originally an Italian flick and with a bit of re-dubbing (with really awful voice work), it became this "masterpiece"---yech! Even for fans of bad films (and I am one), this one is pretty tough going!
By the way, the special effects were awful--even by 1950s or early 1960s sci-fi movie standards. As usual, the space rockets have flames that come out at an angle (due to gravity--which should NOT be a factor in the vacuum of space), they wear silly silver suits and there are a lot of useless dials and gizmos. The film was originally an Italian flick and with a bit of re-dubbing (with really awful voice work), it became this "masterpiece"---yech! Even for fans of bad films (and I am one), this one is pretty tough going!