NekoHomey Purely Joyful Movie!

Ploydsge just watch it!

WillSushyMedia This movie was so-so. It had it's moments, but wasn't the greatest.

StyleSk8r At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.

LeonLouisRicci Not the First and In Fact the Last of the Sci-Fi of the "Sci-Fi" Infused Decade. It came Way Late and not just a Dollar Short.It's Obscure and Unknown for a Reason. While it did do Good Business and Baby-Boomers Lined Up, it is Not Remembered with Fond Feelings. A Stiff Presentation it Contained Heavy Horror Elements that Stifled some of the Entertainment Value of the then Public's Fascination with all Things Space Travel.Marshall Thompson is Forever Frowning and Dull as Dirt and the Italian Female Actress Mara Landi is Miscast and a Glaring Misstep. Bill Edwards as Astronaut Dan is an Obnoxious, Strutting Fifties Stereotype until He Returns from Space Humbled to Say the Least.In the Second Half the Movie Becomes a Blood-Sucking Bore as the "Monster" is Seen Wandering the Countryside like "Frankenstein". It then becomes Extremely Downbeat as the Tragedy Unfolds. If the Reveal was Meant to be a Twist, it Failed Miserably.Worth a Watch for Sci-Fi Completest with Low Expectations.

Coventry I'll admit that "First Man into Space" is a pretty bad film, mainly because the creators made the huge mistake of trying to give a hideous monster a voice and emotions, but still I can't help appreciating this British low budget late 50's Sci-Fi horror effort. The reasons for this are almost exclusively linked to the fabulous make-up effects and the brutality of the killings. Despite the fact that they want you to empathize with the monster, the murders it commits are extremely gruesome (involving throat-slitting, blood-drinking and that sort of things…). You can imagine it's pretty difficult, and actually even a bit ridiculous, to have sentiments for a one-eyed pile of smut that just tore apart the throat of an innocent trucker and drank the blood of cows. The plot of "First Man into Space" is fairly rudimentary, as are the set pieces and scenery. The footage of the intergalactic journeys and the interiors of the spacecrafts & laboratories look extremely cheesy by today's standards, but they were top-notch equipment during the late 50's, when the popularity of the Sci-Fi genre literally boomed. The plot itself often feels like a low-keyed imitation of one of Hammer Studio's greatest successes, namely "The Quatermass Experiment". If you, like me, consider that particular film to be one of the greatest landmarks of 50's Sci-Fi, you'll definitely also find some entertainment in the derivative concept of "First Man into Space". The story revolves on a cocky astronaut who desperately aspires to become the first man into space no matter what. With a stubborn attitude like that, he naturally disobeys important orders from ground control (his brother) and puts himself in great danger. His first flight has a happy ending but during a second flight his capsule vanishes from all radars. The astronaut is still alive, however he transformed into a hideous monster that craves blood and slowly heads back to base camp. The first half of the film is overly talkative and every single stereotype and cliché regarding space exploration also features in the script. There's the helpless love-interest, torn between the two brothers, the elderly pipe smoking scientists and – of course – the inevitable hammy monologues where one of the characters lifts up his head and stares into space while saying something like: "Perhaps we're still too small to comprehend the secrets and menaces of the great universe". It's not an exact quote, but you get the big picture. The middle section of the script compensates for most of the flaws, as the film temporarily turns into a good old-fashioned monster-on-the-rampage spectacle with suspense and bloody killings. The silliness reaches an absolute highlight when the monster (which only has one eyeball and even that hangs out of its socket) is shown driving a car with the bloodied corpse of a woman in the passenger's seat. The final sequences are pure sentimental baloney and not exactly the type of anti-climax die-hard fans of the genre prefer to see, but what the hell. The least you can say about "First Man into Space" is that it's an admirable effort.

MARIO GAUCI Lame rip-off of THE QUATERMASS XPERIMENT (1955): the first half is deadly dull, even dreary - but the latter stages improve considerably with the scenes involving the rampaging 'monster'. In the accompanying featurette (a rather dry affair at a mere 9 minutes, when compared to the ones created for the other titles in Criterion's "Monsters & Madmen" set), director Day - who admits to not being a fan of the sci-fi genre - tries to justify the film's shortcomings by saying that he had a zero-budget to work with (where all the outer space scenes were composed of stock footage!)...and I'd have been inclined to be more lenient with the film had I not recently watched CALTIKI, THE IMMORTAL MONSTER (1959) - a similar (and similarly threadbare) but far more stylish venture from Italy! Bill Edwards as the cocky but unlucky astronaut - obsessed with achieving the titular feat - is positively boring at first, but he eventually manages to garner audience sympathy when his physical features are deformed and the character develops a taste for blood! Marshall Thompson as his commanding officer and elder brother is O.K. as a leaner Glenn Ford type; he had previously starred in FIEND WITHOUT A FACE (1958), another (and more successful) Richard Gordon-produced sci-fi which, incidentally, is also available on DVD through Criterion. Italian starlet Marla Landi, struggling with the English language, makes for an inadequate female lead; even her input in the featurette proves to be of little lasting value! The Audio Commentary is yet another enjoyable Tom Weaver/Richard Gordon track where, among many things, the fact that FIRST MAN INTO SPACE was intended as a double-feature with CORRIDORS OF BLOOD (1958) is brought up - but it was eventually put out as a standalone release, so as to exploit the topical news value of the current space race; it's also mentioned that the monster dialogue was actually dubbed by Bonar Colleano (who, tragically, died in a traffic accident prior to the film's release!). Weaver even recalls a couple of anecdotes from the time when he was involved in the production of the DVD featurette shot by, of all people, ex-cult-ish film-maker Norman J. Warren: Landi, who by then had become a lady of title, was still ready to help out in carrying the equipment necessary to film the interview down several flights of stairs!; Edwards was supposed to have contributed to the featurette but, once in London, he proved reluctant to co-operate with Weaver - eventually, the latter learned that the actor had been recently diagnosed with cancer and, in fact, he died in 2002!

John Seal First Man Into Space has its low budget limitations, but it's story is a corker. It's one of the few 50s science fiction stories that question non-atomic technology: how far sure man go? What are the consequences of his thirst for knowledge and experience? This time there are no invading aliens, no throbbing radioactive brains from another planet, and no marauding killer tree stumps. We are simply confronted with a man who crosses a line and tries to come back. It helps that he looks like The Incredible Melting Man, but this is a movie that does more than simply shock the audience.