First Man Into Space

One of those "You had to be there at the time" films
This seemingly harmless, boilerplate fifties scifi "thriller" is of special significance to me, which is the reason I purchased the VHS version. When I was eight years old, I attended a double feature matinee at the Varsity Theater in Palo Alto, California. The main feature was Disney's "Darby O'Gill and the Little People," a decent, semi-comedic flick most well-known for being a showcase for a budding actor named Sean Connery. "Darby" included a few scary moments, however, in which an animated "banshee" was shown floating ominously in the evening sky. Perhaps because of these briefly frightening scenes, the geniuses in charge of putting together the double bill selected "First Man Into Space" as the second feature.

The results were nothing short of disastrous.

Although "First Man" seems cheesy and at times downright plodding by today's frenetic standards for scifi films, showing a movie that includes a...

You'll be surprised!
I rented this movie with low expectations. It looked like the typical Z-grade movie that, if it were not for Mystery Science Theater 3000, would be a chore to watch.

Boy, was I wrong!

While the picture was obviously made on a low budget, it comes off much better than you'd think. The special effects are surprisingly good, especially the scenes of the experimental rocket in flight.

There is some interesting stock footage of planes from the X-1 era, being launched from bombers (which at the time was how they thought they'd do rocketry).

I kept wondering when the picture would start to go bad, but it kept my interest throughout. Low budget 50's sci-fi, but a real gem!

first man into space a 50s gem
I remember seeing this film a a young boy and it helped hook me on Sci Fi for life. 50s rockets and a space plane right out of the newsreels of the time coupled with a risk taking pilot, responsible older brother who is his superior officer and the beautiful scientist who they both want make for a great movie. The science and horror are blended into a believable tale of ambition gone wrong as a disobeyed order to stay below the threshold of space so the pilot can be the first man into space leads to a hideous fate. By doing so he passes thru a cosmic cloud that covers the ship and him in a protective reflective dust which insulates both him and the ship from the atmosphere. What follows is a mystery as to what happened to the pilot when the ship re enters the atmosphere and what is causing the mysterious slasher type murders that have their victims drained of blood leading to a typical 50s climax where a noble act ends in tragedy but gives future pilots a new safety element to...

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