Spaceways

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."

The title and the poster tend to set the viewer up for a large disappointment with this one, a less-than-gripping film from director Terence Fisher, laudable mostly for the fact that it was made so early in the 1950s. The story is based on a radio play by Charles Eric Maine, with a plot that smacks just a little of an Alfred Hitchcock movie.

Howard Duff plays an American scientist involved with the British space program (they actually had one of those, once). His wife is having an affair with another scientist (Andrew Osborn) who is also a spy. When both wife and lover disappear, an investigator (Alan Wheatley) suspects Duff of murdering them and disposing of the bodies by placing them in a new satellite which is sent into orbit!

There's only one way Duff can clear himself: blast off in a rocket, retrieve the satellite, and bring it back for inspection. He takes Eva Bartok (heroine of 'The Crimson Pirate') with him.

I won't divulge the ending, but it is a twist. The film's slow pace lessens the tension, and the special effects consist largely of stock footage and a few scenes cribbed from 'Rocketship X-M'. Definitely a case of the poster being far better than the movie -- but what a poster!

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.

American scientist Howard Duff goes to work on a British space program. The first launch is a failure.... and two of the scientists disappear. Suspicion flls on Duff. Did he murder them?

It's a rather desultory science fiction mystery based on a successful radio script by Charles Eric Maine. Born David McIlwaine, he was a science fiction fan who published his own 'zine before the Second World War. After the war, he became a writer, publishing sf as Maine, mysteries as Richard Rayne and Robert Wade. He died in 1981 at the age of 60.

This movie is not helped by the ham-handed technical terms tossed about in tones that insisted they were very meaningful, nor the flat pace of of the editing.

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.