First Man Into Space *** (1959, Marshall Thompson, Marla Landi, Bill Edwards, Carl Jaffe) – Classic Movie Review 6144

‘First motion picture to lift the veil, foresee the future in a spectacular drama of the first man in history to be rocketed into the terrifying unknown of outer space!’ Director Robert Day’s well-liked low-budget (£100,000) 1958 Anglo Amalgamated sci-fi horror movie stars Marshall Thompson, Marla Landi, Bill Edwards and Carl Jaffe.

It is an unsettling, capable British chiller about a spaceman who comes home as a monster covered in space dust and needs blood to live.

Thompson plays the commander, Charles Ernest Prescott, who tries to sort things out by popping the space vampire in a glass case. But he just doesn’t want to talk!

Marla Landi plays Tia Francesca and Bill Edwards plays Navy test pilot Lieutenant Dan Milton Prescott, who becomes the first man to fly into space.

It is written by John C Cooper [aka John Croydon] and Lance Z Hargreaves [aka Charles F. Vetter], based on a story by Wyott Ordung, shot in black and white by Geoffrey Faithfull, produced by John Croydon and scored by Buxton Orr.

The ultra-hot astronaut/monster suit could only be worn for a few minutes at a time.

Robert Day died on 17 March 2017, aged 94. He debuted as director with the darkly comic British classic The Green Man (1956).

© Derek Winnert 2017 Classic Movie Review 6144

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