Spaceways

This movie was a lot better than I expected.While it was another short movie with extended periods of nothing and the plot wasn't the greatest, the acting is above average and the movie isn't boring.They do a good job of covering the bases and making sure there are no plot holes but the plot is so average that it doesn't help that much.A scientist is accused of killing his wife and another man and putting them in a rocket and sending it into space.Instead of telling them to look for the those people, he just jumps in a rocket to go get the other rocket and prove they aren't in it.The best thing about the movie is that their space program is realistic, it doesn't work.Four stars, give it a shot.

Despite the disclaimers from both the director and producer, this is a fairly entertaining little movie. True, the space stuff struck me as dated, dull and not particularly interesting (aside from a shipboard explosion which is very deftly contrived), and the action is further handicapped by the colorless presence of Eva Bartok who, aside from her very last scene, does little to engage the viewer's attention. Admittedly, the script is weak in this respect and often gave me the feeling the heroine's role had been needlessly expanded simply to give Miss Bartok more screen time.

However, once the murder sub-plot rears its head and the talented Alan Wheatley makes his presence felt, interest picks up considerably. Andrew Osborn and Cecile Chevreau also deliver charismatic portrayals which help to counterbalance disappointing characterizations by Michael Medwin and (to a lesser extent) Philip Leaver. As for the hero, Howard Duff seems adequate enough, though he doesn't really pull a great deal of weight.

I must admit that, despite his cult following, I've never regarded Terence Fisher as one of the giants of the British film industry, but I thought he actually handled parts of this movie with a fair amount of savvy. Wheatley's scenes are directed (and edited) at a such an agreeably smart pace, one wishes that the Duff-Bartok-Medwin episodes were handled with at least an equal degree of expedition and dispatch.

And, despite the tight budget, I thought production values were more than adequate by "B"-picture standards.

So, all in all, I disagree with the claims of both producer Carreras and director Fisher that Spaceways has little or nothing to offer.

On a top secret base in the English countryside the British space programme is in full swing and it's not just the space programme that is swinging because Mrs Vanessa Mitchell is having an affair with Dr Phillip Crenshaw . This couple disappears and since security at the base is water tight suspicion falls that there's been foul play . Dr Smith is brought in to investigate and immediately suspects Vanessa's husband of double murder and of stashing the bodies on a rocketship that has just been launched in to space

Some three months after Hammer launched its first science fiction film FOUR SIDED TRIANGLE came its second SPACEWAYS and with a title like that you're instantly expecting a science fiction thriller . Your expectations will quickly crash land because just like FOUR SIDED TRIANGLE any science fiction element is used merely as a plot device and this film is much more in the way of a murder mystery B movie . The fact that it was released a mere three months after Terence Fisher's should give you an idea of the quality that it's fairly cheap and cheerless , made without any star names and is presumably shown before a bigger budget feature film

One thing it might have to interest science fiction fans is that it seems to have a few connections to Nigel Kneale's BBC QUATERMASS as well as sharing major differences . All this is coincidental since this came out the same month as THE QUATERMASS EXPERIMENT was broadcast but it's noticeable . Despite being considered Hammer's best in house director Fisher doesn't seem suited to science fiction and one wonders how the fortunes of the studio might have fared if he was chosen to direct the film version of THE QUATERMASS EXPERIMENT instead of Val Guest ? I have no hesitation in thinking Guest was a better SF director

Much more of a melodrama murder mystery, and a not very good one, than a Sci-Fi film so a bit of a let down, it's no surprise that it was received poorly at the time of release. Eva Bartok is as always a great watch as she was a classic beauty and really suited the hair style she had in this. The interior of the space ship was impressively large especially when compared to the very cramped Apollo mission capsules. How they survived the g forces on take off while sitting on an office chair was a mystery.

Not really worth watching especially by Sci-Fi fans as not much happens Sci-Fi wise, best to skip it.

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!