Riders to the Stars

With sincerity and good intentions there was a smattering of Non-Alien-Flying Saucer-Soul Snatching Movies in the Fifties. This one is "Scientific" to a fault but somewhat succeeds at being an Adult friendly story, that Kids flocked to, about the yet to be, but soon to be, Adventure of Manned Space Travel.

It was all so new but we were approaching the time that all Sci-Fi Nerds just knew would happen and after we split the Atom, everything now seemed not only possible but probable. Hence we have this Movie and a very few others that tried its low-budget best to put up on the screen as Entertainment, this highly anticipated new era in Human endeavors and exploration.

The problem is that all this Science stuff is pretty boring when viewed as entertainment. Documentaries are informative and interesting but most are hardly effectively entertaining. They are what they are and this is what it is. A Movie marketed as entertainment that in the end is only slightly so. It is more interesting than entertaining and was more informative in 1954 than it was exciting.

It does manage, against all odds, to be engaging enough in a time-capsule kind of way and most likely created a buzz among Movie goers. It also, may have attracted the readers of Popular Science and Popular Mechanics Magazines. But the irony is that there are probably more accurate prognostications in this Movie than in those highly sophisticated, pretentious periodicals. They were almost always wrong.

I recently bought a videotape copy of this on eBay to test my recollection of an old favorite. This film was shown often on the old "Chiller Theater" in the NYC viewing area during the 1960's (I think that they owned a stock of about six films). I was at a much more impressionable age at the time and sometimes these things diminish over the decades. Still, I remembered this as being special. Well, it turns out to be a pretty decent effort by both cast and crew. Significantly, it is directed by Richard Carlson, star of such notable films as "The Magnetic Monster," and who found his apex with "It Came from Outer Space." Both of these are on my "favorites" list. Carlson points this film in a direction well apart from the more typical silly space dramas of the 1950's. The cast, which includes Carlson, is first-rate. Look for William Lundigan, who probably earned his starring role on "Men Into Space" (yes, look it up!) with this film. OK, it's not "Destination Moon," but to me it easily surpasses "Rocketship X-M," a real stinker from the same period (starring Loyd Bridges!) over which some aficionados go ga-ga. IF ONLY CARLSON COULD HAVE HAD GEORGE PAL'S SPECIAL EFFECTS. Carlson unfortunately had to rely on really cheap models-on-strings and grainy stock footage of V-2 rocket tests. Usually, I can overlook low-cost effects, but these are SO cheap that the film suffers somewhat as a result. But note the dialog, the human interactions, and most of all, the sense of mission and wonder on the part of the team that needs to pave our way to the stars... Then think about the fact that this made years before Sputnik.

***01/01/2007 UPDATE*** TCM just broadcast a BEAUTIFUL color print of this gem with no commercial interruptions. I hope you had your video recorders running. I certainly did!

The film manages to capture the wonder and awe of the space age you may have felt as a teenager in the 1950s. It comes through clearly with the superb cast in the movie (Richard Carlson is one of my favorites in this genre). And even though some people don't like the stock footage used, I enjoyed it. With the interaction of characters, and even love interest in the film, the movie takes you to another time and place. About the only the missing from this movie that usually draws me to these films was the usual flying saucer/UFO kind of connection. But even without that, I really enjoyed this movie. I would have loved to have grown up in that era. See it if you get the chance.

As a long time classic sci fi fanatic, I must admit I'd never even heard of this film before. This comes as no surprise as it seems to have had essentially no significant release to VHS or DVD yet. For the fan of classic black and white '50s sci fi, this is essential viewing. Though the model effects are primitive and the "science" is rather dubious, the cast is first rate. Reasonably effective use of stock footage of U.S. military V-2 rocket tests helps overcome some of the budgetary limitations.

The movie was one of my favorites when I was gowing up. I was lucky enough to read the paperback book when it came out, & I was very excited when I heard there would be a movie. It is a classic in its way, showing the selection process for what is virtually an impossible task( Space travel depends on onbtaining a material found only in meteorites, so we must travel in space to get it so we can then travel in space...) There is the usual love-interest, but the most interesting character in the book/movie is played by Richard Carlson, as a logical detached scientist, who is lost in a kind of "Rapture of the Deep" in reaction to the reality of, and the sheer beauty of the stars. If you can find this movie --get it!!