Mutiny in Outer Space

... from writers/directors Arthur C. Pierce & Hugo Grimaldi. In the far future of the late 1990's, the U. S. Space Station X-7 becomes infested by a fungus discovered in the ice caves of the Moon. Maj. Towers (William Leslie) wants to quarantine the station and prevent any exposure to Earthbound vessels or personnel, but station chief Col. Cromwell (Richard Garland) orders the news of the fungus to be kept secret, partly as to not tarnish his command's reputation, but mainly because the Colonel is suffering from "space raptures", a sort of cabin fever. Maj. Towers realize there may be no choice but to organize a - Mutiny in Space! Also featuring Harold Lloyd Jr.

This cheap, B&W bore features some truly atrocious miniature effects, awful acting (James Dobson as the station doctor takes the prize for worst), and a dreadful script loaded with phony "space" jargon. The fungus looks like Spanish moss mixed with something the cat threw up. The men all wear baggy space uniforms, while the women's are skin-tight. At one point, heroine Dolores Faith quietly voices her trepidation about the station's fate, prompting William Leslie to slap her in the face. Naturally, she quickly apologizes to him and asks if he'll still have her. Those were the days!

I watched this movie first when I visited my best friend, it´s a tradition watching a DVD-movie when we met. It was not a well-known low-price-DVD which I didn´t know yet. The effects were lousy, the actors average, but this movie has a certain charme. If only Ed Wood had worked this way...

Regards, Hans-Dieter

It isn't so much the special effects, that kills Mutiny in Outer Space (1965), as much as, the bad acting, horrible soundtrack and the creature effects, looked really bad. The monster-fungus looked like wet hair, rolled up from the salon floor. The story is slow and wrinkly, but it is about a lunar fungus, wreaking havoc on a space station. There really isn't much more there to go with. The version of the film that I saw, was in 4:3. The audio sounded like it was uploaded to the streamer I used, incorrectly. What was good about Mutiny in Outer Space (1965), was the human part of the plot. There are a lot of strong, confident, female characters in the film. It showed, that the audience in 1965, was looking towards the future.

In Mutiny in Outer Space (1965), director, Hugo Grimaldi, explores the ideas of time spent in space, human endurance in zero-gravity, the vastness of space corrupting the human mind and the effects space travel has on the physical body. They even explained how the fungus, which can't stand cold temperatures, is attached to the outside hull of the spaceship, even though we know, space is cold and frigid. I won't tell you why or how it is, but they did fix a believability question, by explaining that plot point to us. The film is an E for Effort and is recommended, as a viewpoint from a 1960s, science-fiction, low-budget perspective. You can tell, that the producers of this film tried their best, but the budget just wasn't there.

4.9 (E+ MyGrade) = 5 IMDB.

While this movie was made just a few years prior to 2001 A Space Odyssey, it seems very much a throwback to the decade prior. I watched it with that level of suspension of disbelief, treating it like 1950s B science fiction, and found it fast-paced and entertaining. Naturally, the science is not very scientific, but that is never the point in this kind of movie anyway. What I genuinely admire about this little low-budget flick is that all of the actors take their roles seriously, so not only is the acting not half-bad, there are even a few moments where it seems almost to naturalistic. In addition, the screenwriter/s made some attempts at banter between the characters which actually work fairly well. Similarly, we even have a few oblique camera angles and a POV shot of the fungus crawling over the camera lens. None of these little creative flourishes would have found their way into a little movie like this if the technicians involved weren't making some effort.

Mutiny in Outer Space is not a classic, but it is a fun relic for fans of this kind of movie from that era, and it's good that it has managed to survive in the public domain.

Never did see a mutiny. It is more of a space station being contaminated by a fungus. Looks like the station will have to be dispatched before the Earth is fungicides. We are mesmerized by Dolores Faith. But her rubber suit is very clunky. Can the space station be saved or do you feel like something is itching where it should not be itching?

Filmed in six days at a whopping $90,000. And it shows. Could have been a Commander Cody or Captain Midnight quality

William Leslie as Maj. Gordon Towers Dolores Faith as Faith Montaine Pamela Curran as Lt. Connie Engstrom Richard Garland as Col. Frank Cromwell Harold Lloyd Jr. As Sgt. Andrews James Dobson as Dr. Hoffman Ron Stokes as Sgt. Sloan Boyd Holister as Maj. Olsen Gabriel Curtiz as Dr. Stoddard Glenn Langan as Gen. Knowland H. Kay Stephens as Sgt. Engstrom Francine York as Capt. Stevens Joel Smith Carl Crow as Capt. Dan Webber.