The Lost Missile

This may be THE sleeper sci-fi film of the 50s. Very imaginative story--plausible & with adult storytelling/writing. Loggia was great. I did find a VHS copy on ebay a few years ago and the story held up very well! And that alien missile looks like it was designed by Giger! ("Alien")

When I saw it as a kid, I didn't understand the premise of the story, and as an adult, I still have problem with the premise that a runaway missile from space starts to circle around the earth by sheer chance. I guess that's what makes this movie one of a kind. If you go beyond the incredible coincidence that this missile just happened to find earth and randomly started killing its inhabitants, the movie is pretty good sci-fi from the '50s. They try to make things look factual by using stock military footage, and use pseudonym of actual existing institution like Havenbrook (which is an obvious reference to Brookhaven National Laboratory).

The scary part of the movie is the glow you see over the horizon as the missile approaches, and the sound it makes. The movie is somewhat leaning towards horror genre in this respect, and what happens to the main protagonist as he attempts to stop the runaway missile. If you've seen this movie once, you'll never forget it - which makes this movie one of the sci-fi classics from the '50s.

If you can find it (as it's getting easier with so many posting of old movies on the internet), this movie is worth a glance.

THE LOST MISSILE concerns the title projectile, its emergence from the unknown reaches of space, and its doomsday trajectory over the Earth. Traveling at 4000 miles per hour, it eviscerates everything in its flight path! All attempts to intercept and destroy it prove futile.

Dr. David Loring (Robert Loggia) and his fiancee / fellow scientist, Joan Wood (Ellen Parker), have their wedding plans cut short. They must find a way to stop this intergalactic ballistic menace, before megadeath results!

This is one of those wonderful 1950's sci-fi movies that, if it weren't for the magic of stock footage, would be about 15 minutes long! Obviously, it utilizes cold war paranoia and fear of nuclear annihilation as a backdrop for its alleged alien attack. Seeing an impossibly young Loggia as a man racing against time, adds to the melodramatic fun. The story is original, and true to its era...

So, Hydrogen Bomb war is about to break out and 1950s heroine/scientist's biggest worry is whether she and her hero/scientist fiancé will finally get married today? Oh well, it was the Fifties, I suppose. At least we get Robert Loggia in an early role. Of course, he isn't onscreen as much as all the stock footage of jets and war rooms and the only thing holding the movie together is an intrusive narration. Still, sci-fi movies of that era are fun as long as you don't think about them too much. And the dialogue is fun, too. A man runs up to our hero and tells him a hotline just opened to the Pentagon "It's a red alert, situation yellow!" Well, that doesn't sound too bad; if it was really bad it would be red-red, right? I liked watching it, but can't give it more than a 4.

I almost gave this a 7. Call it 6.5 for me anyway. A lot of action shots mixed with a whole lot of stock footage, including some things you almost never saw and now they're obsolete. Aircraft I could I.D.: P-80, F-86, F-100, maybe an FJ2/3, B-36, B-47, B-52. Missile: A Nike Ajax launcher with 4 or 5 missiles. A Nike Hercules (just briefly...I could be wrong about this one. And the old standby, a captured German V-2 or derivative. Aside from that a lot of far more detailed and believable technical stuff than the usual panels with lights and gauges.

Yes, the premise of the movie is its weak point. But aside from that? Not bad, and available on Amazon Prime. Kudos to Amazon for bringing back a lot of these old scifi "classics." And Robert Loggia went on to a pretty decent career.