How far beyond space is Mars?
This is the movie you've probably heard, many times, was the inspiration for Alien. And for fans of that films, this is a must-see, but don't start thinking for even a moment that this one comes within a hundred light-years of the all-around high quality Alien displayed at every moment. No, this movie is so stuck in the 50's (it's from 1958) that it's completely devoid of anything approaching thrills to the post-90's viewer. Nevertheless, like so much stuck-in-the-50's sci-fi, it's still fun if you don't take it seriously.
The year is 1973 (they were sure optimistic back then, weren't they?) and something awful has happened in the first manned mission to Mars, necessitating the rescue of the one guy, Carruthers (Marshall Thompson), who's still alive up there. So a shipful of astronauts go to pick him up and take him home to be court-martialed, since of course he's under suspicion for the murder of his fellows. But, before you can say "Hey, who left that airlock open?", Carruthers is exonerated in quick order, at the expense of several lives, of course.
Like I said, this is total 50's cheese all the way. The women on board, ostensibly medical professionals (the kind who hold your head to her ample bosom while she swabs your cuts with disinfectant), are introduced to us serving coffee and clearing dishes, of course. The onboard scientist keeps making conclusions totally unsupported by the evidence he presents ("It's humanoid, so therefore there must have been a great civilization on Mars that fell into barbarism!" Okay, not an exact quote, but that's what he said). And that monster in the big rubber suit, not exactly one for the ages there, and though I didn't see it myself, I've heard that the zipper is often visible.
The poor monster. Carruthers says, in voiceover, that he found Mars to be "alive with something we came to know only as death!", betraying no knowledge of the hilarious irony here. Trying to kill it, the crew of this ship shoot it, try blowing it up with grenades (on a spaceship?), gas it, torch it, electrocute it...none of this succeeds in killing the monster, but they all obviously cause it a great deal of pain. By the end of this movie, that creature will have a stronger lock on your sympathy than any human character will, and you'll probably breathe a sigh of relief when it's finally put out of its misery.
There is some neat stuff here, like how the spaceship, when seen from outside, is always travelling from the bottom of the screen to the top; I'd never realized how accustomed I was to always, always, ALWAYS seeing spaceships go from the left side of the screen to the right.
Also known as It! The Vampire From Outer Space. Worth a look, mostly for its historical value; the script by Jerome Bixby is a shade more scientifically literate than most of what came out of that decade, too (nice to see these people putting on spacesuits BEFORE decompression).
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