Dreadfully Boring

The movie runs out of plot and jokes well before the end of a two-hour running time, long for a light comedy.

The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.

The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

The first pilot to leave Earth's atmosphere lands, then vanishes; but something with a craving for blood prowls the countryside...After being turned down by AIP, Gordon successfully pitched the film idea to MGM. Gordon and Vetter then signed on as producers for the project because of the financial success of their two previous films, "Fiend Without a Face" and "The Haunted Strangler". Because of MGM's financial involvement, the budget set for "First Man into Space" was slightly higher than for the producers' two previous films.While the film is not terribly well-known today, it is a great movie about space exploration before such things became standard. Indeed, who knew what might happen in space, or if the radiation would be a problem? The makeup and costume effects are excellent, and more than make up for any shortcomings from the actors.

I love 1950s sci-fi films, so seeing FIRST MAN INTO SPACE is a natural. While there are usually two types of sci-fi from the era, serious and bug-eyed monster types, this film managed to be a little of both. In the process, it ended up being neither so super-cheesy it was funny nor serious enough to merit seeing--making it instead an adequate time-passer.The first third of the film has to do with the experimental rocket plane program of the 1950s. Instead of calling them 'X planes' (like they actually referred to them at the time), they were called 'Y planes' and were concerned with seeing if a rocket plane fired from a bomber (in this case, an old B-50) could pass through the Earth's atmosphere. Problems seemed certain when a hot-shot pilot (the brother of the Commander in charge of this specific program) showed a lack of restraint and caution--taking unnecessary risks to go farther and higher than anyone before this time. Eventually, on the second flight, he actually does leave orbit and then something terrible occurs. The plane crashes, but the pilot is nowhere to be seen. Unknown to everyone is that the guy was alive...of sorts, and is now an enemy of mankind (what else?).Overall, despite being released by MGM, it has all the marks of a reasonably well-done B-movie from a secondary film studio. All of the actors are unknowns or nearly unknowns and some times they tend to talk over each other's lines. As far as the special effects go, mostly they were excellent for the era...but the guy with the slime layer over him is a bit silly (you'll just need to see it to understand).

It's not just Hollywood that is interested in making a fast buck , even the British aren't immune . FIRST MAN INTO SPACE is a rather cynical excersise in remaking a superior story , namely THE QUATERMASS EXPERIMENT , while pretending that it's an American film by casting a couple of American actors while cutting to a sign saying " Welcome To The American State Of ... " at every opportunity . So ignore the tagline of " The first motion picture to lift the veil of the first man in history to be rocketed into the terrifying unknown of outer space " because Nigel Kneale captured this concept several years earlier . It should also be pointed out that New Mexico where much of the story is set has a lack of vast forests as seen here The real problem however is that there's a serious lack of internal logic . By this I mean you'll be entirely puzzled as to the monster's motive for killing people . For example a couple of highway cops see a car driving erratically , so they stop the car and find a dead female driver and a man mutated into a monster who then kills the cops . Ask yourself this: How would a crazed bloodthirsty monster be able to drive a car ? Perhaps more importantly why would a driver stop to pick up a crazed blood thirsty monster in the first place ? It also becomes more puzzling that this monster is able to articulate its motives when the script demands it at the end of the film . None of this makes much sense Of course this is a problem with a great number of horror films where in order to follow horror convention so that someone gets killed every 15 minutes people do things that are totally unrealistic and you could argue that if someone is pointing out these faults then they're taking this film far too seriously . Maybe . But there are also some horror films that compelling and thought provoking and FIRST MAN INTO SPACE isn't one of them

"First Man into Space" is one of those movies that doesn't have much in the way of thrills but is good viewing nonetheless. Marshall Thompson is good in the lead as a commander for the space program but the rest of the acting is so-so. The space scenes are dated but hold up O.K. Special effects aren't very special but the make-up is pretty cool. So, why do I recommend this film? It's because it's one of those"so-bad-it's-good" movies. Actually, it's not real bad. I wish there was more action in the film. The pacing is a bit slow in parts and some of the lines are laughable. There were far worse films of this genre though. Still, it's something you may want to catch at least once.