A very feeble attempt at affirmatie action

Instead, you get a movie that's enjoyable enough, but leaves you feeling like it could have been much, much more.

The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.

In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.

I generally get more laughs from unintentional comedies than poor comedies. These are films that are supposed to be other genres such as Westerns, Sci-Fi movies, or dramas, that are so bad, that they are funny. This is one of those films. It appeared as if the ship crashes into the Hudson River off of Hoboken, New Jersey. I used to go crabbing there with my father; and sure enough. there were giant crabs in the movie. We might have even caught one of these in real life. There is a relative of the Creature From the Black Lagoon (a much better film), and the crabs. The romance in this film (if you can call it that) was one of the most hilarious parts of the movie. Please don't let your children see this film; it could give them the wrong impression of space exploration in the 60s.

In their search for an inhabitable world named Taurus, the crew of Hope 1 is sent millions of miles off course – only to discover another inhabitable world. That's really about it. Not much to see here. "Dull" would be my one word synopsis. A more competent movie might have done more with the alien space craft, flaming meteor showers, or the giant crabs, but not Space Probe Taurus. Instead, the movie is more concerned with the sexist commander and the (gasp) female scientist. You can probably guess how this goes – they fight and fuss until that inexplicable moment when they fall in love. Please! It's been done a million times – and usually in a more effective manner. The commander is played by James B Brown. He looks old enough to be the grandfather of love interest and lone female, Dr Lisa Wayne. Ewww. Francine York plays Dr Wayne and is the movie's loan bright spot. The other two cast members are just plain annoying – one, for being a stereotypical greasy money-hungry playboy and the other for being completely worthless.I realize the movie was made by the notoriously low-budget AIP television division, but it's horrible by those standards. The movie was made in 1965, but looks and feels like it was made in 1955. You can find any number of sci-fi movies from the 50s with far better and more effective special effects. 2001: A Space Odyssey, with its amazing effects, was made only a couple of years later. And the incredibly tired sexist plot I've already mentioned feels more at home in something like Rocketship X-M from 1950 than a movie made in the more liberal thinking 60s.Overall, not a good movie viewing experience.

By any standard, the greatest movie every made.It's a WWII submarine movie, complete with sonar pinging.Plus Sea Hunt, with underwater grappling with a monster.The background music is in both major and minor keys.The sets are comparable with those of Star Trek.The dialog is minimal and nary a word is mispronounced.The computers beep and boop obligingly.There's a countdown scene, all the way from 10 to 1. The tension builds relentlessly.The technology is comparable to that in any garage.The Mystery Science Theater guys are not in any scene.The captain is considerate enough to spell out the new planet, "Andros I," for the preliterate.Best of all, the movie end reliably, each time it's shown.All things considered, the synergy is stunning. Stunning, I say.

I've read so many bad reviews about this film that I just had to watch it when the chance arrived. It's got all the indications of being a bad film (Five aliases not withstanding: Space Probe Taurus, Space Monster, First Woman into Space, Flight Beyond the Sun and Voyage into the Sun).Keep an open mind. Remember that American International Productions and Leonard Katzman made most of these on a shooting schedule of three weeks or less with production costs of under $50,000. (In 1965 it cost Irwin Allen $150K to produce two episodes of 'The Time Tunnel' using BackYard sets in So. Calf).If you keep the above in mind and watch the actors carefully, it's not a bad film. Sure, by today's standard there's more melodrama than Si-Fi and yes, I didn't like the Model Rocket Ship in the Lobster Aquarium either.Now just sit back, relax, quite looking for things to call hokie and like I said, 'Listen to the actors, try to put your self into their shoes for 80 minutes'.The main cast were all good 'B' picture stars with the exception of the film's 'Hero' James B. Brown, (this is the same actor who brought us 'Persuit Pilot Tex' from the movie 'Airforce', also co-stared in 'Wake Island' in additions to many other fine performances) and Ms Francine York (YUM - take a look at the '02 photo of her from the DGA Tribute for George Sidney and you'll see what I mean..)There are a few scenes that actually have some pucker factor or at the very least, will have you shouting 'Come on! Hurry Up! Get out of there before something jumps out of the shadows and GRABS you!'All things considered, I liked it and if you do too, then count yourself fortunate. Movies are much more enjoyable if you can appreciate the efforts of all the participants. Not just the blockbusters who spent all the money and won all the awards.Scotty Jensen