First Man Into Space

Robert Day
1959

A nice example of Cold War horror/sci-fi on a budget, Robert Day's "First Man Into Space" taps directly into the atomic horrors unleashed on the world via science, while conveniently skirting the issue of both the Reds and nuclear arms race. In post-Sputnik pre-Gagarin America, where space is an unknown frontier, a brash Navy pilot pushes his craft beyond the atmosphere...and falls back to earth a bloodsucking fiend. The rubber-suit monster looks surprisingly good, and the filmmakers aren't afraid to show off their unwitting astronaut covered in what looks like overgrilled hotdog casing - one tortured eye peering out from a hideous deathmask. In the grand B-picture tradition the acting is expectedly terse and wooden, but it's spiced up a bit by the inclusion of the First Man's Italian love interest, initially blown off as a floozy by lead Marshall Thompson until he has to eat his first impressions upon discovering she's a government scientist. Thanks to the above-par monster and clever script Day takes what could have easily been a throwaway screener and makes it an entertaining and worthwhile effort.