La Fusée de l'épouvante

This is a fun movie. The cast and especially the stars are a bit stolid and stereotyped (I'm a Marshall Thompson fan but even I will admit to his acting inadequacies), but the plot does maintain a certain level of suspense. Ray "Crash" Corrigan does a tolerable job as the somewhat illogical monster...he's definitely not the Alien from Ridley Scott's movie...you can tell he's just a guy in a suit. He does a better job than Kim Spaulding, the commander of the rescue ship, who's one-faceted character makes Marshall Thompson seem like Olivier. Most of the supporting cast, especially Dabs Greer, come off much better. They make the most of their limited lines and actually attempt to act (at least in as much as their limited and stereotypical characters allow them too). Think of "Alien" done in the fifties and you've got this movie...though try not to laugh at the beginning when it celebrates the first manned Martian spaceship landing in 1973.

Lots of people have made the connection with the movie "Alien." It involves an accusation directed toward an astronaut who was the sole survivor of a journey into space. His fellow astronauts give him the cold shoulder and he is about to be strapped with a court martial. There are some good action sequences as an alien manages to get into a space ship and begin to murder the crew, much like the thing in alien. There is also an effort to drive the evil monster into a trap. While the special effects are rather limited and there are some serious sexual stereotypes that are affiliated with the 1950's, it still packs a bit of a wallop. If you are not too serious about high tech effects, you will get a kick out of it.

Most folks who've watched this and Alien see the obvious similarities. In fact, Alien is what we all kind of imagined as kids watching this film and seeing it with the non-critical eyes of youth. Regardless, this is a top drawer B movie effort that rises far above its limitations with solid acting, a fine story, eerie and claustrophobic settings with effective lighting, a quick pace and no lag-time. If you haven't seen it, get the MGM Midnight Movie DVD double with Monster that Challenged the World, another superb B Movie sci-fi thriller that is as good as this one, and has an insect-like monster that you might recognize as the forerunner of the giant bug of Men in Black.