Lt. Dan Prescott (Bill Edwards) is an astronaut. His brother is US Navy Commander Chuck Prescott (Marshall Thompson). Dan had some problems piloting the Y-12 rocket. Chuck is concerned that his brother is a bit of a cowboy and is worried about him following orders. Captain Ben Richards (Robert Ayres) believes that Dan is their best pilot and, after being cleared by Dr. Paul von Essen (Carl Jaffe), overrides any of Chuck’s concerns. Dan is, therefore, assigned to pilot the Y-13 rocket.
During the Y-13 flight Dan goes off the grid and continues to climb even after being told to level off and begin his decent. He fires his emergency boost and shoots off into space. Two hundred and fifty miles above the earth he loses control of the ship. Passing through a cloud of meteor dust he ejects hoping to catapult the nose cone away from the rocket.
In New Mexico, a report is sent by Assistant State Police Chief Wilson (Bill Nagy) to the Navy base. A farmer called the police to report a parachute landing attached to what he claims looks like part of a plane. Chuck heads to the location and is met there by Wilson. The capsule is there but Dan is not. This is no surprise to Chuck. Dan has pulled that stunt before. After the Y-12 landed Dan made a beeline to his girlfriend Tia’s (Marla Landi) apartment. Either that or Dan vaporized before the capsule landed.
While investigating the crash Wilson gets a report from a local farmer saying that some of his cattle have been slaughtered. Wilson goes to check it out leaving Chuck with the capsule. Chuck inspects the capsule and finds something unusual. The wreckage appears to be covered in some sort of hard material. Chuck sends it to the lab for analysis. The substance is hard and impervious to ultra violet rays, infrared and x-rays.
That night a blood bank is broken into and a nurse is murdered. It appears something drank the blood. Slashes on the nurse and on the cattle look the same and traces of a shiny, flecked substance are found on the wounds. Then there are three more killings. Chuck fears that whatever killed these people, use to be Dan.
“First Man Into Space” was released in 1959 and was directed by Robert Day. The movie is a British made film. It is your basic low budget “B” film. There are good things and not so good things about the movie.
The pace at the beginning is a little slow. There is a lot of stock footage in the beginning and some of the film’s own footage is repeated. Although stock footage is fine and sometimes necessary the first part of the movie is like a “Groundhog Day” 1993 scenario repeating itself. The plot itself is interesting enough; it just takes a little while to get to the monster parts.
Speaking of stock footage some of the footage is actual film of the Bell X-1A, which was carried and launched by a Boeing B-29 Superfortress. Test pilot Ed Schoch is momentarily seen closing the cockpit canopy of a McDonnell XF-85 Goblin aboard another Boeing B-29 Superfortress. Other footage of a Bell X-2 is also used. There are also some footage sequences with Chuck Yeager.
As for the monster, it’s nothing to write home about. It looks a little like a bald guy dipped in chocolate. The film has been likened to a lower budget “Quatermass Experiment” 1955. The film itself is your basic Saturday afternoon matinee fare. A little on the obscure side but decent enough. The acting was good and the special effects interesting. I enjoyed it.