JohnHowardReid A Titanus/Ultra Film presentation, released in the USA through American-International Pictures: 13 December 1961. Rome opening: 25 August 1960. 79 minutes. COMMENT: Although it has maybe three or four effectively presented action sequences, for the most part this over-talkative, dialogue bound, ploddingly scripted, slackly acted and unimaginatively directed space entry offers rather dull sledding to all but the most inveterate sci-fi hounds. Time-wasting dialogue exchanges like "Indian Zebra Why Fourteen calling Jungle King Two Eleven" abound. Aside from a ho-hum one or two tracking, scene-establishment shots, the director seems unacquainted with any other camera set-ups than deadly routine TV-style close-ups and two-shots. The heroine is probably a most attractive girl, but you wouldn't know it from the hide-all space outfits she models throughout. Admittedly, the writer tries real hard to work up a bit of tension in a three-way split between heroine, reporter and commander, but it's all stale old stuff which has been presented with far more skill and vigor in at least thirty thousand other pictures. AVAILABLE on DVD through Alpha. Quality rating: ten out of ten.

Chase_Witherspoon Days of Our Lives in space is the best way in which to describe this dreary, laborious non-event. Intrepid reporter (Nutter) is granted access to a space station on which the crew are less than excited about his presence to the extent he quickly earns the nickname of "Leech". Predictably, he becomes a burden in the name of any moral cause that emerges, causing conflict among the crew as they try to save the earth from oblivion.Nutter made a very brief impression in films when we played Felix Leiter in the James Bond instalment "Thunderball", but his acting leaves a lot to be desired, hampered further by the inane dialogue that leads him to compare the hot young female cosmonaut (Farion) to that of a mascot chimp that belonged to this father. Archie Savage and Franco Fantasia are the only other recognisable names in the cast playing chivalrous space heroes, while veteran spaghetti movie-maker Antonio Margheriti directs his second picture.A lot of goofy explanations and additional narrative is supplied via voice-over, while miniatures do their job at depicting outer space paraphernalia. The special effects are spectacularly infantile, but the plot thickens nicely and the tension almost makes palpable as the puerile dialogue pours on the sympathy like rivers of gravy over this proverbial turkey. But how can you not like a movie that features an actor by the name of "Alain Dijon"?

bkoganbing Space Men finds Rik Van Nutter on an assignment for the Interplanetary News in earth year 2116 on a space ship with a secret mission. They are charged with saving the earth itself from running into another runaway space ship that's spitting out radioactive heat. If it collides with the earth or even assumes orbit around it the results could be fatal for all life on earth.This ship is really run on a business like basis by Captain David Montresor and his ship has nothing on the Borg, his entire crew is referred to by number. But he's not all business, in the middle of this mission Montresor takes time to notice Gabriella Farinon especially after Van Nutter saves her life. These two start squaring off in heat over Farinon who fills out those space suits real nice. But as is usual in triangles they'll be an odd one out. You'll have to watch this rather cheaply made Italian science fiction epic to find out just who.

gamera64 Antonio Margheriti's 60's outer-space saga is pretty typical of the Italian space stuff being done at the time.Here's the plot with spoilers: OK, this reporter guy is constantly treated like crap throughout this whole movie. The only guy that's nice to him at all is this black dude with white hair and he calls him a leech all the time!(and I guess the chick who grows flowers is sorta nice to him to) So anyway there's a bunch of scenes of them floating around space(and I guess they have some special kind of suits that let them steer and swim around in whatever direction they want to go) then another spaceship crashes on Mars and we actually see some stock-footage shot of an explosion right next to a car(which I guess someone left parked on Mars?). Then another ship is on a runaway crash-course with the earth which they say is gonna wipe out all humanity somehow. I guess it had a lot of nukes on it? So the black dude gets killed trying to stop it then the reporter dude knocks out the captain guy with one wimpy-ass looking punch and saves the earth. Oh yeah and of course he gets the girl in the end(even though she was supposed to already be with the captain guy in the beginning, I guess the punch really turned her on).The cheap-ass 25 cent DVD I have of this doesn't exactly lead to optimal viewing conditions. I think it's supposed to be in color but I really couldn't tell from the print I saw. It only took me 2 tries to be able to stay awake long enough to actually get to the end of this so I guess it's not the worst but don't spend more than a quarter on it.