Spaceways (1953)
Dir. Terrence Fischer, Hammer Film Productions
Hammer Films, by the 1950’s, were already establishing
themselves as master of horror. The
Four-Sided Triangle wasn’t the cultural or finical impact they were hoping
for, but they jumped back into the genre of science fiction. Taking nothing to
chance they got their best director and the script was taken from one of the
highest rated radio dramas. What could go wrong?
In the future, mankind is finally ready to push past our
planet and reach into the heavens. For this historic journey, Dr. Stephan
Mitchell (Howard Duff) is picked to lead. All of this seems to fall by the
wayside however, as Mitchell’s marriage to his wife Vanessa (Cecile Chevreau)
is falling apart. Vanessa is having an affair with fellow scientist Dr. Philip
Crenshaw (Andrew Osborn). Mitchell doesn’t seem to notice or care. His lack of
emotion proves to be a problem when both his wife and Dr. Crenshaw go missing
roughly around the same time that Mitchell’s prototype rocket is launched into
orbit around the Earth. Dr. Smith (Alan Wheatley) believes he knows where the
missing two are, namely that Mitchell murdered them both and tossed their
bodies into his rocket. The rocket is programed to circle the globe then burn
up in the atmosphere, so proving Mitchell’s innocence in going to be tough.
Mitchell has a plan though. He’ll simply complete his new
rocket ahead of time and pilot it himself to the prototype and prove he didn’t
kill anyone. Mathematician Dr. Lisa Frank (Eva Bartok) insists on going along
for the ride, mostly she has fallen madly in love with him.
This story would have worked fine as a radio drama, but
stretched over to almost feature length is a bit much. The plot gets laden down
with so much it almost seems confused as to what it wants to be. Is it pure
science fiction, is it a drama, a romance? None of the above? I would argue that is
still better than the Four-Sided Triangle, but that isn’t
saying much.
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