SPACEWAYS

 

This 1953 Hammer Films attempt at science fiction was made after the company's FOUR SIDED TRIANGLE. Both movies were directed by Terence Fisher. Of the two films, SPACEWAYS is the more lackluster. 

Dr. Stephen Mitchell (Howard Duff) is an American rocket scientist working at a top-secret military base in England. Mitchell is determined to get a vehicle into orbit, and to get humans into space as well, but he's burdened by his embittered wife Vanessa (Cecile Chevreau), who is annoyed by the security restrictions of having to live on the base and Stephen's workaholic nature. Vanessa is also having an affair with Dr. Crenshaw (Andrew Osborn), one of the men assigned to Stephen's project. An important test flight does get a ship into orbit, but it doesn't reach the altitude that it was supposed to. While Stephen tries to figure out what went wrong, he learns that Vanessa and Dr. Crenshaw have disappeared. An official from military intelligence named Smith (Alan Wheatley) arrives on the base to investigate, and he comes to the rather fantastic conclusion that Stephen killed his wife and Crenshaw, and hid their bodies on the test rocket before it was shot into space. Stephen believes the only way to prove his innocence is to go up into space himself and bring back the test rocket. Project mathematician Lisa Frank (Eva Bartok) takes it upon herself to accompany Stephen, since she herself is in love with Mitchell. 

SPACEWAYS is another 1950s sci-fi feature that bites off more than it can chew. A glance at the poster above makes one assume there will be space stations and multiple spaceships on hand, but there isn't. Most of the story is decidedly down to earth (pun intended). Howard Duff is very dry here, to the point that one understands why his character's wife would want a new life. On the other hand, it's hard to see why Eva Bartok's Lisa would be so smitten with Mitchell, and why she would risk herself by sneaking aboard a spaceship to go into space with him. 

The whole main idea of Stephen becoming the first man into space just so he can defend himself against a ridiculous murder charge is a weird one, even for low-budget 1950s sci-fi. Every other character in the film seems to accept this idea right away, and there's no type of discussion over whether such a historic event should be attempted over a very personal issue. 

Stephen and Lisa do manage to get up into space, but it's a very short ride, and it is also an unnecessary one, since back on Earth Smith has come to his senses and figures out that Crenshaw and Vanessa are still very much alive, and Crenshaw is actually a spy. The mixture of love triangle, noir espionage, and early rocketry doesn't come off too well--the movie would have been much better if it had stuck to just one main element and played that all the way through. 

Terence Fisher does what he can to move the story along, using a lot more closeups than would be usual for him, and having a lot more cuts than most movies of this type would have. The big problem with SPACEWAYS is that it is a character-driven story, and those characters have very little life to them. The only figure of interest is that of Smith, a quirky fellow who appears to have his own agenda in accusing Mitchell of murder. Smith is the type of role that one could easily see Peter Cushing playing if Hammer had made this movie a few years later. 

SPACEWAYS was a co-production with American Robert Lippert's company, and a few effects shots from Lippert's ROCKETSHIP X-M were used. As expected there is also the obligatory stock footage, but SPACEWAYS does have a few decent mattes. Overall the movie doesn't look as threadbare as other low-budget space flicks, but considering its title, and the way it was advertised, one expects way more out of it. 

This film is part of the current Hammer Films series of high-end 4K home video releases. I haven't ordered the new SPACEWAYS 4K/Blu-ray....I'm sure Hammer has attached all sorts of bells & whistles to it, but I'll save my money for something more worthy. Besides, Tubi has a very nice full-length print of SPACEWAYS available on its streaming channel.