Customer Reviews

Spaceways

5 star:		(0)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is a quality Image DVD. The image is sharp and crisp. There are a few trailers and a chapter index.

This movie is not science fiction. This movie was marketed wrong and still is. The Amazon reviewer writes, "it's a strange mix..." There really is no mix. There's no space station and very little of the rocket. This is a murder-mystery plain and simple and I think a pretty good one. The acting is good and the story good.

This tidy little murder mystery with a sci-fi setting features tough,
gruff Howard Duff and beautiful, exotic Eva Bartok as star crossed
lovers working together on the first attempt to put a satellite into
orbit above the Earth. Duff and Bartok becomes the first man and
woman into space when they have to rocket off to the satellite to
prove his innocence in the murder of his wife and her lover, whose
bodies are thought to be hidden on the satellite.

The story is from a radio play by novelist Charles Eric Maine, who
had two of his other works turned into movies--The Isotope Man
became The Atomic Man and Escapement became The
Electronic Monster. He had a penchant for writing Alfred
Hitchcock-like murder mysteries with a science fiction flavor.
And like Hitchcock's movies, Spaceways is rather slow paced and
tedious at times, before the payoff comes, such as it is.

Director Terence Fisher, in his pre-Frankenstein and Dracula
efforts for Hammer Films, does a good job with what little he has--
a low budget and stock footage of German V-2 rocket launches,
plastic spacesuits, and sparsely designed control room sets. It all
works pretty well, though, because of the fine cast.

This DVD features excellent image quality and sound, a chapter
index, and the theatrical trailer, and that's it. Recommended
mostly for fans of Eva Bartok and early British sci-fi.

Inspired by the success of the American science fiction movie "Rocketship X-R", Hammer Films decided to produce the first British science fiction film since "Things to Come" (1936). "Spaceways" is in no way comparable to those two films. After a heavy-handed exposition the film unravels to be only a modest little crime story with a space sequence as special twist. It seems that the budget was very small. The film-makers opted to combine real footage with F/X-shots, which is quite problematic. During the climactic spaceflight the camera stays within the interior of the capsule all the time. Fisher did not even attempt to solve the problem of showing zero gravity. You even get to see more in "Nude on the Moon" (Hey, I mean special effects!). The script is quite slow and far too talkative. It was based on a radio play and it clearly shows. Director Fisher displays a fairly good craftsmanship, but this film is not in the least as effective as his later gothic horror movies that became the trademark of Hammer. Nevertheless, I think he made the film as effective as the screenplay and the budget allowed. Moreover, the supporting cast is quite well. Combined with Fishers skills they prevent this film from being campy.

SPACEWAYS-was a very interesting film that I never saw as a youngster. Because of several Amazon reviews I was hesitant to buy this film and first rented it to see what I thought of it. My score of four stars is not that different from the average viewer, but I do think I enjoyed it much more than the typical reviewer because of my personal taste.

One fact we can agree on, and as another reviewer has commented, this is an unusually fine DVD transfer for an old film made from good original source material, and produced a very excellent picture on a large screen TV.

The much discussed mystery plot, (which included murder, espionage and the efforts of a lead engineer to clear his name of same in the eyes of military intelligence), was written around a nice film expose of von Braun's early three stage space vehicle, first conceived to orbit the Earth in a two hour orbit at 1075 miles altitude. That, plus the nice screen presentation of this craft, good sets, costumes, models, and the decent special effects were a very pleasant surprise after all these years of laboring under the impression that these concepts were only available in the form of book drawings and an early Disney feature animation.

A nice job was done of presenting the very dated plot, outdated relations between the genders and the never dated physics of orbital mechanics. I am going to purchase this inexpensive film for my library of sci-fi classics. Howard Duff always puts on a good show and pulled off this unconventional acting assignment credibly. The entire cast (Howard Duff, Eva Bartok, Andrew Osborn, Alan Wheatley) did a fine job considering their acting assignment. Note, this movie is strictly for space cadets and I would not recommend it for anyone else.

Deceived by a woman dedicated to pleasure.

At a secret rocket base in England, a small group of dedicated scientists is attempting to put the first artificial satellite in orbit. Meanwhile back at the base there is hanky-panky between a biologist and someone else's bored wife, Vanessa Mitchell (Cecile Chevreau.) Little do they know the biologist is more that he seems to be until one day the two disappear? Small base. Secured base. Where can they be? Did someone suggest the third stage and Dr. Stephen Mitchell (Howard Duff) the husband seems to be more interested in space and his hand held calculator, Dr. Lisa Frank (Eva Bartok.) than the disappearance of his wife and the biologist?

According to military intelligence (Alan Wheatley), we know whodunit and how. However, can it be proven?

Boys' Night Out [VHS]

I thought that the science regarding what we now know as the space station was interesting. I did not think that the movie lived up to the description on the outside of the DVD case. I know that the actors have done much better work in other films and were not used to the best of their abilities.

Classic 50's sci fi adventures. Typcial technical effects, good writing for the day, good popcorn movie for a late Saturday night!

This film is worth the look to see a young lloyd bridges. Dont expect to be glued to the screen as the film does move slow..The dialogue and acting are very basic but the story line is interesting. I probably would not have purchased it if i had previewed elsewhere

In general it`s a little bit bouring, it`s not a scifi movie like others in his time. It`s more like a police suspence and triller.

Just if you do`n`t have any more to do......