I dimly remember seeing this movie…I don’t think it’s on DVD. At any rate, I remember the basic plot-the US Army wants to send men into space, but they cannot figure out a way to keep the space capsules from burning p during re-entry. The white coated scientists determine that meteorites have some special coating that prevents this-so they plan a way to pluck them from space-so they design special rocketships (modified V-2s) that will be piloted by 4 astronauts-they will go into space, pick up meteors, and return to earth (funny-why did they need to solve the re-entry problem if they can do that).
At any rate, they train the guys, launch them, and disaster ensues (somehow, the three guys who died get turned into skeletons)-what did that? One guy (the hero) survives and gets the meteorites that the scientists want.
Did I remember correctly? What was the mysterious ray that turns the guys into skeletons?
I know Damon Knight reviewed a book with that exact same plot in his In Search of Wonder. Probably in one of his “Chuckleheads” chapters, which shows what he thought about the concept. I see the IMDB does list the film. It’s credited to Curt Siodmack.
You remember correctly. I haven’t seen this film in ages, but it made an impression on me. Only they don’t go into space to pick up meteors (they can’t gp into space, after all – that’s the premise)-- they have special attachments to their planes that they are supposed to use to scoop up meteors in flight through the atmosphereThe last shot of the movie is of the captured meteorite with its glistening coating of unobtanium.
The script was by Curt Siodmak, a man who’s had an inordinate influenxce on my life. He’s the guy responsible for reviving the “vampire dissolves in sunlight” meme from Nosferatu (where it first appeared, then it faded from view for many years) for the Universal horror flicks Son of Dracula and House of Frankenstein (probably because it was a painless and non-gory death). He invented the “Wolfman” chant (“Even a man who goes to curch by day…”) and a lot of what we take for granted as “wolfman” mythos. He popularized the “Brain Floating in the Aquarium” meme (although he didn’t invent it) with his novel Donovan’s Brain, which was filmed three times (once, I think, with his script).
There was a novelization that came out at the same time as the film, written by Siodmak*. I saw a copy a few years ago, abnd I’m still kicking myself for not picking the curiousity up.
*This is undoubtedly the book Knight reviewed, that RC refers to.
A few years ago, I was surprised to find a copy of this film in color. Prior to that I had only encountered it in black and white.
Cal, with all respect, you are wrong..YouTube has the full length, color version! I just watched it, and (indeed), the meteor catchers went into space.
So I was right…they were trying to find out the secret of meteorites-only they were able to get back without burning up (one, at any rate).
And the guy who got killed (he tried to scoop up too big a meteor) got turned into a skeleton (inside of 30 seconds).
Typical 1950’s SciFi-cheap sets (lots of WWII surplus electronics sitting around), with white-coated scientists.
The real hint of cheapness-the ground rescue team had a Nash-based ambulance!
Check it out!
Admittedkly, I’m going by ancient memory here, but if the need the unobtanium coating to survive coming back from space, then how the hell can they catch the meteor and return safely to the ground without it? My recollection is that they had planes – not rocket ships – fittedwith special catchers, with which they caught meteors already plunging through the atmosphere, which is what made the project so difficult. Catching a meteor out in space would be a liot easier, but without the magic crispy coating to pretect the,m on the way down, they’d burn up.
I’ll have to have a look at the film – i haven;t seen it in ages – but if the plot is as you say, it doesn’t seem to make logical sense.
The write-up in Wikipedia does indeed confirm ralph’s account.
All I can say is that my mind apparently reconstructed it more logically. It was a dumb movie, in any case, as Knight’s review confirms, and even as a kid I recognized that it was pretty ludicrous. but Ivan Tors and Curt Siodmak never let that stand in the way of a story. And it’s not as if there weren’t other looney movies about the terrible horrible stuff that was in space, and how you could protect yourself with the proper coating. Have a look at First Man Into Space.
As a side note to this, EPIX is showing George Melies’ A Trip to the Moon following their presentations of Hugo. A few of the scenes are well known, especially the rocket hitting the Man on the Moon in the eye. But this is a complete presentation of the short along with narration. Good chance to get a copy on your DVR.
My recollection is that they used V-2 rockets, with cockpits and retrieval hatches. No illustration of maneuvering jets etc. or any re-entry method.
But that criticism applies to any of the Fifties (or earlier) spaceships, all silvery pointy things with graceful fins that were never shown returning from space. There was never more than a quick cut from a space scene to the crew emerging triumphantly from a hatch.
Not true. In the Rocky Jones, Space Ranger shows (a few of which were made into movies which MST3K did) the silver ships are shown landing gracefully on their tails, just opposite of the way they took off.
I saw this movie a long time ago. Did they manage to note that the only reason meteorites make it to earth is that they were big enough to not totally burn up?
Don’t think think asking for logical sense from this kind of movie is kind of pushing it?
Donovan’s Brain is the first recent sf novel I ever read, since it was sitting around our house. I managed not to toss the whole genre, possible because I read a lot of Verne before touching that thing.