FIRST MAN INTO SPACE (1959)

Test pilot Dan Prescott (Bill Edwards) has taken off on an experimental flight in the small rocket Y-12 to see how man will fare as he heads for outer space. He hits the ionosphere and is told by the mission director, his older brother Chuck (Marshall Thompson), to return to earth, but Dan is a bit giddy at his accomplishment and continues further to where he can see the stars. On his way down, his plane destabilizes and he has to be talked through the emergency by Chuck. Once on the ground, instead of being debriefed at the base, Dan trots off to make out with his girlfriend Tia (Marla Landi), which further angers his brother, even though he finds out later that Tia is actually a very competent assistant to senior researcher Dr. von Essen. Despite Chuck's reservations, Dan is assigned to the next flight, Y-13, and again, Dan disobeys orders to return to earth, excited to be the first man into space at 250 miles high. This time, his disorientation is more pronounced and he loses control as a cloud of cosmic dust envelopes his craft. The rocket comes crashing to earth, but Dan is not found and so is assumed to be dead. But actually, he has been turned into a blood-seeking monster, coated in a strange glittery protective glaze from the cosmic dust. Soon, when cattle are found dead and unexplained murders with blood-drained bodies begin piling up, Chuck figures out what's happened and, with help from Tia and Dr. von Essen, lays out a plan to trap Dan and try to help him. 

By the late 1950s, it became clear that eventually man would go into space. It didn't actually happen until Yuri Gagarin did it in 1961, but that didn’t stop Hollywood, mostly B-movie producers, from producing sci-fi films about the topic. Some were hopeful, but many were not. This one is not, turning from speculative sci-fi to old-fashioned horror, of the "monster on the loose" variety. The most interesting thing about it is that the monster does in fact retain some part of his humanity and memories, though [Spoiler!] that does not save him in the end. The story takes a turn toward the “tampering in God’s domain” trope and Dan dies seeming to regret his hubris at needing to be the first man into space--though his real problem is not so much that he was first, but that he was cocky and reckless. Edwards is a bit colorless in the title role, though Marshall Thompson (as his brother) is the real lead--and he gets his dead brother's girlfriend in the end. Some sources say that stock footage of one of Chuck Yeager's test flights is used early on. The effects are not great, though the cosmic dust scene works well. The monster is basically a man in a baggy space suit covered with glittery gunk and doesn't seem as scary as it should be. Chiller Theater fun, though I'm not sure how this wound up getting a video release from the Criterion Collection. Pictured are Landi and Thompson. [DVD]