Senteur
As somebody who had not heard any of this before, it became a curious phenomenon to sit and watch a film and slowly have the realities begin to click into place.
Marva
It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,
Raymond Sierra
The film may be flawed, but its message is not.
Jonathon Dabell
Many people don't realise that Hammer had been producing films as far back as 1935, when their first ever film – The Public Life Of Henry The Ninth - hit the screens. The director who really made the difference for Hammer was Terence Fisher,whose incredible work on the original Frankenstein, Dracula and Mummy films helped the studio become the name to watch in the field of horror. He had already made a few films for them before his horror entries found such favour, and Spaceways (1953) is one such example of Fisher's early output for the company.At the top-secret and ultra-secure base of Deanfield, British scientists are carrying out test rocket flights in an on-going attempt to send a man into space. Helping them with their work is an American, Dr. Stephen Mitchell (Howard Duff). Mitchell's wife Vanessa (Cecile Chavreau) is going crazy stuck on the base, and enters a love affair with fellow scientist Dr. Philip Crenshaw (Andrew Osborn). Then, mysteriously, the illicit lovers go missing around the same time that another rocket is launched into space. Government security agent Dr. Smith (Alan Wheatley) suspects that Dr. Mitchell has murdered his wife and her secret lover, then stashed their bodies aboard the rocket which is now in space orbiting the Earth. Since the rocket isn't scheduled to return for several years, it's a case of "no corpses, no crime". As suspicions mount about his guilt, Dr. Mitchell offers to undertake the first manned mission into space to recover the rocket and prove his innocence. Mathematician Dr. Lisa Frank (Eva Bartok) – who is madly in love with Mitchell – volunteers to join him on this dangerous flight into the unknown.The film's poster promises a Jules Verne-style space adventure with exciting zero-gravity action and cosmic vehicles and sets. Alas, as it turns out the film is a decidedly earthbound affair, concerned above all else with the deteriorating relationship of Duff and Chavreau, the budding romance between Duff and Bartok, and the cynical suspicions of Wheatley. The film has used up 66 of its 74 minutes before Duff and Bartok even get off the ground, which gives an indication of how little rocket-ship action it actually contains. Since the film came out eight years before the first actual manned space mission, much of the space- flight science in the script is quaint and amusing. Nevertheless, it is not a total loss. Duff gives a decent enough performance within the constraints of the role, while Wheatley as the suspicious government agent is quite wonderful. Bartok has little to do other than supply eye candy, though she does finally get to be more pro-active in the proceedings as the film enters its closing ten minutes Fisher directs it all competently enough, though there's no obvious sign of the great things he would go on to achieve later. It's all very efficient without ever quite setting the pulse racing. Spaceways is one of those films that Hammer completists may harbour some burning desire to watch, but other viewers will find it little more than a dated curiosity item. Great theatrical poster plus a smashing performance from Wheatley… but apart from that, its wider appeal is very limited.
bkoganbing
Great Britain's legendary Hammer Studio produced this film that was released in the USA by the Poverty Row company Lippert Pictures. It's a science fiction melodrama with some illicit romance tossed in with an espionage angle from a Cold War point of view. The anti-Communist angle plus the fact that the lead was American actor Howard Duff made Spaceways a good item for its time.Howard Duff is an American rocket science working with the British on an eventual manned rocket flight into space. The timing of that flight gets stepped up quite a bit when Duff is accused of murder.Not that he hasn't good and sufficient reason to murder his tramp of a wife Cecile Chevreau. She's carrying on with fellow scientist Alan Osborn who also happens to be a Russian spy. In any event both are looking to escape the top security base that they are on for their very different reasons.When Chevreau and Osborn disappear the day of a rocket test flight government security man Alan Wheatley best known for being the sheriff of Nottingham in the Robin Hood TV series starts an investigation. One theory is that Duff murdered both of them and put them in the rocket which will orbit the Earth for years. That leaves Wheatley with no case to prove and Duff out in security limbo.That's not good enough for Duff who volunteers to go up himself and bring the first rocket down to clear himself. What happens after that you see the film for.Spaceways is certainly a film of its time. The British while never going as extreme as we did in the McCarthy days to prove our anti-Communism did have their own Cold War cinema which found an audience here. Spaceways is an example of it.Over there though they made Hungarian born and accented Eva Bartok who plays another scientist and one who really has it big for Howard the love interest. Over here that accent would have guaranteed she play a villain. There's a bit of suspenseful tension in the climax which viewers today of Spaceways might find enjoyable. Low production values, but good acting performances characterize this Lippert released film.
dbborroughs
Weird amalgam of too many genres ends up being an okay time killer but not much beyond that. The plot has an American working in England on the British rocket program getting involved in infidelity, murder and espionage. "Loosely" based on a radio program, which I'm guessing had more than 75 minutes to get its tale across this is a film that simply has too much going on. The thing that everyone seem to remember is that this film speculates that the first people launched into space will be not for scientific discovery, but to determine if two missing people were launched into space as means of disposing of their bodies.Its a clever idea and probably the only thing that sticks with you about the film. The cast, headed by Howard Duff is quite good and they make the most over full script. Worth a look if you run a cross it or are a fan of director Terrence Fisher, but not really worth searching out.
keith-moyes
Spaceways exemplifies the characteristic weakness of early British SF movies. It has a potentially interesting premise but doesn't develop it.It is basically a 'first man into space' movie but by the time of its release there had already been three such movies, so it needed a twist. In this case, the twist is the reason for going into space at all. A scientist's wife and her lover have gone missing and he is accused of murdering them and hiding the bodies in a satellite. He goes into space to retrieve the satellite and prove his innocence.That is a satisfactory idea for a movie, but Spaceways just doesn't know how to run with it. It takes an hour to set up the situation so that the actual space flight is shoe-horned into the final ten minutes. Even then, the premise is completely undermined, because an investigator has already found the missing couple and solved the mystery before take off, making the space flight unnecessary.The movie was crying out for the actual murderer to be on the spaceship, trying to kill the hero to prevent his own discovery - or something of the kind. It wouldn't have been hard to plot. This would have given the space flight some purpose and would have allowed for some real tension in what should have been the climactic scenes.When you call a movie 'Spaceways' you are setting up certain expectations. If all you deliver is just a tepid mystery, with a desultory spaceflight tacked on at the end, it is a breach of faith with the audience.Although this movie is thoroughly competent for its budget level, it is hard to recommend it to any but the most determined SF completist.
