Spaceways, 1953.
Directed by Terence Fisher.
Starring Howard Duff, Eva Bartok, Alan Wheatley, Philip Leaver, Andrew Osborn, Anthony Ireland, Michael Medwin, Cecile Chevreau.
SYNOPSIS:
Whilst testing a rocket set to orbit the Earth, a cheating couple go missing and the woman’s husband becomes a suspect in their disappearance, but where are the bodies?
At a top-secret government facility in the heart of England, a group of scientists – including Stephen Mitchell (Howard Duff), Philip Crenshaw (Andrew Osborne), Toby Andrews (Michael Medwin) and Lisa Frank (Eva Bartok) – are working on launching an unmanned rocket to orbit the Earth and send back information. In the background, however, Dr. Crenshaw is having an affair with Dr. Mitchell’s wife Vanessa (Cecile Chevreau), whilst Dr. Frank is secretly in love with Dr. Mitchell, who is well aware of his wife’s infidelity after seeing her and Crenshaw having a canoodle at a cocktail party.
When the rocket is launched, things do not go to plan as the satellite is flying at a considerably lower altitude than expected, as if someone had removed three tons of fuel to make space for something else. With Mitchell checking the fuel himself and the two lovers having disappeared without a trace, whatever could it mean?
Directed by Hammer stalwart Terence Fisher, Spaceways is a fun little murder mystery with a bit of what was then a contemporary sci-fi edge. In truth, you could probably have set this in a military base with tanks instead of rockets and still have had the same result, such is the lack of ‘proper’ space-y stuff here, but Hammer were working with tight budgets and special effects were hardly at their peak in 1953 so you get what you get, which is essentially the opening credits to Button Moon every time you see the rocket doing something.
So, take away the sci-fi elements and you are left with a murder mystery – with the greater emphasis on the mystery part of it – and it is a plot that leaves you asking quite a few questions, but with it being only 77 minutes long Terence Fisher didn’t really have a lot to play with in terms of set pieces and intricate twists, so you just have to accept the premise and go with the flow.
After the cheating couple go missing, military intelligence officer Dr. Smith (Alan Wheatley) is called in to investigate, and straight away his smarmy and pompous attitude makes him a more endearing focal point than Howard Duff as Mitchell, the token American lead used to sell the movie to the US market, whose square-jawed stoicism doesn’t have the warmth that the British cast bring to the table, whilst Hungarian-born Eva Bartok delivers doe-eyed glamour to what could have been a very dry and testosterone-led production.
One could argue that the romantic drama elements of the script are placed a bit too far forward in a story that involves a suspected murder and sci-fi, but it is that sort of human element that Terence Fisher brought to many of the movies he directed, often adding richness where the action was front and centre. It is a trademark that he would go on to perfect later in his career with the many Gothic horrors he directed but, again, with the limited time and budget restrictions he gets across the thrust(!) of the story without it turning too much into a soap opera, although maybe not all the actors got the memo.
Hammer continue their good work with this limited edition 4K UHD/Blu-ray set, bringing in some useful extra features to add context, including the US and UK cuts of the movie – each with their own individual audio commentaries – and featurettes covering the careers of Howard Duff and Eva Bartok, plus plentiful discussions of sci-fi movies of the 1950s, including a very helpful list by writer Wayne Kinsey that details how many sci-fi movies America released compared to the UK during the decade – you may be surprised. As far as picture quality goes, the image is hardly pristine as the movie is over 70 years old but it looks as sharp and detailed as it is ever likely to look, although it isn’t Hammer’s best, if truth be told.
Nevertheless, Spaceways is an enjoyable movie and, thanks to the special features, an entertaining addition to the Hammer box set series. It won’t blow your mind, but it will make you yearn for a time when science fiction was about possibilities and using our technology for good… only with a murder attached to it.
Flickering Myth Rating – Film: ★ ★ / Movie: ★ ★ ★
Chris Ward
