Space Master X-7 (1958)

Director:

Edward Bernds

Writers:

George Worthing Yates (original screenplay) and
Daniel Mainwaring (original screenplay)

Release Date:

June 1958 (USA)

Genre:

Sci-Fi | Horror

Tagline:

Satellite Terror Strikes The Earth!

Plot:

A space probe returns to Earth covered with a strange fungus. The fungus is accidentally tinged with...

Plot Keywords:

Blood Rust | Unmanned Spaceship | Missing Woman | Part Narrated | Scientist Hero

Cast

  (Complete credited cast)

Bill Williams	...	John Hand
Lyn Thomas	...	Laura Greeling
Robert Ellis	...	Pvt. Joe Rattigan
Paul Frees	...	Dr. Charles T. Pommer
Rhoda Williams	...	Stewardess Archer
Joan Barry	...	Jean Meyers, a brunet
Carol Varga	...	Elaine Frohman
Thomas Browne Henry	...	Prof. West
Thomas Wilde	...	Collins
Fred Sherman	...	Mr. Morse, Hotel Manager
Gregg Martell	...	Jim Dale, plane engineer
Jess Kirkpatrick	...	Pilot Vaccarino
Court Shepard	...	Battalion Fire Chief Hendry
Moe Howard	...	Retlinger, the Cab Driver
Al Baffert	...	Plane passenger

Runtime:

71 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

USA:Approved

Company:

Regal Films

Trivia:

20th Century Fox used this low budget film as a co-feature for their blockbuster release The Fly (1958) in the United States. Twentieth Century Fox did not put this into a television syndication package. The film has remained almost unseen in the U.S. since its theatrical run.

Goofs:

Revealing mistakes: There are several people at the airport and the plane's windows smiling and waving towards the camera.

Better than I expected.

When I was kid, I used to sometimes see stills or brief mentions of this film in science fiction movie books or in the pages of "monster" magazines. But for some strange reason this film never turned up on TV, even though other science fiction offerings made by Fox from the same period often did. No one I knew had seen it except for older people who saw it when it was first released in 1958 to theaters. Having seen it recently on video, I can tell you that SPACE MASTER X 7 is no "lost" classic, but its a not bad low budget drive in feature with a slightly unusual menace and director Edward Byrnes deserves credit for trying hard to make a serious (sometimes he tries to hard) adult science fiction thriller. Done in a semi-documentary style, Byrnes sometimes slows down the films pace but overall its not a bad job.

One area of interest to film buffs is the films casting. We have Paul ("man of a thousands voices") Frees in a surprisingly large on screen role as a "heel" scientist who accidently unleashes the "blood rust". Of course the person often mentioned in this film is Moe Howard of the Three Stooges, in a rare character part as a cab driver who helps the feds track down a woman who was exposed to the deadly alien fungus. This film was made when the stooges career was in limbo; between the time Columbia dropped the stooges because it was no longer interested in making shorts, and the time before they boys returned to the screen for feature films. Director Byrnes began his film career directing 3 Stooges shorts, and was good friends with the boys, so it was he who probably got Moe a part in the picture.