Assignment Outer Space (1960) – Spaceship’s photon generators are huge threat to Planet Earth!
In the 21st century Ray Peterson, reporter for the Interplanetary News, is assigned to write a story aboard a space station. Tension mounts between Peterson and the station commander, who believes he is in the way, but has orders to leave him alone. Errant spaceship Alpha Two enters the solar system and its photon generators are radiating enough heat to destroy Earth as it approaches. It falls to Peterson to try to figure out a way to enter the spaceship, disarm the generators, and escape before suffocating.
Let’s face it. Italy has stuck it’s finger in a lot of film genres throughout the years. Everything from horror to westerns to erotica to comedy to sword and sandle to sci-fi. Some genres, they have a great aptitude for, like those great old spaghetti westerns, and some would say they made some very memorable horror films as well, though I’ve never been a particular fan of their brand of horror. The sword and sandal films are a particular favorite of mine though. Hercules, Ulysses, Atlas, etc…. All the great Italian musclemen running around beating up bad guys and living lives of high adventure while at the same time rescuing beautiful women in distress. When it comes to sci-fi however, I have to say, I’ve never seen a really good, high quality Italian sci-fi film. Mostly, they’re just cheap looking and so far beyond cheesy that it almost hurts to watch them, but like…in a funny, good kind of a way. I said they weren’t high quality, but in the cheesy fun department, they can be quite entertaining. While many of these films are fun in their own way, Assignment Outer Space really isn’t, but neither is it a bad film. It’s just boring. Long, slow paced, filled with characters you couldn’t care less about and just really, really boring. The space scenes were the only ones that generated any genuine interest on my part, and even many of those were so long and drawn out that I found it hard to keep my focus for very long. – bmoviecentral
Director: Antonio Margheriti
Starring: Rik Van Nutter, Gabriella Farinon, David Montresor
