La morte viene dallo spazio (1958)

Director:

Paolo Heusch

Writers:

Sandro Continenza (writer)
Marcello Coscia (writer)

Release Date:

27 September 1961 (USA)

Genre:

Sci-Fi

Plot:

Scientists discover that a group of meteors are hurtling on a collison course with Earth, and if they hit, the planet will be destroyed. |

Plot Keywords:

Meteor | Atomic Bomb | Collision | Meteor Threatens Earth | Disasters

Cast

Paul Hubschmid	...	John McLaren
Fiorella Mari	...	Mary McLaren
Madeleine Fischer	...	Katy Dandridge
Ivo Garrani	...	Prof. Herbert Weisse
Dario Michaelis	...	Peter Leduq
Peter Meersman	...	Gen. van Dorff
Jean-Jacques Delbo	...	Sergei Boetnikov
Massimo Zeppieri	...	Dennis McLaren
Sam Galter	...	Randowsky
Annie Bernal	...	Lab Assistant
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Gérard Landry
Giacomo Rossi-Stuart	...	Stuart

Also Known As:

Death from Outer Space (USA) (pre-release title)
Le danger vient de l'éspace (France)
The Day the Sky Exploded (International: English title)

Runtime:

82 min

Country:

Italy | France

Language:

Italian

Color:

Black and White

Sound Mix:

Mono

Company:

Compagnie Cinématographique de France

Movie Connections:

Edited into Out of this World Super Shock Show (2007) (V)

Some interesting ideas indifferently executed.

The film begins with a nuclear powered rocket flight to the moon. Something goes wrong and the pilot is able to eject. However, the self-destruct mechanism is not activated and the ship blows up in the sun. As a result, it causes so much havoc that a group of killer meteors are bumped towards Earth and the planet is doomed. While the whole idea of a nuclear explosion damaging the sun or having any effect on it is silly, the idea of rogue meteors is pretty cool--and has been the subject of several more recent films.

Unfortunately, while there is something to some of the plot, this Italian film also has a lot against it. First, instead of subtitles, it was dubbed into English. Some of the voices are just terrible (such as the reporter and the whiny sounding kid) and I always prefer subtitles. Additionally, since this film is brought to us by Alpha Video, you can safely assume the print will be terrible--which it definitely is. While some of Alpha's films are great because they aren't available elsewhere, too often they are grainy and never have captions. They are strictly a grade-z producer of DVDs--and this is no exception.

In addition, even if the film was subbed and a pristine copy, it would still only perhaps merit a 5. Overall, a forgettable film.