Movie Review: Space Probe Taurus (1965)
Synopsis: In the year 2000, the spaceship, Hope One, is sent on a mission to explore new galaxies and find planets that could be colonized. After encountering an alien craft and being forced to destroy it, Hope One goes off course and crash lands on an Earth-like moon.
Who's in it? The movie stars Francine York, James Brown, Russ Bender, Baynes Barron and James Macklin.
Review: While I like most black-and-white movies, I've found science fiction films are a bit iffy as far as my viewing enjoyment is concerned. Part of this is the dated references and inaccurate predictions make movies that are supposed to be dramas into comedies but there are also other factors that play a role as well. That was the case with Space Probe Taurus when I watched it earlier today.
To be fair, this was a film that I think could have had a lot of potential. The prediction we'd be doing intergalactic by the end of the 20th century was dead wrong and the special effects were what I'd expect to see in a movie made 60 years ago. However, the main plot offered some promise.
It's just too bad the movie blew it.
My biggest problem with this film is it had a good thing going for it early on only to waste it. The idea of humans encountering an alien craft in space only to be forced to kill its occupant could have played out in so many ways, from starting an interstellar war to being infected with some sort of alien disease. Heck, the alien (Jimmy Bracon) was even kind of creepy.
However, instead of that being the focus of the film, it ended up just being a very small part of the overall movie and the writers chose to put more emphasis on the ship crashing and its four-member crew trying to survive things like sea monsters and giant crabs. It ultimately ended up being a lot crammed into one film, and I think that kept the movie from setting itself apart from dozens of better science fiction films made around the same time.
The other thing I disliked about this movie is there is a lot of padding. It's an 81-minute film that probably could have easily been cut down to about 45 minutes without losing anything. It made me wonder if maybe this was originally meant to be a pilot episode for a television series that was later lengthened into a feature film instead. I'm probably wrong about that, but it would make a lot of sense if I were right.
Final Opinion: The first part of the movie isn't terrible, especially since that alien is surprisingly creepy. However, this was a film that just tried to do too much, and wasn't as good as it could have been as a result.
My Grade: C-
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