Another film watched for the House of Hammer podcast, "Spaceways" is a film Hammer produced in 1953 and a second flirtation with science fiction after "Four-Sided Triangle". Unlike that film though, here the space theme is just the decoration for a mundane murder thriller.
Whilst seconded to a high security base at the centre of the UK's fledgling space programme, Vanessa Mitchell (Cecile Chevreau), the wife of lead engineer Stephen Mitchell (Howard Duff) has an affair with Philip Crenshaw (Andrew Osborn). The day after Stephen discovers the affair, a test launch malfunctions, causing it to be stuck in a very slowly decaying orbit. It is then discovered that Vanessa and Phillip have disappeared from the base and Doctor Smith (Alan Wheatley) comes to the belief that Stephen has killed his wife, and her lover, and hidden the bodies on the rocket before launch.
It's important to remember here that we're actually 16 years ahead of the moon landing here still and that the actual science of the day was still essentially unmanned rockets and missiles still. Despite the relatively poor production values, that they had recognisable spacesuits was a pretty good start. There was a lot of technical mumbo jumbo involved in the launches, which for me mirrored the 'Science!' bits in "Four-Sided Triangle" - I've seen this once, don't make me sit through it all again.
As I said though, the science fiction elements are just trappings for a pretty boring murder mystery and one that's resolved at the first sign of any real investigation. It has the now traditional brutally short Hammer ending too. Though I thought that the performances were OK, ultimately I kept finding myself distracted as the film wasn't interesting enough to hold my attention.
I like that they are at least trying new things, even if they're just twists on already well-worn melodrama plot points. This isn't a great film though.
Whilst seconded to a high security base at the centre of the UK's fledgling space programme, Vanessa Mitchell (Cecile Chevreau), the wife of lead engineer Stephen Mitchell (Howard Duff) has an affair with Philip Crenshaw (Andrew Osborn). The day after Stephen discovers the affair, a test launch malfunctions, causing it to be stuck in a very slowly decaying orbit. It is then discovered that Vanessa and Phillip have disappeared from the base and Doctor Smith (Alan Wheatley) comes to the belief that Stephen has killed his wife, and her lover, and hidden the bodies on the rocket before launch.
It's important to remember here that we're actually 16 years ahead of the moon landing here still and that the actual science of the day was still essentially unmanned rockets and missiles still. Despite the relatively poor production values, that they had recognisable spacesuits was a pretty good start. There was a lot of technical mumbo jumbo involved in the launches, which for me mirrored the 'Science!' bits in "Four-Sided Triangle" - I've seen this once, don't make me sit through it all again.
As I said though, the science fiction elements are just trappings for a pretty boring murder mystery and one that's resolved at the first sign of any real investigation. It has the now traditional brutally short Hammer ending too. Though I thought that the performances were OK, ultimately I kept finding myself distracted as the film wasn't interesting enough to hold my attention.
I like that they are at least trying new things, even if they're just twists on already well-worn melodrama plot points. This isn't a great film though.