Fungus Among Us!

SPACE MASTER-X-7-1958-A scientist with marital problems (Paul Frees, better know for this vocal narrations than his on screen acting) gets some “space fungus” off a US probe (The Space Master) and brings it home to experiment on. Unfortunately while he’s doing this he keeps getting interrupted by his ex-wife (Lyn Thomas) who wants custody of their child. Eventually the fungus kills him and escapes but the government seems to contain it until they learn the wife had been in the house too. Bill Williams (who was in a TV series DATE WITH THE ANGELS at the time) is in charge of finding her.

Along the way he meets Moe Howard playing a helpful cab driver (“Ya know she had eyebrows like you pull out with pliers”) and Thomas B. Henry is a professor.

It's like a low budget science fiction version of Elia Kazan's PANIC IN THE STREETS in a way because once the fungus is contained it's really just a hunt for the infected woman. I thought the story could have been better since the screenwriters were George Worthington Yates (EARTH VS. THE FLYING SAUCERS, THEM!) and Daniel Mainwaring (INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS).

Director Edward Bernds made many 3 Stooges shorts (and later acouple of the "new" Stooges movies), the underrated Sci-Fi WORLD WITHOUT END and Bowery Boys comedies. He died in 2000 at 94!

Thanks for reading!

New Earth? Why Bother?

SPACEFIGHT IC-1: AN ADVENTURE IN SPACE-1965-A group of space travelers (with kids) are flying toward some Earth like new planet cleverly dubbed “new Earth”. They are lead by a grumpy American Captain Mead Ralston (American actor Bill Williams; everyone else is English which figures since this is a British production). He’s pretty dictatorial and seems also to be a fascist but part of his problem could be that he can’t get his wife pregnant. When one of the female crew is diagnosed with cancer he refuses to turn back and return to “old Earth” to save her life. When the wife kills herself, the remaining morons mutiny. They lock Mead up but he escapes and gets his command back by threatening to blow up the ship. One traveler in suspended animation gets out and walks around zombie like. He ties up the loose ends by murdering the captain. The most unusual crew member is former human doctor now a super computer severed head! A weird part of the story is that Ralston keeps talking about how the crew was “hand picked” to succeed yet everyone is complaining, belligerent and totally unprepared for any problem.

The plot has some merit I guess but this cheap British made Sci-Fi tale is just plain idiotic. One of the kids is played by pre-OLIVER Mark Lester. Director Bernard Knowles did a lot of British TV but two years later would co-direct The Beatles MAGICAL MYSTERY TOUR (which was originally made for TV). Canadian screenwriter Harry Spalding wrote THE DAY MARS INVADED EARTH, CURSE OF THE FLY and later the Disney flop WATCHER IN THE WOODS and other things.

Thanks for reading!