I love this movie so much

Such a frustrating disappointment

Good movie but grossly overrated

Actress is magnificent and exudes a hypnotic screen presence in this affecting drama.

Let me start by saying that this is one of the best science fiction movies of its time and it is certainly a reflection of the culture of the 50's. I say that as an observation of the the 50's and not as an opinion. There were good things about the era and some other things about the 50's that are not good. It is good that we have outgrown some of the elements and I don't think it is necessary to explain a lot of that.I lived in Southwest Arkansas at that time and one of the stations there, KTAL, had just changed its format and they would show a sci-fi movie in the late afternoon after we kids got home from school on a program called Kaptain TALltower. We never guessed they were only little longer than an hour so I guess they really padded it with commercials.I agree that this was a lot of the inspiration for the Alien franchise but I would sure like to see it remade as is. The writers had a lot of optimism that we would make it to Mars by 1973. We will get there but a little later than that.The tobacco companies scored big on their product placement in this one in that I think everyone on board smoked and every man had a pack of cigarettes in his pocket, see the outline. I wonder where the women kept theirs. I wonder if they have that issue today on the space station.As noted, regardless of their assigned duties, it appeared that the women got stuck with all of the kitchen duties. Today, everyone except the commanding office and the doctor would be performing kitchen duties or helping regardless of sex. Another thing of then that would not fly today is that the women would be shooting at the monster also instead of hiding behind the men. They would also be going below as the case required to try to get what was needed trying to take out the stowaway. In the scene where Van decides in his delirium to open the reactor door, if the women were there now they would not have tried to reason with him but would have picked up something and clubbed him with it or had him tied to the cot. Since they did not club him with something, the monster killed Bob because Bob was exposed when the monster busted out of the reactor chamber.I will finish this by saying this was a well done movie that has stood the test of time and the actors all showed in their acting and behavior that they were really part of The Greatest Generation of not giving up. We are losing them too fast now and will sure miss them when they are gone.

The second manned mission to Mars arrives to pick up the sole survivor of the first mission. He's believed to have murdered the rest of the crew, so they're supposed to take him back to Earth. But the alien creature that is really responsible for the deaths has snuck aboard their ship for the return voyage and intends to do the same to this crew that it did to the last.Exciting sci-fi flick from the Golden Age. It's probably more talked-about than most B sci-fi films from the '50s due to its influence on the later classic Alien. This isn't on par with The Day the Earth Stood Still or The Thing from Another World, no, but it's certainly above average for the period. It's well-paced and suspenseful, making good use of its short runtime. It's also full of wonderfully quaint bits like the women astronauts serving the male astronauts coffee or the astronauts having grenades and such on the ship, as well as the charmingly old-fashioned special effects and sets. The cast is nice; no standouts really but all solid. That's Ray 'Crash' Corrigan in the alien suit in his last film. The script and direction are good. The evocative score is a major plus, too. It's a fun movie from start to finish. If you like classic sci-fi from the '50s you'll love it. If you're one of those "nothing good happened before I was born" types, don't bother.

Still, this is a notch above the level of most science fiction films of the late 1950s. It's all about the monster coming down to earth from Mars, and it's illegal alien is quite scary looking. Naughty acids reminding me of the alien of the later Sigourney Weaver film, however this one is just as deadly. Several crew members on a spaceship are mysteriously attacked and found dead, and when the monster is finally discovered, it's up to the remaining crude to try to disturb it out of hiding and annihilated. Marshall Thompson is the original only surviving crew member of a trip to Mars. And the bring it back accidentally, and now he must somehow help fellow astronauts find and destroy his creature before it destroys them. Dabbs Greer, best known for "Little House on the Prairie" and later an excellent small role in the Tom Hanks film "The Green Mile" is excellent as the ship's captain.Moderately fast paced yet brimming with excellent special effects, this is certainly an a-lister among them a science fiction film that were being tossed out of Hollywood at the time.the rest of the cast is mainly unknowns but their sincere performances helpful or the audience that this isn't the type of silly film that Roger Corman was turning out by the dozen per year during this time.not every science fiction film needed to be of camp value, and this one is definitely a must for students of science fiction who want to see the flow of how Hollywood. Today from where was back when the drive-in was the main destination on a weekend Summer night for teenagers running in the escape.

Considering when this was made it isn't that bad but the man in the rubber alien suit is not to convincing. Plus the plot and dialogue are lacking even for then. There are several things that stick out as noway's. If the monster is from Mars with its thin atmosphere and it there for developed huge lungs then when it cam on board the earth ship the much thicker and heavier air should have actually been a detriment not a plus. Another thing is the fact that the thing sucks the blood and moisture out of humans. Is there not a compatibility problem between the species?? Give me a break that is not believable even back this far. Then there is the falling in love by Ann. She starts out in love with Van Heusen the second mission commander and then she switches to Carruthers (the sole survivor of the first expedition) later. Talk about a fickle b****. This is a pretty simplistic movie and the plot is so so.