User reviews

I've read so many bad reviews about this film that I just had to watch it when the chance arrived. It's got all the indications of being a bad film (Five aliases not withstanding: Space Probe Taurus, Space Monster, First Woman into Space, Flight Beyond the Sun and Voyage into the Sun).

Keep an open mind. Remember that American International Productions and Leonard Katzman made most of these on a shooting schedule of three weeks or less with production costs of under $50,000. (In 1965 it cost Irwin Allen $150K to produce two episodes of 'The Time Tunnel' using BackYard sets in So. Calf).

If you keep the above in mind and watch the actors carefully, it's not a bad film. Sure, by today's standard there's more melodrama than Si-Fi and yes, I didn't like the Model Rocket Ship in the Lobster Aquarium either.

Now just sit back, relax, quite looking for things to call hokie and like I said, 'Listen to the actors, try to put your self into their shoes for 80 minutes'.

The main cast were all good 'B' picture stars with the exception of the film's 'Hero' James B. Brown, (this is the same actor who brought us 'Persuit Pilot Tex' from the movie 'Airforce', also co-stared in 'Wake Island' in additions to many other fine performances) and Ms Francine York (YUM - take a look at the '02 photo of her from the DGA Tribute for George Sidney and you'll see what I mean..)

There are a few scenes that actually have some pucker factor or at the very least, will have you shouting 'Come on! Hurry Up! Get out of there before something jumps out of the shadows and GRABS you!'

All things considered, I liked it and if you do too, then count yourself fortunate. Movies are much more enjoyable if you can appreciate the efforts of all the participants. Not just the blockbusters who spent all the money and won all the awards.

Scotty Jensen

People are not 'getting' this one. They see cheap props, models, and crustaceans and they inwardly groan, but let me tell you, there is definitely something here that is worth your time. A spaceship with a crew of four who have good on screen chemistry (the always alluring Francine York plays a curvaceous lady scientist) more than adequate acting, a fine and evolving character development, decent dialogue, plus the spaceship is not too bad, possessing the right amount of claustrophobia, knobs, and buttons......The pace of this film, combined with the plot and action, keeps you engaged - you really will be wondering what will happen next. Here, simplicity is a form of complexity- less is more. My one beef : I think the early encounter with the alien could have been expanded upon.. This film was made in B& W in 1965- the whole thing looks and feels like it was made in 1959 or 1960, I think this is why it has a bad reputation- people expect so much more razzle dazzle for 1965, they cant see that this is an overlooked gem born too late.

By any standard, the greatest movie every made.

It's a WWII submarine movie, complete with sonar pinging.

Plus Sea Hunt, with underwater grappling with a monster.

The background music is in both major and minor keys.

The sets are comparable with those of Star Trek.

The dialog is minimal and nary a word is mispronounced.

The computers beep and boop obligingly.

There's a countdown scene, all the way from 10 to 1. The tension builds relentlessly.

The technology is comparable to that in any garage.

The Mystery Science Theater guys are not in any scene.

The captain is considerate enough to spell out the new planet, "Andros I," for the preliterate.

Best of all, the movie end reliably, each time it's shown.

All things considered, the synergy is stunning. Stunning, I say.

This is no better or worse than a lot of b-movies. The 50s and 60s spawned hundreds like this. Written & directed by Leonard Katzman who was the huge force behind Dallas in the 80s it is average for sci-fi of the time. The scenes underwater seem to be in a fish bowl. James Brown was a stoic(even emotionless)as the hero. He was later Det. McSween on Dallas under Katzman. Katzman also had a hand in the Wild Wild West TV show. If you like b-movies for the fun of " making fun" this is for you. I like this type of picture But to each his own. Francine York is worth a look. Their is no true science in the picture. I give it and overall b-rating of 5.

1964's "Space Monster" was very much the last gasp for black and white outer space epics, bypassing theatrical release as part of American International Pictures' television package, shown continuously throughout the late 60s-early 70s (the very last, prior to "2001," would have been 1967's "Mission Mars"). Undoubtedly shot around the same time as David L. Hewitt's "The Wizard of Mars" (even using the same alien mask, plus a gill-man costume pilfered from Jacques Tourneur's "War-Gods of the Deep"), so little intrigue actually happens in either film that one does tend to feel for the actors involved, with writer-producer-director Leonard Katzman confining all future efforts to the small screen (he died in 1996). Francine York, James Brown, Baynes Barron, and Russ Bender play the quartet of devoted scientists, no strangers to low budget filmmaking: the still lovely Francine York graced such popular cult films as "Mutiny in Outer Space," "Curse of the Swamp Creature" and "The Doll Squad," Russ Bender remained a favorite with AIP ("It Conquered the World," "Invasion of the Saucer Men," "The Amazing Colossal Man"), Baynes Barron had some minor genre credits ("From Hell It Came," "The Strangler"), and James B. Brown will always be remembered for playing the sniper's father in Boris Karloff's "Targets" (already a veteran going back nearly 25 years, he had no other genre credits). Apart from two alien encounters, one aboard another ship, the other underwater, we never leave the claustrophobic confines of the tiny sets. It's truly mind-numbing when the cast has to gaze at a bevy of ordinary crabs outside, and not recognize what they're looking at! Totally small scale in ambition and execution, the execrable "Space Monster" appeared only twice on Pittsburgh's Chiller Theater, Oct 12 1968 (following 1965's "Frankenstein Conquers the World") and July 24 1971 (following Jerry Warren's "Invasion of the Animal People").

Directed and written by Leonard Katzman, this space probe is slow and lacks excitement. The special effects seem as if this TV project was produced ten years earlier. A team of scientists, including the attractive Francine York, set out in the year 2000 to find a livable planet in space. The craft is forced to land on a strange planet , where they are attacked by crusty humanoid sea creatures and giant crabs. The voyage turns out successful after all and they name the planet after a comrade they lost in their discovery...Andros 1.

Besides Miss York, this bad piece of Sci-fi features Russ Bender, Baynes Barron and James B. Brown. Take the journey, but don't expect much.

I first viewed this movie on Double Chiller Theatre, a Saturday night TV show seen in the Philadelphia area which ran in the mid 1960's. As a kid and a young teenager I loved almost all science fiction, even Teenagers from Outer Space. I found this movie dull, poorly improvised, and uneventful. It had a few cheap special effects which included a rubber alien, a giant crab which did little, and a humanistic frogman out for a swim. There were 4 typical principles in the movie: a by the book commander more suited for a cowboy movie; an attractive young lady who goes out of here way to prove she is as good as any man; a screw off who is aboard only to write a book; and a scientist who does not come off as being all that bright. This TV movie could have been made for the old Saturday matinée at the local theater. It was made with little imagination and probably just to earn a quick easy buck. The movie looked as though it was made in the early 1950's and had the feel of the old Space Cadet serial. And to think Star Trek would be only a few years away from our TV screens.

Even for 1965 B movie science fiction this is weak. Go to space, sort of crash land on a planet, fight alien, leave. The male crew all looked like senior citizens, while cozying up to 30 year female scientist. But it's easy to sit through if you're tired and if it's on a no commercials channel. Even for 1965 B movie science fiction this is weak. Go to space, sort of crash land on a planet, fight alien, leave. The male crew all looked like senior citizens, while cozying up to 30 year female scientist. But it's easy to sit through if you're tired and if it's on a no commercials channel. Even for 1965 B movie science fiction this is weak. Go to space, sort of crash land on a planet, fight alien, leave. The male crew all looked like senior citizens, while cozying up to 30 year female scientist. But it's easy to sit through if you're tired and if it's on a no commercials channel. How do you get 600 words in a review for a movie that probably had dialogue of less.

This journey into outer space flick is fairly typical of the B movies, the low budget films that weren't supposed to be liked. As a result of being the low man on the totem pole, those involved made the most out of a little. That often resulted in the superior sci-fi flicks. Such is the case here. The overwhelming factor in these cases is the use of "credible characters in incredible circumstances", something I believe I was the first to use in critiques some thirty or forty years ago. Here, the astronauts are three men and a woman. They begin as seeming to be one dimensional, but that's where the writing, directing, acting team fool you. They gracefully become real characters, particularly the two supporting astronauts. I admit I usually pay more attention to the "supporting players", and usually it's the women who care about the romantic leads. The romantic lead pair go through this as a bit of a cliché, but show some dimensions in character near the end. All together, the quartet was superior to most of the "A movie" astronauts in credibility. The character of John Andros must have been the delight of the team making this film, and it's fascinating in the way they bring him along late, almost as an after thought, as though he would be just "hanging around". He is basically the story here, and I believe the story is told through his eyes, which I won't spoil by how it ends. There's a lot to like here. It is craftily directed. Despite the low budget and limited action, there's not a dull moment. It grips you throughout. That's some directing, writing, editing, acting, the who shebangs! There's even a terrific Gilligan's Island style dream sequence. A hidden gem. I probably won't put it on my top 20 sci-fi films of all time, but it's definitely in the top 40. Of course, as I noted before, this is more of a "man's movie" than a chick flick.

I did not know this little science fiction movie produced by American International Pictures, James Nicholson and Samuel Z Arkoff's movie company, who also produced Roger Corman's best horror B movies. I am not badly surprised by this cheap stuff, but that's not at the level of Edward L Cahn's IT THE TERROR FROM BEYOND SPACE, some kind of poverty row ALIEN first draft. It is definitely a space opera, but I repeat, very cheap. A "behind closed doors" of a spaceship intrigue, which is fun and agreeable to watch. I know Burt Topper as a director, nothing great, but nothing exceptional either. Here, he is only the producer and we can easily make the link between his own movies as a film maker in terms of - not screenplay, because he never made science fiction films - but an obviously lack of ambition without letting his own work become a garbage crap. Watch it, if you have time, it's worth seeing.

This movie is a classic. It has a sexist spaceship captain, who is very angry that a WOMAN has been assigned to his ship. The woman quickly puts him in his place. The special effects in this movie are totally unbelievable! You must see them! I am sure that other movies such as "2001" stole a lot of ideas from this classic. Also "Star Trek" is obviously playing homage to "First Woman In Space" with everything they do. WATCH THIS MOVIE TODAY! YOU WON'T BE DISAPPOINTED! Although you might be terrified by the horrific space monsters.

This film is not worth even a rental. Unless you can find a place that will pay you $4 to watch it, that is. Even the poorest efforts generally have something to make them worth preserving. "Space Probe Taurus" appears to be the exception that proves the rule.

The script is horrible. The writer displays absolutely no scientific knowledge whatsoever. There is not a SINGLE CORRECT piece of science in the entire movie! From spacecraft decks that run the wrong way to dialog that makes even less sense than that of the average "Star Trek" episode, it's a mess.

As for the production in general, I'd rather watch four back-to-back episodes of "Tom Corbett, Space Cadet."

I generally get more laughs from unintentional comedies than poor comedies. These are films that are supposed to be other genres such as Westerns, Sci-Fi movies, or dramas, that are so bad, that they are funny. This is one of those films. It appeared as if the ship crashes into the Hudson River off of Hoboken, New Jersey. I used to go crabbing there with my father; and sure enough. there were giant crabs in the movie. We might have even caught one of these in real life. There is a relative of the Creature From the Black Lagoon (a much better film), and the crabs. The romance in this film (if you can call it that) was one of the most hilarious parts of the movie. Please don't let your children see this film; it could give them the wrong impression of space exploration in the 60s.

Leonard Katzman--AIP previous ship contacts earth--demanding they detonate the ship remotely--why didn't they ask for clarification? ha, ha--women are stupid find UFO in space--just floating there--board and shoot alien yr 2000 blown off course by meteors--land underwater constant sexual harassment these are the BEST astronauts? silly crabs scuba battles

"Space Probe Taurus" is about what you'd expect from a pre-"2001" sci-fi film--with the standard rocket ship, typical clichés and a sexy crew member to be sexually harassed.

When the film begins, an Earth rocket is in trouble and radios instantly back to the based to press the self-destruct button. Why? Who knows. All you know is moments later, another rocket is being sent into space and it has four crew members--and one's a hot lady who spends most of her time fending off unwanted sexual advances from two of the men.

Now here is the only part that IS unusual. They come upon a ship in space...just floating there. So, they do what any normal crew of astronauts would do...enter this ship, get into a brief fight with an alien and shoot him and then blow up the ship to hide the evidence!!! This was so weird and confusing...and, oddly, it seemed to happen in a vacuum.

Soon after, they are almost destroyed by meteors and are knocked off course--and are forced to land on a rogue moon. But, they unfortunately land under water! What's next? Well, it involves a bit of scuba and more contact with aliens as well as giant crabs (yes, they spared no expenses here!).

So is it any good? Well, it's at least not terrible. For fans of the genre it's what you'd expect and not a lot more.

By the way, if you DO see the film, the alien who is murdered can be seen in the film clips Disney shows in their Sci-Fi Dine-In restaurant at Hollywood Studios at Disney World.

The crew of an exploratory rocket deals with first a derelict alien spaceship and later giant crabs, as they search for inhabitable planets. The film is an odd mix of ambitious yet frugal, clever yet goofy, and interesting yet tedious. The spaceship (the Hope One) is a streamlined 50's-style finned chrome rocket but the take-off sequence is a batch of mismatched stock missile-launch footage. Details are given about the ships artificial gravity and how the crew-cabin rotates as the ship changes attitude but the narrator and the cast seem to mix up galaxies and solar systems to a point at which much of the 'astro-talk' is nonsensical (even by B-genre standards). Finding an ostensibly abandoned alien spaceship only to be surprised by a lone survivor is sci-fi gold, but the scene is undercut by the silly looking alien ('borrowed' from 1965's 'The Wizard of Mars') and the nonchalance of the crew after what would have been one of the greatest discoveries in the history of mankind. On the plus side, landing your rocket underwater and having it threatened by giant crabs is an inspired way to cheaply convey danger on an alien world (the motley looking gill-man that appears in the final reel (also 'borrowed', this time from 1965's 'War-Gods of the Deep') is a lot less inspired). The cast is fine for a cheap genre outing but the script is plodding and predictable (especially the interactions between the only female crew member and the misogynist captain, the lecherous scientist, and the avuncular scientist). Even the hoary old trope of 'pills for dinner' is dragged out in a feeble stab at comic relief. I saw some or all of 'Space Probe Taurus' decades ago and never forgot the image of the marooned spaceship surrounded by giant crabs and I really wanted to like the film once I found it again, so I forgave a lot of weaknesses in scoring it as high as I did. Flimsy execution aside, some credit is deserved for at least attempting to produce a real 'space opera' rather than yet another monster opus. Oddly memorable despite not being very watchable.

When this dreadful movie was being produced in 1965 we were well into the Gemini program and Apollo was in the final stages of design. We knew a lot about space then and what it would it might look like for man to explore. Hollywood was there too, with Star Trek and Lost in Space a year or two hence. The visionary 2001: A Space Odyssey just three years away.

And then we have this disaster, Space Probe Taurus, a.k.a. Space Monster. Everything about it reeks ultra cheap 1955 schlock.

The corny, misogynistic, sexist dialog is the first anachronism that shows up. The first officer is a lech. The commander makes it clear up front that he does not think any woman should be in space. He was forced to take on Dr. Lisa Wayne (Francine York, a glam fashion model of the day) as a science officer because the best candidate, a male scientist, was, get this, grossly over weight. (The three male crew members on this voyage are no beauties either).

Poor Dr. Lisa does not have much to do save for looking at some sort of navigation display, fiddling with test tubes, and going in and out of the cramped main compartment via a very, very slow automatic door. Oh and she hands out "meal pills" like she is some interstellar flight attendant. Her best moments are making a few snarky remarks about the commander's retrograde attitudes. Later, after a rare moment of peril, he sort of apologizes for his boorishness and then forces a wet, sloppy kiss on her. Yuck.

Remember: this is 1965. Diana Ring is Mrs. Emma Peel in The Avengers, using her sleuthing and martial arts skills on spies and mad scientists. A few months later Lt. Uhura will be running comms on the starship Enterprise. And 1967 had Julie Newmar and Ertha Kitt as Catwoman bedeviling Gotham City. Empowered women.

The sets are as stale as the chauvinism. I'd say pretty much everything was borrowed from American International's 1950s-era prop warehouse. Barcaloungers, with a fancy fabric upholstery no less -- my grandmother would hav e approved -- for the command compartment. Metal dial rotary phones in Earth Control (AT&T introduced touch tones phones in 1963). Desk microphones too. Even contemporary TV shows like Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea - Irwin Allen was notoriously cheap - and Man from U. N. C. L. E. Had more contemporary design.

Aside from the dated appearance of this movie, there is the lame story loaded with extraneous events that in no way advance the story. In the opening scene, we see the last survivor of another space craft from years earlier being poisoned by toxic gas, but there is no real link to the present (the year 2000) or mention of him again.

There is a delay in the journey as they check out an alien spacecraft that gets in the way of their stop at a manned satellite station. A brief tussle with a humanoid alien leads to a shooting (still using pistols and bullets!) and our human crew blowing up the vehicle and then just heading out into the galaxy - so much for the stop at the space station - with only a passing comment about destroying the first alien life form man has encountered. Like, "Oh well, stuff happens."

Upon crash landing into the sea of the planet Taurus, they set about to repair a computer - looks like mostly splicing some wires - even though no one has even mentioned it is broken.

The actual dialog is lame, at best. Best lines are the crew trying to figure out the giant sea creatures attacking their rocket vessel. Basically: "What can they be? I don't know. Strange. Never seen anything like it." Any sentient human can see they are CRABS. Crabs in an aquarium, attacking a miniature rocket.

And throughout the film, there is confusion, misunderstandings over the differences among constellations, planets, solar systems, galaxies, rogue moons, and even the universes.

I love old, cheesy sci-fi as a guilty pleasure. There is always something to like. And you have to appreciate the producers churning out a movie on such a low budget. I usually end up giving them fives stars just for effort. But wow. This? Nothing forgivable here.

A good movie needs a good story. A shame there isn't one involved in this production. Several scenarios that make no sense, and a mission that seems to make up guidelines as they go along. At least Ed Wood's movies had some kind of linear plot. This claustrophobic nonsense just stumbles along with a uber-macho lead, a cliche first officer, a doctor whose job seems to be to fill a cushioned recliner, and one of the lamest explanations for having a female crew member I've ever heard - but Francine York manages to rise above the creaky script and acting. I managed better special effects with far less budget. Bottom line: the only way to enjoy this movie is to utilize some recreational mood-altering substances, turn the sound off, and make up your own dialogue.

At one point the doctor explains evolution on Earth. "The first mammals were fish that crawled out of the water and became animals". "...fish...became animals...": makes no sense. Ancient fish were already aquatic animals before they crawled out of the water, so being on land did not make them animals. Also while all mammals are animals not all animals are mammals. The writer(s) need lessons in evolution, fauna, common sense, and logical thinking.

Other than that the movie is a prime example of a level B film from its era. Turn off your brain, suspend your disbeliefs and relax for 90 minutes.