It is an open secret that space scientist Stephen Mitchell and his wife, Vanessa, do not get along. So, when she and her lover, Philip Crenshaw, disappear, the suspicion is that Mitchell has killed them both and disposed of their bodies on board a rocket which has just been launched and which is destined to remain in orbit for decades to come. Mitchell decides that the only way to prove his innocence is to take up a second rocket and bring the first one back to Earth.
Production Details
A Hammer production released by Exclusive Films (UK) and Lippert Films (USA)
Copyright 1952 by Exclusive Films Ltd.
All characters in this photoplay are fictitious and bear no resemblance to any real person, living or dead
Freely adapted from the Radio Play by Charles Eric Maine
RCA Sound System
New Symphony Orchestra
Produced at Exclusive Studios, Bray
Black & White 76 minutes
Filming Began: 1st November 1952
UK Release: 21st December 1953
Studio:
Bray Studios, Down Place, Oakley Green, Berkshire
Stills from film
Click an image for enlarged slideshow
Cast & Crew
Red = Uncredited
Crew | Name | Age at Release | Birth | Death | Age | Hammer Credits | Uncredited | Total Hammer |
Art Director | J. Elder Wills | 53 | 26 Apr 1900 | 1970 | 69 | 22 | 22 | |
Assistant Director | https://www.hammer-graveyard.org.uk/jimmy-sangster/# | 26 | 2 Dec 1927 | 19 Aug 2011 | 83 | 66 | 2 | 68 |
Boom Operator | Percy Britten | 34 | 1 Oct 1919 | 1996 | 76 | 23 | 23 | |
Camera Operator | https://www.hammer-graveyard.org.uk/len-harris/# | 37 | 19 May 1916 | 21 Feb 1995 | 78 | 63 | 2 | 65 |
Clapper Loader | Tom Friswell | 23 | 1930 | 2002 | 72 | 18 | 18 | |
Continuity | https://www.hammer-graveyard.org.uk/renee-glynne/# | 27 | 3 Aug 1926 | 6 Apr 2022 | 95 | 41 | 3 | 44 |
Dialogue Director | Nora Roberts | 1 Mar 1968 | 5 | 5 | ||||
Director | https://www.hammer-graveyard.org.uk/terence-fisher/# | 49 | 23 Feb 1904 | 18 Jun 1980 | 76 | 31 | 31 | |
Director of Photography | Reginald Wyer BSc | 52 | 30 Oct 1901 | 1970 | 68 | 5 | 5 | |
Editor | Maurice Rootes | 36 | 12 Apr 1917 | 17 Jun 1997 | 80 | 8 | 8 | |
Hairdresser | Polly Young | 1 | 1 | |||||
Make-up | Dick Bonner-Morris | 42 | 1911 | 20 Sep 1964 | 53 | 4 | 4 | |
Musical Director | Ivor Slaney | 32 | 27 May 1921 | 20 Mar 1998 | 76 | 11 | 1 | 12 |
Presenter | Robert Lippert | 44 | 31 Mar 1909 | 16 Nov 1976 | 67 | 8 | 8 | |
Process Shots | https://www.hammer-graveyard.org.uk/les-bowie/# | 40 | 10 Nov 1913 | 27 Jan 1979 | 65 | 30 | 13 | 43 |
Process Shots | Vic Margutti | 40 | 1913 | 1980 | 67 | 6 | 6 | |
Producer | https://www.hammer-graveyard.org.uk/michael-carreras/# | 26 | 21 Dec 1927 | 19 Apr 1994 | 66 | 98 | 9 | 107 |
Production Manager | Victor Wark | 40 | 1 Apr 1913 | 4 Jan 1993 | 79 | 3 | 3 | |
Screenplay | Paul Tabori | 45 | 8 May 1908 | 9 Nov 1974 | 66 | 7 | 1 | 8 |
Screenplay | Richard Landau | 39 | 21 Feb 1914 | 18 Sep 1993 | 79 | 8 | 8 | |
Sound Recordist | Bill Salter | 1983 | 17 | 17 | ||||
Third Assistant Director | Vernon Nolf | 33 | 12 Sep 1920 | 30 Apr 2009 | 88 | 3 | 3 | |
Cast | Name | Age at Release | Birth | Death | Age | Hammer Credits | Uncredited | Total Hammer |
Col. Alfred Daniels | Hugh Moxey | 44 | 27 Sep 1909 | 9 Mar 1991 | 81 | 2 | 2 | |
General Hays | Anthony Ireland | 51 | 4 Feb 1902 | 4 Dec 1957 | 55 | 2 | 2 | |
Lisa Frank | Eva Bartok | 26 | 18 Jun 1927 | 1 Aug 1998 | 71 | 2 | 2 | |
Minister | David Horne | 55 | 14 Jul 1898 | 15 Mar 1970 | 71 | 1 | 1 | |
Mrs Daniels | Jean Webster-Brough | 53 | 9 May 1900 | 30 Apr 1954 | 53 | 1 | 1 | |
Mrs Rogers | https://www.hammer-graveyard.org.uk/marianne-stone/# | 31 | 23 Aug 1922 | 21 Dec 2009 | 87 | 9 | 3 | 12 |
Philip Crenshaw | Andrew Osborn | 43 | 9 Apr 1910 | 11 Mar 1985 | 74 | 4 | 4 | |
Professor Kelper | Philip Leaver | 49 | 11 Jul 1904 | 1981 | 76 | 2 | 2 | |
Sergeant Petersen | Leo Phillips | 39 | 1 Feb 1914 | 3 | 3 | |||
Smith | Alan Wheatley | 46 | 19 Apr 1907 | 30 Aug 1991 | 84 | 4 | 4 | |
Stephen Mitchell | Howard Duff | 40 | 24 Nov 1913 | 8 Jul 1990 | 76 | 1 | 1 | |
Toby Andrews | Michael Medwin | 30 | 18 Jul 1923 | 26 Feb 2020 | 96 | 6 | 6 | |
Vanessa Mitchell | Cecile Chevreau | 36 | 1 Apr 1917 | 1993 | 75 | 2 | 2 |
Original Poster
Click to enlarge
Footnotes
This early foray by Hammer into science-fiction is a low budget, and very slow-moving, foretaste of much better things to come.
Alan Wheatley, who plays the investigator, Smith, in this film, became a familiar face with audiences of the 1950s when he took the part of the Sheriff of Nottingham in ITC’s long-running series The Adventures of Robin Hood, starring Richard Greene in the title role. Terence Fisher was one of the directors used on the series.
Some of the scenes of the spaceship taking off were special effects shots taken from the Lippert film, Rocketship X-M (1950).