I was in a Halloween group and this was one of the movies we watched. I knew nothing about the plot and was willing to give it a try because of the presence of Marshall Thompson, who I always thought was a competent if rather common sort of sci-fi hero. Usually I go to Dave Sindelar's site to do a little research on an upcoming movie; for some reason I didn't do that for this film. I was expecting something along the lines of a simple space exploration flick like Rocketship XM. I thought there was something a little strange about the release date, however. The late fifties didn't quite fit in with my preconceived notions.
When the movie opened, I was sort of glad to see the USN and the Douglas Skyrocket. That was a nice change from the Air Force or some mythical Department of Space Exploration.
Imagine my surprise when the movie developed into a creature on the rampage story. It was a pleasant experience.
I was really afraid for awhile that the female lead was simply going to transfer her affection from younger to older brother, moving up in the world as it were from lieutenant to commander. I'm glad the writer had sense enough not to do that. I also thought the monster developed just the right amount of sympathy while at the same time not abandoning his cocky attitude at the end, bragging that he was the first man into space. Nice!