1960s SF film
"The world of human feelings has been much less explored than the whole of the universe put together. And now it's late. What have we been doing all these thousands of years? We've been congratulating ourselves on our progress in going faster and faster and faster, when in reality we've only been getting further away from ourselves..."
Assignment: Outer Space, 1960, Italy DIRECTED BY ANTONIO MARGHERITI
Among his many credits the prolific screenwriter Ennio de Concini, who died last November, also wrote what's regarded as the first Italian science fiction film, Spacemen from 1960, better known now as Assignment: Outer Space (he was later to write and direct the widely acclaimed Hitler: The Last Ten Days in 1973). Writing pseudonymously as Vassilij Petrov he packed a lot of story into 82 minutes with some well crafted drama among an unusual crew, and the end result was mostly a decent effort but with a few pitfalls, not all of which have nothing to do with the script. It blasts off optimistically in a 22nd Century 'golden age' rocket that ends up shuttling between Mars and Venus to save us from a rogue spaceship that may destroy the Earth, also with an autocratic and introspective commander who likes to deliver boring homilies about the human condition (see above). The wonderfully named Rik von Nutter heads the cast, playing an unwelcome journalist who ends up being the square-jawed hero of the mission. Even though this was dubbed into English the actors can often be seen mouthing their lines in English as well, though the most unintentionally embarrassing production moment was certainly the collision in space in which you can also briefly see a car in a parking lot. There are some good reasons for this film not to be completely ignored today: despite its several weaknesses (not helped by the badly washed out colour print) it's worth watching because it probably influenced Stanley Kubrick in his making of 2001: A Space Odyssey: the entire story takes place in space and in part examines humanity's relationship with it, also there's a mad spaceship that kills its crew while in hibernation sleep while at the same time bearing a passing resemblance to the Discovery. Assignment: Outer Space, gets largely negative reviews these days from people who can't give it more than superficial attention, but what's overlooked is that this was a laudable first effort from Antonio Margheriti, despite its sometimes confused science and disjointed storyline.