I was quite impressed when this movie opened with the character of a black astronaut engineer named Al and played by Archie Savage. Where this movie "Assignment: Outer space" (also known as "Space Men")had serious crazy plot issues, Savage's portrayal of a White haired black astronaut engineer really stole the show. I was astounded considering this was a 1960 movie. His was the only performance which wasn't wooden and was really the central character we noticed the most from the very first scene even though they gave higher billing to Nutter & the commander.Savage gave credence, character & realistic believability to the movie. When Savage was not in the scenes, the movie trailed into the doldrums and only held our interest when Savage reappeared. The plot, however, was downright crazy going from one ridiculous inane event to another. But the technical scenes & Archie Savage's character were the key features worth watching. The quality of this movie was quite impressive for a 60's space flick as was the film quality & sound considering this was an Italian film which are usually quite poor. The color has definitely faded. If they could fix the plot problems, it might be worth restoring the color. The Audio track was excellent. Crystal clear & exceptional enunciation. Better than most recent new movies.This movie is actually better produced than some in the past 15 years.There is no doubt the movie drags on slowly but nothing could be slower & more painful than the movie 2001. Thank goodness for fast forwarding. Sometimes reality of slowness of space in movies like 2001, Marooned, stranded & Gravity go too far for patience sake. Same with those long laser sword battles of Star Wars not to mention gruesome amputations. I have no patience for slow dragging scenes, extended battles, fistfight scenes or drawn out rescue scenes where they spend half the movie trudging from point A to B... such as Armageddon, Voyage to the prehistoric planet (planet of prehistoric Women), Red Planet and a dozen others which have the actors trudging over miles of tedious wasteland for rescues or wasting endless time on boring battles.What made Star Trek unique was the interpersonal relationships between the characters & their experiences & new civilization encounters, technologies & differences. Not battles, fistfights or drawn out ordeals & endangerment. Oblivion was a breath of fresh air as was Moon, Robinson Crusoe on Mars & Capricorn One. Enemy Mine was also excellent due to the interpersonal interactions between the characters.Hollywood still does not understand what makes sci-fi work. It is character relationships where the audience invests their emotions, new technology, adventure to see new alien societies & civilizations & building on those interactions. We rarely get to see alien planets & civilizations or successful, thriving human colonies. How many were PO'ed about not seeing the alien planet & civilization on Prometheus? Or how "one note" Ridley Scott used the same formula in every Alien & Prometheus film. Always a loudmouth, cigar smoking bully black man in charge (who the heck would smoke on a spacecraft?), an android, 2 greedy scum prospectors, a male & female throw away victims, a lone surviving female heroine, the alien which never dies and the corrupt Company employer. The exact same format in every film Ridley made. Yet people rave about his films. Clearly they failed to compare them.But don't take advice from these post Xgen kids Commentaries. Ignore the plot issues & screwups of this film and take notice of the character Al, played by Archie Savage & it makes this movie worth watching. His performance will surprise you. He never would have had such a prominent role in a US produced 60's film. Thank the director for his foresight. And the producer for the film & audio quality. However, the scriptwriter should have been drawn & quartered. Everything else in this movie pales by comparison to Savage's role.Surprisingly refreshing & quality condition for a 60's sci-fi. You can find it on those 100 pack Sci-fi film sets.

There may be a spoiler here but this one is so old and predictable that it won't make much difference. The "spoiler" is key to the inane plot so here goes...I give it a 3 because it was made and out there and that deserves some credit, right? Well, I may be being generous but, after all, it is one more movie than I have ever made! So you get the plot going by placing a newspaper reporter on a space ship (there's the "Assignment" in the title). He knows absolutely nothing about going into space and there is not even a seat for him on the ship. How much planning went into the decision to send him along? Absolutely NONE!!! So he, his newspaper boss and the space commander's boss are all clueless and there is nowhere for him to sit. But, wait, it gets worse! Then when you really get into a jam and need someone to go and do technical stuff on a different ship to save the planet Earth, who do you think gets elected to go. No, it is not the captain, he has to stay with the ship and steer it. Where's the navigator? Don't know. How about one of the technicians who actually are supposed to know something about space ships and space suits and wires and computers, etc. Nope! Wrong again. Well, you guessed it right the third time. We will send the hopelessly clueless newspaper reporter over to save the day by trying (badly) to disable a computer. He is too weak to pull the wires out and has to radio for help on what to do. That was a big laugh and wasn't supposed to be! Yup, the most clueless idiot on the ship gets sent over to another ship which he knows absolutely nothing about to work through whatever it takes to save the Earth.Well, that's just a minor taste of this stink-burger. Incredible. Now that I think about it, 3 stars may be about 15 to many. Oh, well, give the guys and girl a break. After all, they had to make it in Italian. I could not do that, either! Enjoy if you can...

This is part of a larger 50's movie portrayal of people shot into space who are so over-emotional and unbalanced, you wonder how they beat out all the other astronaut candidates.I really just wanted to see if any other viewers shared my laugh-out-loud moment from the film......when the reporter punches out that other guy and the camera fast-pans over to the female lead in the doorway, who witnessed it, and she has absolutely NO EXPRESSION on her face! Not even a trace of any reaction....This is fine as a "background movie", on a rainy weekend day when you're puttering around the house.

Set on board a space ship in the year 2116, this movie has a number of problems that have to be overcome if you're going to enjoy it at all. First and foremost is the completely wooden and often lifeless acting, which the actors try to compensate for by trying (and failing) to make every scene seem as if it's the most important scene in the movie. There are also some pretty significant plot problems. First, there really is no story until about halfway through the movie. Originally, our intrepid group of explorers are heading to "Galaxy M-12," then they're heading to Mars for some mysterious reason, then they're suddenly diverted to Venus by order of "the High Command." Finally, upon the diversion to Venus, we're told that unless this ship can do something about it, the earth is going to be destroyed by some sort of rogue spaceship. I wasn't entirely clear, though, on why the earth was going to be destroyed. I was a little confused as well about why, half-way into the movie, Ray says "it's Christmas, Lucy." The line just hung there. It came out of nowhere and nothing came from it. So, both the story and the acting are a bit ridiculous. However ...There are some good points here. Gene Roddenberry is usually given credit for introducing minorities in command positions on "Star Trek," but I thought it was interesting that the engineer on this ship was black (played by Archie Savage, who had previously had minor roles in such movies as "South Pacific" and "The Ten Commandments") - and he was no token. He had important things to do, including a noble act of self-sacrifice. More thought was put into the conditions of outer space and weightlessness than a lot of low-budget sci-fi movies of that era worried about, and the on-board effects were not bad, as the crew clomped about the ship in their magnetic boots. The set was also fairly futuristic looking. Unfortunately, some of the animated space travel was rather poorly done. Once the crisis was introduced, there was a moderate amount of suspense about whether or not the earth could be saved. You know what? This isn't good, but it really isn't as bad as some people say it is. 5/10