No Film made in England can come close to the greatness and cinematic quality of this forgotten piece celluloid art. I am shocked that this is not in the Criterion Collection, I used to think that "Beat Girl" was England's "perfect film". However, Fire Maidens is empirical proof of the country's creative genius.As the fire maidens walk briskly around in circles the suspense builds to a crescendo while a taut rescue is planned to save the lead Fire Maiden from her imminent sacrifice, a scene with this measure of suspense has never been matched. This film set a metric for dialogue, and action that later British movies like Bridge over the River Kwai, and Lawrence of Arabia tried to meet, but paled in comparison. This film casts a giant shadow with the Ballet sequences so difficult, they could only be duplicated by Isadora Duncan. So if you are looking for a Science Fiction movie, this is not it, but if you are looking for an existential film with depth and philosophic questions that you will be plagued with after viewing, then this forgotten gem is for you. I guarantee that after viewing this, you will ask yourself a question in wonderment that is against all known laws of science and religion ," How can I get those 55 minutes of my life back, and if I can't...will the universe punish me for wasting them so greatly."

It appears that my evaluation of this film may differ from a vast majority of comments made about it. That's okay. Obviously, other viewers gave their honest opinions and I fully understand and respect their point of view. Be that as it may, allow me to say that I honestly enjoyed this movie. For several reasons. First, I think that in order to fully appreciate a film like this a person really needs to have experienced the time period in which it was made. Things were different and more basic back then. For example, this was an era without personal computers, cable television, cell phones or anything like that. Slide rules were used instead of hand-held calculators and Sputnik hadn't yet been launched. The drug epidemic, Vietnam and the sexual revolution had not yet occurred either. Mini-skirts hadn't been invented and all women wore their skirts below the knee. As a result, young men had to use their imagination to a greater degree. And nothing is better for a young man's imagination than watching a dozen flirtatious "fire maidens" performing a dance routine in alluring attire. If that sounds "tame" then let me just say that it was an innocent time. And this film captures that charm and innocence. Now, don't get me wrong, this is a 1950's era, grade-B, science fiction film all the way. It has bad acting, cheap sets, a thin plot and terrible special effects. I realize all of this. But it was never intended to be taken seriously. It was simply meant to be enjoyed for what it was--a pleasant diversion at a local drive-in on a Saturday night. And what could be a more enjoyable diversion than watching "Hestia" (Susan Shaw) and a dozen beautiful "fire maidens" being rescued from a deadly monster by British and American astronauts on the 13th moon of Jupiter? All it takes is a little imagination.

What a cheap, lazy, and completely dull movie. I didn't think it was possible to make a movie entirely out of padding, but Cy Roth seems to have given it the old college try with Fire Maidens from Outer Space. It's got more padding than Joan Crawford's shoulders. What few moments of plot that actually manage to peak through the filler involve a group of astronauts on their way to the 13th moon of Jupiter. Once there, they run into the last of the descendants of Atlantis (don't ask!), fall in love, and try to get off the planet. Will they succeed? It hardly matters as you most likely won't be awake to find out the answer.Early on, it's pretty easy to see just how miserable Fire Maidens from Outer Space is going to be. There are a lot of examples I could cite, but there's one moment that I'm particularly fond of (fond is probably too strong of a word when discussing anything related to this movie). The captain (And we know he's the captain because (a) he's the one controlling the two shifter things that fly the ship and (b) he's wearing the same old ratty captain's hat that seems to have been standard issue in movies from the 1940s and 1950s. A hat like that is fine if you're taking a group of scientists up the Nile in search of some strange creature, but it's out of place on an interplanetary journey.) lands the painfully unexciting set that doubles as the interior of the rocket and the crew celebrates this achievement by whipping out large quantities of cigarettes. Once this merry band of misfits has finished off a carton of butts, they're ready to make their way out of the ship to explore this new, unknown world. But the movie is far too cheap for anything that remotely looks like space gear. The 13th moon conveniently has an atmosphere similar to earth. Therefore, the only thing our group of explorers need do is remove their white cotton coveralls . . . errr spacesuits . . . to reveal freshly pressed khaki outfits complete with matching holsters. Yes, that's right, the only equipment our "scientists" see fit to take with them (and the only equipment this low-rent movie could afford) on their explorations are five, rather large, revolvers. At this point I actually had to stop the movie and laugh for a few seconds at the absurdity of what I'd just witnessed. Call me crazy but I just can't envision Neil Armstrong or Buzz Aldrin touching down on the moon and firing up a few Chesterfield's while strapping on their six-shooters.From here on out, things only get worse. The rest of Fire Maidens from Outer Space is made up of smoking, standing around, mind-numbingly dull interpretive dances, and more smoking. Like I said – it's cheap, lazy, and completely dull.

I saw this movie when it was released. My friend and I who saw it thought it was funny then and I still think it is one of the most unintentionally funny films ever made. The 'no-expense-spared' location shots of, possibly the planet Clapham Common, are a complete hoot. Whenever I talk with people about bad films I have seen (and I've seen a few) this one always comes up. Some of the people in it went on to become car-park attendants, I think. One thing, though. It was a 'B' feature, but I cannot for the life of me remember what the big film was, so it must have had something to make me remember it. And, it was better than 'The Wicker Man' (don't get me started on that bilge!)