The first pilot to leave Earth's atmosphere lands, then vanishes; but something with a craving for blood prowls the countryside...After being turned down by AIP, Gordon successfully pitched the film idea to MGM. Gordon and Vetter then signed on as producers for the project because of the financial success of their two previous films, "Fiend Without a Face" and "The Haunted Strangler". Because of MGM's financial involvement, the budget set for "First Man into Space" was slightly higher than for the producers' two previous films.While the film is not terribly well-known today, it is a great movie about space exploration before such things became standard. Indeed, who knew what might happen in space, or if the radiation would be a problem? The makeup and costume effects are excellent, and more than make up for any shortcomings from the actors.

A not too exceptional fifties science fiction film involves an impulsive astronaut who can't follow orders. The up side is that it has allowed the program to go ahead by leaps and bounds; the down side is that he is out of control. On a dangerous mission, he breaks through the earth's atmosphere and finds himself in orbit. While there, he passes through some space dust which coats his ship and him. The ship comes down, an automatic parachute breaking the fall (sort of hard to swallow) and when it is found, Dan is gone. We finally get to see him. He is in a monster suit that is impenetrable (actually it's his skin). He also has a lust for as many pint of bloods as he can get his hands on. He goes on a killing rampage. Hs brother, who warned him about his lack of coach-ability (spoilsport), is trying to save him while other work to do him in. He ransacks a blood bank and siphons several innocent people. The movie shots of space are better done than most, but the acting is stiff and uninspiring, with dull sets and little real action.

I'll admit that "First Man into Space" is a pretty bad film, mainly because the creators made the huge mistake of trying to give a hideous monster a voice and emotions, but still I can't help appreciating this British low budget late 50's Sci-Fi horror effort. The reasons for this are almost exclusively linked to the fabulous make-up effects and the brutality of the killings. Despite the fact that they want you to empathize with the monster, the murders it commits are extremely gruesome (involving throat-slitting, blood-drinking and that sort of things…). You can imagine it's pretty difficult, and actually even a bit ridiculous, to have sentiments for a one-eyed pile of smut that just tore apart the throat of an innocent trucker and drank the blood of cows. The plot of "First Man into Space" is fairly rudimentary, as are the set pieces and scenery. The footage of the intergalactic journeys and the interiors of the spacecrafts & laboratories look extremely cheesy by today's standards, but they were top-notch equipment during the late 50's, when the popularity of the Sci-Fi genre literally boomed. The plot itself often feels like a low-keyed imitation of one of Hammer Studio's greatest successes, namely "The Quatermass Experiment". If you, like me, consider that particular film to be one of the greatest landmarks of 50's Sci-Fi, you'll definitely also find some entertainment in the derivative concept of "First Man into Space". The story revolves on a cocky astronaut who desperately aspires to become the first man into space no matter what. With a stubborn attitude like that, he naturally disobeys important orders from ground control (his brother) and puts himself in great danger. His first flight has a happy ending but during a second flight his capsule vanishes from all radars. The astronaut is still alive, however he transformed into a hideous monster that craves blood and slowly heads back to base camp. The first half of the film is overly talkative and every single stereotype and cliché regarding space exploration also features in the script. There's the helpless love-interest, torn between the two brothers, the elderly pipe smoking scientists and – of course – the inevitable hammy monologues where one of the characters lifts up his head and stares into space while saying something like: "Perhaps we're still too small to comprehend the secrets and menaces of the great universe". It's not an exact quote, but you get the big picture. The middle section of the script compensates for most of the flaws, as the film temporarily turns into a good old-fashioned monster-on-the-rampage spectacle with suspense and bloody killings. The silliness reaches an absolute highlight when the monster (which only has one eyeball and even that hangs out of its socket) is shown driving a car with the bloodied corpse of a woman in the passenger's seat. The final sequences are pure sentimental baloney and not exactly the type of anti-climax die-hard fans of the genre prefer to see, but what the hell. The least you can say about "First Man into Space" is that it's an admirable effort.

While the plot involves a man getting blasted off into space, running into a meteor shower, and getting turned into something resembling a golem carved out of rock and having a strong desire for blood, I notice something else here. There seem to be some references to marijuana. Aside from the fact that they talk about the astronaut being very "high", he says that he'll bring back the "dope". If only they knew what they were saying! As for the movie itself, "First Man Into Space" was mostly like any '50s sci-fi flick. Although what the Italian woman said seems more relevant than ever: "Sometimes you have to understand that people are more important than science." As it is, if I'd had a hubby like that babe, you couldn't have paid me to go into space! All in all, nothing special, but worth seeing.