This has always been one of my favorite, of the old "hokie" low-budget sci-fi films. In a way, I'd put it in a category similar to the that which "The Day the Earth Stood Still" is in. I first saw it, as a young kind, in the Saturday matinees at the local theater. Back in those days, you could just hang around after the film ended, to see it again, at no charge - and with this one - I did just that. Sure, it's got some really "hokie"-looking giant spiders (which couldn't possibly be worse), and even the mutant "cave-men", having only one eye, looked pretty silly. But the plot of the movie was so much more well thought out, than any of the other "B"-movie sci-fi flicks of the era. Although it was nonsense, that a space ship could accidentally go to near-light-speed, while in the solar system, yet still manage to "crash land" (with no injuries to the crew) in the polar regions was beyond far-fetched; but no more far-fetched than Rodan, Mothra, Godzilla, and the many, many low-budget sci-fi flicks of the era. Besides, this one took on a much more plausible story. They'd traveled forward in time, due to their incredible acceleration, but admitted there was no way to go "back again". Their primary focus was to try to help what was left of the human race to come back above ground, where their children could benefit from the sun. I thought it was a very thoughtful film, in its overall plot. I must have seen this movie 50 times, yet I still enjoy watching it every single time I get the chance. After being unavailable, in any format, for so long; it's now on DVD, and has a pretty clean picture and sound. Call me crazy, but I just love this flick!!

A returning spaceship crew of four astronauts(including Rod Taylor & Hugh Marlowe) find themselves sent through a time-warp into the 26th century, where an atomic war has taken place, resulting in a primitive tribe of men on the surface, and a society of intelligent(but tyrannical) people living below. The astronauts discover that they likely can't get home again, and so must sort out this world if they have any hope of surviving(and dodge the odd giant spider!). Good cast, but silly film with a pulp-minded story and clichés. Still, it is interesting to note how this may have influenced "The Time Machine", "Planet Of The Apes", and even "Star Trek"! (Though they greatly improved on these ideas, and made them more imaginative.)

***SPOILERS*** Top of the line Allied Artists motion picture in both Technicolor and Wide Screen, reserved for the biggest blockbusters of major films studios back in the 1950's, has a quartet of US astronauts end up getting caught in a time warp. This cause their space craft accelerate beyond the speed of light that takes them form the year 1957 to 2508 in a matter of seconds on their maiden flight to Mars as the first men in outer space! Landing on this mysterious and forbidden planet the boys from space John Borden, Hugh Marlow, Dr. Galbarithe,Nelson Leigh, Herbert Ellis, Rod Taylor, & Hank Jaffe, Chris Dark, are at first in the dark to where they are. It's after being attacked by giant spiders as well as mutant and for the most part one eyed cave men that they get the picture, in escaping into an underground cave complex, that the place or planet their on is the good old earth itself!Taken in by the few humans still left on the planet the fly or space boys learn that a nuclear war had broken out in the 22th century and destroyed almost the entire human race. As for the surviving humans lead by the dilapidated and undernourished looking Timmak, Everett Glass, who've over the years had lost their nerve or willingness to fight the mutants and are now satisfied to live out their entire lives underground without as much as even seeing the light of day! It's when the astronauts get a look at the women in the cave who all look like their in their early 20's who just stepped out of a 1950's girlie magazine that they changed their minds about coming back to 20th century earth if that's at all possible. With all the shapely women flocking to the astronauts it's Mories, Booth Colman, one of the wimpy men in the cave , who for some reason all wear shower caps, who plans to discredit the time travelers to his leader Timmak. Mories does this by murdering one of of his fellow futuristic humans James, William Vadder, and then blaming his death on the innocent astronauts.Astronaut John Boden and his men have a tough time proving their innocence but it's young Deena, Lisa Montell, who saw Morise murder James who rats him out to her leader Timmak who was ready to thrown the time traveler out in the wild and at the mercy of the mutant cavemen. This has Morise now exposed as James' murderer run for his life outside the safety of the cave complex only to get caught and brutally beaten to death by the mutant one eye cave-men who were waiting for him outside! By then Borden & Co. finally convinced Timmak and the some 2,000 humans cave dwellers that he's in charge of to finally get their act together, by making and taking up arms, and fight off the mutants before they all end up becoming extinct! In that by them and their offspring's by not getting enough sunlight or vitamin "D" the cave complex populations birth rate has just about dropped to zero!Even though the flight crew were supposed to be future astronauts they wore 10 year old WWII style surplus US Army Air Force bomber and flight jackets not the air tight silvery and robot like astronaut outfits we became used to seeing in the many space flight, by both the US & USSR, over the years since the film was released. There's also Aussie actor Rod Taylor who some four years later would again travel into the future in the movie "The Time Machine" desperately trying to hide his very pronounced Australian accent, and sound American, but being totally unable to do it!

I'd actually rate this 6 and 1/2 out of 7, but compared to the movie that came out immediately before it ("Forbidden Planet"), this somewhat derivative production comes off looking a bit less than classic. So down it goes to 6 stars.Some of the SFX in the early part of the movie are poor enough to make a modern day fan of this genre wince (think Rocky Jones "Crash Of Moons" poor), but once the movie gets out of outer space and once you get past the ludicrous spider puppets, things look a lot better and you can start concentrating on what's good about the movie instead of what's painful about it.Yes, the screenplay has more than a little resemblance to "The Time Machine", and some of the "underground scenes" and future costumes are undistinguished, but the actors manage to save it. The intrepid astronauts are practically interchangeable as characters, but they are, as I said, intrepid and daring and admirable, and the actors work hard to sell their lines, and somehow, most of the time, things work fine.There are some enjoyable bits of staging here and there, and a nice climactic duel between the chief astronaut and the villain caveman. There's a believable depiction of human nature (and human frailty) in the far future, and a "Wagon's Ho!" coda that will probably put a nostalgic smile of the face of many viewers my age - that sense that hard work, a forward thinking attitude and perfect teeth will always save the day.Worth seeing once for its own sake.