Dedicated, but henpecked American engineer Dr. Stephen Mitchell (a solid performance by Howard Duff) works at a secret rocket base in England. When his faithless bitchy wife Vanessa (a perfectly snarky Cecile Chevreau) and her biologist lover Dr. Philip Crenshaw (Andrew Osborn) both disappearance, the shrewd and determined Dr. Smith (a marvelously smug turn by Alan Wheatley) suspects that Stephen killed them and launched their bodies into space. Stephen plans on going into space to retrieve the satellite in order to prove his innocence. Director Terence Fisher, working from a clever script by Paul Tabor and Richard Landau, offers an adroit and interesting multi-genre mix of murder mystery thriller, foreign espionage, and space exploration. The sound acting from a sturdy cast helps a lot: Duff makes for a sympathetic protagonist, the lovely Eva Bartok impresses as fetching mathematician Lisa Frank, and Wheatley is in peak smarmy form as the arrogant Dr. Smith. Plus there's fine support from Philip Leaver as kindly, jolly project supervisor Professor Koepler and Michael Medwin as eager fuel expert Dr. Toby Andrews. Reginald H. Wyer's crisp black and white cinematography and Ivor Slaney's rousing, spirited score are both up to speed. While a bit slow and talky in spots, this movie still rates as a most enjoyable picture all the same.
Review of Spaceways
