Starring Marshall Thompson, Marla Landi, Bill Edwards, Robert Ayres, Bill Nagy, Roger Delgado and Carl Jaffe. Written by John Croydon and Charles F. Vetter, based on a story by Wyott (ROBOT MONSTER) Ordung. Directed by Robert (THE HAUNTED STRANGLER) Day. Produced by John Croydon, Charles F. Vetter and Richard Gordon.

Dan (Edwards), the first pilot to reach space, returns as a blood-craving creature completely coated in rocky material…

This British sci-fi-horror flick (shot in the UK and USA) was made by Amalgamated Productions, the same company behind FIEND WITHOUT A FACE (1958). FIEND starred the ever reliable Marshall (DAKTARI) Thompson, and Thompson returns here, playing Chuck Prescott, who tries to find out what happened to his gunge-covered brother Dan.

The first half of FIRST MAN INTO SPACE features loads of test flight stock footage, which gets a bit tedious, but the movie does get more interesting once the encrusted test pilot goes on the rampage, accompanied by some spooky sounds, though it’s a shame that the story ends somewhat anti-climatically in a test chamber with the mutated Dan chatting a little before dying.

FIEND WITHOUT A FACE is the better movie, boasting as it does the thrilling finale focusing on hordes of stop-motion brain-monsters besieging a house, but FIRST MAN INTO SPACE undoubtedly possesses a comparable creepiness and mood.

THE INCREDIBLE MELTING MAN (1977) has a pretty similar story, although MELTING MAN’s director, William Sachs, claims to have never seen FIRST MAN INTO SPACE.

While it’s not a top-tier 50s horror-sci-fi release, FIRST MAN INTO SPACE did manage to lodge itself into the memories of some young viewers, who were intrigued and horrified by the sight of a man suffering from an unknown space-based malady, struggling to breath, with only one good eye peering from the messy encrustation that covers him from head to toe.