A fungus brought from space threatens to grow and spread, devouring everyone in its path.A fungus brought from space threatens to grow and spread, devouring everyone in its path.A fungus brought from space threatens to grow and spread, devouring everyone in its path.
Edward Bernds
- Television News Announcer
- (uncredited)
Robert Bice
- Officer
- (uncredited)
- Director
- Writers
- All cast & crew
- Production, box office & more at IMDbPro
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaMoe Howard: , of The Three Stooges fame, as a cab driver. Production assistant Norman Maurer was Moe's son-in-law, and director Edward Bernds was a longtime friend and had directed many Three Stooges shorts and several of their features. Moe found himself out of work after more than 25 years when Columbia Pictures closed its Shorts department with no notice early in 1958. Bernds offered Moe the cab driver part, and Moe in turn asked him to take on hire Maurer, who was trying to get a foothold in the film business. Bernds knew Maurer and considered him to be a talented artist, so he hired him as a sketch artists to help the special-effects department.
- GoofsLaura moves the TV unit in the hotel room a bit when she turns it off, but the picture on the TV doesn't move at all, as it was inserted afterward.
- Quotes
Pvt. Joe Rattigan: [to the stewardess] Are there any other brunettes on this flight wearing tweed coarts?
- ConnectionsFeatured in Aweful Movies with Deadly Earnest: Space Master X-7 (1966)
Featured review
OK 'ticking-clock' sci-fi/detective yarn
After Dr. Pommer (Paul Frees) is killed by virulent Martian fungus, a desperate search begins for the only other person exposed to the pestilence: his ex-wife (Lyn Thomas), who doesn't know the danger that she presents to the planet and has personal reasons not to be found. The film, which opens with a prologue telling viewers that it is a true story (don't worry, it's not), is essentially a documentary-like 'procedural' as agents of the Organization for Internal Security track down the woman while an ominous, expository voice-over marks the passing of time. For a low-budget B-film, 'Space Master X-7' is reasonably well done. Although the science is pretty wobbly (Pommer essentially figures out the entire life-history of the space-fungus, including its brain-like features (!), by looking at a sample through a microscope), a reasonable rationale is provided for the secrecy of the pursuit and for the woman's desperate attempts to avoid apprehension (which is what drives the plot) and the various containment strategies deployed when the invasive extra-terrestrial is found are plausible. The procedural logic waivers a bit after the woman boards the plane to Hawaii (once it's established that the agent would tell one potential suspect what is going on, its unclear why he would not tell all of them). The cast and acting are fine in what is essentially a detective film with a sci-fi McGuffin. There is a lot of talking, not a lot happens, things wrap up too quickly and, typical for low-budget films, the scale of the problem (a fungus that presents an existential threat to life on Earth) is greatly out of proportion to the response (a handful of admittedly hard-working 'OIS' agents). Still, the film is entertaining with some offbeat casting (Stooge Moe Howard in a light-dramatic role and voice-impresario Paul Frees as a somewhat unpleasant scientist), a pretty good story, and reasonable production values considering the budget. The ridiculous title sounds more like a Flash Gordon-style space-frolic than a vérité sci-fi drama and presumably was added in the hope of cashing in on Sputnik/space-race excitement (as evidenced by the prominent rocket ship on the poster and the tag-line: "Satellite terror strikes the Earth", which has little to do with the actual story).
helpful•10
- jamesrupert2014
- Mar 23, 2020
Details
- Release date
- Country of origin
- Language
- Also known as
- Doomsday
- Filming locations
- Union Station - 800 N. Alameda Street, Downtown, Los Angeles, California, USA(interiors and exteriors of station)
- Production company
- See more company credits at IMDbPro
Box office
- Budget
- $125,000 (estimated)
- Runtime1 hour 11 minutes
- Color
- Sound mix
- Aspect ratio
- 2.35 : 1
Contribute to this page
Suggest an edit or add missing content