Space Probe Taurus (1965)

In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.

It's a good bad... and worth a popcorn matinée. While it's easy to lament what could have been...

This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

Actress is magnificent and exudes a hypnotic screen presence in this affecting drama.

This journey into outer space flick is fairly typical of the B movies, the low budget films that weren't supposed to be liked. As a result of being the low man on the totem pole, those involved made the most out of a little. That often resulted in the superior sci-fi flicks. Such is the case here. The overwhelming factor in these cases is the use of "credible characters in incredible circumstances", something I believe I was the first to use in critiques some thirty or forty years ago. Here, the astronauts are three men and a woman. They begin as seeming to be one dimensional, but that's where the writing, directing, acting team fool you. They gracefully become real characters, particularly the two supporting astronauts. I admit I usually pay more attention to the "supporting players", and usually it's the women who care about the romantic leads. The romantic lead pair go through this as a bit of a cliché, but show some dimensions in character near the end. All together, the quartet was superior to most of the "A movie" astronauts in credibility. The character of John Andros must have been the delight of the team making this film, and it's fascinating in the way they bring him along late, almost as an after thought, as though he would be just "hanging around". He is basically the story here, and I believe the story is told through his eyes, which I won't spoil by how it ends. There's a lot to like here. It is craftily directed. Despite the low budget and limited action, there's not a dull moment. It grips you throughout. That's some directing, writing, editing, acting, the who shebangs! There's even a terrific Gilligan's Island style dream sequence. A hidden gem. I probably won't put it on my top 20 sci-fi films of all time, but it's definitely in the top 40. Of course, as I noted before, this is more of a "man's movie" than a chick flick.

Don't listen to the naysayers and fifth-rate comedians..... this is a pretty cool sci-fi flick.A group four space travelers crash into an aquatic environment and find a population of big giant crabs lumbering around. It's time for one of the crew to go out and investigate, so the guy who cracks all the stale jokes gets to go (good choice..... he was a real Sominex salesman). Out in the sea, he finds a strange gill-man who looks really mean.Fair and fun movie, though dragged down a few times by all the jokes about the hot chick and a perfectly painful scene where the girl and the ship commander talk about 'love stuff', yuuccck! What a bore! OK film with costumes confiscated from 'The Wizard of Mars' (1964) and closing music lifted from 'Flight to Mars' (1951).

1964's "Space Monster" was very much the last gasp for black and white outer space epics, bypassing theatrical release as part of American International Pictures' television package, shown continuously throughout the late 60s-early 70s (the very last, prior to "2001," would have been 1967's "Mission Mars"). Undoubtedly shot around the same time as David L. Hewitt's "The Wizard of Mars" (even using the same alien mask, plus a gill-man costume pilfered from Jacques Tourneur's "War-Gods of the Deep"), so little intrigue actually happens in either film that one does tend to feel for the actors involved, with writer-producer-director Leonard Katzman confining all future efforts to the small screen (he died in 1996). Francine York, James Brown, Baynes Barron, and Russ Bender play the quartet of devoted scientists, no strangers to low budget filmmaking: the still lovely Francine York graced such popular cult films as "Mutiny in Outer Space," "Curse of the Swamp Creature" and "The Doll Squad," Russ Bender remained a favorite with AIP ("It Conquered the World," "Invasion of the Saucer Men," "The Amazing Colossal Man"), Baynes Barron had some minor genre credits ("From Hell It Came," "The Strangler"), and James B. Brown will always be remembered for playing the sniper's father in Boris Karloff's "Targets" (already a veteran going back nearly 25 years, he had no other genre credits). Apart from two alien encounters, one aboard another ship, the other underwater, we never leave the claustrophobic confines of the tiny sets. It's truly mind-numbing when the cast has to gaze at a bevy of ordinary crabs outside, and not recognize what they're looking at! Totally small scale in ambition and execution, the execrable "Space Monster" appeared only twice on Pittsburgh's Chiller Theater, Oct 12 1968 (following 1965's "Frankenstein Conquers the World") and July 24 1971 (following Jerry Warren's "Invasion of the Animal People").

This film is not worth even a rental. Unless you can find a place that will pay you $4 to watch it, that is. Even the poorest efforts generally have something to make them worth preserving. "Space Probe Taurus" appears to be the exception that proves the rule.The script is horrible. The writer displays absolutely no scientific knowledge whatsoever. There is not a SINGLE CORRECT piece of science in the entire movie! From spacecraft decks that run the wrong way to dialog that makes even less sense than that of the average "Star Trek" episode, it's a mess.As for the production in general, I'd rather watch four back-to-back episodes of "Tom Corbett, Space Cadet."