Fire Maidens of Outer Space (1956)

That was an excellent one.

Far from Perfect, Far from Terrible

The storyline feels a little thin and moth-eaten in parts but this sequel is plenty of fun.

Not sure how, but this is easily one of the best movies all summer. Multiple levels of funny, never takes itself seriously, super colorful, and creative.

FIRE MAIDENS FROM OUTER SPACE is a great title, isn't it? A title that a B-movie producer would kill for. A shame, then, that the film which accompanies is nothing like that title; instead this is a tepid, po-faced British slice of science fiction drama, with a ludicrous storyline and incredibly ordinary plot execution.The outer space scenes (accompanied by stock footage of a V2 rocket) are limited to the start of the movie as for much of the running time the action takes place on the 13th moon of Jupiter - a satellite that looks remarkably like Earth complete with lush vegetation and the like! A bunch of astronauts (including regular leading man Paul Carpenter and character actors Sydney Tafler and Harry Fowler) arrive on the moon and soon find themselves contending with a tribe of man-eating women who come to the place from Atlantis.It's as silly and cheesy as it sounds, and rather turgid with it. The staging of the action and the presence of a dodgy monster-man make this feel like one of those silly American sci-fi B-movies such as TARGET EARTH or ROBOT MONSTER. The way that the cast refuse to ever crack a smile or have much fun is laughable in itself. Still, the film does feature a number of nubile young actresses in form-fitting costumes, so there is something for the male viewer to enjoy; just not much.

The problem with this film being in the sci film genre is that the aficionados tend to take films far to seriously.Why else would so many people have rated it at 1'After all the budget of this film was clearly miniscule.The sets are very small.The rocket seems to consist of 5men sitting at a desk.The monster is a man in a monkey suit.Harry Fowler and Sydney Tafler talking with American accents.The exterior of the rocket is only shown as gas as the top of the ladder.The astronauts appear to wander around the nearest local park to the studio.The formaldehyde who seem like the contestants in the local beauty contest.A classic of the genre.

It appears that my evaluation of this film may differ from a vast majority of comments made about it. That's okay. Obviously, other viewers gave their honest opinions and I fully understand and respect their point of view. Be that as it may, allow me to say that I honestly enjoyed this movie. For several reasons. First, I think that in order to fully appreciate a film like this a person really needs to have experienced the time period in which it was made. Things were different and more basic back then. For example, this was an era without personal computers, cable television, cell phones or anything like that. Slide rules were used instead of hand-held calculators and Sputnik hadn't yet been launched. The drug epidemic, Vietnam and the sexual revolution had not yet occurred either. Mini-skirts hadn't been invented and all women wore their skirts below the knee. As a result, young men had to use their imagination to a greater degree. And nothing is better for a young man's imagination than watching a dozen flirtatious "fire maidens" performing a dance routine in alluring attire. If that sounds "tame" then let me just say that it was an innocent time. And this film captures that charm and innocence. Now, don't get me wrong, this is a 1950's era, grade-B, science fiction film all the way. It has bad acting, cheap sets, a thin plot and terrible special effects. I realize all of this. But it was never intended to be taken seriously. It was simply meant to be enjoyed for what it was--a pleasant diversion at a local drive-in on a Saturday night. And what could be a more enjoyable diversion than watching "Hestia" (Susan Shaw) and a dozen beautiful "fire maidens" being rescued from a deadly monster by British and American astronauts on the 13th moon of Jupiter? All it takes is a little imagination.

"Fire Maidens Of Outer Space" misses the mark on so many levels that I wanted to travel to England and throw rocks at the window of the room in the nursing home that Cy Young is probably living in now. It's an exercise in tedium, static blocking, and endless padding, weighed down with a tiny budget and zero imagination in production and art design. In its favor: they actually play some music by Borodin and what sounds like the "Saber Dance" at some points in the movie, a nice touch considering the title; the fire maidens are quite attractive (if somewhat blank faced) and the camera spends a lot of time focused on their shapely legs as they walk endlessly from one corridor to another; if you're going to have liturgical dancing in a cheap science fiction movie (and it seemed to be a requirement whenever the plot concerned alien civilizations), you might as well have well choreographed liturgical dancing, and the women are pleasantly limber and graceful. Also the set-up with the alien civilization can't help but serve as a litmus test for the modern male viewer's chauvinism and political correctness (what with the patriarch apparently being a semi- doddering drunk surrounded by nubile women - your reactions to this will tell you a lot about yourself). Against: well, the first third of the screenplay is about as exciting for the viewer as the time my best friend and I camped out in his back yard in a piano crate overnight and pretended we were flying to the moon and back. (We were 10 years old at the time). And the special effects aren't much more convincing. The rest of the movie resembles a slow motion Brtish bedroom farce, only without the slamming doors or humor. I am glad I saw this - once! - if only to assure myself that the movie in no way lived up to the promise of its title and that I hadn't missed anything worthwhile by putting off watching it for 30+ years.