hwg1957-102-265704 'Riders To The Stars" was directed by one of the actors Richard Carlson and an uncredited Herbert L. Strock and mainly concerns a space mission to catch a meteorite before it burns up in the atmosphere. Most of the film though is about the recruiting and training of astronauts to go on that rather far fetched space mission and though it is not boring it isn't exciting either. They don't go into space until nearly an hour into the film, cue some stock footage.The main cast of William Lundigan, Richard Carlson and Martha Hyer are adequate but they are fortunately supported by the veteran actor with the unique voice Herbert Marshall who gives a solid performance as usual. King Donovan has a small role which is a shame as he is always watchable and Dawn Addams has an even smaller role.It is filmed in colour but it doesn't add much to the movie and Harry Sukman's music is not one of his best. In fact it was his first score in a long career. The line of dialogue "the nature of my doctorate will have to remain a secret for a few days" has always charmed me for some reason. Perhaps because it has the ring of poetry about it.

LeonLouisRicci With sincerity and good intentions there was a smattering of Non-Alien-Flying Saucer-Soul Snatching Movies in the Fifties. This one is "Scientific" to a fault but somewhat succeeds at being an Adult friendly story, that Kids flocked to, about the yet to be, but soon to be, Adventure of Manned Space Travel.It was all so new but we were approaching the time that all Sci-Fi Nerds just knew would happen and after we split the Atom, everything now seemed not only possible but probable. Hence we have this Movie and a very few others that tried its low-budget best to put up on the screen as Entertainment, this highly anticipated new era in Human endeavors and exploration.The problem is that all this Science stuff is pretty boring when viewed as entertainment. Documentaries are informative and interesting but most are hardly effectively entertaining. They are what they are and this is what it is. A Movie marketed as entertainment that in the end is only slightly so. It is more interesting than entertaining and was more informative in 1954 than it was exciting.It does manage, against all odds, to be engaging enough in a time-capsule kind of way and most likely created a buzz among Movie goers. It also, may have attracted the readers of Popular Science and Popular Mechanics Magazines. But the irony is that there are probably more accurate prognostications in this Movie than in those highly sophisticated, pretentious periodicals. They were almost always wrong.

BusyGuyInPTC Even though there are many clichés and stereotypes, this is a classic. There's some "silly science," but nothing that wouldn't reasonably be expected of 1953. The notion of sending an astronaut into space on an Atlas rocket might seem seen unconventional (if not impossible) today, it was a reasonable movie assumption for the time. Don't be put off by the scientific inaccuracies: this is very worthwhile. Watch for familiar figures in the cast! Watch, also, for all the cigarette smoking: what a difference a half- century makes! The final "crash scene" does, in some way, spoil the otherwise scientific accuracy of the film but, what maybe they've discovered Bucky- balls!

bkoganbing This low budget science fiction film from the Middle Fifties is illustrative of just how far we've come in space travel. Now folks like United States Senators like Jake Garn and pop stars like Lance Bass vie for the privilege of space travel. It's proved to be quite a money maker for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.But back in 1954 there was no NASA. The Army, Navy, and Air Force all had rival space programs if you can believe that. It took Sputnik for the Eisenhower administration and Congress to create NASA in 1958.A group of competent B players bring us Riders to the Stars and the object here is just a quick trip up in space to capture a meteor before it burns up in our atmosphere. One thing is certain, they somehow survive the Van Allen radiation belt that surrounds the Earth, a recent discovery that Riders to the Stars was capitalizing on.Herbert Marshall heads the scientific team who are looking for a few good men and among those gathered are William Lundigan and Richard Carlson. Martha Hyer is around to be decorative as Marshall's girl Friday and to provide a little romance.The best part of Riders to the Stars was the intensive physical training that is shown for these astronauts to be. Not unlike what was done in NASA for the original Mercury astronauts. You had to be one peak physical specimen to qualify back in the day. Not that you can have health issues now, but a 60 something US Senator Jake Garn has gone in space and pop star Lance Bass aspires to.Riders to the Stars is educational, but a bit on the dull side. It really peaks in the last 25 minutes or so with the actual flight. Still it's an earnest film and worth a look.