Enrique Sanchez I was expecting a truly hokey kind of 50s mess. I had discovered it on a list of great undiscovered 50s science fiction movies. What luck! I was pleasantly surprised with the effort. One can say that some of the direction of the acting could have been better. But I take movies from the 50s with a grain of salt. So many great ideas were relegated to the B-Studios. But I will remove from my summary opinion these minor and understandable chinks in the armor.LOST MISSILE is a near-great film if not right UP THERE with the best of the genre. We were informed at the outset that the armed forces were very cooperative with this effort, which would explain the wonderful "stock" footage of military operations and maneuvers. This did NOT bother me one bit, in fact, it added to the authentic feel of the story. I also thoroughly enjoyed the city, town footage of Ottawa and New York City in the 50s. I have come to expect these in movies from those days. Of course, stock footage has been forbidden in recent times because of its apparent lack of integrity to film-making. I see it as a wonderful way to see things as they really are or were.I did enjoy the way the alien missile reminded me of Kubrick's superb black comedy sci-fi, "DR. STRANGELOVE", which came six years after this. So it appears that it might have had some future influence in the genre.This film should be seen by all sci-fi buffs - it is fun and it contains some thrilling moments in the best 50s style they could conjure up in those days. There was a fascinating story, with one very fine actor: ROBERT LOGGIA. The ending was a mix of upbeat, downbeat and it did not wrap things up as neatly as Hollywood would have wanted in its heyday.What's not to like? Well, if you're expecting CGI and slick, you've come to the wrong place for that watermark. That sort of film filled with technical wizardry did not enter into the canon until a Kubrick's masterpiece "2001 A SPACE ODYSSEY"...Sit back, enjoy it, it's free on this website. You won't soon forget it.

user_4574 The Lost Missile relies on stock footage (you see the same B-66 take off at least 3 times in the "maximum defense" montage) and EXTREMELY limited animation/rotoscoping, but if you can get past that, the story is surprisingly good right up until the "this is the MacGuffin that will save us, so we'll ship it without a proper military escort" plot device near the end (the same stupidity as seen in the War of the Worlds).Oddly, the science behind the story isn't all that flaky. By its nature, a starship is a de facto weapon of mass destruction. If it were knocked into an exceptionally low orbit (as happens in the first five minutes), whatever protects the ship from interstellar gas, dust, and radiation (assume it's a whopping STRONG magnetic field) would raise holy ned with the atmosphere as it plows through — the killer heat from the missile isn't simply the heat of reentry, it's a byproduct of the stardrive. We learn very little about The Lost Missile (mostly just the incredible destruction its unplanned ball-of-twine orbit would do). Lee Gordon (Producer) didn't even pay for a model of the missile; instead, Lester Wm. Berke (Director) used and reused and re-reused (etc., etc.) the same pitifully few drawings of the interloper (in order of frequency: one shot from the side passing left-to-right, one shot 30° off face-on, one shot from above — used in conjunction with the most destructive wake you will probably ever see done for $100 or less).Some striking features: the LACK of a monster — The Lost Missile is deadly beyond belief (unless it's stopped, it will kill everybody on Earth, but it wasn't intentional); the heavy-handed, but necessary actions of the Civil Defense wardens; the way the secretaries bypass military restrictions via the old girl's network; the relentless music that conveys the unstoppable nature of the threat; and the "happy" ending (SPOILER: we survive) that isn't happy — it shows the cold equations of human sacrifice.I would have LOVED to have seen Mystery Science Theater 3000's take on The Lost Missile.

Bloodwank I wish I could watch The Lost Missile as audiences of its time might have done. To transplant myself into the Cold War mindset, be filled with fears of nuclear destruction and watch the film in that way would be worlds away from watching it now. I don't have too many issues with the tight budget or the old fashioned effects work and I found its tension impressive, but these are post fear days where any subject can and will be satirised, and a topical work heading straight for the fear centres has to make more of an effort than ever before to conjure up genuine anxiety and not just passing suspense. Still, while I may not have any lingering worries about world destruction a couple of days after The Lost Missile I won't soon be forgetting its tight handling and nerve wracking power. The story sees an alien craft knocked off course by a Russian missile, bringing it into an orbit low enough for its speed and radiation to burn away any thing that it passes over, unfortunate given that its path will lead it in time to burn away the entire surface of the Earth. It falls to some nuclear scientists, in particular a Dr. David Loring and his assistant/fiancée Joan Wood to save the day, in a tale as swift and intense as the missile itself. The film wraps up in 70 minutes and its events take place over the course of a single day, it's a film free of any fat though it does allow for brief spells of downtime for some all important character development. Sadly the budget doesn't allow for any notable effects work, the missile is simply a crude model accompanied by screaming sound, while most of the action is accomplished with stock footage. This stock footage is well used though, clips of radar technology, missile launches and lots of vintage fighter aeroplanes including one very fun moment of massed air assault on the missile. It gives the film a nicely realistic feel, and works well with the solemn narration and its use of technical lingo, including reference to the Distant Early Warning (DEW) line, a radar defence referenced in several science fiction films of the period. A couple of montage scenes are also handy in keeping up the pace and seriousness, generally this is a well put together film and edge of the seat stuff by the end. Acting is generally sound, though there isn't much to raise the characters above stock levels the actors are committed, Robert Loggia is a solid hero, Ellen Parker attractive and likable (also smarter than average) as his assistant, whilst supporting actors are generally sound if unspectacular. My only problems with this one stem from its lost potential, I hate to criticise a film like this on reasons related to budget, but this one really doesn't do much justice to the destructive potential of the missile and it's rather regrettable. There are also interesting issues regarding its origin, and the potential tensions between super-powers it raises that are sadly glossed over and it brings down the films impact a little. Still, I was by and large rather impressed by this one and recommend it to fans of the era, a sweet swift fix for genre fans.

max von meyerling Really it's a dreadful cheat of a film. Its 70-minute running time is very well padded with stock footage. The rest are non descript exteriors and drab interiors scenes. The plot exposition is very poorly rendered. They are all just perfunctory scenes sort of strung together. There is no attempt at drama in scene selection but rather drama is communicated by the intensity of the actors. Please don't ask.The plot concerns a rocket radiating a million degree heat orbiting earth five miles up threatening to destroy the earth. It's a real time menace that must be diverted if a custom built H-bomb can be fashioned and placed in an experimental rocket within an hour. Nothing very much here to report except for a mad speech by a scientist against the project because there might be some sort of life aboard and think of the scientific possibilities but this speech made by the obligatory idiot liberal was pretty much passé by then.What saves this film, somewhat uniquely, IS the stock footage. I've never seen a larger selection of fifties jet fighter aircraft in any other film. This is by no means a complete list but just some of the aircraft I managed to see. There's a brief interception by a pilot flying, in alternate shots, an F-89 Scorpion and an F-86. First to scramble interceptors is the Royal Canadian Air Force in Hawker Hunters and F-86 Sabre Jets (or Canadian built CF-13s) and even a pair of CF-100 Clunks.Then for some reason there are B-52s, B-47s and even B36s are seen taking off. More padding."These Canadian jets are moving at 1200 miles an hour". I don't think so since one of them appears to be a WW2 era Gloster Meteor, the rest F-80s. The Meteors press the attack and one turns into a late F-84F with a flight of early straight wing F-84s attacking in formation.There's a strange tandem cockpit version of the F-80 that doesn't seem to be the T-33 training type but some sort of interim all-weather interceptor variant with radar in the nose. These are scrambled in a snowstorm.An angled deck aircraft carrier is seen from about 500 meters. It launches F-8U Crusaders, F-11F Tigers, A-5 Vigilantes and A-3 Skywarriors. The Air Force scrambles F-86s and F-84s and more F-89s then you've ever seen in your life as well as F-100 Super Sabres and F-102 Delta Daggers.The F-100s press their attack with sooooo much padding. The F-89's unload their rockets in their wingtip pods in slo mo. The F-86s fire, an F-102 lets loose a Falcon, even some F-80s (F-94s?) with mid-wing rocket pods let loose. There is a very strange shot of a late model F-84 (prototype?) with a straight wing early model F-85 above it in a turn, obviously a manufacturer's (Republic Aviation) advertising film showing the differences between the old and the new improved models of the F-84 ThunderJet. How it strayed into here is anybodies guess.There is other great stock footage of Ottawa in the old days when the capital of Canada was a wide spot in the road and especially wonderful footage of New York City's Times Square during one of the Civil Defense Drills in the early 50s. I think we also have to deal with the notion that this was filmed in Canada with the possible exception of the auto chase seen late in the picture as the Pacific seems to be in the background. The use of a Jowett Jupiter is somewhat mind-boggling and there is a nice TR 3 to be seen also. Canada must have been cheap and it is rather gratuitously used a lot in the background.As far as the actual narrative of the film there is little to recommend it other than the mystery of just who Ellen Parker is giving the finger to at the end of the picture. And she most definitely is flipping someone off. Could it be, R as in Robert Loggia? The director who dies before this film was released? Her career as this was her last credit?Its like the newspaper the gift came wrapped in was more valuable than the gift.