#722 – Fire Maidens from Outer Space (1958)

Fire Maidens from Outer Space (1956)

Film review #722

Director: Cy Roth

SYNOPSIS: A Joint U.S. and U.K. project to travel to Jupiter’s thirteenth moon, which it has been discovered to have a habitable atmosphere, is undertaken in secret. The five scientists arrive on the moon, and find a society composed almost entirely of women. But their society is being attacked by a mysterious monster, who appears to wreak havoc…

THOUGHTS/ANALYSIS: Fire Maidens from Outer Space is a 1956 sci-fi film. The opening scene gives us some narration about how the thirteenth moon of Jupiter has been discovered as having a breathable atmosphere. In response, the United States and united Kingdom enact “plan 13,” a joint venture to get a manned crew to the moon by rocket ship. If this conjures up thoughts of the infamous Plan 9 from Outer Space, then that is entirely appropriate for this dull and dire production. The whole film is lifeless and full of tropes that have been done before – and better. The five men that make up the cast look and dress the same, and have more or less than same personalities, meaning there’s no real way or reason to distinguish them. The journey to Jupiter’s moon takes about three weeks; having no real basis in reality, but I wasn’t expecting scientific accuracy in a 1956 b-movie.

When the ship lands on the moon, they find a society comprised of young women: the only man being an elderly “Father,” who plans to keep the men there to mate with the women and produce children. This is a very typical fantasy you get in these films, but this one is full with rampant sexism even more than others. It’s never explained why all the women are young as well, probably as an excuse for the filmmakers to have these young women running around in short skirts. To make matters even more troubling, a monster is roaming around that the Father is hoping the spacemen will deal with (even though it is immune to bullets for some reason. The plot barely goes anywhere; like I say it’s just an excuse to get a bunch of young women on screen and make inappropriate comments to fuel young male fantasies. The whole production is sloppy, with uninspiring scenery, little to no action, and performances from the whole cast which are dreary and without effort: there’s not a moment where I thought anyone really cared about anything they were doing in front of the camera. Fire Maidens from Outer Space has nothing to offer viewers or cinema as a whole, not just a waste of time, but rampant sexism makes it genuinely problematic.