ChiefRocko I remember seeing this a few times as a kid during those Saturday afternoon monster movie shows. I have to say that THIS one always stuck with me. Not that it's that good or well made - it's NOT - but the premise. Blazing death coming at you at 4K mph? How could you run? How could you shelter? Basically you couldn't. THAT is the brilliance of this film - it creeps you out.Part of what sets this gem apart is that unlike most "happy happy joy joy" American films of the time, this one shows people who don't stand a chance actually dying. Kids, women, people in shelters - there's no last minute helo rescue or a sudden rainstorm that saves families cowering in alleyways... they're doomed and they stay doomed.Well worth a watch - and compared to a LOT of films of that era, this one is actually interesting and different.Keep an eye out: when the nervous scientist's pregnant wife is taking shelter in her bldg's basement, there's an angry bald guy complaining... every person in the room with me watching had the same reaction: "hey, that's the bald guy from the basement in Night of the Living Dead!" One thing - you would NOT want to be standing near Robert Loggia when a lot of heat builds up. Not going to say his acting is wooden, but if you look REALLY hard, in the background is a bunch of Amish guys chasing him so they can build a barn out of him. The man's a deciduous forest worth of wood.Of course this film would've been PRIME for Mystery Science Theater 3000... but then, every film ever made would be better getting riffed by Mike and the Bots. Perhaps Rifftrax can take care of this glaring omission!

r-brasher A rocket apparently of extra-terrestrial origin threatens to destroy mankind by circling the earth at low altitudes and generating a million degree heat five miles wide incinerating everything in its path It's up to scientist Dr. David Loring (Robert Loggia) to formulate a last-ditch plan to save the world.Clocking in at about 70 minutes with a lot of stock footage and less than spectacular special effects, "Lost Missile" is still an underrated B-movie classic which manages to use that stock footage and shoestring budget to great effect. I also found the storyline to be original, and considering the era this film came out, during the Cold War amidst fears of nuclear conflict between the Soviet Union and the U.S., I'm sure it hit home to those who got to see it back then. I, for one would love to see it remade, with modern special effects.Rating: ****1/2 out of *****

Michael_Elliott Lost Missile, The (1958) ** 1/2 (out of 4)Rarely talked about "scare" film has Robert Loggia playing a scientist who has an hour to try and create something that will stop a runaway missile that is reaching temperatures of one-million. The missile is destroying everything in its path and it's heading towards New York City. I was pleasantly surprised to see how great the actual story of this film was but sadly the budget is just so low that they can't do as much with it as I'm sure they had hoped. The movie contains a great story and one can't help but think this film would have certainly scared people back in the day who feared something like this would happen. The movie, due to its low budget, features a lot of stock footage, which gets old after a while but the movies central story is still top-notch. Loggia does a very good job in his role and it's always great to see this underrated character actor. Ellen Parker is also pretty good in her role of Loggia's fiancé. What really separates this film from plenty of others is that it's not scared to kill people. I won't ruin anything but there are several downbeat moments that you really don't expect to see but this here helps keep the suspense going because you know the film isn't scared to bump someone off. Again, it's a real shame that a major studio didn't pick up this story because with a few more on the budget it could have been something really great. As it is, this remains an underrated "B" movie.

MARIO GAUCI I had never heard of this one before it turned up on Cable TV. It's very typical of late 50s sci-fi: sober, depressing and not a little paranoid! Despite the equally typical inclusion of a romantic couple, the film is pretty much put across in a documentary style - which is perhaps a cheap way of leaving a lot of the exposition to narration and an excuse to insert as much stock footage as is humanly possibly for what is unmistakably an extremely low-budget venture! While not uninteresting in itself (the-apocalypse-via-renegade-missile angle later utilized, with far greater aplomb, for both DR. STRANGELOVE [1964] and FAIL-SAFE [1964]) and mercifully short, the film's single-minded approach to its subject matter results in a good deal of unintentional laughter - particularly in the scenes involving an imminent childbirth and a gang of clueless juvenile delinquents!