The motley coed crew of a spaceflight to Venus are forced to fend for themselves and determine the future of mankind after the Earth gets destroyed in a nuclear holocaust. The flat, fumbling direction by Harry Hope and Lee Sholem, Stuart J. Byrne's tediously talky and uneventful script, the dull performances and the slower than two aged turtles walking uphill pace suck all the fun and vitality out of this excruciatingly leaden science fiction clunker. The Hall of Shame Faded Name cast makes for pretty sad viewing: former Tarzan Denny Miller as a stern, no-nonsense colonel, Grant ("The Monolith Monsters") Williams as the lecherous jerk captain, veteran TV actress Mala Powers as a feisty Russian astronaut, song and dance man Bobby Van as an obnoxious hipster, Henry Wilcoxon as a crusty old-timer, Top Forty radio disc jockey Casey Kasem as a Mission Control announcer, and future "M.A.S.H." TV series regular Mike Farrell as a TV reporter. Stanley Cortez's ratty photography, the terrible tin-eared dialogue ("He's not really a fink; he just acts like one"), the droning, monotonously rattling stock film library score, David L. Hewitt's crummy (substantially less than) special effects, and the groan-inducing surprise twist ending add extra abject insult to already appalling injury. A total turkey.
Review of Doomsday Machine
