Details

Release year: 1961

Storyline

A runaway asteroid dubbed "The Outsider" mysteriously begins orbiting the Earth and threatens it with lethal flying saucers.

Top credits

Directors

Antonio Margheriti

Writers

Ennio De Concini

Cast

Claude Rains — Prof. Benson
Bill Carter — Cmdr. Bob Cole
Umberto Orsini — Dr. Fred Steele
Maya Brent — Eve Barnett

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Did you know

• After the less-than-stellar distribution of its previous film, Assignment: Outer Space (1960), in the US, Ultra Film decided it could improve its performance in the lucrative US market for this film by adding a "name" American actor. Claude Rains had just played the grumpy Prof. Challenger in The Lost World (1960) and decided that he would be perfect to play the grumpy Prof. Benson in this film.

• In the US this was passed over by major distributors. It was picked up by a very minor distributor and wasn't released until 1963. As a result, it received scant bookings and remained unseen theatrically in many areas. It was popular via U.S. television syndication later in the 1960s, followed in 1986 when it was widely distributed on VHS (pan and scanned) by the bargain label Goodtimes Home Video.

• The credits list the screenwriter as the very Russian-sounding "Vassilij Petrov". In reality, the screenplay was written by one of Italy's most respected and very prolific screenwriters, Ennio De Concini.