First of all who the hell named this thing? Spacemaster X-7 has literally zero to do with what happens in this movie. Nothing is ever a master, and the X-7 thing doesn't refer to anything I heard or saw during the entire film. The fungus is technically from space, so there is that, but that's really the extent of it. It comes from space, lands on Earth via a space probe, and a scientist gets ahold of it and starts trying to experiment with it.
Most of this film is, as you might expect....dialogue! Dialogue, and people walking here and there, and what feels like a secondary plot actually becoming the entire focus of the film.
Laura Greeling has a child with scientist Charles Pommer. She is in town to get custody of their kid but Pommer is busy studying the space fungus. She tries to get him to pay attention to her, but he's way too immersed in work (we gather this is the same reason why they split up in the first place). So anyways, when the fungus gets out of hand it kills Pommer and is apparently spreading with her now. She's like, according to the movie, and I'm paraphrasing here, "A thousand typhoid Mary's rolled into one".
She is super concerned about getting back to Honolulu to meet back up with her new husband. She doesn't want her new husband to know that she has an ex and a child with that ex. So she is going to lie to her new husband and tell him that she adopted the kid? So seriously, you're going to tell your new husband who you love SO much that you just randomly decided to adopt some kid?! And he would be mad at you for having an ex and a kid, but won't be mad at you for some seemingly random adoption?!
Greeling goes through a lot of bullshit as the cops are looking for her, cause they know that she is probably holding the disease. She goes to the airport, a hotel, she talks to people and orders things for delivery, etc. Yet, there is never a single concern given for these people becoming sick with the fungus, or with anything falling out from that. Heck even the cab driver, played by Moe Howard in an odd cameo, would have to be heavily monitored after coming into contact with her. But, hehe, you know, F all that.
We follow Greeling and she does all sorts of pretty average things. This movie is definitely a slow one, and not as interesting as I would've liked. It lags in the middle quite a bit, but for it's era it is pretty average in that way. It is interesting cause it's following a fugitive, and it's a personal story instead of the sci fi I expected.
The fungus is the only effect, and it's pretty good. It doesn't look like more than some sorta black and grey thingy, and I can't imagine it was more than some random cloth and shit they used to make it appear on camera as a fungus. The actors are good, and the story would've been sufficient except for the numerous plot holes I could point out with no problem. In short, it's a very easily forgettable serviceable 50's sci fi movie with a thriller sorta drama twist.
3 stars.
Update 4/13/2017: I just found out there was an Atari game named the same thing as this, Spacemaster X7. It's not a video game based on the movie, it was just a weird coincidence. I just thought that was really odd, and thought I'd mention it.
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