The Flame Barrier [1958] [DVD]

This post-Sputnik scare story was designed to cash in on public disquiet at venturing beyond the final frontier.

The star of the show (or villain of the piece depending on your viewpoint) is art director James D Vance, who designed the heat-emitting cannibal protoplasm attached to the satellite that has crash-landed in the Yucatan jungle.

There's a Val Lewton feel to the sequences in which explorer Arthur Franz locates the craft. But thenceforth, Paul Landres is at the mercy of his cut-price SFX and the limited talents of Robert Brown and Vincent Padula, who form a singularly incompetent search party.