mark.waltz
I got to see this in a double bill with "Destination Moon" which at least had the benefit of gorgeous color and a Woody Woodpecker cartoon to make it rise above its dullness. All this has is a bunch of people running around in silly caps trying to get to the moon and suspecting somebody of being a saboteur. It is a silly compilation of a TV series that never made it on the air that looks as cheap on my TV screen as many of the early TV series that had amateurish photography, plain sets and uninteresting characters. In fact, it made "Plan 9 From Outer Space" look like an epic in comparison. Of the cast, the only name I recognized was Hayden Rourke ("I Dream of Jeanie" which was ironically about astronauts), and the rest of the cast is basically forgettable. There's not much action considering the supposed shell of a plotline, and at just over an hour, it ends up being a huge waste of time.
Eric Stevenson
The 1950's was the invention of 3-D, which caused a lot of people to rush to make sci-fi movies. A lot of the more memorable cheesy ones featured giant monsters or aliens, but this didn't even have that. If you want to watch something about going to the Moon before we actually did that in real life, watch the classic "A Trip To The Moon". This plot is very basic with people going to the Moon, but one of them is going to sabotage the mission. The movie is so dull there is really nothing else to say about the plot. A lot of the time, a bad movie with a short running time would be good. Here, it's more distracting because you just know they didn't have enough ideas to show more off a movie.This movie was apparently supposed to depict women in a positive light, at least for the decade it was released. Instead, the women come off as annoying and contribute little to the story. Then again, you could say the same thing of the male characters. The costumes and sets are quite goofy. This doesn't even the distinct of being cheesy in an entertaining way like a lot of B-movies. *.
pv71989-1
One of the worst mistakes Hollywood keeps committing is taking a strong premise or idea and executing it with all the finesse of a hatchet job. And in the 1950's, this was the norm.Before I start, let me clarify the script credits. Credit is given to Robert Heinlein and Jack Seaman. Seaman wrote the script but Heinlein was given credit as well because it was based on his classic short story. However, according to Heinlein's wife, the copyright had lapsed on the story and it was snatched up in the public domain. But, to avoid a lawsuit, the studio gave Heinlein credit (alas, this was an oft-used way for Hollywood to avoid paying royalties).Heinlein loathed the final product and rightly so. This film was a piece of that horrible 1950's theme -- strong female characters who bow out to men when the going gets rough (such as in "The Thing From Another World," "It Came From Beneath the Sea," "Tarantula" and "Them!").The plot, based on the short story, involves a short space mission to photograph the dark side of the Moon so that a base can be established. Though the movie is set in the 1970's, it was filmed in the 1950's, meaning the base will be a military installation filled with nuclear weapons to help maintain freedom and peace on Earth.Leading the mission is Col. Briteis (played by Donna Martell, a beautiful but second-tier actress). Her co-pilot is Major Bill Moore (Ross Ford), which provides internal conflict as both officers hate each other. Briteis became world famous for being the first human to orbit the planet but it is soon made clear that she only got the mission because she weighed 90 pounds (the upper limit of the orbiter because of all the equipment aboard), not because she was qualified.Commanding the overall mission is Gen. Pappy Green (Hayden Rorke, long before he became Col. Bellows on "I Dream of Jeanie"). Also aboard is an enemy spy (in 1970, he is "enemy," which is a stand-in for "Communist") and he seeks to destroy the Space Station from which the mission to the Moon is to be launched.Purportedly, this movie started out as a failed television pilot in the mode of "Tom Corbett: Space Cadet." That may explain why the movie looks so cheap and disjointed as science fiction TV in the 50's had even lower budgets than an Ed Wood project. Whatever the case, the movie hits a stumbling block right out of the gate by spending the first several minutes showing our "enemy" agents plotting to destroy the station and then finally switching out a real scientist for their fake guy.The entire movie played out as a hokey TV episode that makes "Tom Corbett" seem like classic drama. Director Richard Talmadge does his best to pull off a futuristic space atmosphere but is undone by not being creative enough. He comes up with a nifty interior shot of the space station and splices the film to make it seem as if crew members are walking on the ceiling with magnetic boots. Yet, the uniform for the astronauts looks like leftovers from Buck Rogers -- shorts, a tight-fitting tee-shirt and a head covering straight out of a Crash Corrigan serial. This is also the uniform for takeoff, a launch that shows the crews gritting their teeth and screaming as G-force crush in on them. Even in 1953, it was generally known that astronauts would need protective suits to protect them from G-forces during launch, so one must chalk this up to no money for the effect.What I need to talk about is the cast and how they are portrayed.Though the mission commander is a female, when she learns she's going to get Maj. Moore (whom she loathes) as second-in-command, she whines and says she won't accept it. Gen. Green's response is to tell her he has half a mind to put her over his knee and spank her! Also, by the end of the movie, she gladly gets married (a plot hatched without her knowledge) and requests Moore be promoted to general so he'll be superior to her.Also, a female reporter is named "Polly Prattles," is overweight and complains more about her weight than getting information on the space station.So much for feminism and equality in the future.Overall, the acting was okay. Rorke was his usual professional self. Ford was serviceable, as was Martell. But, the best actor in the cast was Larry Johns as both the real and fake Dr. Wernher. Alas, all except Johns acted down to the script.Talmadge makes a game attempt here. From his start as a stuntman back in the days of silent film, he pretty much did everything -- direct, produce, write, edit, etc. It was a useful thing in the world of low-budget science fiction. I can't even recommend this for a late-night stuck-in-the-house-because-of-thunderstorms kind of viewing. Stick with "Riders to the Stars."
dbborroughs
Failed TV show becomes a wildly uneven feature film about a space station and misdirected space shot becoming the first moonbase. Weird mix of comedy, drama and science fiction with more than a dash of (unnamed) anti-communist propaganda doesn't seem sure what it wants to be. Worse you don't know whether you're supposed to laugh at or with the film. The mere fact that this was an episode of Mystery Science Theater 3000 in its early days gives you an idea about how odd the film is. Its regrettably not very good and there's a good chance you'll end up turning the film off before the ending. Robert Heinlein was unhappy with the finished product because the TV show he worked on was changed against his wishes. Looking at the film and guessing what he actually had a hand in, I'm pretty sure that the evil "red" plot is his, I think that the film would still be quite silly- especially in retrospect. For bad film lovers or Heinlein completeists only.
