Missile to the Moon

Missile to the Moon

Directed by Richard E. Cunha
Produced by Marc Frederic
Written by
  • H.E. Barrie
  • Vincent Fotre
Starring
Music by Nicholas Carras
Cinematography Meredith M. Nicholson
Edited by Everett Dodd
Production
company
Layton Film Productions
Distributed by Astor Pictures
Release dates
  • December 15, 1958 (December 15, 1958)
Running time
 78 minutes
Country United States
Language English
Budget $65,000

Missile to the Moon is an independently made 1958 American black-and-white science fiction film, produced by Marc Frederic, directed by Richard E. Cunha, that stars Richard Travis, Cathy Downs, K.T. Stevens, and Leslie Parrish. It was theatrically released in 1958 on a double bill with Cunha's Frankenstein's Daughter.

The film was distributed by Astor Pictures and is a remake of another Astor Pictures-distributed film, 1953's Cat-Women of the Moon.

A spaceship blasts off from Earth with five aboard, but one of them is secretly a Moon man returning home. He dies by accident during the trip to Luna. What the remaining four find waiting for them when they arrive on the Moon is well beyond their expectations: huge rock creatures, giant lunar spiders, and a civilization made up of beautiful women.[1]

Plot

Two escaped convicts, Gary (Tommy Cook) and Lon (Gary Clarke), are discovered hiding aboard a rocket by scientist Dirk Green (Michael Whalen), who then forces them to pilot the spaceship to the Moon. Dirk, who is secretly a Moon man, wants to return home.

Dirk's partner Steve Dayton (Richard Travis) and Steve's fiancée June (Cathy Downs) are accidentally trapped aboard just before the rocketship blasts off from Earth.

Moon man Dirk is later accidentally killed in a meteor storm during the lunar trip. Once they land on the Moon, the spaceship's reluctant crew encounter deception and intrigue when they discover an underground kingdom made up of beautiful women and their sinister female ruler, The Lido (K. T. Stevens).

While on the Moon, they encounter surface-dwelling, slow-moving, bi-pedal rock creatures that try to kill them, and must contend with a cave-dwelling giant spider.[2]

Cast
  • Leslie Parrish as Zema (credited as Marjorie Hellen)
  • Henry Hunter as Col. Wickers
  • Lee Roberts as Sheriff Cramer
  • Pat Mowry as Moon Girl
  • Tania Velia as Moon Girl [Note 2]
  • Sanita Pelkey as Moon Girl
  • Lisa Simone as Moon Girl
  • Mary Ford [Note 3]

Production

Missile to the Moon is an even lower-budget remake of 1953's low-budget Cat-Women of the Moon and closely follows the plot details of the earlier film.[2] The 1953 film offered 3D as its big attraction, but its male characters were all middle-aged. The 1958 version opted to better appeal to a teenage audience by adding a pair of youthful escaped convicts, one a good kid who made a mistake, the other an incorrigible crook, and providing them with lunar love interests in due course. In the 1953 film, the bit players portraying the minor moon maidens are described as "Hollywood cover girls"; in the remake, they are credited as "international beauty contest winners".

The lunar landscape used in the film is Vasquez Rocks, a popular television and feature film shooting location near Los Angeles.[3] A red camera filter was used to make the blue sky photograph very dark on the black-and-white film, but the result is still far from the ideal starry black. Bits of scrubby vegetation can be seen in some shots. No attempt is made to convince the viewer that the Moon is an airless void where humans would weigh one-sixth their normal Earth weight. When one of the astronauts is forced into direct sunlight, unshielded from its intensity by an atmosphere, he bursts into flames despite the lack of oxygen and in seconds is reduced to a skeleton.[2]

The large, slow-moving rock creatures have a passing resemblance to the shape of Gumby, the popular stop motion clay animation children's television character introduced in 1955.[4]

The giant spider is wire-controlled from above; it is exactly the same prop spider used five years earlier in Cat-Women of the Moon.[5]

Nina Bara, who plays the evil, scheming, back-stabbing Alpha, was familiar to genre audiences from her role as Tonga in the 1950–1955 Space Patrol television series.

Reception

Missile to the Moon was released on a double bill with Frankenstein's Daughter (1958).

Film historians Kim R. Holston and Tom Winchester noted that the film was "... (a) low-budget, scientifically inaccurate hoot ..."[6]

Film reviewer Glenn Erickson commented that "... 'Missile to the Moon' is nobody's idea of a good movie ... a hoot, a real knee-slapper, born MST3K material ... how can the worst space movie ever made, be the worst space movie ever made, if it's such a delight?"[7]

See also

References

Notes

  1. ↑ Cathy Downs appeared in her final film role.
  2. ↑ Tania Velia was "Miss Germany, 1952".
  3. ↑ Mary Ford is incorrectly billed in the film as "Miss Minnesota," confusing her with a different Mary Ford.

Citations

  1. ↑ "Notes: Missile to the Moon (1958)." Turner Classic Movies. Retrieved: November 6, 2014.
  2. 1 2 3 Jalufka et al. 2001, pp. 190–191.
  3. ↑ "Kirk's Rock." TV Tropes: Television Tropes and Idioms. Retrieved: November 5, 2014.
  4. ↑ Lloyd, Robert. "Even now, Gumby has that special dimension." The Los Angeles Times, July 9, 2006. Retrieved: November 7, 2010.
  5. ↑ Johnson 1996, p. 23.
  6. ↑ Holston and Winchester 1997, p. 78.
  7. ↑ Erickson, Glenn. "Review: Missile to the Moon." DVD Savant, July 22, 2000. Retrieved: November 6, 2014.

Bibliography

  • Holston, Kim R. and Tom Winchester. Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror Film Sequels, Series and Remakes: An Illustrated Filmography. Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Company, 1997. ISBN 978-0-7864-0155-0.
  • Jalufka, Dona A., Christian Koeber, Cesare Barbieri and Francesca Rampazzi, eds. "Moonstruck: How Realistic Is The Moon Depicted In Classic Science Fiction Films?""Proceedings, Earth-Moon Relationships Padova, Italy: Springer, 2001. ISBN 0-7923-7089-9.
  • Johnson, John. Cheap Tricks and Class Acts: Special Effects, Makeup, and Stunts from the Films of the Fantastic Fifties. Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Company, 1996. ISBN 0-7864-0093-5.
  • Strick, Philip. Science Fiction Movies. New York: Octopus Books Limited, 1976.ISBN 0-7064-0470-X.
  • Warren, Bill. Keep Watching the Skies: American Science Fiction Films of the Fifties, 21st Century Edition. Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Company, 2009. ISBN 0-89950-032-3.
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