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Spacetravel, 1950's style: the typical stereotypical characters gather
to fly to the moon: the seasoned scientist Engstrom (John Emery), the
lovely but icey woman Lisa (Osa Massen), the daredevil pilot Floyd (Lloyd
Bridges) - who's of course in love witht he woman, but she (at first)
spurns him -, the introverted navigator Harry (Hugh O'Brian) & a Texan
(Noah Beery jr). But while their lift-off is a beauty, things soon go
wrong: at first their fuel mixage proves to be too weak for outer-space
travel, then they get into a merteor shower, & finally they overshoot
by some kilometers (& miles too) & suddenly find themselves en
route to the Mars. & since they are already there, they decide to land
& take a peek.
Soon they wander the Mars, wearing little in protection but oxygen
masks but armed to the teeth, & first the planet seems to be a barren
rock (not much to look at, really), until they find the ruins of a highly
advanced city ... & the radiation levels suggest it (& the whole
planet) was laid to waste by an atomic war.
Soon, too, our heroes are attacked by some savages, obviously the
mutant offspring of the once mighty Martians, with primitive spears &
stones ... but not primitibve enough to not kill Enkstrom & the Texan
& badly wound Harry. With the help of Floyd & Lisa, he can get
back to the rocketship though & the 3 make a lift-off & are soon
on their way back to earth ...
All's well that ends well ?
Certainly not, since the trio has gravely misjudged the fuel situation,
& when fuel would be needed for braking the fall back to earth, it is
simply not there, & the rocket crashes - but not before Floyd &
Lisa have confessed their love to each other.
Fleming (Morris Ankrum), the scientific head of the operation who has
stayed back on earth, nevertheless calls the space voyage a success &
announces further expeditions ...
When George Pal announced his plans to make his (rather) bigger
budgeted space travel film Destination Moon for Eagle Lion,
small-time producer Robert Lippert saw a perfect chance to beat him to the
punch & profit from that movies ad-campaign. The outcome was a film
that was pretty typical in every aspect for the many 1950's science
fiction films to come, from its cast of main characters - the old
scientist, the young daredevil, the woman, the introverted guy & the
Texan (sounds actually almost like the Fantastic Four, just
take away the introverted guy & make the Texan someone from Brooklyn)
- & silly story to its total neglect of scientific facts &
wonderfully cheap & cheesy special effects (best example: the whole
film is in black and white, but the Mars-scenes are in orange). & of
course, in the end the young daredevil gets the girl.
If that does now sound like a negative review, it isn't, it's wonderful
retro-trash to look at & purely enjoy.
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