Panamint This is an incompetently conceived, made and acted film. Other than some nice color filming (I tried to find at least one nice thing to say) it is lousy from the first frame to the last.Badly directed are two outstanding movie stars (Cotton and Sanders) obviously wishing they were somewhere else. No actor in this film says one word like they believe in what they are doing.Dull direction and dialog.Not in the so bad its good category. Just a complete waste of your time. The only reason I watched through to the end is so that I would have some credibility when I write this review and suggest that others should skip this film.Its not just bad, its worse- it is actually incompetent and at times incoherent. Ed Wood could have done a better job, and that is not meant as a joke.

pjcaver This movie is currently being broadcast on TCM. It looks as though it is barely worth watching. The biggest tragedy of this movie is that they recycled the "electronic tonalities" of Bebe and Louis Barron from the superb "Forbidden Planet", one of the greatest science fiction movies of all time and perhaps my favorite movie, ever. Certainly I am a bit prejudiced, but I am appalled by the the sound effects piracy. The Barrons created a whole new sound for Forbidden Planet and were unable to say "Electronic Music by Louis and Bebe Barron" due to their not being members of the Musician's Union. They settled for "Electronics Tonality....". In any case, it is sad that the movie had to pirate the sounds from the Barrons (perhaps legally) to ratchet up the bona fides of this ridiculous movie....pjcaver

verbusen Yes, you can hear those words of wisdom, along with Virginia asking a dozen times "What does it mean?" if you watch "From the Earth to the Moon". I was ready to rip this flick a new one until I just read the trivia on IMDb and it kind of stole all my thunder (so read this first before you go there, lol). Anyway, it starts out like a serious sci fi flick and since I'm a 30's-60's sci fi fan, I was getting into it. But then like the trivia part says it runs out of steam (powered by power X) BIG TIME! The point where this movie "jumps the shark" is right around the moon launch time, I loved the wood paneling and shag carpet in the vessel though. The moon shot time is also when you hear the Forbidden Planet sound effects, and as distinctive as they sound, you immediately notice them, along with the sound of someone turning a cooking timer to the point that's its really annoying. The damn trivia also stole my thunder about the boom holding the spacecraft in full view (I paused and rewound that because I couldn't believe it was so blatant). This would have been a good MST3K movie to lampoon. The blonde who stows aboard, Virginia, is in full hormone bloom and she delivers some classic lines and moments that are just calling for an ad lib. She is in this one scene and starts saying "Well, if we're all going to die...." you can put your own ad lib in there, mine was "lets all go out with a real bang, gang!" She also says while they are lost in space to her heart-throb referring to when they will die, "Will you come to me?" If you replace the word to with in, I think was what she was really thinking, lol. Anyway, the trivia explained why this movie while never really was all that great in the beginning went totally downhill after that, RKO announced they were closing down! I'm just wondering what the target audience would have been for this movie anyway, it starts out to mature for kids (they'd be either running all over the place or asleep), and I don't see any women appeal, or for that matter many guys. I guess there was a "geek" element in the 50's because that's the only target audience I see. Well I admit I have geeky ways to myself so they got me to watch, the ad libbing I did with Virginia made the last part tolerable, otherwise your not missing much. A Japanese guy in a rubber monster suit is much more fun to watch.

aimless-46 This 1959 movie adaptation of Jules Verne's "From the Earth to the Moon" is the graveyard of declining actors. Joseph Cotton and George Sanders were at the end of fairly successful film careers and about to be relegated to guest appearances on a variety of television shows; the most notable being Sander's Mr. Freeze on "Batman". Debra Paget was in her late twenties; she had lost her glow and was used up by Hollywood standards. The change to an unflattering "strawberry" blonde look exacerbated the problem as few actresses have ever been less suited to a light hair color. On the plus side, the movie itself is a fairly accurate adaptation of Verne's story; at least the book's illustrations appear to have been used as models for the rocket and the cannon. Verne's 19th century take on space travel turned out to be more accurate than most of the speculation during the first half of the 20th century. The adaptation's biggest problem was altering Verne's story by inserting a topical theme about the post WWII arms race. In Verne's 1865 novel, the Baltimore Gun Club itself set about building a rocket to go to the Moon. In the adaptation a munitions manufacturer (think "Destination Moon") concocts the scheme to demonstrate his powerful new explosive. With a lot of discussion about science, weapons, and peace the movie dances around the subject extensively yet never makes a coherent point about its position (regarding the nuclear arms race), as if simply inserting the theme is somehow sufficient. The movie is a cross between "Destination Moon" and "Rocketship X-M", combining the former's good science and bad political message with the latter's dismal sets and comical special effects. The acting in all three films is equally sad. The premise has munitions manufacturer Victor Barbicane (Cotton) discovering an explosive (Power X) capable of firing a shell-like projectile to the moon. His plan is opposed for philosophical/religious reasons by Stuyvesant Nicholl (Sanders), another manufacturer. Although these philosophical differences play an important part in the story, they are never convincingly elaborated on, which undermines the basic storyline. President Grant orders Barbicane to abandon the project because it is considered an act of war by other nations. While this is unconvincing it does serve as Barbicane's inspiration to change the project to a manned space flight. Nicholl then agrees to manufacture the ceramic coating needed for re-entry and to accompany Barbicane on a flight to the moon. Paget plays Nicholl's daughter who hides inside the rocket just prior to take-off. "From the Earth to the Moon" is often confused with "First Men in the Moon" which was made five years later. Probably because both are set in the 19th century and both feature a female stowaway (played by Martha Hyer in the later film). "First Men in the Moon" (while not a great film) is superior in virtually every detail to "From the Earth to the Moon". Rather ironically it was adapted from a story by "H.G. Wells", an early science fiction writer often compared to Verne. Movie adaptations of Verne's books were a big thing in the 1950's and early 1960's. Among the good ones were "20,000 Leagues Under the Sea" (1954), "Around the World in 80 Days" (1956), "Journey to the Center of the Earth"(1959), "Mysterious Island" (1961), and "Master of the World" (1961). Unfortunately "From the Earth to the Moon" is simply not in the same league as these examples. Then again, what do I know? I'm only a child.