MartinHafer First, there are no nudes in the film exactly. In the day, it was likely considered a porno film but all you get to see are some topless men and women. Second, it's not NUDE but, perhaps, nudes, as there are about a dozen of these scantily clad men and women. As for the movie, it's about what you'd expect for an old fashioned porno film--a bit of skin, little in the way of plot or production values and a really silly film. In other words, it's less titillating and more laugh-inducing.The film is about a couple amateur rocket scientists who decide to beat NASA to the moon. You mostly see a lot of bad acting, dull plot and stock footage in the first half and then a lot of topless ladies from then on...and all of it is handled clumsily. In fact, the actors don't even talk--their voices are just pasted onto the film and the lips don't even seem in sync at all! The only reasons to see this are to either have a good laugh or see one of the only films ever made at the weird Coral Castle in Homestead, Florida.

Woodyanders Leave it to the ever-daffy Doris Wishman to concoct one of the single most campy and inane soft-core nudist romps to blithely bounce its way onto celluloid. The ridiculous story alone promises one heck of a gut-busting good bad time: Brilliant scientist Dr. Jeff Huntley (hunky Lester Brown) and his friend Professor Nichols (a lively and engaging performance by William Mayer) go to the moon on a rocket ship they built themselves and discover that it's inhabited by shapely naked telepathic women. While this picture is loaded with wall to wall topless gals (buxom brunette Marietta in particular provides a yummy eyeful as the Moon Queen), said plentiful nudity gets presented in such a pleasant and unabashed way that it somehow comes across as sweet and harmless rather than crude and leering. Moreover, the dubious science (bet you didn't know that the moon has an abundance of verdant green foliage on it!), the laughably chintzy (far from) special effects, the incredibly shoddy bargain basement space suits, and the sheer jaw-dropping absurdity of the plot further enhance this honey's considerable kitschy charm. Raymond Phelan's vibrant color cinematography gives this picture a pleasing lush look. Daniel Hart's peppy jazz score and the groovy lounge theme song both hit the swinging spot. A complete dippy hoot and a half.

Katterfelto If there were an Oscar category for most sincere performance in a ridiculous movie (and there should be!), Lester Brown and William Mayer would surely have been nominated for their work in Doris Wishman's "Nude on the Moon," a jaw-dropping sci-fi "nudie cutie" in which Brown and Mayer play a pair of intrepid astronauts who discover the first interplanetary nudist colony.Brown, a handsome Wishman veteran who also appeared in Doris's "Blaze Starr Goes Wild" (1960), "Gentlemen Prefer Nature Girls" (1962), and "Behind the Nudist Curtain" (1964), plays dedicated young scientist Jeff Huntley, who decides to use his $3 million inheritance to finance a trip to the Moon along with mentor and colleague William Mayer (i.e., the "Professor.")One of the amazing things about the film is the amount of time and care devoted to its exposition and set-up. The extended opening sequence is surprisingly well written, and is easily on par with any sci-fi "B" movie from the early sixties. Brown and Mayer are credible and convincing throughout, which only makes the lunacy (no pun intended) all the more surreal. Their straight-faced, deadpan performances help make the film the giddily preposterous gem that it is.Top billing is afforded nudie model "Marietta," who appears in the double roles of Brown's secretary, Cathy, and the Moon Queen. She was obviously cast on account of her physical attributes, yet she's actually a decent actress, and her brief scenes as Brown's lovestruck secretary are sincere and believable. The film opens with a cheesy and inexplicably lengthy shot of the twinkling heavens as might be viewed from the moon, accompanied by Judith J. Kushner's catchy title song, "Moon Dolls," sung by Ralph Young, who would later partner with Belgian singer Tony Sandler to form the famous recording duo of Sandler and Young. (Another interesting footnote: Doc Severinsen of Johnny Carson's "Tonight Show" not only contributed to the musical score but also appears in the cast list, though I challenge anybody to recognize him as one of the half-naked "moon men.")One of the great things about this movie is the sunny, Florida-travelogue photography. And there are one or two beautiful and almost breathtakingly unconventional shots of our heroes driving along rain-slicked Miami blacktop under a menacing canopy of thunderheads. There's also a clever in-joke that occurs whilst our intrepid astronauts drive through Miami Beach on their way to the launch pad. Just as Clint Eastwood walked past a movie marquee advertising the Eastwood-directed "Play Misty for Me" in Don Siegel's "Dirty Harry," Brown and Mayer drive past Miami Beach's Variety Theater, the marquee of which is emblazoned with the title of another Doris Wishman film, "Hideout in the Sun" (in "Nuderama!")The great drive-in movie critic Joe Bob Briggs listed "Nude on the Moon" as one of his "Sleaziest Movies in the History of the World," however I would respectfully disagree. For sheer sleaze, the film hardly measures up to Wishman's "Bad Girls go to Hell" (1965), "The Amazing Transplant" (1970), or her latest offering, "Satan was a Lady" (2001). In spite of the liberal above-the-waist nudity, "Nude on the Moon" is one of the least sleazy movies I've ever seen. I've seen many films with far fewer bared breasts that were a thousand times sleazier. If anything, this most famous of Wishman's films strikes the viewer not with its venality but its astounding innocence.One of the most interesting things about the film was that it was shot at the oddball south Florida tourist attraction, Coral Castle, the bizarre history of which is detailed in Florida journalist Eliot Kleinberg's entertaining book "Weird Florida." Coral Castle was also used as a location in James L. Wolcott's "Wild Women of Wonga" (1958) and Herschell Gordon Lewis's obscure fantasy opus, "Jimmy, the Boy Wonder" (1966).Cult fans will immediately recognize blonde cutie Shelby Livingston in a non-speaking part as one of the fetching "Moon Dolls." Shelby is best remembered for her role as disaffected housewife Bea Miller, who gets her arm hacked off in H.G. Lewis's southern-fried gorefest, "Two Thousand Maniacs."A delirious mixture of campy humor, harmless nudity and Florida kitsch, "Nude on the Moon" is a priceless cinematic gem from a more innocent time. A silly, wonderful, charming little film.

drhannibal666 Nude on the Moon is currently available as part of Joe Bob Briggs' "Sleaziest Movies in the History of the World" video series. And they don't come any sleazier than the films directed by the prolific Doris Wishman, who's been churning out soft-core and hard-core since the early 1960s.A series of cheesy special effects transports the main characters to the Moon, which looks more like an unpaved highway. Amazingly, it turns out that the moon is inhabited. Even more amazing, given the temperature extremes on the lunar surface, is that everyone is naked.My Rating:1/10