Aaron1375 This film is about espionage! No wait, this film is about space travel! No, back to espionage! No, now it is about survival! Um, maybe it is a bout romance? Yes, this film that was featured on the show Mystery Science Theater was all over the place and it was only like a 62 minute movie! An early film about space travel featuring space stations, super secret bad guy organizations and two astronauts who dislike each other and then learn to fall in love with each other. Yes, the film is like part Bond film, part space adventure and part romantic comedy. It kind of makes a very strange mix up of a movie, but at the same time it is impressive that they managed to merge all three genres in such a short film.The story has an evil organization to start out with. Their plan is to find a scientist that will be sent to this space station and replace him with a look alike that can sabotage said station and take it down! Sounds right out of a Bond film doesn't it? Well, it predates every James Bond film so the people who made this one did not copy from the films, anyways. Well, a mission is going to be launched where a couple of astronauts are to fly around the moon and someone else is supposed to photo for some type of surveying mission as they want to place a base on the moon. The evil organization has its man and gets him into the mission; meanwhile, the pilot and copilot of this mission have grudges against each other, but chances are they secretly love each other as one is a female everyone calls Bright Eyes. They are on the station and you get to see lame effects before they end up stranded on the moon and this movie really moves by quick.This was a first season episode of MST3K and I generally find that the first season episodes are the weakest, but this one is okay. Once they get past the not one, but two Commander Cody shorts that precede this film. I was so getting tired of those things by the end of that season as so many of the first episodes featured them. The portion of the film that centered on the actual movie were pretty good as it was one of the fastest moving first season episodes ever! I think it had something to do with the nature of the film, it changed up so much that it felt fresh the entire time with very few repeated jokes.So, not a great film, but at least it moved at a very quick pace. Still cannot ignore the fact that after the one dude dies that the secret organization that seemed so important to the plot literally vanishes without a trace; however, that may be due to the fact that this was going to be a television series so perhaps they would have made their return. Then again, the thing almost seemed like a romantic comedy during the last portion so who knows what the direction they were going to go in if this thing had progressed further. I will say it did have a good plot for an adult film. Add another woman on the ship and perhaps some moon women and it would have been a wild time! I mean they were literally flying the ship from beds!

bkoganbing This low budget science fiction film with story by Robert Heinlein of all people was given to the American movie-going public by Lippert Pictures. Certainly a writer of Heinlein's reputation in the science fiction genre deserved better than a film by Lippert.We're into the future, 1970 to be precise and the Cold War is still going on and it's race to the moon to see who can establish a base there and point missiles at Earth. There's a US constructed and operated space station out there already and the Communists want to see it destroyed and our progress in space halted and maybe even reversed.What to do but plant a spy on board a mission to the moon who will take over the ship and destroy the space station. The spy is Larry Johns who is discovered by that tried and true device so popular during World War II, knowledge of baseball. I mean anybody who's never heard of the Brooklyn Dodgers has to be an enemy agent. And here the Dodgers never went west.As if problems with Russian spies isn't enough, pilot Donna Martell and co-pilot Ross Ford are feuding. She was jumped over him in rank and given the first orbital space flight due to her sex and Ford doesn't like it. He kind of likes her though and they do get kind of close.Even seen from a Cold War perspective I have to believe that Heinlein's story was a great deal more complex. The sets are Lippert style cheap and the story is to ridiculous to describe further. Even the Man in the Moon winced.

ebiros2 In the early '50s when real space travel was yet another 8 years in the future, this was average view of space travel for most people. In that paradigm, movie like this was a pretty standard format as a space rocket based stories. Story's premise sound's ridiculous now that a rocket goes off course and can land on moon as an alternate plan and become the first people to land on the moon, but movie like this was never intended to be a serious science fiction. Some things were predicted accurately such as giant screen TV monitor, and forward thinking concept such as woman president of the country.But let's get to the bottom line here. The only thing that's worth watching in this movie in my opinion is the beautiful Donna Martel. She looks great as the female astronaut. This movie would not be worth a watch without her.Movie is a bit of cheese, but I find decent entertainment, and not a terrible movie to watch. I like this movie better than many of the rocket movies from this era such as Cat Woman of the Moon.So, I wouldn't give a high rating, but it's an okay movie for this category.

Gatorman9 What you would think of this film depends entirely upon your own sense of humor. As pointed out ad nauseum by other reviewers, this was the subject of a skewering by "Mystery Science Theater 3000", and there is no reason why you can't watch and enjoy it just as much supplying your own wisecracks in place of those of the MST3K's writers. A true campfest, it clearly wasn't intended to be taken entirely seriously even when it was first released in 1953. It is certainly as amusing as anything you are likely to see on "David Letterman." It is also interesting for what it reveals about 1950's conceptions of the future and the science and technology of space travel (this four years before ANY satellite had ever been launched) in comparison with what we now take for granted at this late date of 2008, as well as the way in which science fiction was expected to be portrayed at that time (when technical theorizing and "gee-whiz" gadgetry were about mandatory in the genre -- just check out the cordless telephones!), even apart from the more obvious social commentary it provides.Thus, while judging it as a serious effort might rate two stars or so, for more lighthearted viewers you can probably bump that up to as high as a six, if not even higher if this kind of thing is just what you are in the mood for. In that regard, I have to wonder how many people under 40 would really appreciate it.