From the Earth to the Moon (1958)

User Rating:

5.1/10   

Director:

Byron Haskin

Writers:

Jules Verne (novels)
Robert Blees (screenplay) ...

Genre:

Sci-Fi

Plot:

Set just after the American civil war, businessman and inventor Victor Barbicane (Joseph Cotton) invents a new source of power called Power X...

Plot Keywords:

Civil War | Moon | Beautiful Woman | Ulysses Simpson Grant | Foreign Language Adaptation

US TV Schedule:

Mon. July 20

7:30 AM

TCM

Cast

Joseph Cotten	...	Victor Barbicane
George Sanders	...	Stuyvesant Nicholl
Debra Paget	...	Virginia Nicholl
Don Dubbins	...	Ben Sharpe
Patric Knowles	...	Josef Cartier
Carl Esmond	...	Jules Verne
Henry Daniell	...	Morgana
Melville Cooper	...	Bancroft
Ludwig Stössel	...	Von Metz (as Ludwig Stossel)
Morris Ankrum	...	President Ulysses S. Grant

Runtime:

101 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (RCA Sound System)

Certification:

Iceland:L | Australia:G

Filming Locations:

Mexico

Company:

Waverly Productions

Trivia:

Among the last minute cost-cutting measures inflicted upon this film was the elimination of all scenes taking place on the moon.

Goofs:

Continuity: Just before the spaceship is launched, someone shouts that the red warning rocket has been fired. But when the rocket explodes, its color is white.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Back to the Future Part III (1990)

Total waste of time

Dull, dull, dull. Did I mention it was dull?

I've seen many an old science fiction movie made in the 50s and 60s, and I can't remember one more boring than this. Bad acting, bad plot, bad effects, bad music, horrid science. Hard to believe this was made years after "The War of the Worlds" and "Forbidden Planet." In fact, the only SF movie I can recall that was comparable in deathly dullness was "Quatermass and the Pit" aka "Five Million Years to Earth." This was RKO Picture Corporation's last release, and if it wasn't solely responsible for RKO's demise, it was the final nail (and a big one) in RKO's coffin. What a difference from the miniseries of the same name released in 1998. Even 1964's "First Men in the Moon," based on a similar H.G. Wells story, was far superior. That, at least, tried to inject a bit of fun and humor into the story here and there, not to mention having good, old-fashioned Ray Harryhausen special effects.

Jules Verne must have been spinning in his grave faster than the supposed astronauts here in their acceleration tubes. SF movies have come a long way since this, and we should thank the stars.