Project Moon Base (1953)

Disappointment for a huge fan!

Although it has its amusing moments, in eneral the plot does not convince.

It’s fine. It's literally the definition of a fine movie. You’ve seen it before, you know every beat and outcome before the characters even do. Only question is how much escapism you’re looking for.

I didn’t really have many expectations going into the movie (good or bad), but I actually really enjoyed it. I really liked the characters and the banter between them.

Originally intended as a pilot film for a TV series to be called "Ring Around the Moon". This pilot project shot in just ten days, was suddenly turn into a feature length movie by producer Jack Seaman, when films like Sci-Fi films became uber popular. In the end, all this was done without the knowledge of fame writer Robert A. Heinlein whom wrote the classic short story 'Destination Moon', in which this movie is based on. To avoid a lawsuit, the studio gave Heinlein credit, in which, Heinlein quickly disowned, because how much he loathed the final project. The result of his choice, would affect his work for years to come. The plot set in a futuristic version of the 1970, has a group of astronauts, leaded by the beautiful, Colonel Briteis (Donna Martell) and her dashing co-pilot, Major Bill Moore (Ross Ford), being infiltrated by an enemy spy, posing as Dr. Wernher (Larry Johns), who inadvertently causes the team to become stranded on the Moon during a photographing space mission. Can the astronauts find their way back to their main base or will the three men crew, perish in the great beyond? Watch the movie to find out, if you want to! Without spoiling the movie, too much; this movie is full of visual flaws. The uniforms for the astronauts is hilarious bad with their short shorts, tight-fitting tee-shirt, and swimming caps. Seeing how cold, it is, in space and it's the conservative 1950s. It's weird to see, how much skin, is shown in this film. The toy models effects like the Frisbee space station are laughable to look at. Then there is the fact, that this movie and 1953's Cat-Women of the Moon use mostly the same sets and costumes, and then released within one day of each other. It's a glorious mess, but since the movie started out as a failed television pilot with a lower budget, it does somewhat explain, why the sets, special effects, and costumes look so cheap and disjointed. Regardless, director Richard Talmadge does his best to pull off this futuristic survivor thriller movie, with nifty interior shot of the space station and splices the film to make it seem as if crew members are walking on the ceiling with magnetic boots. However, these sequence are also hard to watch, due to severe 90 degree Dutch angles. Another alright effect was the somewhat realistic looking, launch that shows the crews gritting their teeth and screaming as G-force crush in on them. Like the other shot, it can come across, as the astronauts looking like they're about to crap, their pants. Then, there is the concept of the odd mix of scientific authenticity and Cold War paranoia, but like the others, it's can be a bit jarring. A good example is how the movie talks about having to weight, less than 90 pounds to be, in the space mission, yet most of the actors, looks like it weight more than that. Also, how exactly, were they going to photograph the dark side of the moon? Another thing, the villain's true identity is uncovered, because he didn't know what the Brooklyn Dodgers are. I guess, if you're not a sport fan; you have to be a communism spy! Well, regardless of all, those flaws, it was still, an entertaining mess. It's when the 3rd act comes, where the most of this movie's fun moments, comes undone. It's here, when the sub-plot idea of marriage comes into view, and overtakes the survivor plot. It's there, this movie really lost, its direction. It really comes out of nowhere and add nothing to the plot. I really don't understand why, Moore's commander, Jovial "Pappy" Green (Hayden Rorke) would virtually order, these two to fall in love and get marry, when the two astronauts rarely show any interest with each other. I guess, it's because the public won't accept to rescue them, if the two, were unmarried, but that's really a stretch. It's really stupid. If anything, its ruin the movie's feminist tone. Despite all, the threats, she got from her fellow officers like getting spankings because her bratty attitude, until this point, the Colonel mostly kept mostly cool and collective. It's here, that she turn into a young naive schoolgirl whom gladly gets married, despite the fact, that this plot was hatched without her knowledge, and she barely know, anything about Moore. I really don't get, what this movie is going for, with its tone. Is this movie was trying to be, misogyny against women or a film for feminists? It's confusing. One minute, the film is talking about how females are equal to men in the military. Then the next minute, the Colonel requests Moore be promoted to general so he'll be superior to her, because Moore felt inferior. To make it, even more baffling, she does this in front of the female president of the United States, and her new husband, says, he didn't give her, anything, but a kiss. Before we can watch the couple finish their kiss, a hasty "The End" card was spastically hacked into the print. How does that make a well-solid film!? This 63 minutes movie is full of stupid snappy editing like that. Not only that, but despite being cast in the part of a strong woman, Donna Martell fails to project any confident or assured presence. Ross Ford's performance felt like wasted, and Hayden Rorke can't act, worth beans. At one point, you can clearly make out that he was reading his lines from cue cards, complete with awkward pauses as he has to pick up where he left off. It's boondoggle. Despite that, the b/w picture looking fine, with little scratches, and has decent sound for its age. Overall: I have to say, it's so bad, it's good. Project Moon Base is a gem of ridiculousness, and deserves to be cherished for its moments of unintentional hysterics. A must-watch.

Robert A. Heinlein certainly wrote some great science fiction tales in his life, but I wasn't surprised to find out that he didn't like this science fiction movie that he helped script. In fairness, most of the blame doesn't fall on his shoulders. For starters, the movie simply didn't have an adequate budget for the most part. While there are a few neat low budget effects here and there, a real feeling of cheapness can be felt from start to end. And under the direction of Richard Talmadge, the movie suffers from not only a really slow pace (despite the running time being only a little over an hour), but from missing feelings of awe, wonder, and plain old excitement that you'd expect from a movie concerning explorers of the moon. The movie is slightly more scientifically accurate about space exploration and travel than a number of other science fiction films from this same time period, but the movie is so dull I would have welcomed a tribe of moon women appearing just to have some unintended humor to liven things up.

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.

This is a very odd sci-fi movie from the 1950s because those involved really tried very hard to make the movie plausible and set it in the near future. Instead of bug-eyed aliens, this film concerns the American space program and our attempt to go to the moon. Interestingly enough, in some ways the film wasn't too far off--indicating we'd have a working space station and were almost ready to attempt a moon landing in 1970 (whereas we were on the moon in 1969 and put a space station up just a few years later). Time and again, details were important and the film, at times, looked more like a government training film.However, when it came to plot, the movie really fell apart. First, while they were never called "Communists", the space program was attacked and infiltrated by "enemies" bent on destroying it. This was pretty topical for the time, but was executed very crudely and made little sense. The whole side story involving the professor who was replaced with an enemy agent was stupidly executed and made no sense--particularly later in the film once they were stranded on the moon--his behaviors made absolutely no sense at all. Second, while the film at times tried to be very egalitarian when it came to gender (such as making the President and the first pilot of the moon shot women), the film was so sexist and stupid when it came to the lead female character, Colonel Briteis (pronounced "Bright Eyes"). While described as competent and efficient, most of the time throughout the film she seemed to be a dip-stick with a bad case of PMS! Plus, she seemed to be picked for the film just because she looked good in shorts and a t-shirt (the standard garb for astronauts in the film). My wife just cringed at her character and I found it to be unintentionally funny. Plus, the Major, who you KNEW was destined to marry her, was an annoying sexist who only seemed happy when he was not serving under her (forgive the crude humor) but was her superior in rank! Uggh. The film just died when it came to the human interactions and became tedious and silly.So, although I love the sci-fi genre of the 1950s, I must admit this film is fatally flawed. Under no circumstances should it be viewed by a rabid feminist, as it might result in an apoplectic fit at the sexism and stupidity of the characters. Otherwise, watch at your own risk.