Project Moon Base (1953)

User Rating:

2.1/10   

Director:

Richard Talmadge

Writers:

Robert A. Heinlein (story) and
Jack Seaman (story) ...

Release Date:

4 September 1953 (USA)

Genre:

Sci-Fi

Tagline:

Thrills Come Rocketing to the Screen as Science Smashes a New Frontier!

Plot:

In the not-too-distant future of 1970, the United States is considering building bases on the Moon,...

Plot Keywords:

Moon | 1970s | Reverse Footage | Secret Agent | Space Station

Cast

Donna Martell	...	Col. Briteis
Hayden Rorke	...	Gen. 'Pappy' Greene
Ross Ford	...	Maj. Bill Moore
Larry Johns	...	Dr. Wernher
Herb Jacobs	...	Mr. Roundtree
Barbara Morrison	...	Polly Prattles
Ernestine Barrier	...	Madame President
James Craven	...	Commdr. Carlson
John Hedloe	...	Adjutant
Peter Adams	...	Capt. Carmody
Robert Karnes	...	Sam (enemy agent)
John Straub	...	Chaplain
Charles Keane	...	Spacom operator
John Tomecko	...	Blockhouse air controller
Robert Paltz	...	Bellboy

Also Known As:

Project Moonbase (USA) (alternative spelling)
Ring Around the Moon (USA) (working title)

Runtime:

63 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Filming Locations:

Culver City, California, USA

Company:

Galaxy Pictures Inc.

Trivia:

This was initially intended as a pilot film for a TV series to be called "Ring Around the Moon". When science-fiction movies suddenly became popular, producer Jack Seaman added enough footage to the film to bring it up to feature length. This was done without the knowledge of writer Robert A. Heinlein, and he disowned the result.

Goofs:

Revealing mistakes: Maj. Moore is talking from the moonbase to the space station using the large "Television Monitor". Right after the General says "Take off your rank son, this is man to man." the Major stands up and his shadow is now visible on the wall behind the General showing that the "Monitor" is just a hole in the wall and the space station set is on the other side.

Quotes:

Gen. 'Pappy' Greene: Colonel, I'm sending Major Moore as your co-pilot.
Col. Briteis: Bill Moore? Oh no General, you can't!
Gen. 'Pappy' Greene: And why not?
Col. Briteis: The big lug hates me, he's jealous of me.
Gen. 'Pappy' Greene: Now you listen to me, 'Brighteyes'...
Col. Briteis: "Bright-ice", if you please...
Gen. 'Pappy' Greene: Shut up BrightEYES, and listen to me! Major Moore is the best pilot we've got, better than you are!
Col. Briteis: But, I don't understand why you...
Gen. 'Pappy' Greene: PIPE DOWN! If he weighed 90 pounds instead of 180, he'd be a Colonel and a public hero and you'd still be a Captain. But you got the orbiting flight, you got the ticker tape parade and all the rest. Ever since then you've been too big for your britches. Get me?
[Turns away from her]
[...]

Movie Connections:

Featured in "The Canned Film Festival: Project Moonbase (#1.11)" (1986)

Lippert historical document/comedy

The paranoid, sexist 1950's has rarely ever been so summarily(unintentionally?) satirized as in this early-TV-quality space-opera. Was THIS the SciFi movie in Midnight Cowboy? I wish I could ask Heinlein how long it took him to get his tongue out of his cheek. If you liked Rocky Jones Space Ranger for the cardboard sets and acetylene-torch rocket engines and hokey camp plots and dialogue, and the required cutie with sweater-popping Pleasantville-weight undergarments (Ah, DVD on Pause), then this jaw-dropping side-to-side-head-shaker is for you. Both Rocketship X-M and Destination Moon assumed that an "unassailable base on the Moon" was vital to US survival. No mention of the Tax Payers here! Well, RXM had it politically and environmentally right, Destination Moon made it seem silly and one-way, but this thin movie includes a church-approved ending (that Forbidden Planet left off) which takes the cake. All 3 movies are so moral that you may wonder how year 2000 movies will look to people (if any) in about 50 years. Will we look this crazy?