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)

Jules Verne wouldn't like it!

A scientist (Joseph Cotton) and a millionaire arms dealer (George Sanders) team up on the construction of a rocket to blast themselves to the Moon. This movie was based on a Jules Verne classic -- but it completely lacks the charm and the quality of `Journey to the Center of the Earth' and `20,000 Leagues Under the Sea'.

Even though the cast includes Morris Ankrum (the Grand Old Man of vintage sci-fi) to provide dignity, and Debra Paget to provide scenery (watch `Princess of the Nile' and go quietly insane), it wasn't enough to save this numbingly slow and unappealing film.

Some of the special effects are astoundingly bad, considering the fair production standards. In the scenes of the blast-off, the supporting bar which holds up the rocket model is clearly visible! Fans of `Forbidden Planet' will notice the heavy use of the `electronic tonalities' borrowed from that classic. Directed by Byron Haskins, who did both `War of the Worlds' and `The Conquest of Space'.