Missile to the Moon (1958)

Escaped convicts Gary and Lon are caught hiding in a rocket by scientist Dirk Green, who forces them to pilot the ship to the moon. Dirk, who's secretly a moon being, wants to return to his... See full summary »

Director:

Richard E. Cunha

Writers:

H.E. Barrie (screenplay), Vincent Fotre (screenplay)

Stars:

Richard Travis, Cathy Downs, K.T. Stevens

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Richard Travis	...	Steve Dayton
Cathy Downs	...	June Saxton
K.T. Stevens	...	The Lido
Tommy Cook	...	Gene Fennell
Nina Bara	...	Alpha
Gary Clarke	...	Lon
Michael Whalen	...	Dirk Green
Laurie Mitchell	...	Lambda
Leslie Parrish	...	Zema (as Marjorie Hellen)
Henry Hunter	...	Col. Wickers
Lee Roberts	...	Sheriff Cramer
Pat Mowry	...	Moon Girl
Tania Velia	...	Moon Girl
Sanita Pelkey	...	Moon Girl
Lisa Simone	...	Moon Girl

Storyline

Escaped convicts Gary and Lon are caught hiding in a rocket by scientist Dirk Green, who forces them to pilot the ship to the moon. Dirk, who's secretly a moon being, wants to return to his home satellite. Dirk's partner Steve Dayton and his fiancé June stowaway on the ship by accident. Will they all make it back safely?

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Plot Keywords:

moon | rocket | subterranean | space | moon people | 

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Taglines:

Man reaches Moon...a strange forbidding race

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Genres:

Sci-Fi

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Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

26 January 1962 (West Germany)

Also Known As:

Bestie des Grauens

Filming Locations:

Red Rock Canyon State Park - Highway 14, Cantil, California, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$65,000 (estimated)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Layton Film Productions Inc.

Technical Specs

Runtime:

78 min

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Black and White

Did You Know?

Trivia

Leading lady Cathy Downs' screams are dubbed - they were taken from Allison Hayes and the soundtrack of Attack of the 50 Foot Woman.

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Goofs

When the others plead with Gene to drop the diamonds and stay out of the sun, all three of them call him "Gary."

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Quotes

The Lido: You have not even commented on my blindness.
Steve Dayton: I was very sorry to see it.

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Connections

Featured in 100 Years of Horror: Mutants (1996)

User Reviews

Makes "Cat Women of the Moon" look like DeMille.

It's hard to believe that anyone would want to re-make "Cat Women...", but I guess plagiarism knows no bounds. Unfortunately, the humor of the original (which continues to crack me up) was only funny the first time, and this attempt at re-animation reeks. The original at least had some good actors/actresses (Victor Jory, Marie Windsor, Bill Phipps...), but this one is a thespian black hole. Everything from CWOTM is here: telepathic communication with a crew member, subterranean all-woman civilization, giant cave spider... Oh, there is one HUGE "difference": the greedy "crewman" who goes after diamonds (instead of the gold of COTW) which are as common as quartz on this version of the moon.

The crew of this rocket (which has an exhaust manifold about the size of a large pizza) is a mad scientist, two escaped cons, and a pair of unwitting stowaways (one- of course- a woman) who, when the rocket blasts off, grab air masks "..because soon we'll be out of the earth's atmosphere". The masks are old fighter pilot jobbies, and are unconnected to anything at all, let alone an oxygen tank.

Already in a deep hole, this flick goes downhill rapidly from there: The rocket just happened to have a ladies space suit (and of course she's wearing pearls and high heels); the "moon" has plants growing on it; rock creatures which attack at the speed of "The Crawling Terror", yet (of course) our intrepid band cannot elude or outdistance them; and on and on and on...

What a stinker!