Way... Way Out (1966)

In a futuristic world, the USA decides to send a married couple of astronauts to its moon base in order to prevent any improper contact with the Soviet female cosmonauts manning the USSR moon base.

Director:

Gordon Douglas

Writers:

William Bowers, László Vadnay (as Laslo Vadnay)

Stars:

Jerry Lewis, Connie Stevens, Robert Morley

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Jerry Lewis	...	Peter Mattemore
Connie Stevens	...	Eileen Forbes
Robert Morley	...	Harold Quonset
Dennis Weaver	...	Hoffman
Howard Morris	...	Schmidlap
Brian Keith	...	Gen. 'Howling Bull' Hallenby
Dick Shawn	...	Igor Valkleinokov
Anita Ekberg	...	Anna Soblova
William O'Connell	...	Ponsonby
Bobo Lewis	...	Esther Davenport
Sig Ruman	...	Russian Delegate
Milton Frome	...	American Delegate
Alexander D'Arcy	...	Deuce Hawkins (as Alex D'Arcy)
Linda Harrison	...	Peggy
James Brolin	...	Ted Robertson

Storyline

In 1989, the Americans and the Russians each have a two-person base on the moon. The Americans have had to keep replacing their astronaut teams because they quickly go crazy; they have been using only male astronauts on the unspoken assumption that this would avoid any possibility of impropriety. The Russians, as godless Communists, are under no such constraints, and their male-female team has remained well-adjusted. At the start of the film, a male and female American astronaut team is sent up to replace the sex-starved all-male team. The government insists on them being married first to preserve morality. Most of the story revolves around the eventual consummation of this marriage of convenience, and around their relationship with their Russian neighbors, who keep casually dropping by.

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Plot Keywords:

astronaut | marriage of convenience | faked pregnancy | video telephone | pregnancy issue | 

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Taglines:

By Gemini, here's the wildest crew on Earth, Saturn, Mars, Moon etc.

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Genres:

Comedy | Sci-Fi

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Certificate:

Not Rated

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

26 October 1966 (USA)

Also Known As:

Das Mondkalb

Filming Locations:

Stage 18, 20th Century Fox Studios - 10201 Pico Blvd., Century City, Los Angeles, California, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$2,955,000 (estimated)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Coldwater, Way Out Company

Technical Specs

Runtime:

101 min

Sound Mix:

Mono (Westrex Recording System)

Color:

Color (DeLuxe) Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

One of the rare Jerry Lewis movies from the 1960s that was not directed by himself or Frank Tashlin (Boeing, Boeing (1965) being one of the other exceptions up until 1966).

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Goofs

On their first night on the moon the valve on Pete's pillow appears and disappears.

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Quotes

[First lines]
Narrator: This is Colonel John "Shorty" Powers in Lunar Launch Control. This story takes place near the turn of the century -not the last century, the *next* century. Nothing very much has happened since the 1960's: There as still a United Nations, and peace in the world... or at least what we have come to accept as "peace".

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Connections

Features Frankenstein (1931)

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Soundtracks

Way... Way Out
Words by Hal Winn
Music by Lalo Schifrin
Sung by Gary Lewis & The Playboys (as Gary Lewis and the Playboys)

User Reviews

It Seemed A Lot Funnier In The Theater

Way back in the day when I saw this Jerry Lewis film in the theater it seemed a whole lot funnier. I guess the laughs haven't worn that well in 40 years. Certainly their predictions of the future certainly didn't wear that well.

Way Way Out has the USA and the USSR still grappling in the Cold War with the newest theater of that war being the Moon where both superpowers have set up weather stations in the year 2000. The Russians have Anita Ekberg and Dick Shawn there, but being the atheistic Communists they are, the couple has been sent up without benefit of clergy.

But Americans being the moral people that they are have reservations about that. Two men, Dennis Weaver and Howard Morris, have been on the Moon for a year and the sexual tensions are showing badly, especially on Morris. What's fascinating here is that the obvious relief for such tensions isn't hinted or implied. Remember this was America before Stonewall.

So last minute astronaut Jerry Lewis is given a female partner in Connie Stevens in which they say the vows for convention's sake, but don't plan to do any deeds. Bad for the American image if a man and woman live alone on the Moon without being married, we're not godless and atheistic like those Russians.

So the usual situations involving sex, the Cold War, and sex and the Cold War are brought into the story of Way Way Out. Merely the fact that history did not go the way that this film indicates lessens the laughs considerably.

Jerry is more restrained than usual except when he does a drunk act with Shawn after they both get crocked on vodka. Shawn, Robert Morley as the NASA administrator and Brian Keith as an Air Force General go to town in their overacted parts.

Way Way Out belongs in the third tier of Jerry Lewis's films.