Destination Moon (50's)

[Scott]

Caught DESTINATION MOON on Turner Classic Movies recently. Thought is was a rather boring film till they get to the moon. The end actually is pretty good. Overall not a great film, but worth watching. I like WHEN WORLDS COLLIDE, FIRST MEN IN THE MOON, and ANGRY RED PLANET better. I almost bought the DVD last week and I probably won't by the DVD now that I have seen it.

[Scott]

Well, I think the subject of the Moon at the time was probably very interesting since it seemed within reach with rockets and all. They were trying to show what it would be like in space and on the moon. For its time is was probably great. FORBIDDEN PLANET has moments that can grow on you, but I'm not sure DESTINATION MOON is able to to that.

[Gerry]

I quite like DESTINATION MOON.  The space walk moments are particularly good.  It's based on R Heinlein's novel Rocket Ship Galileo (rather loosely).  I would recommend both.

[Chris K.]

I liked DESTINATION MOON, an early George Pal effort which came right after Pal's film THE GREAT RUPERT, which is another great Pal effort. DESTINATION MOON was quite the film of it's time (1950 to be exact). And even though now the film is quite dry and some of the idea's of the moon are very inaccurate by today's standards, it's very easy to take the film seriously due to the heavy concentrated imagination that was placed on the film. That, and I enjoyed the cameo of Woody Woodpecker (which Pal added in because he believed Woody Woodpecker was a "good luck charm" character - Pal got that right too for Woody is a favorite character I adore).

[Scott]

The version I seen was in Color. Did Ted Turner color this one also? He must have if it was made in 1950. A black/white version would probably work better to help the atmosphere of the movie. Those space suits didn't look right to me.

[Gerry]

Naw, it really was originally in color.  It just had a bigger budget than other movies of the time.  THEM! was originally supposed to be color, but had its budget cut to B&W.  They were making color movies as early as the 40s--see UNKNOWN ISLAND for example.  It was made in 48 and probably had a bigger budget than THE THING FROM ANOTHER WORLD (1951)--jungle movies were big business in the 40s.

Related Links:

http://www.badmovies.org/movies/unknownisle/index.html">Andrew's UNKNOWN ISLAND review


http://www.scifilm.org/reviews/unknownisland.html">Gerry's UNKNOWN ISLAND review

[BoyScoutKevin]

Yeah, the late George Pal. They don't make people like that anymore. Besides, the films mentioned, he was also responsible for one of the great sci-fi movies of that era. "The Time Machine." The original. Not the remake. And that cartoon segment with Woody Woodpecker, it was so good, that after a little reworking, NASA used it for a number of years, to explain space travel. Enjoy!