1950s Moon Movies: Project Moon Base

Welcome back folks for Day 2 of 1950s Moon Movies. As mentioned I really enjoyed Destination Moon given it was Robert A Heinlein's writing and technical expertise in Spaaaaaaaace!! Alas while today's film is also written by Heinlein(Rocket Ship Galileo, Have Space Suit-Will Travel, Farmer in the Sky, Starman Jones, Red Planet, Starship Troopers and The Puppet Masters) I still feel the execution of the film may fall on its ear. I just have a hard time believing in a really good run of films unless I take it out of my own personal library but dammit we will give this a try. This is Project Moonbase.

Bullet bras of THE FUTURE!!!

In the far distant future of 1970... General Greene (Hayden Rorke of Father's Little Dividend, Pillow Talk, The Night Walker, I Dream of Jeannie, Police Woman and Arthur Hailey's the Moneychangers) needs perspective bases scouted out but the scuttlebutt is foreign spies are attempting to undermine their mission so has to have his best pilots to investigate.

To the public, it looks like yet another visit to the moon is led by Colonel Briteis (Donna Martell of Abbot and Costello Meet the Killer, Love Is a Many-Splendored Thing, Ten Wanted Men, Outlaws, Bonanza and Grace Kelly) needing to be the objective and snap decision maker that she is. (See kids, Robert A Heinlein's novels did their level best to give equality to men and women and show they were capable of every dangerous scenario men were) Briteis is annoyed to with Greene giving her Major Bill Moore (Ross Ford of Challenge to Lassie, Air Hostess, Project Moon Base, Reform School Girl, Assignment: Underwater, The Case of the Dangerous Robin, Rawhide and My Living Doll) as her co-pilot.

Oh God, I farted in my suit and the filter isn't working!

In spite of him being one of the best pilots in the service, Moore and Briteis have some serious friction between them. Moore was passed over for a promotion and is rather pissed that he has to serve under a woman. Imagine such a thing. There is enough sexual tension between these two they could power a rocket themselves. Briteis has difficulties with patching up the radio and tuning it properly and Moore grumbles, talks under his breath and gets the job done. Apparently there is a saboteur on-board the ship that damaged the vessel. Briteis has to put the ship down for repairs. Still when you hear a bit of dialogue like, "Major, I think you're space happy," it may come off as a bit of camp and well you would be correct. My biggest problem of this film is Briteis doesn't even come across as competent and capable but an eager beaver and almost like a petulant girl.

Okay a quick few points to make. While Heinlein was damn progressive, the 1950s could only allow so much via film so yes you have a female leader and for that matter, a female president giving a bit more weight to the writing but, they need to be coaxed or motivated by men. Yup. A woman could manage a position of power but clearly they are so bird brained they need a pat on the head and a treat for a job well done. Charming. The other issues is this was a pilot for a TV serial that apparently didn't get picked up. Most of the costumes and props hailed from Cat Women of the Moon so um... glad they recycled?

Why yes, I am white and doughy but what's yer point?

Now given this is a Heinlein write-up, you can really feel his influence in the female characters but the tropes of their incompetency really detracts the progressive ideals he went with. Methinks some producers couldn't have "broads" outshining the fellas. Ugh. That being said, this is really the building blocks of future female protagonists that can kick ass and smile while doing it. Maria Von Trapp, Leia, Ellen Ripley, Sarah Connor, Alex Owens of Flashdance, Clarice Starling of Silence of the Lambs,Cher Horowitz of Clueless to name a few.

If anything, Mad Max: Fury Road is hailed a bit too high for doing the very thing that movies have managed for some time now. Creating a strong, intelligent and capable female character is not difficult but above all else, don't forget the heart, writers. 

Sorry can't get Wheel in the Sky out of my head. Damn catchy tune.

1950s Moon Movies: Destination Moon

At the suggestion of my lady fair, I am tackling some 1950s Moon Movies. Yeah I know it is out of my element without mass levels of jiggly girls, nudity and plot holes the size of Kansas but it should be fun. With the space race in full swing 11 years after this film, building the necessary foundation of space exploration, a small group of scientists have to convince US companies to foot the bill when the government says it's too much. This is Destination Moon.

Smoooth Criminal!!!  Ow!

With Dr. Charles Cargraves (Warner Anderson of The Lineup, The Caine Mutiny, Peyton Place and The Rockford Files) and retired General Thayer (Tom Powers of Double Indemnity, Angel and the Badman, Julius Caesar, Double Jeopardy and The Go-Getter) desperate to be the first men to make it to the moon, their prototype satellite rocket fails on the ground. The government isn't likely to keep backing financially for more failures in their eyes so the fellas must make their way to the private sector. Aviation constructor and CEO Jim Barnes (John Archer of White Heat, Destination Moon, The Big Trees, Blue Hawaii and The Little Sister) might just be what the guys were looking for.

Establishing the heat from McCarthy spotting reds in every direction to the threat of the USSR gaining an orbital death platform, the general is convinced they simply must gather nothing but the best engineers, scientists and aviators and try again. It is imperative. Jim pushes the fellow captains of industry have to be sold on a Woody Woodpecker cartoon explaining the fundamentals of space travel. Poppycock! The stuff of fantasy! Is it really so impossible that it could not be done?

Dr. Cargraves is home with the wife Emily (Erin O' Brien-Moore of Little Men, Two in the Dark, Ring Around the Moon, The Plough and the Stars, Black Legion, Green Light and The Family Secret) has been given the call that private enterprise is on board, creating airlocks that are pressurized, blue prints created for the original rocket basis for the Apollo, using the Air Force poopie suits (An Air Force survival suit allowing body heat to be contained in the even of an emergency bailout over waters) or immersion suits.

Swingin' mad pad you got here, Daddy-O

Just want to take this time to tell you what impressed me with this movie. The accurate portrayal of weightlessness before the Apollo missions. The usage of jet packs with oxygen tanks maneuvering the astronauts in space and them surviving with bananas and coffee prior to the tang and baby food. All these concepts were based on simple theoretical physics of the time and it was frickin' awesome how true to life they were.

A gross miscalculation means not enough fuel to turn it and burn it back to Earth. Stripping non-essential parts and lighting the load still leaves them a hundred pounds too heavy. One of the four will have to stay behind. Who will it be?

Remember that none of this was factual as this is a decade before anyone made it into space. Admittedly the light-bulbs via starfield were a bit bright but dammit it worked for Roddenberry 14 years later so quit grumping. Also the fact of having a four man flight crew, meaning 4 times the possibility of getting home is no joke. Accidents could happen and no we did not watch a few minutes of them peeing into a hose. That is all Tom Hanks.

Stop farting up there!  God, it's like a stinky jungle.