From the Earth to the Moon (1958)

You won't be disappointed!

Good movie, but best of all time? Hardly . . .

n my opinion it was a great movie with some interesting elements, even though having some plot holes and the ending probably was just too messy and crammed together, but still fun to watch and not your casual movie that is similar to all other ones.

This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

When the reviews are more entertaining than the movie, then the movie probably isn't so hot. A Jules Verne adaptation is a good idea, a decent rivalry between the two leads doesn't hurt, and Victorian sci-fi is a rare treat.But it doesn't really 'get off the launchpad' for me. The main problem is the agonizing length. Never has there been a spaceship that survives so many meltdowns. I kept wishing that the meteorite shower would come back and finish them off. The spacecraft itself is pretty cool--as others have noted, the copious woodwork and generally ornate fittings make it seem very 1868. The nostalgia here operates on many levels. We're seeing a sixty-year-old film about mythical events occurring ninety years before that, involving a futuristic premise. Therefore I can easily buy into the drawing-room atmosphere of the spaceship, with its decent 1950s glowing hardware on board. But I can't buy the ever-present crane holding the ship up whenever we have an exterior shot. With the exception of the 'X' cannon demonstration, and Cotten's character meeting a very believable President Grant, most of the preliminary scenes just get in the way. I agree with others that 'Yankee Doodle' dumps its corny tone onto too many scenes. Some of the period details are haphazard too.The guys milling about in some of the public scenes look more like marching bandsmen than soldiers. As Cotten gives a speech to his workers, we see what appears to be a Russian and a French officer in full-dress uniforms among the luminaries standing behind him. The French guy shows up in a later scene too. But, if foreign nations have supposedly cold-shouldered us for developing the 'X' energy source/weapon, why are they sending observers? It's also weird, and tied more closely to the plot, when Cotten wins over his nemesis by pointing out how 'X' will "save millions of lives." But it's stunningly obvious (by 1958) that misuse of nuclear power ('X') has actually put humanity at greater risk.I also don't see that the subplot of some of the experts/investors insisting that the whole thing is a hoax. They saw the crew enter the spaceship and watched it take off; anybody sneaking out at the last minute would have been blown to bits.I really wanted to like From the Earth to the Moon, but it kept sabotaging its mission.

If I were designing a space ship, some of the things I'd probably overlook are a couch, writing desk, dining room table complete with place settings, a wall clock and carpeting - but they're all here on the Columbiad!?!? That could be why one of the characters in the story stated "Something very odd's happening here". You would think they'd be talking about a flight to the moon.Even with that said, I was surprised at the amount and intensity of negative comments for the picture on this board. Granted, it does little to enhance the reputation of the original novel's author Jules Verne, but I didn't think it was as bad as some of the other sci-fi coming out of the era. There's plenty of dreck out there like "The First Spaceship on Venus" if you only care to look for it.What really did blow my mind here was the character of Stuyvesant Nicholl (George Sanders) in his total hatred of Victor Barbicane (Joseph Cotten). Nicholl wanted to destroy the man's reputation so bad he went aboard the first space flight so he could sabotage it and in effect, prove that 'Power X' was a complete fraud. All because Barbicane proved he could put a dent in Nicholl's impervious, world's strongest metal.The story takes place in 1868 and if you want to get technical, the real first landing on the moon didn't take place exactly a hundred years later, it was a hundred one. But you have to wonder how much of Man's significant accomplishments started out as words on the printed page from some author's futuristic vision, and given life in science fiction fantasy films like this one. Who knows, maybe one day we'll be watching movies on the moon. Beam me up, Scotty.

Certainly the effects of this film are no where near what we are used to today, but the inventiveness to even attempt to portray Vernes' rich imagination are secondary to the effort to bring such imagination from the page to the visual arts. There are inventive approaches to pre-real space travel, and the scientific accuracy (or real lack thereof) are secondary to the underlying Drama and dilemma presented about technological advances and the impact they have by affecting Man's commission of War upon his fellow man. So when watching this movie enjoy the players and do not cast aside because of reality fallacies and liberties taken in order to bring a book to visual life.

Forgetting that this film version of From The Earth To The Moon is nowhere near the spirit of the original tale Jules Verne was trying to tell, usually his work requires a big budget and a ton of good special effects. This film got neither.Looking at the credits tonight I noted it was an RKO production released by Warner Brothers. My guess is that the film was finished and in the can when RKO went under and was sold to Warner Brothers to distribute. Also the fact that it was produced by Benedict Bogeaus who was a producer of B films of varying quality tells me why it did not get the budget for decent special effects.Bogeaus was not the guy for this kind of film. Take a look at his list of credits. He did several westerns with John Payne, noir films with George Raft and some of them pretty good. He was out of his element doing science fiction.Verne's original novel had a bit of humor in it. But someone at RKO drained every bit of it. They even added a stowaway love interest in Debra Paget who does not make the trip in the book. She's paired opposite Don Dubbins who is scientist Joseph Cotten's assistant in creating the rocket.So instead of humor we get a lot of high falutin' claptrap coming from the mouths of Joseph Cotten and George Sanders the armaments manufacturer who is jealous of Cotten. Sanders especially looked ill at some of the dialog he was required to speak. He came across as a pouty kid and George knew it.I do wonder if Jack Warner looked at this thing before he bought it for Warner Brothers.