classicsoncall
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.
Panamint
This is an incompetently conceived, made and acted film. Other than some nice color filming (I tried to find at least one nice thing to say) it is lousy from the first frame to the last.Badly directed are two outstanding movie stars (Cotton and Sanders) obviously wishing they were somewhere else. No actor in this film says one word like they believe in what they are doing.Dull direction and dialog.Not in the so bad its good category. Just a complete waste of your time. The only reason I watched through to the end is so that I would have some credibility when I write this review and suggest that others should skip this film.Its not just bad, its worse- it is actually incompetent and at times incoherent. Ed Wood could have done a better job, and that is not meant as a joke.
pjcaver
This movie is currently being broadcast on TCM. It looks as though it is barely worth watching. The biggest tragedy of this movie is that they recycled the "electronic tonalities" of Bebe and Louis Barron from the superb "Forbidden Planet", one of the greatest science fiction movies of all time and perhaps my favorite movie, ever. Certainly I am a bit prejudiced, but I am appalled by the the sound effects piracy. The Barrons created a whole new sound for Forbidden Planet and were unable to say "Electronic Music by Louis and Bebe Barron" due to their not being members of the Musician's Union. They settled for "Electronics Tonality....". In any case, it is sad that the movie had to pirate the sounds from the Barrons (perhaps legally) to ratchet up the bona fides of this ridiculous movie....pjcaver
bkoganbing
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.
AD
