Aaron1375 This film is about espionage! No wait, this film is about space travel! No, back to espionage! No, now it is about survival! Um, maybe it is a bout romance? Yes, this film that was featured on the show Mystery Science Theater was all over the place and it was only like a 62 minute movie! An early film about space travel featuring space stations, super secret bad guy organizations and two astronauts who dislike each other and then learn to fall in love with each other. Yes, the film is like part Bond film, part space adventure and part romantic comedy. It kind of makes a very strange mix up of a movie, but at the same time it is impressive that they managed to merge all three genres in such a short film.The story has an evil organization to start out with. Their plan is to find a scientist that will be sent to this space station and replace him with a look alike that can sabotage said station and take it down! Sounds right out of a Bond film doesn't it? Well, it predates every James Bond film so the people who made this one did not copy from the films, anyways. Well, a mission is going to be launched where a couple of astronauts are to fly around the moon and someone else is supposed to photo for some type of surveying mission as they want to place a base on the moon. The evil organization has its man and gets him into the mission; meanwhile, the pilot and copilot of this mission have grudges against each other, but chances are they secretly love each other as one is a female everyone calls Bright Eyes. They are on the station and you get to see lame effects before they end up stranded on the moon and this movie really moves by quick.This was a first season episode of MST3K and I generally find that the first season episodes are the weakest, but this one is okay. Once they get past the not one, but two Commander Cody shorts that precede this film. I was so getting tired of those things by the end of that season as so many of the first episodes featured them. The portion of the film that centered on the actual movie were pretty good as it was one of the fastest moving first season episodes ever! I think it had something to do with the nature of the film, it changed up so much that it felt fresh the entire time with very few repeated jokes.So, not a great film, but at least it moved at a very quick pace. Still cannot ignore the fact that after the one dude dies that the secret organization that seemed so important to the plot literally vanishes without a trace; however, that may be due to the fact that this was going to be a television series so perhaps they would have made their return. Then again, the thing almost seemed like a romantic comedy during the last portion so who knows what the direction they were going to go in if this thing had progressed further. I will say it did have a good plot for an adult film. Add another woman on the ship and perhaps some moon women and it would have been a wild time! I mean they were literally flying the ship from beds!

oscar-35 *Spoiler/plot- Project Moon Base, 1953. Among a manned mission to the moon in 1972, a saboteur attempts to destroy the first mission and moon base.*Special Stars- Donna Martell, Hayden Rorke, Ross Ford.*Theme- Man and woman must explore the planets. *Trivia/location/goofs- B & W, pilot for TV series, titled 'Ring around the Moon'. shot in only 10 days. Watch for the space uniforms of sporty shorts, tight t-shirts and swim caps for both sexes. Listen for the exotic therimen 50's 'spacey' scene music. Sets and costume were also re-cycled for 'Cat Women on the moon' that was to be filmed only weeks later for it's production. Watch for the very trite 50's man/woman morals, cold war fears, and paternalistic manners of the commanding officers towards moon crew. Rocketship style is airplane-like with wings.*Emotion- Very fun and outdated. Best watched with liquor and no serious film cynical eyes or thoughts. Sorta charming of a bygone era.*Based On- Robert A. Heinlein story.

ebiros2 In the early '50s when real space travel was yet another 8 years in the future, this was average view of space travel for most people. In that paradigm, movie like this was a pretty standard format as a space rocket based stories. Story's premise sound's ridiculous now that a rocket goes off course and can land on moon as an alternate plan and become the first people to land on the moon, but movie like this was never intended to be a serious science fiction. Some things were predicted accurately such as giant screen TV monitor, and forward thinking concept such as woman president of the country.But let's get to the bottom line here. The only thing that's worth watching in this movie in my opinion is the beautiful Donna Martel. She looks great as the female astronaut. This movie would not be worth a watch without her.Movie is a bit of cheese, but I find decent entertainment, and not a terrible movie to watch. I like this movie better than many of the rocket movies from this era such as Cat Woman of the Moon.So, I wouldn't give a high rating, but it's an okay movie for this category.

dbborroughs Failed TV show becomes a wildly uneven feature film about a space station and misdirected space shot becoming the first moonbase. Weird mix of comedy, drama and science fiction with more than a dash of (unnamed) anti-communist propaganda doesn't seem sure what it wants to be. Worse you don't know whether you're supposed to laugh at or with the film. The mere fact that this was an episode of Mystery Science Theater 3000 in its early days gives you an idea about how odd the film is. Its regrettably not very good and there's a good chance you'll end up turning the film off before the ending. Robert Heinlein was unhappy with the finished product because the TV show he worked on was changed against his wishes. Looking at the film and guessing what he actually had a hand in, I'm pretty sure that the evil "red" plot is his, I think that the film would still be quite silly- especially in retrospect. For bad film lovers or Heinlein completeists only.