Well Deserved Praise

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

While it is a pity that the story wasn't told with more visual finesse, this is trivial compared to our real-world problems. It takes a good movie to put that into perspective.

One of the best movies of the year! Incredible from the beginning to the end.

This appears to be an incredibly cheap Italian production. The script is terrible and makes very little sense. The photography is mediocre at best. The sound is simply awful, especially the eerie Theramin music. Cast of tens in the crowd scenes. Joseph Cotten tries a little but George Sanders just mails his role in. You can't blame him because the dialog is often beyond bad. Debra Paget is beautiful and that's all. Don Dubbin is so bad that it's no wonder he disappeared from the screen. It's so laughable, it would make a good episode on Mystery Science Theater 3000. Especially the multi-story space capsule/cannonball that's like a small house inside. If nothing else is on TV, go outside and look at the real moon.

I feel tvholic's views are a bit harsh. It mustn't be forgotten that Verne wrote this in 1865 some thirty years before Wells wrote 'War of the Worlds". It must also be remembered that RKO was going broke at the time so special effects were not what they should have been. Stars Joseph Cotten and George Sanders did well with the script they had. Where this will not go down as a great sci fi movie, it is still an interesting one if for no other reason than the interplay between Cotten and Sanders.Stories like War of the Worlds, 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea and Around the World in 80 Days have lent themselves to the use of special effects and unfortunately for this film, the film production company did not have the wherewithal to have effects in the same class as the aforementioned three.

Yes, you can hear those words of wisdom, along with Virginia asking a dozen times "What does it mean?" if you watch "From the Earth to the Moon". I was ready to rip this flick a new one until I just read the trivia on IMDb and it kind of stole all my thunder (so read this first before you go there, lol). Anyway, it starts out like a serious sci fi flick and since I'm a 30's-60's sci fi fan, I was getting into it. But then like the trivia part says it runs out of steam (powered by power X) BIG TIME! The point where this movie "jumps the shark" is right around the moon launch time, I loved the wood paneling and shag carpet in the vessel though. The moon shot time is also when you hear the Forbidden Planet sound effects, and as distinctive as they sound, you immediately notice them, along with the sound of someone turning a cooking timer to the point that's its really annoying. The damn trivia also stole my thunder about the boom holding the spacecraft in full view (I paused and rewound that because I couldn't believe it was so blatant). This would have been a good MST3K movie to lampoon. The blonde who stows aboard, Virginia, is in full hormone bloom and she delivers some classic lines and moments that are just calling for an ad lib. She is in this one scene and starts saying "Well, if we're all going to die...." you can put your own ad lib in there, mine was "lets all go out with a real bang, gang!" She also says while they are lost in space to her heart-throb referring to when they will die, "Will you come to me?" If you replace the word to with in, I think was what she was really thinking, lol. Anyway, the trivia explained why this movie while never really was all that great in the beginning went totally downhill after that, RKO announced they were closing down! I'm just wondering what the target audience would have been for this movie anyway, it starts out to mature for kids (they'd be either running all over the place or asleep), and I don't see any women appeal, or for that matter many guys. I guess there was a "geek" element in the 50's because that's the only target audience I see. Well I admit I have geeky ways to myself so they got me to watch, the ad libbing I did with Virginia made the last part tolerable, otherwise your not missing much. A Japanese guy in a rubber monster suit is much more fun to watch.

It's the late 1880s and Victor Barbicane (Joseph Cotton) has invented a new power source called "Power X." He realizes it has the potential to boost a rocket into outer space (or, more specifically, to the moon).After some initial flubs he manages to embark on his journey along with his assistant (Don Dubbins), semi-villain Stuyvesant Nicholl (George Sanders), and Nicholl's daughter Virginia (Debra Pagent).Nicholl thinks that Victor's Power X is sacrilege and sabotages their entire journey -- will they be able to get back to earth? This was presented on TCM as the least successful adaptation of Welles' material and it shows in every frame. The special effects are really pathetic - even for a 1958 film - and the acting is subpar. The great character actor Joseph Cotten looks utterly bored and disgusted at the fact that he's even remotely close to starring in this film - he basically just stumbles and mumbles through the entire project, and I truly felt sorry for him after seeing such superior films as "Citizen Kane," "Shadow of a Doubt," "The Magnificent Andersons" and of course "The Third Man." If you want to laugh, this is a good choice. If you're looking for something worthwhile (at least in terms of artistic merit) - look elsewhere!