Destination Moon (1950)

DESTINATION MOON (1950)

By Ralph Santini - ***

“Destination Moon” (1950) may have a title that could make you believe it’s one of those B Science Fiction movies but it’s something more than that. It’s probably the first true science fiction film only because of the innovative nature of its premise at the time it was produced. You won’t see neither disintegrating pistols nor hostile aliens; it’s only about men, space travel and the journey to the moon and that’s why I think it has a satisfying story with effective results. 

But I must definitely agree about its difficulty of what the film might have been like when it came out in 1950. Our planet’s point of view towards the moon may be a common thing nowadays but in those days there wasn’t enough advanced technology for people to see the truth behind such stuff, not even by going through this film alone; Sputnik would not have been around until 1957 and that’s only seven years after this film’s release, in fact I agree with others that it’s the reason why it won an Oscar® for Best Special Effects and even a nomination for Best Art Direction.

The film basically tells the story of three men, Jim Barnes, wonderfully portrayed by John Archer as a brave and optimistic industrialist; Warner Anderson also very good as a quiet and no-nonsense scientist; and Tom Powers seriously likeable as a gruff but honest retired army general; all three whom defy authorities by attempting to operate a possible experiment by traveling to the moon on a rocket ship. They would be aided by a neurotic but likeable sidekick Joe Sweeney (Dick Wesson, lending a satisfying comic relief to the film) who seems very reluctant to participate in the expedition. Nevertheless the trip is already on, and as they are ready to leave planet earth they are nearly stopped by government officials but they fortunately ignore them. 

Now my biggest concern for this film is that today the film’s special effects are outdated and I might probably find this element to be one of the film’s biggest flaws. After all there was no CGI nor any other sophisticated special effects present during time of filming. More uneven is a so-so cartoon documentary sequence starring Woody Woodpecker where he discusses with a narrator who tells the good possibility of Space Travel. This was a year before Walter Lantz, producer of Woody Woodpecker cartoons, would relaunch his animation company but I find those cartoons rather more standard than the earlier ones. Overall I recommend this film because of its surprisingly good natured direction by Irving Pichel and likeable cast that makes it reason enough to sit through this decent sci-fi film that forever helped reestablish the Sci-Fi film for good.