ROCKETSHIP X-M -- Kurt Neumann, dir

©1950
studio: Image Entertainment
production company: Lippert Pictures Inc.
dir: Kurt Neumann
cast: Lloyd Bridges, Osa Massen, John Emery, Noah Beery, Jr., Hugh O'Brian, Morris Ankrum, Patrick Aherne, Sherry Moreland, John Dutra, Kathy Marlowe
screenplay: Orville H. Hampton, Kurt Neumann, Dalton Trumbo

Astronauts blast off to explore the moon, but because of malfunctions and some quick calculations, they instead land on Mars where they discover an advanced race once lived, but presumably destroyed themselves through atomic wars, and now the life forms on Mars resemble Earth's cavemen.

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Growing up as a sci-fi fan, I'd certainly heard of this movie quite often, but I must admit that I have been more aware of the spoofs of this film than the actual film itself. That said, I was definitely amused by just how fine a line there is between the spoofs and the movie itself.

Some of the actions and dialogue are absolutely comical ... by today's standards! Yet if you look at it with some historic interest, I'm surprised at how advanced some of the technical issues actually were.

From a plot point of view, it's much too simple and didactic, and it takes MUCH too long to get to it A great deal of time is spent discussing the science of how they are going in to space, and then watching the then cool effects of them in space, and then the problem and the flight course change, and finally getting to Mars, and still a bit of time to make the discoveries of what is there and the paralells to Earth.

The death of the crew members on Mars took me a bit by surprise. I was expecting some kind of sappy, heroic, "everybody returns despite the odds" kind of story, and therefore, the very ending took me even more by surprise.

This really would be a great film to watch and compare with some modern sci-fi flicks.

Recommended for the sci-fi and historical films fan.