12 to the Moon

Those man's-first-flight-into-space movies from the 1950s often have a certain charm despite (or perhaps because of) their cheap sets, black-and-white photography, no-name casts, and scientific ignorance. This movie, however, has all the Grade-B tackiness without much of the compensating fun that marks, say, "Cat-Women of the Moon."

The plot has an international crew of ten men and two women rocketing to the moon and encountering the usual meteor showers along the way as they discuss how small and insignificant the Earth now looks. Upon reaching the moon, they discover gold, a glowing substance dubbed the "Medusa stone," traces of air, and evidence of a mysterious, never-seen civilization living below the surface in a "sealed city." This civilization wants them to leave before they inflict more damage.

The crew of the "Lunar Eagle 1" promptly heads for home but discovers that North America has been frozen by the civilization on the moon. To thaw it out, two members of the crew undertake a suicide mission to steer an atomic bomb into a Mexican volcano. (Don't ask.) The resulting explosion thaws out the continent and this act of self-sacrifice helps convince the moon-people that we Earthlings aren't so bad after all.

Mixed into this plot are a conflict between two crewmen, (a German and an Israeli), as well as a scene with a crewman who proves to be a saboteur with Communist tendencies.

Perhaps the movie's "high" point occurs when, mid-way to the moon, the rocket's American captain -- naked except for a small white towel modestly looped around his waist -- opens the shower-room door only to discover that it's currently occupied by the two female members of the crew. The human race has the expertise to build a rocket to the moon but they can't figure out how to put a lock on the shower-room door?

Incidentally, the captain is played by Ken Clark and his hairy chest is by far the best special-effect in the entire movie!

I remember having seen "12 to the Moon" in theatrical release in the 1960's, the last hurrah of the matinees on Saturdays. While many of the "gen-X-ers" would not truly understand the times and feelings of the era, we "baby-boomers" were there, and shared in the fun and excitement of the times, and the thrill of going into a theater as a young person to see even a not-so-good sci-fi flick. "12 To The Moon" was, as I recall, another one of those "dislocated dramas". By that I mean--it took place on the Moon, but concentrated more on human elements than on actual science. It did not take itself seriously, and was un-ashamedly released strictly for entertainment value, as were 95% of the flicks of that era. The US had not yet conquered space, let alone the moon, in 1960. It was an era of expectation, anticipation, and discovery. The scene that still haunts me from the film is the ill-fated space voyager who dies in a form of "lunar-quicksand". The others are virtually helpless to assist their fellow traveler. There is a warmth and an empathy present in the sci-fi flicks of that era that is not present in to-day's "in your face" media and world. In those days, "attitude on a stick" was equated with a flawed, or even evil character, and required redemption on the part of the

"attitu-dee"..that is to say, the one who has the attitude. I don't remember a lot of the film, not having seen it since I was in third or fourth grade. But audiences then got a lot from a little, and what was unspoken or not shown spoke volumes over that which was more conspicuous.

A slapdash screenplay filled with random emergencies, 15 second solutions, random melodrama and emotional outbursts, and worse than usual unscientific "science" cripple what is nonetheless an optimistic effort.

The ship boasts a pre-Star Trek multicultural crew, but even here the screenwriters can't resist making the African man the superstitious one, and the Japanese woman the one who is capable of on-the-spot translation of hieroglyphics which "resemble Chinese" characters.

Still, it is an interesting effort within the context of the international space race, and worth 75 minutes for fans of that era's matinee science fiction culture.

"12 to the Moon" is certainly not a very good sci-fi film, though with so many terrible sci-fi films made during this same era, at least it cannot be counted among them. Heck, at times the film almost is good...almost.

The film is about an international space flight to the moon with 12 astronauts from 9 different nations. Despite this, all of them sound pretty much like Americans...except for some of the astronauts from enemy nations--they are a bit like cartoon characters. It's especially annoying when the Russian astronaut argues with the three Americans and talks about the joys of communism. It's all a lot of Cold War hooey. Fortunately, this crappy dialog ends when they land on the moon. Unfortunately, the moon is inhabited by super- intelligent creatures that communicate to the crew telepathically and they warn them to get lost...which they promptly do. However, these nasty moon folk aren't very nice and do all sorts of nasty things to prevent them from getting back and telling the rest of the human race about them. Ultimately, a really stupid plan is executed and the day is saved...or is it?

The biggest problem with the movie aren't the silly sets but the dumb dialog...and the film too often sounds as if the film were rushed to completion. According to IMDb, that's exactly what happened and the film was made in a paltry 8 days! Occasionally interesting...but not very.

Looking decidedly limp next to its colorful cofeature, Toho's "Battle in Outer Space," Columbia's 1959 "12 to the Moon" was shot independently in just 8 days on a budget of $150,000, from producer Fred Gebhardt, responsible for "The Phantom Planet" two years later (using two actors from this film, Francis X. Bushman and Anthony Dexter). Scientists from a dozen different nations form an international expedition to the moon aboard the Lunar Eagle 1, taking off at 9 minutes, reaching their destination at 24 minutes (mostly concerned with meteor showers along the way). The lunar surface provides the film's most elaborate set, dodging small fissures, finding gold, two people going missing after a tender moment in a cave, another falling victim to quicksand. The nine survivors receive cryptic messages in hieroglyphics from the citizens of the Moon, lifting off for home at 51 minutes, only to dodge more meteors before finding North America encased in an icy prison, all the inhabitants in a state of suspended animation. For all its tediously sober moments early on, the picture descends into juvenile fantasy by its conclusion, the Moon men enjoying a change of heart to welcome all future expeditions. The main screenwriter is DeWitt Bodeen, virtually at the end of his career, quite a surprise considering his pedigree (Val Lewton's "Cat People" and "The Seventh Victim" both featuring Tom Conway), while director David Bradley sadly earned raspberries for his mishandling of 1963's "The Madmen of Mandoras," later reworked into the even worse "They Saved Hitler's Brain," undoubtedly a head of its time! Tom Conway's casting as the Russian seemed rather appropriate as he and younger brother George Sanders were actually born in St. Petersburg, and stalwart Ken Clark ("Attack of the Giant Leeches") is the American captain (the only other recognizable veteran is John Wengraf). A movie not well thought out and certainly not well remembered.