Un pilote dans la lune

As the director of many films for the Disney Studios, both comedic and dramatic, James Neilson never livened up; his name in the credits usually means a picture with a steady, sometimes leaden pace. "Moon Pilot" is no exception, and one can only imagine family audiences from 1962 dozing through the movie's more sluggish sections. Tom Tryon was a good casting choice for the part of an Air Force captain chosen to orbit around the moon, yet his hot-tempered superiors on the ground (Edmond O'Brien and the usually-reliable Brian Keith) do nothing but bark at him and at each other. Dany Saval twinkles like a manic pixie playing a flirtatious young woman who may be a spy--maybe not. For the Disney faithful, there's also a monkey clowning around. Production values solid, theme song "Seven Moons" very sweet, though this is still an awfully slow rocket-ride into space. *1/2 from ****

While the technical aspects of this "space age" comedy from the early 1960's are understandably dated, the major problem with watching "Moon Pilot" now lies in its slow pacing. Virtually every scene runs longer than it should and the conversations within each scene are too often marked by needless pauses and languid delivery. The result is a 70-minute story that's been s-t-r-e-t-c-h-e-d into a 98-minute movie.

Tom Tryon seems an unusual choice for the title role. His dark, brooding, sexually-ambiguous looks would qualify him to play "Heathcliff" but "Moon Pilot" is virtually his only foray into farcical comedy. However, his innately serious quality helps him to anchor the movie more securely than would a Dick Van Dyke or a Dean Jones, but he really doesn't shine in this kind of material. His image as a juicy slab of "beefcake" remains intact, however, since even this family-oriented Disney comedy finds an excuse to strip him down to his boxer shorts in order to display his hairy chest in two separate scenes.

Wry satire skewing the government, the military, and the space program at a time when there wasn't that many films taking aim at those agencies. This was the Kennedy era after all, and Disney didn't make that many satires. Tom Tyron ("Texas John Slaughter")is good as the astronaut but French actress Dany Saval ("Boeing, Boeing") makes the film worth watching. The support actors fail to bring the script alive (good actors but dry direction lets them sway in the wind). Tommy Kirk appears in a very small, but adult role.

This film is cute little trick of a film. In the early days of space flights, it was time for a send-up. And the great character actor edmond O'Brien, was terrific as the "hard as nails" security agent. A treat for us Disney fans.

The comic highlight of the film is the "parade of usual suspects", when San francisco beatnik chicks are brought in for review. A real HOOT!

The alien chick is disarmingly funny, and I wish she could have had more films after this one. She was so fine, I wanted to sign up for astronaut training.

The pacing is slow, and the humor is formulaic, but I still get a chuckle out of this minor classic.

Pun aside, this really is a great movie. I don't know why it wasn't one of Disney's bigger hits. Anyway, the plot concerns an unwilling astronaut who meets up with an alien shortly before he needs to leave for the space center. And the alien has a very important message for him! Then when the astronaut disappears to talk with the alien, Federal Security and some high-ranked Air Force men get involved in the search! If you can find this movie somewhere, definitely buy it! I'm anxiously waiting for Disney to reissue this movie on video, like they've been doing with so many of their old classic comedies.