Quei fantastici razzi volanti

Obviously Sonny Tufts was really hitting the bottle when he appeared in this film. He was touted as a new star in the 40's but his messed up personal life really did him in and he was reduced to playing in Grade Z movies and barely getting by. In several scenes he loses his train of thought and because of the low budget the scenes were not re-shot. What a hoot but at the same time pathetic.

This is one of those little sci-fi films that were so popular in the 1950s, usually low budget and inept. But if you are a bad film buff, you can't help but love Cat Women. There are some good actors in this film.....Victor Jory (how far he had fallen!); the wonderful Marie Windsor who made any film in which she appeared worth watching; and Douglas Fowley who was a film staple for years. And then there were the Cat Woman, slinking around in leotards and dog collars.

I won't go into the "plot" but suffice to say it was the same as all the other films which involved lost civilizations on distant moons. It is such fun and if you love low budget films with ridiculous special effects, bad acting and dialogue that makes you cringe, see Cat Women of the Moon. It's a treat!!

"Cat-Women Of The Moon" is an unusual entry in the "male explores find a civilization with women but no men" for a couple of reasons. One is that one of the explorers is a woman, and the other is that it was filmed in 3-D. But nothing much is done with those two bursts of originality - the woman explorer could have been a male with very little rewriting, and there is almost no effort made to exploit the 3-D filming process. (I'm not asking to be hit in the face every few seconds, but some carefully composed shots would have been nice.)

The lazy efforts on those parts can be felt in other parts of the movies. Oh, there are a few things that made me laugh - the interior of the moon rocket, wobbily scenery, people shouting when in their spacesuits, and the "stabbing" scene. But most of the movie is kind of dull. It takes about 2/3 of the movie before the explorers directly interact with the cat women, and before that point (and afterwards), there is talk talk talk, little of which is amusing. I was kind of glad that the movie lasted just barely over an hour, but the ending is so sudden, so "That's it?!?" that part of me wished they went on a little longer to end things properly.

If you want to see a funny example of this genre, I suggest you watch "Queen Of Outer Space".

Thanks to Jeff Joseph of Sabucat Productions, I recently had the pleasure of seeing this film in all of its original polarized 3D glory at the Egyptian theater in Hollywood with 600 of my "closest friends"! ;-) (www.3dfilmfest.com) Sadly, though, while the presentation this time around was flawless, the print was in very poor condition, and it may not get too many more public performances - if ever again - which is a real shame. You see, this is one of those movies that has to be enjoyed in a theater, with a LOT of people, for maximum funness. It might be fun to sit around the living room and laugh at the campy dialogue and bad acting and VERY bad special effects with your friends, but to see it in a theater... well, there is no comparison. Especially when seen in polarized 3D... the fun factor goes up by a factor of at least ten!

If you're in the mood for a bad sci-fi film from the 50's, give this one a try. The more people you have watching it with you, the better. You'll get a real kick out of it, as this movie has some of the funniest lines ever, including my personal favorite, "You're too smart for me, baby... I like 'em stupid." Definitely recommended for a good laugh, and a great time. And if by some off chance you ever have an opportunity to see it in 3D, do not miss it!

What we have here is a good old 50's sci-fi B movie that's a great example of the expression "It's so bad it's good". The conflict here is that when this movie was made, it was meant to be serious stuff. Man breaking the confines of the earth, exploring the moon and encountering hostile alien life forms. It's not exactly how the movie seems today. You have a hard time taking a space ship equipped with lockers, a desk, and old office chairs too seriously. There are all sorts of scientific bloopers in this film. Three men and a woman embark to land and explore the moon. What last minute preparations do you make? Well, naturally the woman has to fix her hair and another astute astronaut is thinking of selling souvenirs when he gets back home. It gets even funnier; they bring along cigarettes and for protection against who knows what, a revolver. The conversations are equally amusing. They sound as if the space explorers were picked up off the streets and asked, hey! you want to go on a trip to the moon? The landscapes and backgrounds are mostly painted but actually they did a pretty good job at that. They're not bad at all. Times have changed though and this film doesn't quite hit the mark that it was once intended to attain. If you try watching this as a serious sci- fi drama, You will be extremely disappointed. You can find faults and pick this movie apart until it is shredded to bits and you would be rightfully so in doing it. I suggest watching it with the understanding that it's a part of sci-fi movie history. View it with an easygoing fun attitude. Look for the blunders. Laugh at the cheapness and corny dialogue. How can you not love a line like, "You're too smart for me, baby, I like em stupid". I mean, come on, it was made in 1953 and the title is "Cat-Women of the Moon" what do you really expect? It's a fun movie. Relax and enjoy it for what it is.

Mission Commander Sonny Tufts and his crew of space explorers brave the perils of a hostile Moon. They are threatened by a giant Moon spider and captured by telepathic lunar Amazons in black tights. A love triangle develops between Sonny, one of the Moon women, and a fellow crew person (Marie Windsor).

Okay, so it's not a great movie, but it was originally filmed in 3-D, and the music is by Elmer Bernstein (who scored both `The Ten Commandments' and `Robot Monster'. What a career!).

The 1958 film `Missile to the Moon' is essentially a remake, complete with the giant spider. The only improvement it makes is to give the girls more colorful costumes.

Just for the record, the other films with all-girl alien worlds are `Queen of Outer Space', `A & C go to Mars', and `Fire Maidens from Outer Space'. The girls in `World Without End' are from Earth, and there are a few men, but they're wimpy compared to the astronauts who show up to romance them.