Despite my hopes for suspense when the foreign baddies get a double agent aboard the rocket ship, there's hardly a touch of white-knuckles anywhere in the 63-minutes. Looks like director Talmadge specialized in stunts rather than dramatizing scripts, and it shows in the stretched out results with no edges. Then too, the much amended script doesn't help (IMDB). And get a load of Col. Briteis (bright eyes !), played by malt shop cutie Martell. So what if she leads the moonbase expedition in revealing beach party shorts and top. What the heck, It's like sending Gidget to Mars. At the same time, her eye-candy cuteness distracted me from most every serious scene. Talk about commercially inspired casting: it doesn't come any more obvious.
Sure, it's a cheap drive-in indie, so how much could be expected from the outset. Nonetheless, the special effects aren't that bad given budget constraints and outer space backdrops. Then too, production avoids Cold War stereotyping of bad guys into evil commie plotters in dark shadow. Instead, master-mind Roundtree is more robotic and brightly lit than evil. And how about that ridiculous moon base wedding imposed, I suspect, by the puritanical Production Code. Can't let two unmarrieds co-habit, even in a rocket ship. No wonder distinguished writer Heinlein disowned the results (IMDB). All in all, my advice is to let this sleepy 10-day production lie.
(In passing- Can't help noticing current US plans for an outer-space armada are titled 'Space Force', same as in the movie. And that's along with justifying rhetoric similar to the movie's. All in all, looks like the loony flick cast a forward shadow, after all. )
