Cat-Women of the Moon

The purpose of this review is not to comment on the artistic quality (or lack thereof) of Cat Women of the Moon in 3-D, from Rhino Home Video. The laughable dialog and cheap production values of Cat Women of the Moon have already been adequately trashed by legions of others before me. I am an aficionado of 3-D movies and I want to comment on the quality of the 3-D effects in this video release of the film. I purchased the video specifically to see the 3-D, since this is one of the few 3-D movies from the nineteen fifties that I did not see during the original theatrical release.

To the best of my knowledge, this is one of only three full-length theatrical 3-D movies from the 1950's that are available on the home video market in the two-color anaglyphic format. The others are Robot Monster, the ultimate classic of bad taste, and The Mask, which only contained 3-D sequences. One might argue that a low budget film and technically inferior stereoscopic photography go hand in hand. This is a logical argument; however, I decided that I had to see this video myself before passing judgement. I expected to see poor 3-D in this video, but I expected to see some 3-D effect. The shock was that there is no viewable 3-D in this video at all! The title of the video should be changed to Cat Women of the Moon NOT in 3-D. This is the sort of presentation that will give you a headache. It is the type of shoddy product that has given 3-D a bad name.

The problem with this video is extreme vertical mis-registration of the left and right images. Stereoscopic viewing can tolerate some horizontal mis-alignment within the limits of eyestrain. However, significant vertical mis-alignment makes it impossible for the brain to fuse the two images. This is especially true in anaglyphic video presentations, where separation of the images is usually not strong. The result is that the 3-D images in this video, when viewed through the provided red and blue glasses, look like a normal 3-D movie when viewed without any glasses. I can't find a single scene where there is a viewable stereoscopic effect. In addition, many of the scenes are totally flat (2-D). In the flat scenes, the anaglyphic colors are not present, indicating that only one of the two views necessary for 3-D is presented. Normally, this would be negative comment; however, the flat scenes are the only tolerable parts of this video, considering that the anaglyphically encoded segments are completely worthless. I do not know if the original film contained these flat segments, or if some of the film has been lost. Considering that the flat and anaglyphic parts are randomly intermixed, I assume that parts of the two original films have either completely deteriorated, or been lost. The only sin that was not committed by those who converted this film to video is the lack of frame synchronization between the left and right views that sometimes plagues 3-D movies. However, considering the alignment problems present in this video, the consistent synchronization is small compensation.

In fairness to the original producers of the film, one cannot evaluate the stereoscopic photography of the film as it was shown in theaters by the quality of this video. According to Amazing 3-D, the excellent book on 3-D by Hal Morgan and Dan Symmes, Cat Women of the Moon was originally shown in theaters using polarized projection. This was probably done from two B&W films in separate, synchronized projectors, the standard technique at that time. To present the film as a video, the two film images had to be color encoded in red and blue/green, and then superimposed during photographic printing, or during the video transfer. It is possible for an excellent 3-D film to be ruined during the process of converting it to the anaglyphic format if care is not taken. The fault is either with Rhino home video, or some third party that made the anaglyphic conversion, and paid no attention to the vertical alignment during the conversion process. Rhino Home Video may argue that this is such a hokey film that it does not matter if the anaglyphic conversion was done properly. I say that no film should be advertised as being in 3-D if it is so poorly converted that there is absolutely no 3-D effect in the finished product. As far as I'm concerned, this is a case of outright and intentional false advertising.

Some people will argue that is it not possible to achieve true stereoscopic 3-D in home video. I can say from personal experience that it is entirely possible to achieve acceptable stereoscopic 3-D in video using the anaglyphic process. The Mask, also from Rhino Home Video proves this. Although the 3-D in The Mask video is not as good as I recall from seeing the film in a theater, it is passable as 3-D. In this case, Rhino did not have to do the anaglyphic conversion, because the original film already contained anaglyphic sequences. I have also seen several full-length B&W films on TV that have been successfully presented in the anaglyphic format. These films include The Mad Magician (with Vincent Price), Inferno, and It Came from Outer Space. As well as a short subject, Spooks, featuring the Three Stooges. These films reproduce in 3-D very well on a properly adjusted TV set, and are almost as good as the theatrical presentations. I don't understand why these technically superior conversions are not available on home video.

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.

In the early part of his career, Victor Jory appeared in some great films, starring alongside the likes of James Cagney and Errol Flynn. He even had a prominent role in Gone With the Wind. His co-starring role in Cat-Women of the Moon represents a descent to the depths in a film that resembles an amateur high school production. He must have been desperate. This is about as bad as it gets with a horrendously unimaginative miniature rocket and a plot that makes you wonder why they bothered. The absolute highlight occurs midway through the film when the head Cat Women slaps one of the underlings. The slap misses by some margin despite the sound effect of hand making contact with flesh. This scene is so bad that it has been mimicked by comedy writers ever since. The original print has been remastered for some unknown reason. Whoever made the decision to do that wasted their time.

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!

"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".