After the popularity of 20,000 Leagues Under
the Sea (1954) and Around the World in Eighty Days (1956), Jules Verne was
a hot commodity, but From the Earth to the Moon didn't give off the same
spark. Partly because it is a book that is hard to adapt in an exciting manner
unless they strayed far from the source and partly because the two main stars
are Joseph Cotten and George Sanders who were a bit past their prime. As
much as I like them both, it is hard to imagine people going, oh let's go
see the new George Sanders movie. Perhaps a few went for Debra Paget but
then she doesn't even do an exotic dance or show any skin. Like the next
year's Journey to the Center of the Earth which added a female to go along,
this adds a female to go to the moon. Or try. In the book it ends with the
rocket stuck in a gravitational orbit around the moon and with the outcome
left to the sequel. The film sort of combines them. It also throws in a thread
about the danger of an energy source that is clearly meant to be nuclear
energy - and no Verne did not foresee that - that was the writers adding
a contemporary concern. I actually appreciated that aspect of the film.
There are no good guys in this film - two
insane scientists - one who will risk the world for science and the other
who thinks God has tasked him to stop it through any means or sacrifice.
The American Civil War has ended and these poor sad rich men who supplied
all the weapons suddenly have no customers. Hey, we didn't start the war
one says, we only sold them the means of killing each other - and got rich
doing so. There is a lot of evil in the world - drug dealers, sex traffickers,
governments - but at the top of my list are arms dealers. But Barbicane (Cotten)
has a solution - an energy source that will allow any country to send deadly
missiles to any place in the world. Governments will line up for this. We
will all be even richer. But first let's test one on the moon. Oh, what a
great idea. Blow up the moon.
Thinking that Barbicane is mad is Nicholl
(Sanders) who initially challenges him but loses a bet. Just before lift-off
President Grant asks him not to do it - it will mean war - but science sir
- still he stops the take-off. And then thinks, wait let's not bomb the moon,
let's go to the moon. Verne obviously has no idea what science is necessary
to do that and so goes with the big gun theory. Build a huge gun and shoot
a rocket to the moon. He does get acceleration right though his solution
is a little strange - but forgets about gravity on the rocket. And to give
the film a bit of sex appeal, the daughter of Nicholl becomes a stowaway,
and her father goes as well. The ship is decorated like a nice apartment.
I would love living there - and all the mechanical stuff looks cool. Things
of course don't go to plan. An ending that makes zero sense. Sanders
looks like he would rather be anywhere else than in this film and Cotten
just smiles that he is getting paid for this.
