(themoviedatabase)
FROM
THE EARTH TO THE MOON-1958-Florida 1868: The International Armament
Club, a group whose members profited by making weapons for both sides
during the Civil War are about listen to Victor Barbicane (Joseph
Cotton) explain that he's invented Power X, an explosive so
devastating it's too powerful to detonate on Earth! He plans to shoot
a projectile to the moon and test it. Meanwhile industrialist and
southern sympathizer Nicholl (George Sanders) wants to stop Barbicane
from destroying the world. He has created a metal that could be used
to send the explosive to the moon. He agrees to build a casing only
because he thinks it will fail. President Grant (Morris Ankrum) tells
Barbicane he must not send a charge to the moon because 22 nations
see it as an act of war. He gives up Power X and everyone hates him.
He breaks with his colleagues (Henry Daniel, Patrick Knowles and
Ludwig Stossel) but his assistants (Carl Esmond and Don Dubbins)
stand by him. With Nicholl's help, Barbicane wants to go to the moon
and back. To slow things down, Ben (Don Dubbins) romances Nicholl's
daughter, Virginia (Debra Paget). With Nicholl's help, he, Barbicane
and Ben man a rocket into space with Virginia as a stowaway but the
flight seems doomed as Nicholl's has sabotaged it.
Melville Cooper is
also in it as well as the voices of Robert Clarke (same year as THE
HIDEOUS SUN DEMON) and Les Tremayne. This Technicolor science fiction
is based on a novel by Jules Verne. It was originally produced by RKO
but they went out of business and it was picked up and released by
Warner Brothers. It's a farfetched but enjoyable tale with the two
leads great when they butt heads. Byron Haskin (THE WAR OF THE WORLDS
(1953)) directed. This would be his last S.F. movie until 1964's
ROBINSON CRUSOE ON MARS.
Thanks for reading.