Destination Moon (1950) — The Prelude to Mars

The Pal Family Christmas card for 1949 photographed on the set of Destination Moon.
(Courtesy Gail Morgan Hickman from his book The Films of George Pal, Barnes 1977.)

“It never ceases to amaze how the ripples begun by this wonderful Hungarian genius [George Pal] continue to influence so many in the motion picture industry.”

—Arnold Leibovit, film director, producer, screenwriter

“[T]he visual effects in Pal’s [Destination Moon] were art. They are aesthetically stunning ... they bear the imprint of gifted artists’ hands.... [T]he Luna rocket of Destination Moon still [has] the capacity to astonish.”

—Justin Humphreys in “A Cinema of Miracles: Remembering George Pal,” from the memorial program notes for the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ George Pal: Discovering the Fantastic—A Centennial Celebration, August 27, 2008

Enthusiasts.

 “Destination Moon is a film with considerable dignity and, in a quiet way, a genuine sense of wonder.”

—Peter Nicholls in The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction edited by John Clute and Peter Nicholls

Naysayers.

“Trivial in plot ... viewed today Destination Moon is less than impressive; the rocket journey is ploddingly consistent with the scientific standards of 1950...” —John Baxter in Science Fiction in the Cinema

Summary. Persuaded that the “other side” may get to the moon first and establish a military base to hold the world hostage, American industry (as opposed to any government agency) elects to build a rocket that will travel to the moon. In an evenly-paced, almost documentary fashion, we get to know the four men manning the rocket and experience with them the sensations of traveling in space and landing on the moon.

(courtesy Wade Williams Distribution)

Comments. The 1950 film Destination Moon ought not be misapprehended, maligned, or devalued, for the simple fact is that with no Destination Moon, few of the movies in this blog (and in the book of the same title from which this blog is derived; see cover on right), if any at all, would ever have come into existence. I’m a firm believer in prime sources and fate through connections.

It worked this way: Before Destination Moon, there were ridiculously few serious science fiction films worthy of the term. One would need to go as far back as 1929’s Frau in Mond (The Woman in the Moon), 1931’s Frankenstein, and 1936’s Things to Come to find any worthy antecedent (1930’s funfest Just Imagine and the Flash Gordon and other fantasy serials wouldn’t count as they simply danced to a different drummer).

A classic, poignant Puppetoon - 
Copyright © Arnold Leibovit

Enter George Pal, a Hungarian gentleman who made cute commercial-like ads that played as short subjects with movies in Europe, but later he advanced into animated cartoon-like shorts. Because he used carefully hand-manipulated tiny sculptures instead of drawings, his shorts were called “Puppetoons” and they became popular in Europe. Luckily, Pal was in the U.S. when Hitler invaded Poland. He was offered a contract to produce his Puppetoons for Paramount Pictures, and they soon joined the ranks of American animated shorts competing with the likes of Warner Bros.’ Looney Tunes, MGM’s Tom and Jerry, Universal’s Woody Woodpecker, and Disney’s whole menagerie.

By 1949, Pal was anxious to get into feature films. After much effort, he convinced independent Eagle-Lion pictures to co-finance a two-picture deal based on ideas he happened to be obsessed with at the time—as long as he paid half the costs. The first picture, The Great Rupert, about a Puppetoon-like dancing squirrel and starring then popular comic Jimmy Durante, flopped. But the second picture, Destination Moon, was a different story. The journey of its production and release is discussed below, but first I want to make clear how positively vital the film is. Here is the short version:

Eagle-Lion’s publicity department proved to be on top of its game when it saw the promotional possibilities of a picture about a rocket to the moon. They promoted the hell out of it in both general family magazines and the then rising star science fiction digest magazines, emphasizing its Technicolor and its cadre of class-A consultants. Destination Moon was constantly in the limelight of the popular press, including Life magazine, and soon its success seemed a forgone conclusion.

Enter Robert L. Lippert, a producer of very inexpensive, very quickly made films designed to veer droves of the unwary into theaters. He noticed all this nationwide publicity for Destination Moon and remembered that (1) longtime producer-director Kurt Neumann had not-too-long before offered him a script about a trip to Mars, which was populated with dinosaurs, and that (2) Jack Rabin, who owned a special visual effects company, had brought him an idea about a trip to the moon. Though Lippert was not interested in either pitch at the time, he changed his tune and he decided he’d be an idiot not to take advantage of all this free promotion for Destination Moon. While Destination Moon had been in production for two years and was costing more than half a million dollars, Lippert was able to combine Neumann’s and Rabin’s ideas to create a similar film, Rocketship X-M, with $94,000 and a shooting schedule of 18 days. In fact he made it so fast, it arrived in theaters a full month before Destination Moon.

Eagle-Lion Promotion at the top of its form!

For his 1995 volume, They Fought in the Creature Features, film scholar Tom Weaver interviewed Lloyd Bridges, one of the stars of Rocketship X-M, who said, “With Rocketship X-M we did beat our competitor, Destination Moon. And they paid a lot more for their production. We kind of took
advantage of the publicity they were putting out—people weren’t quite sure whether they were seeing that picture or our picture.”

Both films were huge popular and financial successes. (Rocketship X-M is also covered in this blog ss a sequel to this post; the productions of Destination Moon and Rocketship X-M are inevitably linked, and my two articles are intended to be read in sequence.)

The simple historical facts are these: If Destination Moon had not appeared to have been a slam-dunk, Lippert would never had bothered to make Rocketship X-M. If both pictures, released one right after the other, had not provided the one-two punch of major unexpected financial success, studio executives would never have awakened to the fact that there was a big market for films about outer space and rockets. But once producers saw the writing on the wall, before you knew it, throughout the very next year, in 1951, audiences were treated to The Day the Earth Stood Still, Flight to Mars, Lost Continent, The Man from Planet X, The Thing from Another World, and When Worlds Collide.

If Destination Moon had failed, George Pal’s career could well have died on the vine and he may have never made When Worlds Collide and The War of the Worlds (1953). If those two Paramount films had not succeeded, there would never have been Forbidden Planet or This Island Earth.

Just a tad slow getting started (not counting 1951’s Abbott and Costello Meets the Invisible Man) by 1953 Universal-International Pictures finally gets into the act, and soon we are fortunate enough to be graced with It Came from Outer Space and The Creature from the Black Lagoon. On and on, studio after studio, production company after production company, year after year, the science fiction boom of the 1950s and 60s was upon us—all kick started by George Pal and his Destination Moon.

During the dramatic conclusion of Destination Moon, the Luna could not take off until its weight was drastically reduced. The crew removed everything, whether it was bolted down or not (courtesy Wade Williams Distribution).

By 1952, as both audiences and executives were getting comfortable thinking “outside the box” and being happily diverted by overtly imaginative films (usually with special visual effects), then someone realized that it might be a good time to re-release RKO’s 1933 King Kong yet again (as pointed out by Bill Warren in his Keep Watching the Skies!). Bolstered by a heavy advertising campaign that included TV ads throughout the summer of 1952 (remember, this was when TV was still stalwartly making inroads into America’s living rooms), King Kong was a smash success, causing production companies (especially Warner Bros.) to realize that similar movies about giant monsters could also be successful. This ushered in countless giant creatures beginning with The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms. The immense success of Beast inspired Warner Bros. to produce the giant-ants-on-the-loose picture—Them!—which in turn spawned a decade’s worth of giant insect movies.

1952 re-release poster.

Indeed, the success of the King-Kong-inspired The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms had repercussions immense beyond anybody’s wildest fantasies. When Japan’s Toho Studios was left holding the bag when a co-Indonesian film deal fell through, Toho producer Tomoyuki Tanaka was desperate to fill the already scheduled and budgeted production time. He remembered the recent success of The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms and decided the giant monster scenario had relevance for the Japanese public, and thus was born Godzilla; but that is a whole ’nother story that is spelled out in awesomely minute detail in countless books, magazine articles, and websites (See Kalat, Ryfle, Brothers.)

The point that I’m making is that it is crystal clear that the production and success of Destination Moon was the stone thrown into the pond, initiating ripples upon ripples that have proven indelible and are stronger today than ever. I feel that this is important and should not be forgotten or taken for granted. I take issue with Warren who states in his Keep Watching the Skies: “It is ... easy to overrate Destination Moon ... the film is conventional, even a little dull” and also Gail Morgan Hickman, who writes in his The Films of George Pal, “By today’s standards perhaps there is little about Destination Moon to distinguish it.”

 

(courtesy Wade Williams Distribution)

In my view, Destination Moon was a fascinating vital movie in 1950 and it is a fascinating vital movie now. I am unable to disassociate myself from the movie and the repercussions stemming from it. The movie was, is, and will continue to be the landmark film that changed the landscape of the film culture forever. And, frankly, I cannot understand how others can so easily dismiss it. In fact, while researching my book, I gathered together dozens of science fiction movie overview books, and I was dismayed that too many of these writers and critics take exactly the same tone, for example:

“Destination Moon makes rather dull viewing nowadays.”

—John Brosnan in Movie Magic
.

“Destination Moon now seems tame.”

—John Stanley in Creature Features: The Science Fiction,

Fantasy and Horror Movie Guide
.

“[The] script seems colorless and wooden.”

—Phil Hardy in The Overlook Film Encyclopedia: Science Fiction
.

“Destination Moon has aged badly ... [it] seems old hat and pedestrian to today’s viewers.”

—Barry Atkinson in Atomic Age Cinema

To my ear, these remarks seem no more than the half-baked attempts of the writers to appease modern readers by appearing “relevant” and “cutting-edge” and to gain their favor by casually dismissing anything that smacks of being “old-fashioned.” Yes, some of these commentators—but not nearly all—once having offered their aesthetic dismissal, perform an about face and try to put the picture into historical perspective, for example, Atkinson goes on to say, “But make no mistake about it, this picture, flaws and all, is a very important step in the evolution of the serious, special effects-laden science fiction motion picture that reached its peak with ... 2001: A Space Odyssey.”

Why castigate and dismiss the film, making super clear why it is a failed film, only to turn right around to declare the film "an important step in the evolution."?  It seems to me that a picture of Destination Moon’s importance does not deserve the many negative judgments that are ascribed to it so commonly today, judgments that can’t help but impact up-and-coming audiences. And the respect that is accorded it, too often seems begrudging.

Some of this criticism stems from the fact that all creative parties involved with Destination Moon wanted it to be as realistic and as scientifically sound as possible. As a result, the film has a documentary feel—which for some reason is anathema to many modern commentators who look back on the film. The film was designed to make people think. Clearly it met that goal far more than anybody could have imagined in 1950. How the picture plays in relation to newer movies is utterly irrelevant. The newer movies might not exist if it had not been for Destination Moon. Period.

One oft-repeated story that would seem to belie this striving for realism is the fact that the Lunar surface in the movie is crisscrossed with gaping cracks. Naturally this would imply that the surface was once mud, which requires water, and the moon doesn’t have any water. Noted artist and Hollywood matte painter Chesley Bonestell, who painted the large backdrop that mimicked Lunar crags and mounts, was unhappy with the cracks, which were designed by art director Ernst Fegté. “That was a mistake,” he insisted to Hickman. 

Note the improbable cracks (courtesy Wade Williams Distribution).

But Pal explained to Hickman, “Chesley was right, of course ... but we were shooting on a small soundstage because of our limited budget. We had to make the set look bigger. Chesley designed a beautiful backdrop, but it needed something to give it depth. That’s why we made the cracks. The cracks in the foreground were big and those in the distance were small, so it gave a real feeling of perspective. For some scenes we even used midgets in small spacesuits to add to the feeling of depth.” (Many readers will recall that the final airport scene in Casablanca also employed little people working around a cardboard cutout airplane in the foggy distance in order to give that dramatic scene perspective.)

Destination Moon was groundbreaking in countless ways. Thus, I feel a further word should be shared to explain how the film came to be. First off, a movie about a rocket to the moon was an idea whose time had come. In the late 1940s the idea seems to have sprung into the minds of a number of movie people at the same time. Some of the names (but not nearly all) associated with the birth (but not necessarily the completion) of Destination Moon are William Castle; Chesley Bonestell; Hermann Oberth, who had been the technical consultant for 1929’s Frau in Mond (The Woman in the Moon); Irving Block; Jack Rabin; Robert A. Heinlein; Willy Ley, Lou Schor; Alford van Ronkel; Peter Rathvon; Robert L. Lippert; Kurt Neumann; and George Pal. Block has said that his and Jack Rabin’s version never got made “because there was so much haggling.” It appears that at first William Castle, Rabin and Block, Kurt Neumann, and Robert Heinlein all independently tried to launch rocket-to-the-moon films, and it’s possible that, during their first attempts to garner outside interest, none were aware of the others. In the end, it was Heinlein, Van Ronkel, and Pal who made Destination Moon, while at the same time Rabin, Block, and Neumann made Rocketship X-M—both films beginning as more or less the same idea.

From concept in Jim Barnes’ aircraft factory, through building, to finally ready for takeoff (courtesy Wade Williams Distribution).

All that said, I’m fascinated by the similarities between Destination Moon and 1947’s The Beginning or the End with Brian Donlevy. The first is a docudrama about persuading American private industry to pool their resources to build a rocket to the moon before the “other side” can. The second and earlier film is a docudrama about persuading American private industry to pool their resources to build an atomic bomb before the Germans can. Yes, while the American industry angle is central to co-script writer’s Robert A. Heinlein’s novella “The Man Who Bought the Moon,” I’m pretty certain that the realities of the Manhattan Project, or some reflection of it as shown in the Donlevy movie, influenced the making of Destination Moon.

Once audiences were in theaters and anticipations high, Destination Moon began with a fabulous title sequence, perhaps not as dramatic as in some of Pal’s later movies, but perfectly appropriate. Against a starry background we see in the center of the screen a large moon, a Chesley Bonestell painting, accompanied by genius Leith Stevens’ eerie score, which easily set the mood for the entire movie. In fact, according to Hickman, “Stevens ... consulted with numerous scientists, including Wernher von Braun, to get an idea of what space was like in order to create it musically.” Taking this a step further, Cy Schneider tells us in his liner notes from the 1960 Destination Moon soundtrack Omega label stereo album:

Destination Moon soundtrack CD

"When Leith Stevens was called upon back in 1950 to compose a score for George Pal’s motion picture Destination Moon, he had a peculiar creative problem on his hands. The picture dealt with man making a rocket to fly him to the moon and this science fiction fantasy itself was created to play upon unexperienced emotions by showing images never before seen. At that time information on space, the moon’s surface, rocket launchings and all the other scientific lingo that has become popular knowledge today, was considerably harder to come by. It took Stevens over three months to steep himself in enough scientific lore to prepare himself to write the first notes. He consulted with many scientists.... In these conferences and by studying countless artist’s sketches of the moon’s surface, Stevens was able to discover what the space world was like. The result was a startling, particularly dramatic score which became immediately popular. The music evoked new feelings, new mental pictures ... it investigated a musical world never before probed or propounded so sharply."

The opening titles scroll up the screen much as we are used to from all the Star Wars films (which in itself was borrowed from the 1939 Buck Rogers serial). The final frames of the movie treat us with a declaration that would have been new and bold and exciting for audiences of the day: “The End ... of the Beginning.”

 

Of special note, this film includes a charming and delightful cameo appearance by Walter Lantz’ Woody Woodpecker. Because the whole idea of rockets and rocketry had not yet become household concepts in 1950, as George Pal explains in The Films of George Pal by Gail Morgan Hickman, “We wanted to explain what rocketry was in an amusing way.” In the scene where a roomful of potential corporate sponsors are gathered to hear Jim Barnes’ sales pitch about sending a rocket to the moon, he shows a colorful short Woody Woodpecker cartoon that helps seal the deal.

 

 

The Woody Woodpecker scene from Destination Moon

(courtesy Wade Williams Distribution)

 The only science fiction movies I can think of that could be considered of equal importance in terms of influence are Stanley Kubrick’s2001: A Space Odyssey and George Lucas’ Star Wars. Destination Moon has been part of The Wade Williams Films Collection for many years. In 2000, Wade Williams, Image Entertainment, and Corinth Films released a wonderful DVD with great color that is still widely available.

 

July 1950. Eagle-Lion Classics Inc., George Pal Productions, Inc. Technicolor. 1.37:1. 92m. Production Cost: $586,000. USA Gross: $5,000,000.

CREDITS: Director Irving Pichel. Producer George Pal. Screenplay James O’Hanlon, Robert A. Heinlein, Rip Van Ronkel; Inspired by Rocketship Galileo by Robert A. Heinlein. Score Leith Stevens. Orchestration David Torbet. Director of Photography Lionel Lindon. Production Designer Ernst Fegté. Editor Duke Goldstone. Production Supervisor Martin Eisenberg. Technical Advisor of Astronomical Art Chesley Bonestell. Sound William Lynch. Special Effects Lee Zavitz. Cartoon Sequences Walter Lantz. Technicolor Color Consultant Robert Brower. Technical Advisor Robert A. Heinlein.

CAST: Jim Barnes John Archer. Dr. Charles Cargraves Warner Anderson. General Thayer Tom Powers. Joe Sweeney Dick Wesson. Emily Cargraves Erin O’Brien-Moore.

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