DESTINATION MOON (1950)
+ MISSION TO MARS (1951)
Special Edition Blu-ray
Two Out of this World Classics! Destination Moon (1950) and Flight to Mars (1951) come together in a 2 Disc Collection! Both scanned in 4K from 35mm archival elements for a summer Special Edition from Film Masters
Label: Film Masters
Region Code: Region-Free
Rating: Unrated
Duration: 91 Minutes 2 Seconds
Audio: English DTS-HD MA 2.0 Dual-Mono with Optional English Subtitles
Video: 1080p HD Fullscreen (1.37:1)
Director: Irving Pichell
Cast: John Archer, Warner Anderson, Tom Powers, Dick Wesson
Destination Moon (1950), directed by Irving Pichel (Santa Fe), produced by George Pal (War of the Worlds) and based on the novel by Robert A. (Starship Troopers), produced by the Poverty Row studio Eagle-Lion Films. It is considered the film that launched the Hollywood into the Space Age, even though the black and while Rocketship X-M arrived in theaters a few months earlier, offering a more hard-science realistic approach. It starts with a failed rocket test-launch at a military base that explodes, ruining the hopes of government funding for General Thater (Tom Powers, The Blue Dahlia) and Dr. Charles Cargraves Warner Anderson, The Caine Mutiny) for their mission-to-the-moon project. With the help of aircraft magnate Jim Barnes (John Archer, I Saw What You Did) they are able to privately finance the project through a group of U.S. industrialists, after telling them that whomever reaches the moon first will certainly rule the Earth. Their pitch is assisted by a Wood Woodpecker cartoon short that simplifies the science behind space travel, so not only do we get a sci-fi flick, but we get an exclusive Woody Woodpecker cartoon, too. The pitch works, and they set about designing and building a single-stage powered spaceship, appropriately dubbed Luna, and it's a beauty, a chrome dart-shaped craft that pretty much set the standard for 50's sci-fi rocket ship for years to come.
Despite some legal entanglement they are set to launch, but their radar/radio operator comes down with appendicitis they need a last minute replacement, wisecracking Sweeney (comedian Dick Wesson, Rollercoaster) a wisecracking Bronxite, who provides some dull-edged comedy relief in an otherwise straight-forward and serious-minded flick. The launch is a success but as they prepare to orbit the moon they discover that the rocket's antenna, which is need to pilot the landing, won't deploy. It turns out that the well-meaning Sweeney greased it before launch, and being dim on matter's of science and space travel, didn't realize it would freeze in the frozen emptiness of space, leading to a three-man space walk to fix the issue, which leads to Cargraves being untethered and free-floating in space, with some clever use of an oxygen tank as a makeshift propulsion unit to retrieve the doc, and return him to the ship. Landing on the moon we get some terrific stop-motion miniatures and gorgeous matte paintings by Chesley Bonestell, and the crew experience further set-backs, resulting in potential self-sacrifice for the good of the mission, when they realize they do not have enough fuel to take off and achieve escape velocity.
Watching this now the film feels a bit antiquated visually, but it's also rather exciting how close they came to reality, this was nineteen years before we eventually had a manned mission tot he moon, and they get quite a bit right. I'm old, but not THAT old, so I was not around for the Apollo 11 mission and our landing on the moon, I came along just a few years later, but it must have been something to see the actual moon landing and having watched destination moon and seeing the mostly accurate parallels, films like this, the images of leaving the Earth, arriving at the moon, the landing maneuvering, heck they even make a statement while on the moon dedicating it to the people of earth, which almost 20 years later Neil Armstrong did something very similar, it just must have been wild to see life imitating art, these film were pure fantasy and science speculation when they made it, and then we did it, that's just so wild to me.
Label: Film Masters
Region: Region-FREE
Rating: Unrated
Duration: 72 Minutes
Audio: English DTS-HD MA 2.0 Mono with Optional English & Spanish Subtitles
Video: 1080p HD Full Frame (1.37:1)
Director: Lesley Selander
Cast: Marguerite Chapman, Cameron Mitchell, Arthur Franz, Virginia Huston, John Litel, Morris Ankrum, Richard Gaines, Lucille Barkley, Robert Barrat, Russ Conway, Edward Earle, Everett Glass
As much as I love cheesy, vintage science fiction I have always thought that Flight to Mars (1951) was a pretty flimsy slice of sci-fi, even as a kid. The film stars Cameron Mitchell (Raw Force) and was produced on the cheap for poverty row studio Monogram Pictures, under the reigns of the legendary producer Walter Mirisch (The Magnificent Seven), who would go onto produce many classic films, among them the seminal Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956).
The even then cliched story follows the adventures of Earth's first rocket ship expedition to the red planet, led by senior physicist Dr. Lane (John Litel, The Return of Dr. X) who is joined by Professor Jackson (Richard Gaines, Brute Force), engineer Jim Barker (Arthur Franz, Sisters of Death), assistant engineer Carol Stadwick (Virginia Huston, Out of the Past) and journalist Steve Abbott (Cameron Mitchell, Blood and Black Lace) who is there to report the groundbreaking expedition. On route to Mars the rocket ship loses communication with Earth following an meteor storm which also damages their landing gear. This leaves the crew to decide to either continue onto Mars to complete their mission with little chance of ever leaving the planet or turning around and returning to Earth. The decision is made and they end up crash-landing on Mars to complete the mission, with the intention of sending their observations back to Earth via self-propelled drones.
After a rough but intact crash landing the scientist begin to explore the surface of the planet and are surprised to find alien structures, but they don't seem all that surprised when they are greeted by five Martians, who look just like humans. How convenient, so as not to drive up the production costs. The advanced Mars inhabitants tell them that they have been receiving Earth's broadcast transmissions for years and have learned their language (and apparently only the English speaking broadcasts), hence they can speak English. They take the Earthlings to an advanced underground city powered by an element that it turns out is quickly depleting and is non-sustainable. In true 50's form when the sole woman from Earth sees the advanced society her first utterance is to declare that she cannot wait to see the kitchen! The Martians offer to repair the rocketship, but secretly the Martian leader Ikron (Morris Ankrum, The Giant Claw) plans to either repair or copy the the Earthling's
rocket-ship technology to evacuate the Martian from their dying planet and invade the Earth!
As I said before, I have always thought this was a pretty flimsy bit of science fiction, but even still I do love these 50's cheese-fests, even the shabby ones, and this is a mighty shabby entry ladies and gentlemen. These sets can look paper-thin and are sparsely decorated, we don't even get the usual cool-looking Martian backdrops or alien ray guns. What we do get are some shoddy model rocket ships on strings, matte paintings and miniatures, but they are used quite sparingly. On the plus side the Martian costuming is quite interesting, from their colorful surface suits to their pajama's with capes formal wear, while others looks to be inspired by medieval garb; perhaps borrowed from other Mongram productions? Who needs lavish sets though when you have the lovely Marguerite Chapman as a very leggy Martian space babe named Alita, wearing a striking miniskirt ensemble with a plunging neckline, who has eyes for our sort-of leading man Cameron Mitchell, so that's something I guess.
Audio/Video: Destination Moon (1950) and Flight To Mars (1951) arrive on region-free Blu-ray from Film Masters, both scanned in 4K from 35mm archival prints and color-graded, presenting the films in the original 1.37:1 aspect ratio in 1080p HD. The sources looks immaculate, they really look great, grain levels do fluctuate a bit throughout but it looks fairly consistent, and fine detail and textures are modest but appreciable. The worst I can say about it is that the color-grading for Flight To mars seems somewhat inconsistent, the color temperatures wax and wane throughout, and skin tones in the first reel look strangely bronzed. Overall a very solid HD presentation for this '50s science fiction double-feature.
Audio for both films comes by way of by way of English DTS-HD MA 2.0 dual-mono with optional English subtitles. It's a strong presentation that sounds appropriately vintage, obviously there's not a lot depth or low-end, and the probably recycled sound effects sound canned, but it does the trick and is not burdened by hiss or distortion, highlighting the scores by Leith Stevens (War of the Worlds) for Destination Moon and Marlin Skiles (Space Probe Taurus) for Flight To Mars respectively.
Extras for Destination Moon kick off with a new Audio Commentary by Justin Humphreys, which is terrifically in-depth, a 39-min Recreated Bob Burns interview, from Tom Weaver and Richard Heft, and a 23-min Man's Greatest Adventure: The Making of Destination Moon, a new documentary by Ballyhoo Motion Pictures that delves into the serious reality based take on science fiction, the score, the incredible matte paintings, cinematography, the cast and crew, and so much more, plus we get some great BTS pics. There's also a 4-min Destination Moon Digitized Original Pressbook courtesy of James Van Hise, that is super-cool, and a 2-min Restored Original 35mm Trailer.
Flight To mars was previously issued on Blu-ray back in 2021 by The Film Detective, all the extras from that release are ported over here, beginning with an Audio commentary by author/film historian Justin Humphreys who gives the flick a solid talk about. He talks up the film a bit too much in my opinion, but along the way we get plenty of production facts, backstory about Mongram Pictures and Mirisch, anecdotes about the cast, and a candid, but still too-glowing, assessment of the film's shortcomings. We also get a pair of Ballyhoo Motion Pictures produced featurettes, the first is the 14-minute Walter Mirisch: From Bombay to Body Snatchers with filmmaker Courtney Joyner discussing Walter Mirisch's attempt to raise the stature of poverty tow mini-major Monogram Pictures. Next is the Interstellar Travelogues: Cinema's First Space Race with science-fiction artist/historian Vincent Di Fate who offers up a breezy history of space-travel films, presented here in an extended version that runs a several minutes longer than version that appeared on the The Film Detective Blu-ray. The last of the disc extras for Flight To Mars is the 2-min Restored Original Trailer.
The 2-disc releases arrives in a standard, dual-hub keepcase with a single-sided sleeve of artwork featuring the original illustrated movie poster artwork. Inside there's an illustrated 16-page Illustrated Collector's Booklet with a new essay, One Small Step/One Giant Leap' by Sloan De Forest, offering a deep appreciation for Destination Moon and it's production.
Special Features:
Disc 1:
- Commentary by Justin Humphreys for Destination Moon
- Recreated Bob Burns interview, from Tom Weaver and Richard Heft (39:05)
- Man's Greatest Adventure: The Making of Destination Moon, a new documentary by Ballyhoo Motion Pictures (23:09) serious reality based, score, matte paintings, cinematography, cast, great BTS clips,
- Destination Moon Digitized Original Pressbook courtesy of James Van Hise (3:44) a
- Restored Original 35mm Trailer for Flight to Mars (2:06)
Disc 2:
- Commentary by author/film historian Justin Humphreys on Flight To Mars
- Walter Mirisch: From Bombay to Body Snatchers with C. Courtney Joyner (14:07)
- Interstellar Travelogues: Cinema's First Space Race, Extended Edition, with science-fiction artist/historian Vincent Di Fate (15:52)
- Restored Original Trailer for Flight To Mars (2:02)
- 16-Page Illustrated Collector's Booklet with essay by film historian Sloan de Fores
Screenshots from The Film Masters Blu-ray:
DESTINATION MOON
Extras:
Screenshot Comparison:
Top: The Film Detective Blu-ray (2021)
Bottom: Film Masters Blu-ray (2026)
Buy it!
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