Good concept, poorly executed.

An action-packed slog

This story has more twists and turns than a second-rate soap opera.

One of the best movies of the year! Incredible from the beginning to the end.

MISSILE TO THE MOON is an endearingly cheesy science fiction B-movie of the 1950s. The plot concerns a group of woodenly-acted astronauts who travel to the Moon only to discover that it has a number of inhabitants. Chief of these is a race of blue-skinned warrior women dressed in the most fetching of bikini-clad ensembles (outer space women were a running theme of the decade). Also around to menace the astronauts are a giant spider borrowed from TARANTULA and a cool rock monster. Oh, and the Sun is powerful enough to burn people down to a skeleton. There's a lot of fun involved here if you don't mind poor production values, laughable acting and effects, and so-bad-it's-good entertainment.

A spaceship blasts off from Earth with five aboard, but one of them is secretly a Moon man returning home. He dies by accident during the trip to Luna.While this is incredibly cheesy, and not very scientifically accurate (at one point the rocket looks like cardboard), it is fun. The rock creatures are especially interesting. The spider is okay, although it does look a bit silly and this is the second or third time that same prop has appeared in a film.I am curious what color the moon people are supposed to be. In the version I watched, they were sort of greenish blue. But in other versions, they are more naturally human-colored. And, of course, originally the film had no color at all. I suspect the true color is closer to human-tone, because otherwise how did Dirk (the moon man) pass as human?

No need to recap the storyline. I think it was put together by cartoonists on a barstool.At least this mess is fun to look at. Shapely blue women, big hairy spiders, humanoid rock men, all in candy box colors, especially the goofy court scenes. Looks like production spent 90% on sets and costumes, 9% on the cast (mostly sexy amateurs), and 1% on script. Now if someone would please wake up actor Travis. He's got all the liveliness of a highschool boy flunking geometry. Good thing for switchblade delinquent Tommy Cook who's somewhat motivated. And see if you agree—actor Clarke as good boy Lon looks like a skinny James Dean. Anyway, I can only imagine what pro's like Travis, Downs, and Stevens thought when they read the script. No wonder Travis acts like a condemned man.I'm still a bit puzzled about production versus script. Surely the producers expected only laughs and lust from the storyline, so why go extra expense for the fancy settings. On the whole, the latter are pretty well outfitted compared to the plot. On the other hand, drive-in contemporary Roger Corman knew how to combine the two into campy fun. Unfortunately, the results here cause more head-scratching than campy laughs. Meanwhile, color me blue, stamp my ticket, and wish me luck. I'm on my way to meet the moon maidens.(In passing-- If I recall correctly, The Lido was a fancy Paris nightclub that featured a parade of sexy show girls, which sort of fits here.)

I'm amazed there is no "goofs" link for this movie because there are many, including: Space suits that don't have any connection between the suit and the helmet leaving the bare neck of the wearer visibly exposed.Characters able to hear things on the airless moon's surface.Clouds on the moon.A gantry clearly visible as the spaceship lands on the unexplored lunar surface (an effect achieved by reversing the stock V2 take-off footage used earlier in the movie with a couple of rock matted into the foreground).A civilisation so starved of oxygen that the main form of interior decorative lighting consists of lighted torches and flambeaux.Early in the movie Hunk hero and Girlfriend are trapped in the lower part of the ship that "has no oxygen". Luckily there are a couple of 'spare' oxygen masks lying around. Later one of the crew in the upper part of the ship raises a hatch in the floor of the upper section to reveal the two slumped bodies. No he wouldn't. If the lower portion had been unpressurised, the air pressure in the upper cabin would have held the door shut with the apparent weight of a couple of tons.Etc etc.None of these would really mar what is a pretty awful, hackneyed piece of junk SF assembled from bits salvaged from the great North Hollywood cliché mountain but for the fact that the whole plot revolves around the lack of air on the moon. This movie has no internal logic at all.If you are looking to buy this movie - and I cannot for the life of me understand why you would - please be warned: my copy is on one of those "3 Classic Sci-F- Films of the Silver Screen" on one disc jobs* and the print is just awful. Scratched, jumpy and, amazingly, out of focus for great chunks of the time.*Cat Number CE 040 along with Earth Vs The Flying Saucers http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0049169 and Planet Outlaws http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0046192