''From the Earth to the Moon'' is a 1958 American

Technicolor Technicolor is a series of Color motion picture film, color motion picture processes, the first version dating back to 1916, and followed by improved versions over several decades. Definitive Technicolor movies using three black and white films ...

science fiction film, produced by Benedict Bogeaus, directed by

Byron Haskin Byron Conrad Haskin (April 22, 1899 – April 16, 1984) was an American film and television director, special effects creator and cinematographer. He is best known for directing '' The War of the Worlds'' (1953), one of many films where he ...

, that stars

Joseph Cotten Joseph Cheshire Cotten Jr. (May 15, 1905 – February 6, 1994) was an American film, stage, radio and television actor. Cotten achieved prominence on Broadway, starring in the original stage productions of '' The Philadelphia Story'' and '' Sab ...

George Sanders George Henry Sanders (3 July 1906 – 25 April 1972) was a British actor and singer whose career spanned over 40 years. His heavy, upper-class English accent and smooth, bass voice often led him to be cast as sophisticated but villainous chara ...

, and Debra Paget. Production of the film originated at RKO Pictures, but when RKO went into bankruptcy, the film was acquired and released by

Warner Brothers Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. (commonly known as Warner Bros. or abbreviated as WB) is an American film and entertainment studio headquartered at the Warner Bros. Studios complex in Burbank, California, and a subsidiary of Warner Bros. D ...

. ''From the Earth to the Moon'' is a film adaptation of Jules Verne's 1865

science fiction Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, parallel uni ...

novel of the same name.

Plot

Shortly after the end of the

American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union ("the North") and the Confederacy ("the South"), the latter formed by states ...

munitions Ammunition (informally ammo) is the material fired, scattered, dropped, or detonated from any weapon or weapon system. Ammunition is both expendable weapons (e.g., bombs, missiles, grenades, land mines) and the component parts of other weap ...

producer Victor Barbicane announces that he has invented a new explosive, "Power X", which he claims is much more powerful than any previously devised. Metallurgist Stuyvesant Nicholl scoffs at Barbicane's claims and offers a wager of $100,000 ($ million today) that it cannot destroy ''his'' invention, the hardest metal in existence. Barbicane stages a demonstration using a puny cannon and demolishes Nicholl's material (and a portion of the countryside). President Ulysses S. Grant requests that Barbicane cease development of his invention after several nervous countries warn that continuing work on Power X could be considered an act of war. Barbicane agrees, but when he discovers that pieces of Nicholl's metal retrieved from the demonstration have somehow been converted into an extremely strong yet lightweight

ceramic A ceramic is any of the various hard, brittle, heat-resistant and corrosion-resistant materials made by shaping and then firing an inorganic, nonmetallic material, such as clay, at a high temperature. Common examples are earthenware, porcelain ...

, he cannot resist the chance to construct a spaceship to travel to the Moon. He recruits Nicholl to help build the ship. Meanwhile, Nicholl's daughter Virginia and Barbicane's assistant Ben Sharpe are attracted to each other. After completing the spaceship, Barbicane, Nicholl, and Sharpe board it and, amid much fanfare, take off. Once they are in outer space, the strongly religious Nicholl reveals that he has sabotaged the vessel, believing that Barbicane has flouted God's laws. When it is discovered that Virginia has stowed away, Nicholl cooperates with Barbicane in a desperate attempt to save her. Sharpe is knocked out, and he and Virginia are placed in the safest compartment of the ship. Barbicane and Nicholl then fire rockets that send the young couple on their way back to Earth, while the two scientists land on the Moon in another section, with no way off. They are able to signal to the young couple that they have reached the Moon safely.

Cast

as Victor Barbicane *

as Nicholl * Debra Paget as Virginia Nicholl * Don Dubbins as Ben Sharpe *

Patric Knowles Reginald Lawrence Knowles (11 November 1911 – 23 December 1995), better known as Patric Knowles, was an English film actor. Born in Horsforth, West Riding of Yorkshire, he made his film debut in 1932, and played either first or second fi ...

as Josef Cartier * Carl Esmond as Jules Verne *

Henry Daniell Charles Henry Pywell Daniell (5 March 1894 – 31 October 1963) was an English actor who had a long career in the United States on stage and in cinema. He came to prominence for his portrayal of villainous roles in films such as '' Camille'' (1 ...

as Morgana *

Melville Cooper George Melville Cooper (15 October 1896 – 13 March 1973) was an English actor. His many notable screen roles include the High Sheriff of Nottingham in ''The Adventures of Robin Hood'' (1938), Mr. Collins in ''Pride and Prejudice'' (1940) and ...

as Bancroft * Ludwig Stössel as Aldo Von Metz *

Morris Ankrum Morris Ankrum (born Morris Nussbaum; August 28, 1897 – September 2, 1964) was an American radio, television, and film character actor. Early life Born in Danville in Vermilion County in eastern Illinois, Ankrum originally began a career in ...

as President Ulysses S. Grant (uncredited) *

Robert Clarke Robert Irby Clarke (June 1, 1920 – June 11, 2005) was an American actor best known for his cult classic science fiction films of the 1950s. Early life Clarke was born and raised in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. He decided at an early age that h ...

as Narrator (voice, uncredited)

Production

Blacklisted screenwriter Dalton Trumbo was brought in to give the script "a quick polish". Location shooting for ''From the Earth to the Moon'' took place in Mexico. Various electronic sound effects in the film score were reused from

MGM Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc., also known as Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures and abbreviated as MGM, is an American film, television production, distribution and media company owned by Amazon through MGM Holdings, founded on April 17, 1924 a ...

's soundtrack for ''

Forbidden Planet ''Forbidden Planet'' is a 1956 American science fiction film from Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, produced by Nicholas Nayfack, and directed by Fred M. Wilcox from a script by Cyril Hume that was based on an original film story by Allen Adler and Irvi ...

'' (1956), composed by Louis and Bebe Barron.

References

External links

* * * * * {{Byron Haskin, state=collapsed 1958 films 1950s science fiction films Films based on From the Earth to the Moon American science fiction films Films directed by Byron Haskin Films set in the 1860s RKO Pictures films 1950s English-language films 1950s American films