******SPACESHIP-SIZED SPOILERS!******

The 1950s saw a wave of ambitious space adventure films, inspired by the heady optimism of post-World War 2 prosperity in the United States, as well as a brain trust of science and engineering (a brain trust in serious danger of extinction these days). Full-color space epics such as “Destination Moon” (1950) and “Conquest of Space” (1955) depicted near-future voyages to de lune and Mars, as posited in the pages of Colliers magazine (1888-1957), with articles by German-American science writer Willey Ley and artwork by the incomparable Chesley Bonestell. All of this was a blueprint for an ambitious era in manned spaceflight that never quite came to pass.

Among the full-color spaceflight fantasies of the 1950s, including Walt Disney’s imaginative “Man in Space” cartoons, there were a few interesting, bargain basement attempts to cash in on this craze, too. One of these was 1950’s “Rocketship X-M,” directed by Kurt Neumann (1958’s “The Fly”). With more ambition than budget, “Rocketship X-M” concerns itself with humankind’s first manned spaceflight to the moon, which is inexplicably (and preposterously) veered off course 50 million miles to land on Mars. Most prints of the film were made in black & white, and this was how I first saw the film on TV as a kid in the 1970s.

However, in the early 2000s, I bought a remastered cut of this public domain film on DVD with the original orange-tinted Mars sequences intact. I recently gave that old DVD another spin for this retrospective…

“Rocketship X-M” (1950)

In 1979, a revised edit of the film was completed for producer Wade Williams, with new special effects shots created by Oscar winners Dennis Muren (“Star Wars,” “Jurassic Park”), Robert Skotak (“ALIENS,” “Terminator 2: Judgment Day”), and others. The new shots include miniature rocket landings and blast-offs to give this low-budget movie just a bit more scope. Despite its issues, the movie has aging but devoted fan base.

Note: New York actor John Emery (“Kronos,” “The Gay Intruders”) bears an uncanny resemblance to 1950s-era Walt Disney (it was Disney’s “Man in Space” three-episode cartoon/documentary from 1955 that later ignited the American public’s imagination for space). Emery’s slight Nordic accent suggests his character was influenced by the German rocket scientists of Operation Paperclip; a group of Nazi rocket scientists (including Werner von Braun) who strategically surrendered to capture by the Allies at the end of World War 2 and soon worked on the US rocket program, based in Huntsville, Alabama.

Note: The RXM launch on the DVD is one of the revised 1979 FX sequences, and it replaces the original version’s stock footage launch from Huntsville, Alabama tests of captured German V-2 rockets (renamed A-4s). The new FX blend in seamlessly with the original footage. Six new FX shots were created in total for the 1979 reedit, and they include new landing/liftoff shots, as well as establishing shots of the RXM on the Martian surface.

Note: I realize this movie was made a good decade before humanity took its first tentative flights into space, but why would a lunar mission–which is already stripped of weight for maximum range–carry double its fuel requirements? Of course, it’s a handy plot convenience later on, but it’s kinda ridiculous. The controls on the RXM are downright steampunk compared to real-life spacecraft, especially in the 21st century. Lots of clunky valves, analog gauges, pipes, levers, etc, and not a computer in sight (even the most modest rudimentary computers were the size of bank vaults in the 1950s). There are no traces of spacesuits anywhere in the cabin, either…kind of odd for a mission to the moon, which has no appreciable atmosphere.

Note: This was one of the most cringe-worthy scenes in the entire movie, even when I first saw it on TV as a kid in the late 1970s. I realize the movie is a product of its time, and I assume the screenwriters patted themselves on the back for having a woman aboard at all (no matter how she’s mistreated). In fact, a woman flying to the moon only became a reality this year, with astronaut Christina Koch and the Artemis 2 mission. Despite greater overall awareness, women’s rights and social progress remain all-too fragile in the United States.

Note: Actor Noah Beery Jr. (1913-1994) plays the ship’s engineer and comic relief, Major William Corrigan, who annoys his shipmates with his never-ending nostalgia for Texas. The New York-born actor is the son of silent film actor Noah Beery (“The Mark of Zorro,” “Beau Geste”) and the nephew of Oscar-winning actor Wallace Beery (“The Champ”). Noah Beery Jr. is perhaps best known for his role as James Garner’s father in “The Rockford Files” (1974-1980). My personal favorite credit of his was his small but heartbreaking role as grief-stricken farmer ‘John Stebbins’ in “Inherit the Wind” (1960).

Note: For a sense of scale, the moon is roughly a quarter of a million miles from Earth. Mars is, on average, 140 million miles from Earth. Whatever fuel mixture was used to reignite the RXM’s engines, there is no way a spacecraft could reach Mars in three days, even assuming its trajectory aligned with Mars within that window. To reach Mars in that time, the RXM would have to be traveling at nearly two million miles per hour (!). Even if Mars were at closest approach to Earth (roughly 35 million miles), the RXM would have to be traveling at over 486,000 mph. The inertia would turn the RXM crew into jelly. A three-day trip to Mars is total fantasy. Perhaps it was an attempt to one-up the more science-minded, full-color “Destination Moon,” its strongest competitor at the box office.

Note: From landing until liftoff, the movie is tinted orange-red for all of its Mars sequences. This tinting of the movie’s Martian sequences considerably enlivens the movie’s previous black & white cinematography. It also proved to be surprisingly accurate decades later, after the sky and surface of Mars were photographed in color by the robotic Viking landers in 1976. The movie’s cinematographer, Karl Strauss (1886-1981), began his career in silent films, and he shot the landmark 1927 film, “Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans” (a clip of which was seen in the 1994 film version of Anne Rice’s “Interview With The Vampire.”)

Note: That Martian race’s self-destruction in a long ago nuclear war is a surprisingly dark plot twist, coming only five years after US atomic bombs devastated the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki at the end of the Second World War. This revelation feels more like something out of a classic sci-fi novel than a low-budget B-movie. Rumor has it that blacklisted Hollywood screenwriter Dalton Trumbo (“Roman Holiday,” “Spartacus,” “Papillon”) did an uncredited rewrite.

Note: The long, metallic mask discovered in the sand is reminiscent of the faces seen on the statues carved by the Rapa Nui people of Easter Island (Chile) sometime between the 13th and 16th centuries. Back in the 1970s, these statues were linked to various “ancient astronaut” myths in the 1968 book, “Chariots of the Gods,” penned by Swiss pseudoscience writer Erich von Däniken (1935-2026).

Note: Even in 1950, it was generally known that Mars had a very thin atmosphere; certainly not thick enough for explorers to walk around in bomber jackets, caps and oxygen masks (with no visible oxygen supply). Given the film’s budget, I accept the lack of spacesuits as another funding casualty.

Note: The extreme closeup of the terrified Martian woman’s milky eyes, combined with her blood-curdling scream, make this one of the most memorable moments in the entire film. It certainly lingered in my psyche as a kid. Kudos to the late Sherry Moreland (1922-1995) for her unforgettable cameo.

Note: This was where the Martian humanoids went from pathetic survivors of an unimaginable holocaust to mindless “savages” of a 1930s jungle movie–tossing deadly rocks and stone spears at the astronauts. The dying Dr. Eckstrom gets the only redeeming line of this scene, as he reminds an enraged Floyd to “pity them,” before he succumbs.

Note: Navigator Harry Chamberlain is played by actor Hugh O’Brian (1925-2016), who most famously starred in the TV western series, “The Life and Times of Wyatt Earp” (1955-1961). Dr. Lisa Van Horn is played by Danish actress Osa Massen (1914-2006), who costarred in “Jack London” (1943) and “Tokyo Rose” (1946). The movie’s hero, Col. Floyd Graham is, of course, played by the legendary Lloyd Bridges (1913-1998). With over 150 movie credits to his name, Bridges was also the star of the TV series “Sea Hunt” (1958-1961), and was considered for the captain role in the pilot for “Star Trek,” before turning it down (he would later play ‘Commander Cain’ in a two-part episode of 1978’s “Battlestar Galactica”). Better known for drama, Bridges would later reinvent himself as a comedic superstar, after playing a substance-abusing air traffic controller in the two “Airplane!” movies (1980-1982), as well as a senile admiral in “Hot Shots” (1991). Bridges was also the father of actors Jeff Bridges (“Starman”) and Beau Bridges (“Stargate SG-1”), who would later costar together with Michelle Pfeiffer in “The Fabulous Baker Boys” (1989).

Note: This unexpectedly resigned ending deserves kudos for defying expectations, since most 1950s sci-fi movies typically ended with the stalwart hero and his attractive costar surviving against impossible odds. The crash of the RXM into Nova Scotia seemed to foreshadow the nihilism of late 1960s and early 1970s sci-fi films, such as “Planet of the Apes” (1968), “Colossus: The Forbin Project” (1970), “Soylent Green” (1973), “A Boy and His Dog” (1975) and many others.

Note: Actor Morris Ankrum (1896-1964) is a familiar face to fans of classic sci-fi, and has a long list of sci-fi credits to his name, including “Invaders from Mars” (1953), “Earth vs. the Flying Saucers” (1956), (1957), “Kronos” (1957) “From the Earth to the Moon” (1958) and producer Roger Corman’s “The Man with X-Ray Eyes” (1963).

The End.

Summing It Up

Without the greater resources of the full-color “Destination Moon,” director/cowriter Kurt Neumann’s “Rocketship X-M” was shot for the infamously thrifty Lippert Studios. New special effects shots created for a 1979 reedit of the film added much appreciated production value, but in most other respects, this fondly remembered 76-year old movie has not aged well. The core characters often speak in tin-eared dialogue, the sexism is stifling, and modern audiences can forget about anything approaching Star Trek inclusivity–save for the put-upon Dr. Lisa Van Horn.

However, there are a number of pluses as well. The movie acknowledges the existence of microgravity in space, even if doesn’t consistently adhere to it (most modern space movies still make this mistake). Cinematographer Karl Strauss (1927’s “Sunrise,” 1958’s “The Fly”) casts all of the Mars sequences in an eye-catching (and unexpectedly accurate) orange hue. The theremin-heavy score by Ferde Grofé gives the Martian sequences a suitably eerie vibe, as well. Given that “Rocketship X-M” was crafted a decade before the first humans were rocketed into Earth orbit, some allowances have to be made.

This 78-minute movie manages to throw in a bit of social commentary after the landing on Mars, when the astronauts discover native humanoids who’ve descended into barbarism after an ancient atomic war. This could’ve been a more potent message, coming only five years after the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, but the movie pulls it punches, and the radiation-scarred Martians become little more than the cliché hostile natives of a 1930s jungle flick. Given that cowriter/director Neumann would go on to direct the far superior “The Fly” eight years later, I wonder if the story’s post-atomic horror might’ve delved deeper under greater creative freedom?

As is, “Rocketship X-M” is a 1950s B-movie in nearly every sense, but with some compelling qualities for a patient, forgiving viewer. The surprisingly dark, fatalistic ending is ahead of its time, and forecasts sci-fi films of the late 1960s and early 1970s. Conversely, “Rocketship X-M” also manages to be the very portrait of pre-Space Age innocence, when many believed that hubris alone was enough to fulfill humanity’s wildest dreams for outer space.

Where to Watch

“Rocketship X-M” is a public domain film, and is available to stream for free on YouTube and Tubi.com. The 2000s color-tinted Image DVD (which was used for this retrospective) is still available via Amazon and eBay. The “Mystery Science Theater 3000” version from 1990 is also deeply hilarious, and should also be available to watch on YouTube.