The Thing: From Another World (1951)

Excellent!

• Black & White (colorized version created in the early 1980s)
• Running Time: 87 minutes approx...
• Cinematography: Russell Harlan
• Art Direction: Albert S. D'Agostino, John J. Hughes
• Film Editor: Roland Gross
• Original Music: Dimitri Tiomkin
• Story: Written by Charles Lederer based on a short story “Who Goes There?” by John W. Campbell Jr.
• Producer: Howard Hawks
• Director: Christian Nyby (Many people contend that Hawks had more influence in this area than he was given credit for)

Cast & Characters

• Margaret Sheridan as Nikki Nicholson
• Kenneth Tobey as Captain Patrick Hendry
• Robert Cornthwaite as Dr Arthur Carrington
• Douglas Spencer as Ned 'Scotty' Scott
• James Young as Lt. Eddie Dykes
• Dewey Martin as Crew Chief Bob
• Robert Nichols as Lt. Ken 'Mac' MacPherson
• William Self as Corporal Barnes
• Eduard Franz as Dr Stern
• Sally Creighton as Mrs Chapman
• James Arness as 'The Thing'
• Paul Frees as Dr Voorhees
• John Dierkes as Dr Chapman
• George Fenneman as Dr Redding
• David McMahon as General Fogerty

 “The Thing" would have to be one of my most favorite science fiction films of all time. It has a way of grabbing you and never letting you go. We’ll see why a bit later, but first let’s take a look at the story line of this fabulous film.

Synopsis

• Scientists at a distant Arctic research station discover a crashed spacecraft buried in the ice.
• They also discover the frozen pilot (The Thing!) after Captain Patrick Hendry accidentally destroys the vessel with thermite bombs.
• After they take the creature back to the research station he is inadvertently thawed out!
• The alien terrifies the soldier guarding him and is shot. He then escapes out into the blizzard where it is attacked by a sled dog which rips off the creature’s arm.
• Dr Carrington suggests that "The Thing" is not an animal but is instead more akin to a vegetable, something like a carrot. Unlike a carrot, though, it subsists on blood!
• Carrington embarks on a misguided attempt to spawn the creature’s offspring using blood. Meanwhile the creature embarks on a murderous rampage throughout the base in its quest for blood.
• The female scientist, Nikki suggests that the best and obvious way to destroy a vegetable is to cook it. Methods for hopefully stopping ‘The Thing’ once and for all are then put into action.

Can  this small band of humans in their frozen isolated outpost devise a way of stopping this menace to humanity from another world? 

Points of Interest

The dialogue contains conversations that overlap and even run simultaneously. There is a lot of banter between the military characters, including the news reporter Scotty who obviously have a history and are at ease with each other. The result is a natural sounding dialogue between a bunch of guys instead of actors working from a script. These are indeed flesh-and-blood characters.

A hint of the geo-political context of the film is best conveyed when a likely explanation for the reported aircraft crash is that it “could be the Russians. They’re all over the Pole like flies.”

For the times, we are presented with a refreshingly, well-rounded female character (Nikki) who is nobody’s fool and who knows how to negotiate her way through a largely male-dominated domain. Steering her coffee pot she comfortably takes part in the male discussion of their dilemma and offers the most sensible course of action against their vegetable- opponent. Her conversation is engaging and her personality and sense of humour both shine through.

The Thing relies a lot on what the audience doesn't see. Graphic detail is replaced by glimpses and suggestion that lets your mind join the dots and fill in the details using the worst of what up your imagination can conjure up. Take the appearances by ‘The Thing’ character which are deliberately kept short and fleeting and appear indistinct such as the view we have of him as he appears in a doorway with the light behind him. It’s what we see from the corner of our eye and what we imagine that often most frightens and shocks us. All of this adds up to a wonderful blend of science fiction and horror. 

What else we don’t see in its entirety is the alien craft. We know that it causes a magnetic deviation, it manoeuvres unlike any natural phenomenon; it has a mass of 20.000 tons of steel; it emits radiation, suggesting some kind of atomic power; it has a tail fin and is constructed of “probably some new alloy.” Interestingly its magnitude- size and shape- is conveyed by the spacing of the men around the craft’s circumference. Added to this visual clue we have a poignant pause while the camera pans and the enormity of the fact that “we finally got one!” sinks in. We don’t need to fully see the space craft since we can well imagine it based on the suggestive clues that have been presented to us.

The overall mood and tension of The Thing is established right at the outset with the opening title, credits and of course the chilling and aggressive music score by Dimitri Tiomkin, interwoven with the eerie and haunting sounds produced by the Theremin. It seems to warn the audience that they are gradually approaching something sinister and dangerous or that “something wicked this way comes.” Watch the following clip to see what I mean;

“The Thing” character played by James Arness (who later starred in Gun Smoke) is more reminiscent of a character from horror fiction, namely, Frankenstein’s monster. Like Dracula, Frankenstein’s monster has become an iconic part of our culture and is synonymous with terror and everything inhuman. “The Thing” character is that and more and this product of our cultural nightmares confirms its true nature as the film progresses.

The film does contain some good action sequences, notably the 'fire scene.' With all the kerosene and flames engulfing the set, I couldn't shake that feeling of something about to go wrong! It was very realistic and I was surprised that no-one ended up being injured.

I feel that one of the most important elements of The Thing is its constant tensions, conflicts, clashes and unresolvable or almost irreconcilable elements. The following examples will serve to illustrate this;

The main conflict between the soldiers and the scientists:

Initially this conflict is established when the scientists’ innate quest for knowledge by examining the creature is stymied by the military’s need to wait for instructions before proceeding. The military men, however, seem to be quite human, friendly, sentimental, and funny and are very concerned with the importance of survival. The scientists, particularly in the form of the cold and fanatical Doctor Carrington, are portrayed as being less concerned for doing what is best for the human race. Instead knowledge is considered to be more important than lives or even survival. They tend to concern themselves with facts, whereas the soldiers decide and act based on their own and humanity’s survival. Carrington expects obedience from his fellow scientists whereas Captain Hendry and his men tend to cooperate, with the captain relying on his men’s expertise and Hendry providing the necessary leadership and guidance at a time of peril.

Struggle for survival against hostile forces:

Set in an isolated arctic lab and surrounded by ice and snow with the hostile forces of nature beating at the door, this vulnerable community must rely on solidarity and unity of purpose to win its death struggle with the hostile threat from another world also beating at its door. Note the cold breath coming from the characters when the heating is cut off. We truly know from that just how cold it is and how much peril they are in not only from the creature, but also from the hostile environment.

Individual and human rights vs. imperatives of national security: 

Scotty is faced with the prospect of breaking the biggest news story of all time but his potential scoop is thwarted by the military’s need to “wait for authority.”  However, what is the value of determinations made by those in authority? After all, we learn in the film that the 1949 Department of Defense bulletin proclaimed the air force had discontinued further investigations into the existence of UFOs due to the lack of evidence! Really?

Assumptions & Preconceptions:

Can we assume that an extra-terrestrial civilization would share our thirst and love for knowledge? Can we assume that it would act in a benevolent manner towards us or even care about our existence? Can we assume that it would have a higher or more enlightened sense of morality than us? Can we assume that it would share similar physical, emotional and other characteristics? OR Would such a civilization have beings whose cellular structure is closer to vegetation and who may view us as being little more than an inferior source of nutrients necessary for it to survive?

Because the creature is a stranger to our world and has “no hair” and lies within the block of ice with open eyes that “look like they can see,” should it be assumed that it is evil and dangerous? After all, when it first thawed out it was shot at and had its arm ripped off! Should we then assume that like Frankenstein’s monster it deserves our sympathy? It must be kept in mind that despite being “some form of super carrot,” this stranger in an unknown land was able to construct a space craft with an unknown form of propulsion! On that basis, it could be assumed that the creature represents a civilization with which we should “return the call.” Perhaps science holds the answer….or does it?

Science-saviour of humanity or its destroyer?

Scientific inquiry determined that the creature’s arm contained no animal tissue, blood or nerve endings. From this it is inferred that the creature itself cannot die in the way we understand it, that it has no emotions and feels no pain. For Carrington this can only mean that the creature is “superior” and is therefore “wiser than we are.” His desire to communicate with the creature and to continue to scientifically investigate it (without telling the “others”) has disastrous consequences, including the serious wounding of his colleague and the hanging up of two other dead colleagues from beams by the creature. For Carrington, there are “no enemies in science, only phenomena to study” and “knowledge is more important than life.” What he fails to grasp is that such attitudes or blind faith in science can blind us to the serious consequences to humanity that can result.  As was cynically pointed out in the film, this was the case with the “splitting of the atom.”

And so, dear reader, the message from this exceptional film, The Thing: From Another World, is that it is up to each of us to work together with a unity of purpose and to make sure that we continue to…..

“Watch the skies!” 

and 

“Keep looking!”

©Chris Christopoulos 2013

Sci-Fi on Film: 1951

After a tentative start in 1950, (see my posts on this Home Page) 1951 was quite a busy year in the sci-fi film genre. These are some of the films that will be featured in this blog.

· The Thing: From Another World
· The Man From Planet X
· When Worlds Collide
· The Day the Earth Stood Still
· Five
· Unknown World
· Flight To Mars 

The first film to be featured will be, The Thing: From Another World. But before we do, let’s take a bit of time to get a feel of that significant year for sci-fi in the movies…

A Taste of the Times (1951)

• The President of the US is still Harry S “The Buck Stops Here” Truman
• Despite peace talks, the Korean War continues.
• The UN condemns the People's Republic of China as being the aggressor in Korea.
• Seoul falls first to Communist forces and later to US-led UN troops
• MacArthur threatened the Chinese with an extension of the Korean War if the proposed truce was not accepted. He was soon to be dismissed by Truman.
• Colour television makes its first appearance in the U.S.
• The first transcontinental wireless phone call was made.
• Charles F. Blair, Jr. makes the first solo flight across North Pole, the setting for The Thing!
• Recording of the song “Rocket 88,” which has been credited as being the first rock ’n’ roll record.
• UNIVAC (Universal Automatic Computer), the first commercial computer able to handle both numeric and alphabetic data, makes its debut.
• The first nuclear power plant is built by the US Atomic Energy Commission.
• The first H-Bomb test was conducted on Eniwetok Atoll.
• Construction of back-yard A-bomb shelters increased.
• Atomic testing began in the Nevada desert.
• Stalin declares that Russia has an atom bomb.
• FBI director J. Edgar Hoover is responsible for a secret nationwide program intended to remove politically suspect employees from their jobs.
• Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were sentenced to death for treason. 

©Chris Christopoulos 2013

A Tribute to Ray Harryhausen

Raymond Frederick "Ray" Harryhausen 

(June 29, 1920 – May 7, 2013)

At the back of his parents’ milk bar in Melbourne Australia, a young boy in the early 1960s watched TV with bulging eyes and open mouth. He was watching the film, Jason and the Argonauts at the point where the giant bronze statue, Talos was just coming to life to punish Jason and his crewmates for violating the treasure storehouse at the foot of Talos’ statue. It was the genius of the American master of visual effects, Ray Harryhausen and his brand of stop-motion model animation known as "Dynamation" that produced such an effect as described above in audiences of films that featured his ground-breaking special effects. By the way, that young boy was me. 

Raymond Frederick "Ray" Harryhausen was born on June 29, 1920 and it seemed as if a path was being laid out for him that would lead him to the creation of his own unique imaginative world via the medium of film. A part of this world was being shared with that young boy in Melbourne years afterward, who would in turn remember as an adult that magic moment on TV nearly 50 years later. 

This path Ray was to take was marked with the following signposts; 

• His lifelong passion for dinosaurs and anything to do with fantasy. 
• His parents’ encouragement of him to pursue whatever he wanted to. 
• Opportunity offered to him at Grammar school to learn how to make model miniature set pieces of Californian Missions. This in turn led him to begin making three dimensional figures and sets. From that he would eventually make his own versions of prehistoric creatures. 
• Inspiration derived from the LA County Museum where Ray gazed in wonder at the murals of prehistoric creatures created by Charles R. Knight. Ray also saw the film, The Lost World in 1925, at five years of age. His eyes feasted on a world populated with what seemed to be living dinosaurs such as an allosaurus fighting with and pushing a brontosaurus off the edge of a plateau. And then of course there was King Kong in 1933. 
• His natural thirst for knowledge in which Ray wanted to know about the creatures he saw on the screen and how they seemed to have been brought to life. What was this thing called “stop-motion animation?” 
• Trial and error: Ray Experimented in the production of animated shorts. 
• Mentors such as Willis O'Brien who was the animator of King Kong. O'Brien assessed Ray's models and inspired him to aim for a more fluid animation and to construct creatures that were more anatomically correct.
• Education being a life-long process to build upon and increase one’s skills. Ray took classes in graphic arts and sculpture and enrolled in art and anatomy night classes at the Los Angeles City College (LACC). He also attended night classes at the University of Southern California where he studied art direction, editing and photography. 

From such influences we can better understand how Ray Harryhausen was able to reach a point where he was able to almost magically inject life into his characters and give them character and personality. 

Ray Harryhausen’s Career 

• Harryhausen’s first commercial job was on George Pal's Puppetoons shorts. 
• During World War Two, Ray designed and photographed a short film called How to Bridge a Gorge in 1941 to show how stop-motion animation could be used in propaganda films. He also worked on US propaganda films such as the Why We Fight series for the US War Office 
• In 1947 Harryhausen worked as an assistant animator on his first major film, Mighty Joe Young in 1949 which happily for him used the same people who had made King Kong. In this film, Ray animated most of the scenes.
• Ray Harryhausen was later to form a partnership with producer Charles H. Schneer. Their first project was It Came from Beneath the Sea in 1955, followed by Earth vs. the Flying Saucers in 1956. 

The films listed below that Ray Harryhausen worked on consist only of those that will be featured in this blog. 

1953:  THE BEAST FROM 20,000 FATHOMS 

This was the first film that used the technique later known as Dynamation. This involved using a split screen technique to insert models into the live-action. It was a method of seamlessly integrating the live-action with the models. The film was Harryhausen's first solo feature film effort, and a major international box-office hit for Warner Brothers Pictures. 

It is worth noting that Ray was able to develop and execute most of the miniature set work himself, thereby saving money and more importantly maintaining his full technical and creative control in order to achieve the desired special effects in his films. 

1955:  IT CAME FROM BENEATH THE SEA 

In the film the model of the octopus had only six tentacles due to budget constraints. To overcome this marine physical handicap, the model was always partially in the water at any one time. Don’t believe me? Check it out! 

1956:  EARTH vs. THE FLYING SAUCERS 

The design of the saucers had an animated section added into the top and underside. Flutes were also incorporated into the design so that audiences could see that the saucer was moving. Ray simply used old recording wire on which to suspend the saucers to give the illusion of flying. The Capitol and the Supreme Court buildings which were miniature sets cost a mere (by today’s blockbuster standards) $1500 each. The Washington Monument came in at a bargain price of $500. Ray’s dad made the saucers from aluminium which was then anodised to give them a matt finish so they wouldn’t reflect light. 

Harryhausen always involved himself in the pre-production film's story concept & script development as well as art-direction, design, storyboarding and other aspects of his films.

1957:  20 MILLION MILES TO EARTH 

In this film, an American spaceship returns from Venus and crashes into the ocean near Italy, releasing an alien egg which washes up on shore. This egg hatches a creature that rapidly grows to enormous size and terrifies the entire populace of Rome. I dare you to try and not feel empathy for Harryhausen’s Venusian “Ymir” model. This would be due largely to Ray’s ability to make his model convey emotional states through their expressions, stance and movements, combined with other features used in the film to illicit emotional response. Ray insisted that the film should be shot in black and white using Kodak 35mm film stock that eliminated the problem of grain when the rear projection image is re-photographed. 20 Million Miles to Earth was the last picture that Ray made in black and white. It would have been Ray's tribute to Willis O'Brien and King Kong, mentioned above.  

1958:  THE 7th VOYAGE OF SINBAD 

This was Ray’s first feature in colour and it was he who came up with the idea for the title, The 7th Voyage of Sinbad due to the mystical significance of the number 7. It was for this film that the name “Dynamation.” was coined for Ray’s dimensional animation. 

1963: Jason and the Argonauts

So, how did Ray Harryhausen achieve that effect of open-mouthed wonder in a young boy of about 7 or 8 years of age sitting in front of a black and white TV set? With the statue, Talos coming to life, Ray based the movement of Talos’ head turning to the camera on a Japanese film in which a woman’s head turns to the camera. Talos’ movements are very laboured and slow in order to convey a sense of the height of the bronze statue. Quite a feat with a model which is only about sixteen inches high! 

And so, nearly 50 years later I still enjoy watching that and other films that feature the magic of the master, Ray Harryhausen. 

Thank you for the magic, Ray…..

©Chris Christopoulos 2013

The Flying Saucer (1950)

Below Average

•         Produced & Directed by Mikel Conrad
•         Written by Howard Irving Young
•         Starring Mikel Conrad
•         Music by Darrell Calker
•         Cinematography Phillip Tannura
•         Distributed by Film Classics Inc.
•         Running time: 69 minutes

Cast

•         Mikel Conrad - Mike Trent
•         Pat Garrison - Vee Langley
•         Hantz von Teuffen - Hans
•         Roy Engel - Dr. Lawton
•         Lester Sharpe - Col. Marikoff
•         Denver Pyle - Turner, spy
•         Erl Lyon - Alex, spy
•         Frank Darrien - Matt Mitchell
•         Russell Hicks - Intelligence Chief Hank Thorn
•         Virginia Hewitt - Nanette, bar girl
•         Garry Owen - Bartender

Read on for more.....

Rocketship X-M (1950)

My Rating: Average

1950: A Taste Of The Times

• Families in the US begin moving out to the suburbs.
• 8 million homes in the US own Televisions, many of which were 12 inch black and white TV sets.
• Median family income in the US was $3,300 p/a.
• Credit Cards and the Transistor have made their appearance.
• Communist China provides additional military forces to Communist North Korea. North Korea invades South Korea capturing Seoul. US leads UN in the Korean War.
• The US “witch-hunt” begins when the persecution of Communists is initiated by Senator Joe McCarthy.
• China invades Tibet.
• Formation of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) for the defence of the United States and Europe. Warsaw Pact formed in response to NATO.
• Albert Einstein warns that nuclear war could lead to mutual destruction. 

Rocketship X-M (1950)

• Director: Kurt Neumann 
• Starring: Lloyd Bridges, Osa Massen, John Emery, Noah Beery Jr, Hugh O’Brian, Morris Ankrum 
• Screenplay: Kurt Neumann, Orville H. Hampton (uncredited) and Dalton Trumbo (uncredited) 
• Budget: $94,000 (Compare to Destination Moon!)

Background

• Rocketship X-M became the first post-WWII sci-fi outer space film only due to the delayed release of George Pal's Destination Moon. 
• Unlike Destination Moon, Rocketship X-M was a black-and-white feature from Lippert Pictures shot in just 18 days. 
• Rocketship X-M was rushed into movie theatres 25 days before Destination Moon thereby taking full advantage of the high-profile national publicity of Pal’s film. 

In R X-M we have the first use of the theremin in a sci-fi movie. Also known as the etherphone, this early electronic musical instrument could be controlled without the player actually making physical contact with it. The sound adds an eerie, haunting and spine-chilling atmoshpere to a film. For instance, consider the effect in a film like, The Day The Earth Stood Still.

Synopsis

• The film revolves around the first manned spaceflight, "Rocketship eXpedition Moon". It’s crew consists of space scientist, Dr. Karl Eckstrom (who with Dr. Ralph Fleming conceived the idea of this space flight), Eckstrom’s brilliant protegé Dr. Lisa Van Horn, astronomer Harry Chamberlain, engineer Major William Corrigan and pilot, Captain Floyd Graham. 
• The launch is successful. However, things go wrong and the crew hurtle across space beyond the moon due to a rocket malfunction. 
• The RX-M's engines have shut down but the problem is finally resolved after a nifty bit of recalculating. However when the engines are reignited, the RX-M goes out-of-control and heads into deep space. During the acceleration, the crew becomes unconscious due to a drop in oxygen pressure. 
• Instead of landing on the moon, they wind up landing on the planet Mars. 
• While exploring Mars, they find the remains of a human-like civilization that had been destroyed by nuclear warfare. 
• The crew soon find themselves being attacked by a group of primitive, savage human-like creatures who have been mutated by nuclear radiation. As a result, both Corrigan and Eckstrom lose their lives. 
• Will the three survivors escape back into space and return to Earth with their lives and their precious information? Or will they try and establish some kind of communication with the inhabitants of Mars? Perhaps they too will perish on Mars …
• Find out by watching the full movie here:

Points Of Interest

Space Travel:

• The mission of Rocketship X-M is seen to be as a “first step to practical interplanetary travel” as well as the establishment of a base to “maintain peace.” We have in recent times heard the notion of the moon being one day used as a stepping off point to other planets in our solar system. Space itself has often been seen as a possible platform to maintain world peace. 
• The explanation to the press prior to lift-off shows that the principle of the multistage rocket and using a planet’s gravity to assist a rocket’s acceleration seems to have been known quite some time before it was put into practice by NASA. 
• Space being a vacuum and the concept of weightlessness in space were known and referred to. Unfortunately, the weightless environment depicted in the film was rather delayed and selective (The men’s ties and Van Horn’s hair stayed stubbornly put whereas the harmonica took off!). To show it realistically in films took time, knowledge, technology and money to solve. 
• Space as being a dangerous place was not a foreign concept. In fact, it was a vital ingredient in sci-fi film-making. In R X-M we had the first meteor (o.k. not “meteorites”) shower on film and yes, it was noisy despite the vacuum of space. Would you rather an accurate silent brush with death? Very entertaining that would be! To this day, satellites and manned spacecraft face the constant threat of being struck by micro meteors. 

Mars:

• It’s important not to forget that at the time of filming R X-M there was a belief in many people’s minds that there were little green from Mars and that Martians had constructed canals to carry water from the Martian Polar Regions. In fact, in the film, the annoying Texan engineer’s concept of Martians is that they would have “pale faces,” “pin heads and “fishy eyes.” 
• The impression the audience has of Mars from the film is that it is barren, rocky and sandy with occasional storms and rain! Well, according to discoveries made on the planet’s surface it apparently doesn’t rain on Mars but evidence for the presence of water has been detected. It was also the seemingly very barren and desolate nature of the planet that almost discouraged early investigation of the planet. 
• Due to the high levels of radiation (no, not from nuclear bombs!), freezing temperatures and extremely thin atmosphere, one would need much more than oxygen masks and army surplus attire to get around on the Martian surface, as was the case in the film. Perhaps with a bit of terra-forming……? 
• In the absence of colour, it was probably a good idea to switch to sepia to depict the Martian scenes. At least it provided an ‘other worldly’ feel, but not a very realistic one.

Space Exploration:

• It appears from the film that Mars contains vast deposits of resources such as manganese just waiting there to be exploited. Apart from purely scientific research, there have been many proposals to explore the feasibility of exploiting the resources of such places as the moon or the asteroids. 
• The film R X-M clearly shows that things can go wrong in space. When they do, we shouldn’t see them in terms of “failure” and just give up because it’s too risky. Ultimately, space exploration could prove to be the “salvation of our world.” R X-M 2 was being completed and readied for launch while the crew of R X-M 1 were going through trials and tribulations in space. As we know, there were a lot more Apollo’s after the tragic fire that killed Gus Grissom and his fellow crew mates. Nor did the Shuttle program suddenly come to a complete end with the deaths of some of the shuttle’s brave astronauts. 

Humanity’s Position in the Universe:

• Whether a person believes in a concept of a God or not, one cannot help but consider whether there is something more to our existence when confronted with the immensity of the universe. Our lives and our planet are given a new perspective once we have left the safe haven of our own little world. 
• For the crew of R X-M, it is as if the meteor swarm was like “heavenly flak” indicating that something was trying to stop them going to where were intending to go. Their change of course to Mars “couldn’t be mere chance’ and that it was a case where “something infinitely greater assumes control.” 
• “The Wind that blows between the Worlds, it cut him like a knife,” With this quote from Kipling’s Tomlinson, Captain Floyd Graham highlights their own dilemma and perhaps the kind of predicament faced by humanity: Suspended in the void, not being able to enter heaven or hell… 
• Notice how some of the astronauts from our own modern era of space exploration underwent deep personal spiritual changes as a result of their experiences. 

Life on other worlds:

• Statistically it would be hard to argue against the possibility of life, even ‘intelligent’ life elsewhere in the universe. Think of the billions of suns contained in one galaxy and add to that the billions of galaxies in our universe and the odds would be in favour of our eventually finding an artefact (or signal) that would demonstrate the existence of a complex and organised society. In R X-M they found such evidence of intelligence on Mars. We may only find evidence of microbial life on the red planet though. 

Humanity’s Fate:

• Just before Dr. Eckstrom dies, he says to the others, “Tell them what we found. Maybe this will…….” He never finished his sentence, but we can be sure he was referring to humanity learning (“lesson for our world”) from the mistakes of the Martian civilisation and averting a similar fate for ourselves. 
• The film R X-M poses the question for its audience: Are we, too, destined to divert our intellect to pursuits that will ultimately lead to our self-destruction? If so, then we will suffer a similar fate to that of the Martian civilisation that blew itself from the “Atomic Age to the Stone Age.” That was the “terrible truth” that had to be passed on to our planet. 

Gender Roles:

• Now we come to the one feature of this film that receives a great deal of finger wagging and tsk-tsking: The role of and attitude toward women. A lot of the observations that have been made about this have been influenced by decades of change that has seen women striving for and obtaining far greater levels equality and respect than was the case in 1950. Yet, in the 21st. century we still have the existence of glass ceilings for women in the workforce, unequal rates of pay, misogynistic attitudes and so on. 
• I feel that R X-M showed the beginnings of a glimmer of change in attitudes towards women in a time that was probably not ready for such a change. To our sensibilities such attitudes and comments that were expressed in the film tend to make us cringe; 

1. Van Horn objecting to Eckstrom’s arbitrary decision to proceed using his numbers, but submitting, and being forgiven for "momentarily being a woman." However, the “woman” was proved to have been correct!

2. Floyd’s comment to Van Horn, “How does a girl like you get mixed up in a thing like this?” Well she has by virtue of her intellect and is the sole female crew member-something unheard of at the time as exemplified in Pal’s Destination Moon which didn’t feature one significant female.

3. Floyd’s retort, “Isn’t that enough?” to Van Horn’s challenge, “I suppose you think women should only cook, and sew, and bear children?” It clearly is not enough as she has broken through this stereotype by obtaining a doctorate in advanced organic chemistry, inventing a synthetic fuel that makes such a mission as theirs possible, being a part for the space program and becoming a crew member of the first ‘manned’ mission to the moon!

4. Lisa’s objections to Eckstrom being dismissed as being a product of “Woman’s intuition?” Certainly she quells her protests and Eckstrom as the authority figure gets his way with the RXM being fuelled according to his calculations. Still, events prove her to have been correct. There have been many films where the junior colleague (male or female) has tried to voice what they believe to be is correct, only to be talked down to and overruled by their senior respected ‘superior.’ It happens in real life to this very day! At least in R X-M we see the first stirrings of a challenge to established authority which in many aspects of life the post-war 1950’s ushered in and which the 1960’s ran with.

5. Floyd’s “weaker sex,” comment is rendered foolish when we see that Lisa is the only crew member whose blood pressure is normal prior to take-off. Notice too that she is the first to recover consciousness when they are later rendered unconscious as they race headlong toward Mars.

6. Lisa does at first present aspects of the conventional cold, almost emotionless façade that successful women of science were expected to display. She does suggest that her drive to be where she is now has had an impact on her ability to enjoy the pleasures of growing into adulthood. Far from being a one dimensional character though, she does display many interesting aspects to her character. Notice how the seemingly professional scientist draws the crew’s attention to an appreciation of the view from the ship’s viewing port. By the end of the film Lisa actually has this Floyd character with his ‘potent moonlight’ lines actually admitting to her, “Maybe I changed.” 

And so, dear reader, maybe we have all changed in our collective and individual journeys onward and outward while wondering all the time….What if?…….

©Chris Christopoulos 2013

Destination Moon (1950)

Above Average

• Film Title: Destination Moon
• Release date: June 27, 1950
• Producer: George Pal
• Director: Irving Pichel
• Running time: 92 minutes
• Screenplay: Robert A. Heinlein, James O'Hanlon, Rip Van Ronkel
• Budget: $500.000 approx.
• Winner of an Academy Award for Visual Effects

Trailer

1950: A Taste Of The Times

• President of the United States:  Harry Truman.
• Truman approves production of the hydrogen bomb and sends US air force and navy to Korea in June.
• The end of World War II only five years previous to making of Destination Moon.
• Thousands of young servicemen have returned to America to start new families and lives.
• American industry expands to meet the new peacetime needs with Americans buying newly available goods.
• Industrial expansion and jobs growth a result of all this activity. 
• The baby boom had begun. 
• Oh yes, the Cold War between the countries of the “Iron Curtain” and democratic “Free World” was up and running. Fear and paranoia was soon to be the order of the day.

Synopsis 

(Spoiler Alert)

Dr. Charles Cargraves and retired General Thayer approach Jim Barnes who heads his own aviation construction firm (Barnes Aircraft Corporation) to help them build a rocket that will launch them to the moon. They, together with various industrialists, agree to support the enterprise of having the United States be the first nation to put a man on the moon. After all, it is felt that they would have a “disunited world” if the US is not in space first. The rocket is constructed and successfully lands on the moon. However, there has been a miscalculation over their fuel consumption! After stripping down the ship, they discover that they are still 100 lbs overweight. One of them, therefore, will have to stay behind……..

Points of Interest

Since the days of NASA we have seen moves being made to rely less on governments and their organisations and greater emphasis being placed on having private enterprise assume a more prominent role in space exploration. In the film it is actually “combined American industry” that initiates the moon landing venture by manufacturing the space craft and financing its successful launching to and very first landing on the Moon. Take note of the following comments from the film;

“Government always turns to private industry when it’s in a jam.”

“Only American industry can do this job…Just like we did in the last war.”

Of course, there’s profit to be made in that it is expected that the U.S. government will purchase or lease this new technology in order to keep ahead of the Soviet Union. In the film, the question is asked, “What’s the payoff?” The answer is that they have to build the rocket to “stay in business.”

Both industry and the US have to stay in business, as even a decade before President Kennedy’s vow to have America be the first land a man on the moon and safely return him to earth, it was declared in the film;

“The race is on and we better win it…Whoever controls the moon…..”

Twenty years before the first actual moon landing, the film draws the audience’s attention to the dangers involved with manned space exploration, as well as with the technical difficulties with travelling to, landing on and safely returning from literally another world. First, there are initial disasters and failures as seen with the destruction of the V2 style rocket (a result possibly of sabotage.) Then there’s the dangers faced by astronauts such as finding themselves cut adrift in space. Of course technical problems can occur as was the case with the radar malfunctioning due to (what else?) human error. Similar aspects of space flight have had to be faced by both the former Soviet Union and the US.

Although with 75+ years hindsight we can pick apart the technical aspects of the film and its degree of accuracy, there are many things it got fairly well (uncannily?) right. For instance;

• The understanding of the basic principles of space flight as shown in the Woody Woodpecker cartoon.

• The depiction of the take-off, weightlessness, the moon landing (compare with films of Apollo 11 moon landing) and some of the moon walk

• The almost panoramic view of the moon: its starkness and its “barren desolation,” “silence,” and “velvet black sky.”
• The view and impression of the earth as being “vulnerable and exposed.”
• The use of jet packs being foreshadowed, with the oxygen tank being adapted for this purpose in order to retrieve their crewmate.

Notice how the astronauts in the film had to struggle to find a suitable landing site with a critical fuel situation to contend with. Very similar to what Armstrong and Aldrin had to face in Apollo11 in 1969!

With both the film and Apollo 11, each crew came to the moon representing the US. In Armstrong’s case it was “One small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.”

For the crew in the film, they came to the moon for the “Benefit of all mankind.”

Notice also how the crew in the film had to make crucial fuel consumption calculations in order to return to Earth. I couldn’t help but think of what the crew of Apollo 13 had to face with only a radio link to earth to help them.

Attitudes & impressions:

• Manned moon landing as being “Too fantastic!”  Well, clearly not….

• Atomic power as being a viable and unlimited source of power. However, there is a need to contend with negative public opinion which is dismissed in the film and put down to being a result of manipulation.

• Government as being an impediment to getting things done with all of its red tape. I guess various sections of American politics would be nodding their heads very vigorously at this….even over 60 years later!    

• Women….where were they? No role for them? Only a few years earlier they were performing crucial roles in industry and elsewhere while the man were at war. So when the war ended, were they expected to go back to being wives, mothers and homemakers? I guess according to this film, they were expected to. The changing role of women will be featured in further sci-fi films of the era I’ll be posting about.

So, for now…..

”This is the end of the beginning!”

©Chris Christopoulos 2013