ROCK MEN AND A GIANT SPIDER ON THE MOON!

We all know that 50's sci-fi movies don't have to be good to be fun. Case in point: Astor Pictures' 1958 MISSILE TO THE MOON didn't win any Academy Awards, but it sure is an entertaining romp. A re-working of CAT WOMEN OF THE MOON which was released five years earlier in 1953, it's another one of those astronauts travel to a planet and meet up with babes and BEM's movies.

Interestingly, the movie starts out with a discussion between Dirk, a scientist (Michael Whalen), who has built a rocket ship on his own dime and an Air Force colonel (Henry Hunter) who claims that a private space mission is not allowed (echoes of "We're the government and we're here to help"!). Dirk sends him packing and plans for an immediate take-off. Then the cops show up and want to search the grounds and the missile because there are two escaped cons (Gary Clarke as Lon and Tommy Cook as Gary) in the area. The search comes up empty as Lon and Gary have hidden themselves inside the ship. When Dirk enters the ship, he discovers the cons and, ahem, cons them into helping him launch! Meanwhile, the main character, Steve (Richard Travis), who has assisted Dirk and his love interest, June (Cathy Downs), end up inside the craft because they have noticed something is amiss and enter to investigate.

Well, the ship takes off and Dirk dies from a knock on the head from some dislodged equipment (it turns out later that he is actually from the moon [!] and was on his way back from earth, which explains the building of the spaceship). Despite the problematic elements of science, the surviving party lands on Luna and suit up to explore. Not long after, they are menaced by giant rock men! They escape into a cave and find signs of life -- which ends up being a group of women (a cast of international beauty contest winners!) lead by "The Lido" (K.T. Stevens). Drama ensues as the oxygen inside the cave is running out. June is tied up by a jealous denizen and left as a snack for a giant spider until she's saved. The group manages to escape, but not before they are once more attacked by the rock men. Gary the Con brings up the rear with two bags full of diamonds that he has purloined from the cave. While trying to avoid the rock men, he makes the fatal mistake of backing out into the direct sunlight where he is summarily fried to a crisp. The rest of the crew board the ship and take off back to earth while the cave-dwelling women are left to their doom.

A posed publicity photo from MISSILE TO THE MOON.

Not yet a full-fledged Monster Kid, I watched this on TV and was terrified of the giant spider, but even more so by the rock men (who resembled a black and white Gumby without eyes), mainly because they were just plain weird.

The director of this drive-in sci-fi favorite was Richard E. Cunha, who also helmed the low-budget GIANT FROM THE UNKNOWN (1958), SHE DEMONS (1958) and FRANKENSTEIN'S DAUGHTER (1958). The cast did a fair job of keeping the film from being too ridiculous. Richard Travis appeared in the cult film, MESA OF LOST WOMEN (1953). Cathy Downs starred in a number of other monster movies, including THE AMAZING COLOSSAL MAN (1957), THE SHE CREATURE (1956) and along side Michael Whelan in PHANTOM OF 10,000 LEAGUES (1955). Gary Clarke was Michael Landon's teenage werewolf replacement in the fabulous, HOW TO MAKE A MONSTER (1958) and appeared in 45 episodes of the popular western TV series, THE VIRGINIAN. Makeup was by Harry Thomas, who also worked on PLAN 9 FROM OUTER SPACE (1957), THE UNEARTHLY (1957), THE LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS (1960) and HOUSE ON BARE MOUNTAIN (1962).

The budget was so low ($65,000) for MISSILE that director Cunha explained: "The money was so meager on that film it was just impossible to create the proper atmosphere for a spaceship, although I think, on the money we did have, the interior of the spaceship worked well. It included many pieces of grip equipment, as I recall, and we used a big dimmer bank for some of the controls on the missile. We just scraped together whatever we could make do, and that's all there was. There was X number of dollars, and you don't run over on these."

Regarding the wire-controlled giant spider used in the film, Cunha said: "That spider was in Universal's prop shop, and it was in terrible disrepair. We just managed to put it together the best we could. As I recall, we paid practically nothing for it, and they were kind enough to let us use it." Some sources say that it was the same prop that was used in TARANTULA (1955).

The rock men were left to the imagination of special effects man Harold Banks, who ended up making them from sponge rubber with plaster slathered on. Stunt "monsters" were stationed inside these stone "Gumbys" on location at Red Rock Canyon, NV (other sources cite Vasquez Rocks in CA) during the hottest part of the summer. Cunha said: "It took a while for the plaster to dry with them in there! They'd be yelling, 'Get us out of here, get us out of here!' That was very, very difficult for them to do that sort of thing, but they were all good guys. We laughed over a beer about it later." Fortunately, the shot took only one day.

In 2007, the film was released in color -- but no thanks, I prefer my 50's sci-fi movies in good ol' black and white!

The giant spider!

The rock men!

Gary the Con gets fried in the sun!

The title card.

The cast of the Moon Women.

MISSILE TO THE MOON Trailer:

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