Rocketship X-M (1950) was the second of the American science fiction feature films of the space adventure genre begun in the post-war era, in 1950. Because expensive special effects and production value delayed the release of Destination Moon, this black-and-white film from Lippert Pictures was quickly shot (in 18 days) so as to be able to make it to the cinemas first with the story of a moon expedition that instead lands on Mars.In the original 1950 theatrical release, the Martian landscape was shown with a red tint, a device Lippert Pictures repeated the following year when the black-and-white Lost Continent (1951) added a green tint when the film’s explorers arrived atop a jungle plateau.It was directed by Kurt Neumann and features Lloyd Bridges, Osa Massen, John Emery, Noah Beery, Jr., Hugh O’Brian, Morris Ankrum, Patrick Ahern, Sherry Moreland, John Dutra and Katherine Marlowe. The film was scored by American composer Ferde Grofé. Instruments and technical equipment were supplied by Allied Aircraft Company of North Hollywood. The film is also known as Expedition Moon and originally as Rocketship XM-1. This was one of many B-movies mocked as episodes of Mystery Science Theater 3000.
In the 1970s the rights to the film were acquired by collector Wade Williams, who set about re-shooting some of its special effects scenes in order to improve the film’s look. The DVD release incorporates the re-shot footage.
Four men and a woman, all scientists, blast into space aboard the RXM (Rocketship Expedition Moon) on humanity’s first expedition to the Moon. About halfway to their destination, the RXM’s engines shut down because of a fuel problem. They solve it with a new fuel mixture, the engines reignite and the RXM tears off on a new direction, directly towards Mars. Regaining consciousness after a short burst of acceleration, the crew finds the ship has traveled about 50,000,000 miles. Mars is now only 50,000 miles away; this causes Dr. Karl Eckstrom to “pause and observe respectfully while something infinitely greater assumes control,” which made everything work to guide them there.
The RXM passes through the alien atmosphere to land on the planet. There they find evidence of a once-powerful civilization, with evidence like an art-deco wall-hanging and a backdrop of a dynamo shaped building. A long time ago there has been a planetary nuclear war. They meet a modern descendant of the civilization: a mute woman with enormous black pupils. She is pursued by savage cavemen, other descendants, who attack the team by throwing boulders at them. Armed only with a rifle and revolver and one load of ammunition for each weapon, the astronauts hit no one and two of them are killed and one injured by the flying rocks. Their return voyage is only a partial success: the RXM makes it back to Earth orbit but doesn’t have enough fuel to land. The surviving crew members contact their base by radio and pass on the information about Mars and the destruction of the civilization there. As Col. Graham and Dr. Van Horn embrace, the ship crashes in Nova Scotia. The press is informed that the crew has perished, but a new ship, the RXM-2 will be built to continue the exploration of space.
[edit] Cast
Lloyd Bridges as Col. Floyd Graham, the pilot
Osa Massen as Dr. Lisa Van Horn (Ph.D. in Chemistry)
John Emery as Dr. Karl Eckstrom (designer of ship)
Noah Beery, Jr. as Maj. William Corrigan
Hugh O’Brian as Harry Chamberlain
Morris Ankrum as Dr. Ralph Fleming
[edit] Production
The explorers wear U.S. military surplus clothing, including overalls and aviator ‘s leather jackets. It has been said they are wearing gas masks, however gas masks would include goggles to protect the eyes. They are probably wearing oxygen breathing apparatuses (OBA) used in military firefighting.
In the first release of the film, these scenes were shot with color tinting, but the originals were lost. In the 1980s, some fans got some body-doubles to dress up the same way so that replacement, matching, shots could be taken using similar film stock at the same sites in Death Valley that were used to represent Mars in the original.
Curious particulars of this film include the trajectory that is prescribed for going to the moon. From standing on its pad, the rocket goes straight up. Once it escapes the atmosphere, it then makes a 90-degree turn. Simultaneously with the turn, the cabin rotates within the rocket hull around a lateral axis so that the floor is always “down” — oriented as in an airplane. Though a few minor objects float from lack of gravity, none of the crew members float due to weightlessness. A meteor storm makes an audible roar in the vacuum of space. All the meteors appear to be the same tri-lobed rock.
The rocket design was taken from the illustrations in an article in Life, January 17, 1949, though not the spacesuits. The structure of this rocket is hollow, having a ladder in the middle surrounded by slender tanks of various fictitious chemicals. It is by selecting from these chemicals in various proportions that different levels of thrust are stated as being attainable from the engine.
Several scenes involving the interaction between the sole female crew member, scientist Dr. Lisa Van Horn, and the male crew, launch staff, and press corps provide insight to 1950s attitudes toward women, both in cultural expectations and attempts to change them. One notable scene involves Van Horn and expedition leader (and fellow scientist) Dr. Karl Eckstrom rushing to recalculate fuel mixtures after their initial problems. When they come up with different figures, expedition leader Eckstrom decides that they must proceed using his numbers. Van Horn objects to his “arbitrary” decision, but submits, and Eckstrom forgives her for “momentarily being a woman.” Subsequent events prove Eckstrom to be wrong.
The film was one of the first to raise the dangers of nuclear warfare.
[edit] New footage
The film was rushed to market in order to beat the more lavishly produced Destination Moon that was released the same year. A lack of both time and budget forced the original producers to omit scenes and to use film of V-2 rocket launches to complete some scenes that would have otherwise been made using the Rocketship X-M model. The V-2 inserts created very noticeable continuity issues. The film was an adolescent favorite of Wade Williams, who later acquired the rights to the film in 1970s. Williams funded the production of new footage to replace the V-2 shots and missing scenes. The new footage for Wade Williams was produced by Bob and Kathy Burns, along with modelmaker Tom Scherman. Costumes were made that closely replicated those used originally and a new, accurate Rocketship X-M model was built. The replacement shots consist of those of the rocketship landing on Mars, the crew leaving the X-M seen standing upright on Mars, and the rocketship taking off from Mars. The replacement scenes were shot near Los Angeles in color and then printed in black and white and made to match the existing film. Unlike the DVD, the earlier laser disc edition of ‘Rocketship X-M’ has extra material that documents this film work, and was also featured in an article in Starlog magazine published at the time.
Williams did not (and does not) own the production, and his so-called “revised” edition was made from inferior elements, mainly high-contrast/low-resolution positive prints, which contain many splices and other image and continuity defects. Williams used his “tried-and-true” method of obtaining a renewed copyright on this film (among many others) which the original producer(s) had declined to renew the copyright and yet they failed to place it (them) into the public domain.
The version presently on the Internet Moving Image Archive[2] is more complete (there are a few, but not many, splices, possibly only so-called “lab” splices at reel changes), and contains the director’s original treatment of tinting and continuity, not Williams’ revised tinting and continuity.
