Rocketship X-M


Rocketship X-M

Theatrical release poster.
Directed by Kurt Neumann
Starring Lloyd Bridges
Osa Massen
Editing by Harry Gerstad
Distributed by Lippert Pictures
Release date(s) 1950
Running time 78 minutes
Country  United States
Language English
Budget $94,000

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 was quickly shot (in 18 days) so as to be able to make it to the cinemas first. Unlike Destination Moon, however, this one delivers an anti-nuclear message.

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.

Contents

Plot

Four men and a woman blast into space on humanity's first expedition to the Moon, a 48-hour journey. At 112,000 mph into their 238,000 mile journey to the Moon, the engines shut down because of a fuel problem. There are some tense moments while the crew work on the problem. They solve it with a new fuel mixture, and the ship tears off across the solar system on a new course. Incredibly, this takes them directly to Mars. Reviving after just a short burst of acceleration, they find they have covered maybe 50,000,000 miles. With Mars 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 rocket passes through clouds to land on Mars where they find evidence of a once-powerful civilization, as evidenced by an art-deco wall-hanging of a face, and a backdrop of a building shaped rather like a dynamo. There has been a planetary nuclear war. They meet a descendant of the builders of the civilization: a mute woman, whose pupils are large as her eyes, who is pursued by other descendants: savage cavemen who attack them by throwing large rocks. Armed only with a rifle and a pistol, they hit no one and two of their crew are killed by rocks while another suffers crush injuries. The return voyage is only a partial success: the ship makes it back to Earth but hasn't enough fuel for a landing. As Col. Floyd Graham and Dr. Lisa Van Horn embrace, the ship crashes in Nova Scotia. The press are informed that the crew has perished, but a new ship, the X-M2 will be built to continue the exploration of space.

Notes

The explorers wear U.S. Army-surplus clothing, with gas-masks to represent oxygen augmentation. 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.

New footage

The film was rush 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 the considerable talents of Bob and Kathy Burns along with modeling master craftsman, Tom Scherman. Costumes were made that closely replicated those used originally and a new Rocketship X-M model was built. The replacement shots consist of those of the X-M landing on Mars, the crew leaving the X-M seen standing upright on Mars, and the X-M 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.

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