Rocketship X-M

Infobox Film | name = Rocketship X-M


caption = Theatrical release poster.
director = Kurt Neumann
producer =
writer =
starring = Lloyd Bridges
Osa Massen
music =
cinematography =
editing = Harry Gerstad
distributor = Lippert Pictures
released = 1950
runtime = 78 minutes
country = USA
language = English
budget = $94,000
amg_id = 1:41826
imdb_id = 0042897

"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 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 Co. of North Hollywood. The film is also known as "Expedition Moon", and originally as "Rocketship XM-1". The film was also 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.

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. Newton's laws are instantly violated as the ship comes to a dead stop. 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 blind and mute woman, who is pursued by other descendants: savage cave-men who attack them by dropping and throwing large rocks at them. 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 ninety-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 passes them (everyone looking the same three part rock) and you hear them roar by in the vacuum of space.

The rocket design was taken from the illustrations in an article in "Life" magazine, 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.