MovieChat Forums > From the Earth to the Moon (1964) Discussion > Jules Verne turning in his grave

Jules Verne turning in his grave

posted 19 years ago by Tbeer
12 replies | jump to latest

This movie is without a doubt the worst english language version of any of this great writers works. A dull poorly acted dispite the usualy talented Cotton and Sanders, low budget sci-fi wannabe.

Warners obviously dumped this on the market to cash in on the mega hit 1957
film AROUND THE WORLD IN 80 DAYS and the earlier 20,000 LEAGUES UNDER THE SEA.
perhaps thinking the public would go for anything with a couble of name actors
in a Jules Verne story. obviously the public was not so easily conned. The movie bombed.

This movie is not even good as a time waster. without a doubt one of the worst color science fiction movies of the 1950's bar none.

[–] dudeman5685 19 years ago

Perhaps you saw its showing on TCM a few weeks ago, as I did.

At the end, bob Osborne comes out and says "This is the LEAST successful Verne film ever made"

While there are worse 50s sci-fi movies (1959 was a particularly bad year: Plan 9, Teenage Zombies, Invisible Invaders) those have a certain charm, because they are literally shoestring budget, and amatuer acting.

But this thing has nothing to excuse it.

BTW, it wasn't a Warners but RKO. I bankrupted the studio.

[–] Startanew 18 years ago

eh, it wasn't that bad for an old sci fi movie.
I doubt Jules would be turning in his grave, because I think he'd be quite impressed at the fact that there are movies.

Don't Drop the Wood!
http://colandfrank.proboards56.com -Lano And Woodley Forum

[–] Paul_Jay 18 years ago

I have to disagree. I think if Jules had seen a few other Sci-fi movies of the era he'd say, "Phewy...who wasted this wonderful moving picture technology on this stink bomb?" Then he'd challenge the screen writer to a duel.

I mean that projectile and it's flames are an absolute joke. It looks like somebody was trying to sabotage the shoot by burning down the set. I've seen better work in the old Flash Gordon serials.

This stinker is worse than most of the "B" Sci-fi stuff cranked out in B&W. I think the only reason it gets watched is because people hope to see Sci-fi that's something more than an hour and a half tribute to computor graphics.

(This is probably one of the movies George Sanders had in mind when he killed himself)

[–] varkatope 18 years ago

I just read the book for the first time, and I was hoping someone made a quality movie adaptation of it. From these comments it looks like the answer is "no". I was hoping for an adaptation straight from the book (it's not a long book). Despite the impossibility of the events, I think it would be interesting if played out as possible. Hey, it makes more sense than "The Core"!

[–] xylonian-1 15 years ago

"Jules Verne Turning In His Grave"

Hummmm. Now that might make a great movie....

"A child of five would understand this. Send someone to fetch a child of five."

[–] morlock9 15 years ago

Didn't you guys watch the Turner blurb at the end of the movie? The FTETTM was being bankrolled by RKO just when it was entering bankruptcy. Yes, they originally were going to go to the moon and have adventures there- why do you think they had those colorful space suits on the rocket ship?
So the movie was eviscerated in production, and the producers had no choice but to cobble together some half-baked story line and complete it- after a fashion. They knew they would at least get their money back because the success of the other Verne movies would sell it.
But, yeah, I remember watching this as a kid in the movie house and thinking "WTF?Don't they even get to the damn moon?" In fact, I had read the Classics Illustrated comic book and I knew full well that Verne did have them get to the moon, finding animals and all sorts of things.
I saw it again some years later, thinking that when I was a kid, I had mistakenly walked out during the halftime intermission thinking that the movie was over when it wasn't. But, nope, the movie was over. And the lamest ending ever- Jules Verne with a *beep* grin on his face blathering away about "imagination" with a wink. They should have a release with a new voice over- Verne talking about the RKO BK and the cheap-ass producers who wouldn't pony up any more dough, and apologize for this abortion of a movie. How much can a goddamn moon set cost, anyway?
I am surprised the heavyweight stars in this one didn't gripe. Saunders and Cotton shouldn't want to be associated with such production disasters- but, hey, it was 1957 and maybe they didn't really care. Punch a time card and hit the bars!

[–] jamesroo 15 years ago

first men in the moon sequel was a pretty good film harryhausen
special effects and so on.from earth to moon is pretty dry
entertainment,not much happens and hardly any special effects.
saw it on tcm and reason is studio was out of money had nothing
to spend on this film.so u get what u see.but its not worst film
but iam sure many will disagree.

[–] babettegillette 14 years ago

Certainly was not the fault of the actors. Around The World with David Niven is an example of just an overall better effort in every department as opposed to From The Earth To The Moon.

[–] flit-2 11 years ago

I thought this was extremely boring, and quite confused...

[–] Onisac 11 years ago

Agreed. I was about 15 min from the end and just turned it off. I couldn't take it anymore. And I LOVE SciFi. But I could care less how the damn thing ended.

[–] Cinamon 11 years ago

This was cheesy...even for a 50's sci-fi flick.

Just awful!!

[–] mam13143 10 years ago

Quite possibly one of the worst scifi movies that pretended to be an A picture. The actors are at the end of their careers and they look it. The screenplay is boring and the special effects, if you want to call them that, are abysmal. If RKO didn't want to fund it they should have just trashed the film. What a waste.