from the Earth to the Moon

[sergebroom]

In case you're interested, tomorrow night Turner Classic Movies is showing 1958's From the Earth to the Moon. It is extremely freely adapted from Jules Verne's novel, but it's interesting in a cheesy kind of way. It has Joseph Cotten as the inventor whom General Grant begs to destroy all knowledge of his atomic explosive. Instead he decides to use it to propel a rocket to the Moon, where he plans to more safely test the whole thing.

Comments

[miltonthales.livejournal.com]

My excuse is that I was young, but I kinda liked the Disney version of "Journey to the Center of the Earth."

[serge-lj.livejournal.com]

I've never heard of a Disney version. Might you be referring to the late 1950s movie starring James Mason & Pat Boone? If so, I couldn't agree with you more. I have it on DVD and put it in every few years. I wish people had the chance to see it on the big screen like I did at the age of 9.

[miltonthales.livejournal.com]

That's it. I guess I just assumed it was Disney because I can't remember other mainstream movies using special effects (swirling maelstroms! Lava flows!) and skulls (Arne what's his name!) at the time I saw it.

[serge-lj.livejournal.com]

That'd be Arne Saknussem. The SFX could have been better, as far as the dinosaurs were concerned, but it had a good script, and good actors. And a scene where Pat Boone hides his nudity with a sheep.

[miltonthales.livejournal.com]

Come to think of it, maybe the reason I thought it was Disney was because Pat Boone was in it. It's hard to imagine any other studio hiring him.

[serge-lj.livejournal.com]

Or it may be because Mason himself had been in Disney's 20,000 Leagues under the Sea only a few years before.