ALL SCI-FI

[Bud Brewster]

The 1958 production of From the Earth to the Moon is so disappointing it deserves to be spoofed -- and here's the film that does it, though it isn't as funny as director Don Sharp intended it to be.

Daliah Lavi is the beautiful heroine --



-- Troy Donahue is the fair-haired hero, and Burl Ives is the kindly scientist who builds a rocket which (like the plot of this movie) never goes anywhere. Gert Frobe (Goldfinger) is the villain, and Terry-Thomas provides the film's best humor.



The alternate title (Those Fantastic Flying Fools) was designed to capitalize on the success of Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines (1965), which also co-starred Gert Frobe and Terry-Thomas.

In 1969 Frobe and Thomas joined forces a third time in Those Daring Young Men in Their Jaunty Jalopies, which also starred Tony Curtis -- a neat bit of irony in view of the fact that Curtis' The Great Race (1965) started this whole Jules Verne-ish, turn-of-the-century comedy craze.



Also released as: Those Fantastic Flying Fools and Jules Verne's Rocket to the Moon.
_________________
____________
Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)

[Krel]

[scotpens]

[Bud Brewster]

Thanks for the correction! I made the change in my original post

Much appreciated.
_________________
____________
Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)

[Bud Brewster]

________________________________

IMDB has three interesting trivia items for this production.
________________________________

~ When the kids play outside a Col. Sanders Kentucky Fried Chicken restaurant, the old gentleman with the bucket of chicken who comes out and dances with them really is Col. Harland Sanders.

Note from me: Gee, I wonder how that happened? (Oh, here's the explanation.

~ According to director Herschell Gordon Lewis, the founder of Kentucky Fried Chicken, Colonel Harland Sanders, whose company supplied Lewis' production company and advertising firm with fried chicken during the filming of this and other movies, insisted on appearing in a cameo at a KFC restaurant located in Wilmette, Illinois.

Lewis recalled that Colonel Sanders was very difficult to work with because Sanders made several unreasonable and self-serving demands for, among many things, multiple rehearsals, top-billing, and wanting to direct the scene himself.

Note from me: God lord, how many rehearsals would a simple scene like that take!

~ The film ends with a zany MOS montage of the band running around various Chicago landmarks, which was inspired by the comic stylings of Richard Lester's films of the Beatles.

Note from me: Director Herschell Gordon Lewis ran out of ideas for how to make this movie as silly as possible so he took a page from Fab Fours playbook.
_________________
____________
Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)