Rocketship X-M (1950)

Mankind's first expedition to the moon has four men and a woman aboard: a pilot (Lloyd Bridges), a navigator (Hugh O'Brian), a physicist (John Emery), a flight engineer (Noah Beery Jr.) and a chemist (Osa Massen). But through unforeseen events, they find their spaceship headed toward the red planet, Mars. Directed by Kurt Neumann (THE FLY). The first outer space adventure of the post WWII era. Reputedly shot in just 18 days on a $95,000 budget, this low budget (and it shows) movie was rushed into theatres so it could beat the more ambitious, bigger budgeted George Pal production of DESTINATION MOON which opened a month later. No one watches a B sci-fi movie like this for scientific accuracy and I was very impressed with the movie the first time I saw it on TV at the age of ten. As an adult, I still have a nostalgic affection for it. Scientific inaccuracies aside, the film's biggest problem is its outdated sexist attitude. Lloyd Bridges' pilot chastises Massen's chemist for being an overachiever when being a wife and mother should be enough for a woman! I kid you not! Still, for fans of B sci-fi movies from the 1950s, it's entertaining enough. With Morris Ankrum and Sherry Moreland.