Director William A. Wellman's The Next Voice You Hear Celebrates Its 75th Anniversary

Joe and Mary Smith, along with their son Johnny, have a modest home in a San Fernando Valley post-war housing tract.   Joe works at the nearby Ajax Aircraft Company, Johnny
attends school and delivers papers with the goal of saving enough for a new bike and Mary is nine-months pregnant, staying at home these days.

The routine is broken one evening when Joe is listening to the radio, while Mary is helping Johnny with his math homework, and hears a message from God.  He interrupts Mary’s math lesson to ask her if she heard God on the radio … she’s mystified by Joe’s question and suggests that it might be some sort of game promotion.

The newspaper the next morning reports that thousand of people also listened to the radio the previous evening at 8:30 (different stations) and also heard a voice saying that it was God speaking.

Joe has a morning routine — a battle of sorts — with his car and a touchy starter.  Invariably, he has to get out, raises the hood and jiggles things around to get the car started.  And then zoom, out of the garage and down the driveway he goes, either just missing passing cars (which results in nasty exchanges) or, on this particular morning, he has a run-in with a motorcycle cop who cites him for reckless driving.   As Joe angrily speeds away after getting a ticket, the cop chases him down again and cites him for speeding.

Once at work, and after getting the daily chiding (pep talk) from his boss, Fred Bannon, he relates what happened on the radio the night before.  Others heard it too, but they all chalk it up to being some sort of a hoax or prank.

It’s bowling night and when Joe returns home, Mary tells him that she listened to the radio and heard the voice of God.  A sign, she says, will be forthcoming.  

The next evening, a mix up with the radio prevents the three from hearing the 8:30 broadcast live and by the time they get the radio up and running the announcer tells them that efforts to record the voice of God were a failure ... he reads God’s message.   A sudden storm approaches and torrents of rain fall throughout the night.

The next morning, sunny, not a cloud in the sky … the storm has passed. 

As they await to hear the 8:30 message the following night, Mary’s sister, Ethel arrives and moments later there is a clatter of dishes in the kitchen, Joe rushes in and finds that Mary is experiencing labor pains.   Ethel stays with Johnny, while Joe takes Mary to the hospital and along the way his favorite motorcycle cop pulls him over for speeding, but lets him go with a warning when Joe explains the rush.

It turns out to be a false alarm and they return home.  Ethel reads to them what God said in the broadcast that evening and is distraught over what she sees as a sign from God.   Their mother died giving birth to Mary, and she is certain that this is what is going to happen to Mary with her second child.   Joe becomes enraged. 

On Saturday, Mary is still upset over the events of the night before, so Joe tells her that he is going to go out to get a pack of cigarettes, which takes the form of walking several blocks to a local bar, which has a vending machine.  He’s about to leave when his old friend Mitch, just back from a long sea voyage, spots him and asks him to stay for a drink, Joe reluctantly agrees.

One drink leads to another and soon Mitch is calling over to their table a women sitting at the bar, whom he calls “Sweetie.”   Joe, drunk and stammering, suddenly has something of an epiphany and accuses Mitch and the bar floozy of being evil enticements and storms out.

At home, Johnny sees his father falling down drunk and is ashamed.   Joe passes out and Mary comforts him as he sleeps it off on the living room floor.   When he awakes he apologizes to Mary for his behavior.

The next day, after attending church, Joe comments to Mary that their son remained aloof.  Ethel arrives for the evening broadcast and Joe gives a heartfelt apology to her for his behavior, not only on the night of the false labor episode, but for the way he has treated and mocked her over the years. 

When they go to get Johnny for the 8:30 broadcast, he is missing and Joe begins a frantic search of the neighborhood for his son.   It is fruitless.  As he stands in front of Bannon’s house, dejected, he starts to leave, but decides to check to see if son might be there, even though he knows that this is not likely.  

 

When Bannon answers the door his demeanor is completely different from the daily encounters at work.  He calmly invites Joe in and explains that Johnny, during the course of delivering newspapers each day, have become good friends.  He tells the concerned Joe that his son is in the workshop out back … father and son reconcile.

The next evening, the entire community attends church to hear the 8:30 message from God.   Joe, Mary, Johnny and Ethel sit with their neighbors and fiends and wait patiently for the message when the time arrives, but the radio that has been set up on the pulpit remains silent.  One of the gathered clergymen rises and takes to the pulpit and announces that it is the seventh day and God must be resting … at that moment Mary goes into labor.

As they push through the overflow crowd outside, Joe’s favorite motorcycle cop spots them and seeing the problem gives Joe a motorcycle escort — siren blazing — to the hospital.  Johnny and Joe wait until the news arrives that Mary has given birth to a daughter.   Both are doing just fine.

God Speaks and the Atomic Bomb … A Changing Hollywood

 

There were two words that contributed is so many ways to define the types of science fiction, horror and fantasy movies that were made in the 1950s … these were: atomic bomb.   

On July 16, 1945, the day of the Trinity test, J. Robert Oppenheimer is quoted as saying: “Now I have become death, the destroyer of worlds.”   With the blast, mankind had become God’s competitor … a revelation that has echoed down the corridors of time.  Not in a positive way to be sure.

Dore Schary, the recently appointed vice president in charge of production at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, had two things he wanted to explore with the making of just one film.   The first was to produce a message film about, as he put it, “Man’s misuse of certain scientific miracles,” which is a nice way of saying that mankind had created the atomic bomb and now had at hand the means of total annihilation. 

Add in the post-war tensions with Russia and what seemed to be an accelerated pace in the development of new technologies and the conclusion seemed to be that maybe, just maybe, we needed an intervention from God.

Secondly, Schary was faced with the rapid rise and influence of the medium of television, its impact on Hollywood and the business of making movies … some reforms were needed at MGM to address these issues.  He needed to streamline and make more cost-effect the movie-making process.

Dore Schary want to shoot a film in two weeks for half the budget of what MGM was currently producing a film.   This would be the movie put into production to see if it could be done.

Robert L. Lippert, as an example, had already figured it out … he was making movies in eight days to two weeks on modest budgets.   In 1949 alone, Lippert produced 18 films … in 1950 he produced 22 new films.   

Schary knew very well that there are two types of films that you avoid making in Hollywood.  Audiences want to be entertained when they go to the local cinema and so “message movies” are a no-no.   

Making movies about religion is “poison” and a quick way to lose money.  If you lose money making movies at a major Hollywood studio you tend to get fired.

He was about to do both, a religious movie with a message.

 

The Making of The Next Voice You Hear

 

Schary, began as a play wright, so writing a document about the filmmaking process that he was about to embark upon was right in his wheelhouse.  The book was published the same year as his “experimental” movie and titled “Case History of a Movie.”   It describes how George Sumner Albee’s August of 1948 Cosmopolitan magazine story, “The Next Voice You Hear … ” came to be the film that Schary would use to test his grand plan.

As the story goes, Albee was having lunch with a friend (as described in Schary’s book, which is a quick read and full of all sorts of film production insights) and the subject came up, “You Know,” he said, “wouldn’t it be something if God would come on the radio and give people such a scare they’d wake up and behave themselves!”  Albee repeated his idea to Dale Eunson, the fiction editor of Cosmopolitan, who said he’d publish it if Albee followed through with writing such a story.  Albee did.

The proposal to turn the Cosmopolitan piece into a movie landed at MGM and was rejected not once, but twice.   Schary, however, was convinced that this would be the perfect vehicle for his two-week film production experiment, so he green-lighted the project and things were set in motion in November of 1949 to make The Next Voice You Hear.

There were some major problems with Albee’s original magazine story, the sinking of Australia, for example, would be a budget-buster, so no big special effects.

You can’t actually hear the voice of God, such a thing would set off all sorts of religious backlash, so the script adaptation would have to be written is such a way as to have the various characters in the film talk about what they just heard on the radio rather than the audience hearing the voice of God first hand.

Schary would serve as producer and he also did the outline, or what is called a “treatment” for the film and then turned the actual script writing over to Charles Schnee. His resume was second to none at the time — Red River, They Live by Night, Born to be Bad, The Furies … and he would go on to win the Oscar for his 1952 script for The Bad and the Beautiful.

With the treatment and script in place, the production design team could block out the locations and the number of sets required for the film.  Although billed as a small-budget film, this is still MGM, so 18 sound stages were devoted to the construction of the various interiors to be used in the film, including two bars — one seedy, one nice.

William A. Wellman would direct and the cast was recruited, which had to be lesser-known actors for budget considerations.  The two leads were James Whitmore, fresh from a featured role in MGM’s Battleground, and a newcomer by the name of Nancy Davis.  

With the actors for the roles of Joe and Mary Smith in place — Joseph and Mary, really? — the next task was to fill the spot of their son, Johnny.   After a round of auditions, Schary, decided upon the pro, child actor Gary Gray, who had more acting credits then Whitmore and Davis combined at the time.

Filming started on Feb. 21, 1950 and wrapped 14 days later on March 8.   

 

It’s a Wrap … Now What?

 

Schary had accomplished the first phase, set it up, shot it quickly and kept the production costs down.   By the 24th of March the film was complete enough for a “test” screening, which took place at the United Artists Theatre in Pomona — about 40 miles from the MGM lot.

Schary, Wellman and members of the production team “listened” to the audience’s reaction.   Did they laugh when it was appropriate?  Did they laugh or react to a scene that was completely off from what was expected?   Was the screening a disaster?   Is this a flop?

With the notes from the test screening, the visual evidence from observing the audience during the performance and the responses recorded on the question cards that were collected from them as they left the theatre, The Next Voice You Hear was going to be a commercial success.  Some minor edits and corrections would be necessary, but nothing major.

The PR machine at the studio went to work. The test screening was so successful that right around the first of April there was a small blurb in newspapers nationwide that read in part: “12-year-old Gary Gray made such a hit that Metro has handed him long contract.  He goes right into ‘The Tender Hour’ with Jane Powell.”

Sheilah Graham’s “Hollywood Today” column followed a few days later and had this little ditty running in newspapers from the Atlantic to the Pacific, “Dore Shary’s ears must have been burning yesterday.”   She continues, “A bunch of the boys who caught ‘The Next Voice You Hear’ — Dore’s pet project — were saying, ‘mark it down as the Academy Award winner for 1950’.” 

Long-term contracts, Oscar-buzz … WOW!  Then on Sunday, May 7, in the Los Angeles Times there’s a feature story E. J. Strong titled “ ‘Miracle’ of Spiritual Movie Lifts Nancy Davis to Stardom.”  The studio was going all in on promoting Nancy Davis as a rising star, concluding the piece with, “If she becomes a top star it will not be an amazing miracle.  It will be an every day miracle such as Dore Schary offers in ‘The Next Voice You Hear’.”

 

The Rollout … Small Budget Voice Gets Premium Venue

 

National gossip columnist Hedda Hopper reported on May 17, “When Gus Eyssell saw ‘The Next Voice You Hear’ at a private showing, he insisted on having the picture for his New York (Radio City) Music Hall.  It follows ‘Father of the Bride’ into the theatre on June 15.”   Eyssell was the head of the Paramount Publix theatre circuit at the time, which ran the Radio City Music Hall.

The Sunday supplement, Parade Magazine, had a feature piece on May 28 from Kay Sullivan and Sid Ross titled “Here’s How to Cry.”   There’s a full-page picture of Nancy Davis in the arms of James Whitmore crying her eyes out.  The story read in part, “The pictures on these pages, taken by a PARADE photographer in Hollywood, show Nancy Davis rehearsing her crying scene for ‘The Next Voice You Hear.’  Miss Davis was really crying — her tears were so real that the impressed photographer reported he was ‘in cold perspiration’ after shooting the scene.”

The Daily News started the tease campaign on June 2, “The Story What Happened at 8:30 P.M. All Over the World! … The Next Voice You Hear.”  Theatre patrons were told to “Watch for the World Premiere.”   The teaser ad was repeated again and again in the New York City papers.

On June 13, Hedda Hopper’s syndicated column shouts out, “I’ve always been against messages in movies, but ‘The Next Voice You Hear’ has one I love.”   Hopper continues, “Dore Schary and Director Bill Wellman made this one for every member of the family.  In fact, for America.  It can’t miss.”

June 15 came and went and the film still hasn’t opened at the Radio City Music Hall.  On June 18 there’s a wire photo sent out with the caption, “Nancy Davis and Ronald Reagan were dates.  Nancy, a former Broadway and television actress, soon will be seen in her first starring role in ‘The Next Voice You Will(sic) Here’.”   Wonder how that worked out?

Billy Rose’s nationally syndicated “Pitching Horseshoes” column appears in newspapers nationwide on June 19.  “ ‘The Next Voice You Hear.’  This strange and provocative chunk of film was produced by Dore Schary … I understand it was brought in for about $400,000, which is peanut-brittle money in Hollywood.”  He continues, “Yet it has been booked into Radio City Music Hall — the first quickie to ever crash its platinum precincts.”

The teaser ads continue in the New York City newspapers on June 21, with the addition of new copy: “So important a production is ‘The Next Voice You Hear’ … that Random House will soon publish a book about it!”   This would be Schary’s “Case History of a Movie.”

In the Sunday edition of the Daily News it is announced that The Next Voice You Hear will be making its “World Premiere” on Thursday, June 29.  It would run exclusively for three weeks at Radio City.   

 

Missed Opportunity … Schary and Wellman Play it Safe

 

The New York critics were mixed, but the common theme was that the film was “overly sentimental.”   Schary and Wellman had pulled backed and made The Next Voice You Hear a family film with a small message about acting as better human beings (an embodied in Joe’s reactions to the voice of God on the radio) and not a “change your ways or face nuclear annihilation” wrath of God warning.

The New York launch was followed by a long pause and then on Sept. 12 the film makes its West Coast debut at the 4 Star Theatre in Los Angeles, where it runs until Nov. 2.  After this, The Next Voice You Hear opens in theatres across the country and will play throughout 1951 and remain in circulation well into 1952.

It turned a small profit for the studio, but did not make the Oscar cut.  James Whitmore would become a star, but actually got more ink for his performance in The Asphalt Jungle, which also opened in 1950.  Nancy Davis would marry Ronald Reagan on March 4, 1952, retire from acting in 1962 and become the First Lady of the United States in 1981.  Gary Gray would also retire from acting in 1962, start a new, life-long and very successful career in the pool and spa industry.

 

 

 

 

 

Oscilloscope Laboratories Looks To July 29 As The Street Date For Both Blu-ray And DVD Editions Of Documentary Filmmaker Ondi Timoner's Dig! XX

Oscilloscope Laboratories say it is double-feature time on July 29 with the release of documentary filmmaker Ondi Timoner’s Dig! XX and his original film, Dig!, is included as a bonus.

Dig!, Ondi Timoner’s first feature-length documentary, made its debut at Sundance in January of 2004.  This was a seven-year effort on her part that found its beginnings when she graduated from Yale and asked the question: “What happens when art and industry meet?”

In her interview session at the kickoff of Sundance with Dan Nailen of The Salt Lake Tribute, she tells of how she started tracking ten emerging rock bands, but eventually narrowed down the filmmaking process to just Anton Newscombe, the leader of Brian Jonestown Massacre, and his rival (and friend) Courtney Taylor of the Dandy Warhols.  Seven years later Timoner had close to 1,500 hours-worth of footage, which had to be organized into a coherent narrative and pared down to under two hours.   Quite the task!

We learn that Timoner financed the entire filmmaking journey herself, doing music industry and television gigs between sessions with the two groups as they went in opposite directions.   She started when she was 23 and arrived at Sundance a thirty-year-old with a new born son … it was time to show her film to an audience for better or for worse.

The result: Dig! won the Grand Jury Prize in the Documentary category.   The film then went on the road, playing the festival circuit, had a limited theatrical showcase in October of 2004 and then was back out on the road for another full year of festival screenings.

In the years that followed, Timoner’s career flourished with the likes of Coming Clean, Mapplethorpe, All God’s Children, an Emmy-nomination for Last Flight Home and more.   Last year, she lost her home to the Southern California fire storms, finding her Sundance award in the burned-out rubble … the Dig! footage was safe at her office.

After 20 years, Timoner felt it was time to “finish” her film, she added in some missing pieces and updated it with a “where are they now” retrospective … the result is Dig! Xx.

This is the O’Scope double feature on both Blu-ray and DVD this July 29.

Bonus goodies include interviews with Ondi Timoner and her brother David (a film editor by trade and three-time Emmy nominee for his work on Dancing with the Stars), a video session with Rolling Stone feature writer David Fear, a live performance from Sundance and a “Meet the Artist” session at Sundance’24 … plus bonus scenes.

 

  

Arrow Video Preps 4K Ultra HD Edition Of Director Wolfgang Petersen's Poseidon For Release On Aug. 12

Arrow Video, with domestic sales and distribution support provided by MVD Entertainment Group, will be releasing a 4K Ultra HD edition of director Wolfgang Petersen’s 2006 reimagining of writer Paul Gallico’s 1969 novel, “The Poseidon Adventure” — shortened to just Poseidon — on Aug. 12.

Despite its stunning visuals — even nominated for an Oscar — the film’s excessive budget put Petersen’s thriller underwater financially.   Nevertheless, it remains an exciting diversion and with this new 4K presentation Poseidon on screen becomes about as close as one can get to the real thing!

Bonus features include five new featurettes — “Ocean View,” “Big Sets for Big-Time Directors,” “Surfing the VFX Wave,” “Bringing Out the Dead” — and a newly-prepared retrospective with Cereal at Midnight’s Heath Holland titled “Set a Course for Adventure.”

There are three addition vintage featurettes — “Poseidon: A Ship on a Soundstage,” “Poseidon: Upside Down” and “A Shipmate’s Diary.”

 

Film Masters Cold War Double Feature Of Invasion U.S.A. And Rocket Attack, U.S.A. Available On Both Blu-ray And DVD On Aug. 12

 

Film Masters has a Cold War double feature lined up for delivery on Aug. 12 that will be available as both Blu-ray and DVD purchasing options.

These are new 4K scans for both films.

At the top of the bill is director Alfred Green’s 1952 chiller, Invasion U.S.A., which was announced to the public by producer Albert Zugsmith — under his American Pictures Corp. banner — as featuring “the disintegration of midtown Manhattan, including the crumbling of Rockefeller Center, and an ariel assault on Hoover Dam and the Golden Gate Bridge, as part of an atomic warfare attack.”   That’s quite the attention-grabber!

The action plays out in an assuming gathering at a Manhattan bar, where local newscaster Vince Potter (Gerald Mohr — The Lone Wolf in London, Detective Story, The Angry Red Planet, etc) joins a number of others, including former model Carla Sanford (Peggie Castle — I, The Jury, The White Orchid, Beginning of the End), for drinks and a discussion of politics, among other things.  Also there, at the far end of the bar, is the mysterious Mr. Ohman (played by Dan O'Herlihy — The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari).

Mr. Ohman makes his observations and departs, the television — which has been on for the background noise — comes alive with news that the Territory of Alaska has come under attack by Russian forces.   This draws the attention of the bar patrons who become alarmed at the events.  Vince bolts out of there heading for his news station.

All of the bar patrons — no matter where they go or what they do — will soon be dead, the last to go is Carla, who kills herself after she is witness to the execution of Vince when he refuses to broadcast for the victorious Russian invaders.   All dead, but there’s a twist!!

Bonus goodies included with Invasion U.S.A. begin with commentary by associate professor and author Dr. Jason Ney, the featurette titled “A Matter of Minutes: Remembering Gerald Mohr” and the short film titled And a Voice Shall be Heard.         

The second half of this terrific double-feature is writer/director Barry Mahon’s 1960 secret agent thriller, Rocket Attack, U.S.A., starring John McKay (Cuban Rebel Girls, The Dead) as John Manston, a CIA agent on assignment in Moscow.

Tannah (played by Monica Davis — The Dead One, 1,000 Shapes of a Female), an actively anti-communist Russian beauty, informs Manston that a pre-emptive strike on the United States is in the works.  In a race against time, the two seek to sabotage the sneak attack … but fail!   

Yes, Rocket Attack, U.S.A. was an out-and-out propaganda “warning film” that had limited theatrical exposure … it was more or less produced and distributed after the famous Sputnik launch as a cautionary tale about how vulnerable the United States was to a nuclear attack.

Film Master has unearthed this curiosity and delivers it with commentary by film historian C. Courtney Joyner and Mark Jordan Legan.   Included as a bonus is the Mystery Science Theater 3000 episode featuring Rocket Attack, U.S.A., plus the featurette “Better Dead than Red: Hollywood vs. Communism in the 1950’s” and a collection of seven atomic-era short films.

An impressive presentation to be sure.   Be sure to check it out on Aug. 12 from Film Masters — the double feature presentation of Invasion U.S.A. and Rocket Attack, U.S.A. on both Blu-ray and DVD!!

Limited Edition 4K Ultra HD SteelBook Edition Of Writer/Director David Ayer's Fury From Sony Pictures Home Entertainment On July 15

Sony Pictures Home Entertainment has circled July 15 on its physical media release calendar as the street date for a 4K Ultra HD/Blu-ray Limited Edition SteelBook edition of writer/director David Ayer’s Fury.

Brad Pitt stars as Don “Wardaddy” Collier, the commander of an outdated Sherman tank stacked up against seemingly impossible odds in the closing days of World War II.  

Bonus features included on the 4K Ultra HD disc are four featurettes — “No Guts, No Glory: The Horrors of Combat,” “Tiger 131,” “Heart of Fury” and “Clash of Armor.”

The companion Blu-ray disc has nearly an hour’s worth of deleted and extended scenes, Ayer’s “Director’s Comback Journal” and three additional featurettes — “Armored Warriors: The Real Man Inside the Shermans,” “Taming the Beasts: How to Drive, Fire and Shoot Inside a 30-Ton Tank” and “Blood Brothers.” 

Destination Moon And Rocketship X-M Celebrate Their 75th Anniversaries In 2025 • Forever "Joined At The Hip" Theatrically

The next two science fiction, horror or fantasy films that followed both The Flying Saucer and Cinderella into theatres in 1950 will forever be joined at the hip.  You can’t speak of writer/director Kurt Neumann’s Rocketship X-M without also talking about George Pal’s Destination Moon.

It was a race between the Hare and the Tortoise to see which — both about “trips to the moon” — would arrive in theatres first.   Even the press picked up on it.

In Aesop’s timeless fable, the Tortoise wins the race with the Hare.  In the race to the moon however, the Hare prevails because he took no naps during production, while the Tortoise spent an extraordinary amount of time (in terms of movie-making) striving for perfection. 

In the end, it may not have been a race at all.   George Pal seemed set on making a documentary-like moon-travel film that would detail what it would be really like in 1960 (based on what was known at the time).   Robert L. Lippert, the distributor of Neumann’s film, was simply doing what he had always been doing as a filmmaker … quick, fast, entertaining and don’t worry about the details.

To the Starting Gate

George Pal got the ball rolling with the January 21, 1949 piece in Louella Parsons’ syndicated “In Hollywood” column.   Pal would be teaming up with sci-fi writer Robert Heinlein to bring his 1947 book, “Rocketship Galileo” to the screen as a film to be titled Operation Moon.

On March 10, the Los Angeles Mirror did an interview session with Pal titled “You’ll Get Trip to Moon at Price of Movie Ticket.”   

Pal, according to the piece, talks of space travel and mankind’s growing psychological desire for total escape from an atom-threatened and war-terrorized world.   The film adaption of Heinlein’s book is now titled Journey to the Moon.  Pal is quoted, “The time will come when travel to the Moon and to the nearer planets like Mars or Venus will be as common as stories today about the winning of the West.”

It’s not until Patricia Clary’s UP wire piece in late August that we hear from Pal again in the consumer press.   The title of the film is back to Operation Moon.   

 Eight long months have past and still nary a hint of Rocketship X-M, however it should be noted that Lippert Productions, Inc., the film production company that will get behind Neumann’s film, will produce and distribute 18 films theatrically in 1949 while Pal is prepping Destination Moon (in its various title forms). 

In September, Irving Pichel is announced as being signed to direct Operation Moon and a few days later Edwin Schallert’s “Drama” column in the Los Angeles Times notes that Chesley Bonestell, illustrator of his recently published book, “The Conquest of Space” (text by Willy Ley), had been recruited as the film’s technical supervisor … the title of Pal’s production is now Destination Moon.

Destination Moon in Production 

Erskine Johnson’s entertainment “gossip” column in the Los Angeles Daily News at the end of September devotes one paragraph with an announcement that the production of Destination Moon will commence on November 7 (General Service Studios on Las Palmas in Hollywood will provide sound stages).  Crickets thus far from Rocketship X-M during the first nine months of 1949.

Ezra Goodman’s entertainment column in the Los Angeles Daily News on Oct. 25 is full of additional details about the film.   We learn that Destination Moon will be presented in three acts — “Earth,” “Flight” and “Moon” — Leith Stevens and the Philadelphia Orchestra will be doing the musical composition, Heinlein will be adapting his novel with the help of Rip Van Ronkle and James O’Hanlon for the screen and “Pal is so convinced that ‘Destination Moon’ will be a success that he has purchased another space story, ‘When Worlds Collide,’ by Edwin Balmer and Philip Wylie, which he will put into production next.”

On Nov. 3, syndicated columnist Aline Mosby’s piece is put out on the wire services detailing the production of Destination Moon, which includes the building of a plaster moon crater on one of the sound stages, the construction of a 25-foot high metal frame rocket (cost estimate is $25,000) that looks like an “oversized bird cage” (designed as a gimbal) and details on different approaches being tested to simulate the weightlessness of space travel.

In the Sunday entertainment section of the Los Angeles Times on December 11, Philip K. Scheuer has a feature column on Pal’s Destination Moon production titled “Hollywood Will Reach Moon First.”

Included are interviews with Pal, Heinlein and Pichel about details of the film’s production.   Heinlein notes, “Doing the picture ‘straight,’” he confided, “brings up many more problems than we’d have if he didn’t.”   Filming “will continue into February.”  Cast members are: Tom Powers, John Archer, Dick Wesson and Warner Anderson, plus Erin O’Brien-Moore, who does not make the trip to the moon.

In January of 1950, Jack Quigg’s Associated Press piece featured two stills from the film along with details of what will take place on the trip to the moon and back.

One full year and the Hare is still sitting on the sidelines.

Finally the Hare Joins the Race

It is not until Ezra Goodman’s column in the February 21, 1950 edition of the Los Angeles Daily News that we have the Hare (aka: Rocketship X-M) in the race.   Pal has spent 14 months promoting his film and suddenly in the blink of an eye there is, as Goodman puts it, “A space race is on between the George Pal and Lippert studios.”  Goodman continues, “Pal has already completed ‘Destination Moon,’ while Lippert has just started shooting ‘None Came Back.’”  

Goodman has pretty much figured it out when he says, “Both pictures are about a rocket ship’s flight to the moon.  Since Lippert’s picture is being shot on a 12 day schedule, it may beat ‘Destination Moon’ to the screen.”

News from the Hare’s racing camp in the consumer press during the month of March has the tidbit surfacing on the 11th that the doom and gloom None Came Back moniker of Lippert’s moon stallion had been changed to Rocket Ship to the Moon.  Pal’s noble steed continues to be promoted widely with multiple stories about how detailed the film will be … science over fiction!

The April 1 edition of Boxoffice Magazine features a full-page trade ad titled “Rocket Ahead with Lippert!”    Rocketship X-M — “Coming Up!  The Exploitation Picture of the Year!” — is featured in this combo trade ad with The Baron of Arizona (“Now in Release!) and Operation Haylift (“April Release”).

 

Erskine Johnson’s “Behind the Screen” syndicated column hits about the same time (April 4) and declares, “I broke through the iron curtain of secrecy that top brass at Lippert Productions has lowered on ‘Rocketship X-M’.”   He then quotes Hugh O’Brien who spills the beans on the plot twist, “Our space ship starts out for the moon but we end up on mars.” 

Between February 21 and the April 1 edition of Boxoffice Magazine, Lippert’s Hare had gone from None Came Back to Rocket Ship to the Moon to Rocketship X-M and it is ready to go. 

The Hare Wins the Race … Misses the Moon!

Johnson’s little blub of April 4 is picked in market after market throughout the rest of April and into early May, when suddenly the New York City newspapers come alive on May 13 with the news that the Hare will win the race.   

The Daily News says, “The world premiere of ‘Rocketship X-M,’ dealing with the conquest of space, will take place at Criterion Theatre following the current run of ‘D.O.A.’”   Continuing, “The title refers to an expedition to the moon.  Osa Massen, John Emery and Noah Berry, Jr. have top roles.”

At the exact same time, the May 13 edition of Boxoffice Magazine sports a full-spread trade ad hyping the consumer awareness of Destination Moon with 100 million readers of feature stories in such publications as Life Magazine, Comic Weekly, This Week, N.Y. Times Magazine, Parade and more.

The ad headline screams, “Destination Moon is already the greatest pre-sold picture in history.”  The trade ad notes, “With August release still three months away,” so it became clear that Pal and distributor Eagle Lion Films were in a holding pattern.

Just as a side note, Eagle Lion and Film Classics are right in the middle of a major merger and consolidation at this time, whether this played into the distribution of Pal’s film remains to be seen.

Rocketship X-M had a sneak preview on Thursday, May 25 and a “Planetary Premiere” at 9AM the following morning (May 26).

 

The following day, Saturday, May 27, the film opened in five theatres in Los Angeles, including The Orpheum and the Music Hall.

The Tortoise Finishes the Race and Lands on the Moon

Compared to the publicity machine created by George Pal, Robert L. Lippert just coasted in with little fanfare.   Indeed, the press in early May was saying that Destination Moon would not reach the finish line until the fall.   In retrospect, it appears that Pal was ready to go as soon as a release date was set for Rocketship X-M.

No sooner does Lippert’s film open and suddenly Edith Gwynn’s “Hollywood” column runs in the Los Angeles Mirror on May 30 and contains the news, “A sneak preview of George Pal’s ‘Destination Moon’ had some pals of ours (with no axe to grind) out of their seats and almost out of their skins with excitement.”

The film is indeed finished and now it becomes a waiting game.   Tick tock, tick tock, when does Destination Moon open?  And where?

On June 22 that question is answered when teaser ads pop up in the New York City papers … the Tortoise will run exclusively at the Mayfair Theatre (7th Avenue and 47th Street) beginning on June 27.

The film would run for five solid weeks at the Mayfair and not have its Los Angeles opening until August 9 — five theatres including Grauman’s Chinese.

The Hare and the Tortoise … Both Winners

George Pal, the “Puppet Toon” guy, parlayed the success of Destination Moon into a production deal at Paramount for When Worlds Collide, while showman extraordinaire Robert L. Lippert used the publicity generated by Pal to slip in Rocketship X-M on a production budget and shooting schedule similar to that of one of his Westerns (The Dalton Gang, Apache Chief, Marshal of Heldorado, etc.) or crime thrillers (Tough Assignment, Western Pacific Agent, Highway Patrol) … it was nothing personal, it was just a business decision.

To that point, Lippert and Neumann didn’t bother with the Moon, they simply went to Mars and used the landscape of Death Valley to mimic the red planet’s landscape (no fancy studio sets).   Details on how the RX-M covered the 100 million miles between the Earth and Mars and back to the Earth simply didn’t matter.   Thrill a minute, keep the paying audience entertained and move on.

 

                                              Synopsis

 

White Sands Proving Grounds is the location of the initial action.  With only 18 minutes to go before the scheduled launch of the Rocketship X-M a press briefing is being held by Dr. Fleming.  For security reasons, he cautions the reporters to only report on what is contained in the official handout. 

Once this business is taken care of Fleming introduces the members of the crew of the first manned space ship to the Moon: Dr. Karl Eckstrom, who is in charge of the mission and also the designer of the vehicle; his assistant, Dr. Lisa Van Horn; Colonel Floyd Graham, the pilot; Major William Corrigan, an engineer and finally, astronomer Harry Chamberlain.  The elements of the mission are diagrammed and members of the crew chat briefly with the press before heading to the “RX-M” (Rocketship Expedition: Moon). 

They launch, the command module swivels to an upright position after the takeoff, a stage separation almost goes awry and then they encounter a swarm of meteorites.  All is fine with the mission after these events and the crew enjoys views of both the Earth and the Moon. 

Suddenly the engines quit and the RX-M is adrift.   Eckstrom and Van Horn begin working on fuel mixture computations.   It is at this time that we get the first hint of Eckstrom as being an over-bearing and incompetent mission commander.  He chides Van Horn for challenging his fuel mixture calculations and dismisses her concerns more or less because she is a woman. 

Once the fuel mixture calculations are complete, the engines are restarted and the RX-M begins to accelerate at speeds that the crew can’t handle as they pass out from the G-forces exerted on them.    

An unknown number of days pass as the crew hurdles through space unconscious.  When they awake, they discover that they not only overshot the Moon, but have covered some 50 million miles and are now approaching Mars.   They take control of the ship and place it in a descending orbit of the planet … at 50 miles from the surface they execute a 90 degree turn and line up the RX-M for a landing on the red planet. 

Once they have landed on Mars, they don breathing gear, much like an aviator would wear in an unpressured plane, and exit the craft to explore the planet.  After hiking for some time and not seeing anything but complete desolation they come across debris and in the distance they spot ruins.   They conclude, based on the very high Geiger counter readings, that an advanced Martian civilization has done the unthinkable and was destroyed by atomic weapons. 

Instead of returning to the ship, Eckstrom has them set up a makeshift camp at the entrance to a cave and wait out the night to further explore the planet at first light.  Chamberlain stands watch and alerts his sleeping crewmates that he has spotted a number of humanoids gathering in the distance. 

His shouts to wake the crew alert the advancing humanoids to scatter.   Seeing nothing, Eckstrom insists that they go investigate.  Soon the beings that Chamberlain described are seen in the distance.   

It is at this point that Eckstrom impulsively starts to leave his crewmates to get a closer look and Major Corrigan insists that he not go alone … the crew of the RX-M is now divided into two groups without an understanding of what they might be facing. 

Corrigan and Eckstrom soon encounter a Marian female who has tumbled down a sandy dune, she gets up and starts screaming.  The pair can see that she is blind and several of her fellow mutants quickly come to her rescue … Corrigan and Eckstrom retreat. 

On their way back to join the others, both are killed — Corrigan by a large boulder hurled down on him and Eckstrom by a crude axe buried in his back … in his final moments, he manages to stumble his way back to Van Horn, Graham and Chamberlain.   

The surviving members of the RX-M make a run for the ship, but Chamberlain is badly injured during the trek by the attacking mutants.  They takeoff and begin their long flight back to Earth. 

As they approach Earth, Van Horn and Graham realize that they are out of fuel and that a landing will be impossible.   As soon as they are in range, they contact Dr. Fleming, who listens to their report and makes notes.   The RX-M begins its plummet to Earth as Van Horn and Graham comfort each other, letting the gravely injured Chamberlain remain in slumber as the ship is destroyed. 

Fleming addresses the press and when asked about the “failure” of the mission, he counters that the flight of RX-M to Mars was not only a success, but could lead to the salvation of mankind.   Construction of the RX-M2 begins at once!

     Production Credits

Director: Kurt Neumann, Assistant Director: Frank Heath, Executive Producer: Murray Lerner, Producer: Kurt Neumann, Presenter: Robert L. Lippert, Writer: Kurt Neumann, Dalton Trumbo (uncredited Martian sequence), Additional Dialog Orville Hampton, Cinematography: Karl Struss, Editor: Harry Gerstad, Sound: Tom Lambert, Art Director: Theobold Holsopple, Set Decorator: Clarence Steensen, Prop Master: Lou Asher, Costumes: Richard Staub, Music: Albert Glasser (director), Ferde Grofe (music score), Makeup: Don Cash, Visual Effects: Donald Stewart, Jack Rabin, I.A. Block, Production Manager: Betty Sinclair, Set Contruction/Set Continuity: Mary Chaffee, Stunt Coordinator: Calvin Spencer (uncredited)

 

                         Synopsis
 

Dr. Charles Cargraves and General Thayer watch intensely as a test rocket is launched only to fail.   It’s been four long years of development for Cargraves and now it appears as though it was for nothing, government funding is certain to dry up after this latest failure.   

Thayer suspects that sabotage might have been a factor when he later visits Jim Barnes, an airplane manufacturer.  He proceeds to outline what type of spacecraft that must be designed and built in order to put the United States on the Moon within a year.   Atomic powered!  

Reluctant at first, Barnes agrees to organize a meeting of high-powered industrialists like him self to listen to Thayer’s presentation.   With the help of an animated pep talk from Woody Woodpecker, Thayer makes the argument that whoever controls the Moon, will have the means at hand to control the Earth.  It is imperative that the United States be there first!

With the economic might of these private manufacturers behind him, construction begins on the Luna.  Dr. Charles Cargraves now has a second chance to get to the moon, which is almost a reality when construction of the Luna is completed.   

The project is put on hold when government officials inform the group that permission to launch the space vehicle has been denied over concerns of radioactivity.   Barnes has now joined Thayer in suspecting that there is more at play.

A decision is made to defy the government shutdown and launch the spacecraft immediately, however the radio/radar operator, Brown, has an appendicitis and the only other member of their project team with such capabilities, Joe Sweeney, is convinced that the Luna will never get off the ground.   Thayer, Cargraves and Barnes more or less bully him into joining the crew … before you can say “Luna” they blast off. 

The takeoff is a success and once in space the four members of the crew don magnetic boots, which allows them to move freely about the Luna’s cabin.   Almost immediately they discover a critical systems failure, it seems that Sweeney had unknowingly “greased” the radar guidance antenna.

The first space walk takes place to fix the problem, but disaster strikes when Cargraves loses contact with the ship’s surface and begins to float away.   Barnes acts quickly, retrieves an oxygen canister, and uses it to “fly” over to the helpless Cargraves, grab him and return to the ship.

The Luna goes into lunar orbit, the ship is lined up for a landing, but during the descent to the Moon’s surface Barnes discovers that he has used too much fuel and that the return trip to Earth is in jeopardy.

A plan is devised to toss all non-essential equipment overboard, but as the time draws ever nearer to the “launch window” the Luna’s crew realize that they are still too heavy to escape the lunar surface.   Someone will have to remain behind.

While Cargraves, Barnes and Thayer debate over which one of them will stay on the Moon, Sweeney makes the decision for them by exiting the spacecraft with the only remaining space suit.   Barnes comes up with a solution, Sweeney will dump the radio, and then tether his space suit to one of the discarded oxygen tanks, he will then return to the main cabin and the outer door will be opened allowing the tank and suit to fall to the Moon’s surface.

The plan works, the Luna takes off for home.

Production Credits

Director: Irving Pichel, Assistant Director: Harold Godsoe, Producer: George Pal, Writer: Robert A. Heinlein (novel), Alford "Rip" Van Ronkel, James O'Hanlon, Cinematography: Lionel Lindon, Editor: Duke Goldstone, Sound: William H. Lynch, Production Designer: Ernst Fegte, Set Decorator: George Sawley, Production Supervisor: Martin Eisenberg, Costumes: Richard Staub, Music Composer: Leith Stevens, Music Orchestrator: David Torbett, Makeup: Webster C. Phillips, Special Effects: Lee Zavitz, Technical Advisor: Chesley Bonestell, Robert A. Heinlein, Robert S. Richardson, Technical Supervisor: John S. Abbott, Technician: Dale Tholen, Miles E. Pike