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