This week’s mystery movie was the 1950 film Rocketship X-M, with Lloyd Bridges, Osa Massen, John Emery, Noah Beery Jr., Hugh O’Brian, Morris Ankrum, Patrick Ahern, Sherry Moreland, John Dutra and Katherine Marlowe.
Production design and art direction by Theobold Holsopple.
Photography by Karl Struss.
Instruments and technical equipment by Allied Aircraft of North Hollywood, California.
Edited by Harry Gerstad.
Photographic effects by Jack Rabin.
Musical direction by Albert Glasser.
Assistant director Frank Heath.
Production manager Betty Sinclair.
Sound by Tom Lambert.
Special effects by Don Stewart.
Mattes by I.A. Block.
Dialogue direction by Clarence Marks.
Additional dialogue by Orville Hampton.
Makeup artist Don Cash.
Property master Lou Asher.
Wardrobe supervisor Richard Staub.
Set decoration by Clarence Steensen.
Set continuity by Mary Chaffee.
Musical score by Ferde Grofe.
Executive producer Murray Lerner.
Produced, written and directed by Kurt Neumann.
Further information on Rocketship X-M is available from the AFI catalog.
Rocketship X-M is available on DVD from Critics’ Choice Video.
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After last week’s First Men in the Moon, I thought I would devote another week to a film about travel to the moon – or Mars, in this case, since the spacecraft overshoots the moon by a bit. We have numerous future TV actors here, including Hugh O’Brian (The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp); Morris Ankrum, who played a judge in 22 episodes of Perry Mason; Noah Beery Jr. (The Rockford Files); and, of course Lloyd Bridges.
If The New York Times reviewed Rocketship X-M, it probably was assigned to one of the “alphabet critics.” I can’t imagine Bosley sitting through this.
We have “alphabet critic” HHT, who says (May 27, 1950):
It doesn’t take long to get the general idea of the new film at the Criterion. Not with five personable-looking performers cooped up on a supposedly important scientific mission and one of them a curvaceous eyeful who, believe it or not, is a fuel expert. In no time flat she’s responding to a fellow scientist who coos Kipling into her lovely ear and tells her what she has missed. The engineer, a comedian, keeps babbling folksily about “mah home back in Texas.” The leader of the crew just furrows his brow and jiggles a few instruments now and then. They all do, in fact, when they’re not daydreaming. And are they idly studying underwater plant life out on Long Island Sound in a glass-bottomed boat? Not on your tintype. They’re in a rocketship whizzing through the stratosphere and bound for the moon. The picture is called Rocketship X-M and it seems as good a title as any.
For Monday, we have a mysterious guest who does not approve of such goings-on.
Update: This is Sherry Moreland.
For “Tricky Tuesday,” we have two Back of the Head Persons.
Update: This is Lloyd Bridges and Osa Massen.
For “Hm Wednesday,” we have a mysterious fellow.
Update: This is Morris Ankrum.
Brain Trust roll call: Megan and Thom (mystery movie and Tuesday’s Back of the Head Guy), L.C. (mystery movie and mysterious cast), Stacia (mystery movie, Monday’s mysterious woman and Tuesday’s Back of the Head Persons) and Sylvia (mystery movie, Monday’s mystery woman and Tuesday’s Back of the Head Persons).
For “Aha Thursday,” we have this mysterious fellow.
Update: This is Hugh O’Brian.
And this mysterious gent.
Update: This is Noah Beery Jr.
And a third mystery fellow. With a drawing of mysterious spaceship.
Update: This is John Emery.
Brain Trust roll call: Greg (mystery movie and Tuesday’s and Wednesday’s mysterious guests), Sarah (Wednesday’s mysterious guest), Sylvia (Wednesday’s mystery guest) and Sheila (Wednesday’s mystery guest).
For Friday, we have our mysterious leading man and leading lady.
Update: This is Osa Massen and Lloyd Bridges.
Brain Trust roll call: Suznchaz (mystery movie and Wednesday’s and Thursday’s mystery guests), Mary Mallory (mystery movie and Tuesday’s, Wednesday’s and Thursday’s mysterious guests), B.J. Merholz (mystery movie, Tuesday’s Back of the Head Guy and Wednesday’s mystery fellow) and Sylvia (Thursday’s mystery guests).
ladailymirror.com 
Ummm, Monday’s mystery woman has “Bette Davis Eyes”.
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Or “Eyes of Laura Mars?” Alas, I’m afraid not.
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Just for grins, Carol Lawrence (probably never appeared in a horror film in her career)
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Alas, I’m afraid not….
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“Peeping Tom”?
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Good one! But alas, I’m afraid not.
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I think our mystery man is Lloyd Bridges. If so, our guess is Rocketship X-M for our movie.
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Rocketship X-M (1950) w/Lloyd Bridges, Osa Massen, Hugh O’Brian, Noah Beery, Jr, John Emery, Morris Ankrum, Sherry Moreland…
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Is this The Angry Red Planet?
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No anger here, this time!
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This is MST3K fave ROCKETSHIP X-M! Tuesday is beefy 50s adventure hunk Lloyd Bridges and I think that’s Osa Massen. I’m not sure about Monday but I’m going to guess Sherry Moreland. I haven’t seen this except on MST3K but I remember laughing at the hot new special effect trend of 1950: sepia tone!
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Rocketship X-M 1950
Mon – Sherry Moreland (martian woman)
Tues – BOTHM&W: Lloyd Bridges and Osa Massen
I am having so much fun reading IMDb reviews and the various blog posts about Rocketship X-M. Some are really funny. The 1950 “race to the moon” for this film and the more expensive, Destination Moon was something indeed.
(Sidebar: I remember Earl sending some images to the Zoom group, of dancers performing on the set of Destination Moon. The brain trust figured out who the dancers were, but not this one guy, an “exec-looking” chap. We never did figure out who he was.)
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Could be Troy Donahue but I don’t see him in a space ship unless maybe on TV.
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An excellent guess! But not this time.
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Tricky Tuesday has Lloyd Bridges and Osa Massey and Hm Wednesday’s fellow is Morris Ankrum in Rocketship X-M. I should have connected the porthole view and Artemis ll sooner.
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It’s Morris Antrim today, and I’ll guess Peter graves and Andrea King yesterday in Red Planet Mars (1957).
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It’s Morris Antrim today, and I’ll guess Peter graves and Andrea King yesterday in Red Planet Mars (1957).
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Wednesday – Morris Ankrum (future Perry Mason judge)
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I think I now Milly Stone when I see him, but you’ve fooled me before.
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Morris Ankrum for Wednesday?
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John Emery, Morris Ankrum and Noah Beery Jr. in “Rocketship X-M” 1950.
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OK. So my two mistakes are LLoyd Bridges and Morris Ankrum experience the failure of an early GPS.
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Thursday: Hugh O’ Brian, Noah Beery Jr and John Emory.
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Friday – Osa Massen and Lloyd Bridges
This has been a fun one. Again so many well written and funny reviews, so many funny comments, all the while giving the movie a little credit for pulling off the project with a teeny tiny budget and at the same time taking it to task for all the “you’re just a girl” dialogue in the film.
Covers a lot of territory, some goofy, some serious.
I love the idea that you can drive your car over to the rocketship parking lot and climb aboard. I love that you can just accidentally make a wrong turn and go to Mars instead of the moon. I love that it is one of the first, if not THE first space travel movie to include the theremin in the score. Amazing to find out that on Mars you can survive walking around outside wearing a heavy jacket, a cap, a rifle (you never know what’s out there) and an Air Force pilot’s oxygen mask.
The unusually sad ending (for an American movie) comes up again and again in the reviews and in comments from people who remember seeing the movie as children. It also addresses the devastation of nuclear war and what such a thing can do to beings who push things that far.
Musician Wayne Shorter was impacted enough by seeing the movie as a kid that he created a comic book about space travel. Incredible.
Looking forward to the Saturday breakdown.
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