The plot was cribbed from a half-dozen standard Western B-movie scenarios, just transplanted to the moon. Unfortunately, director Roy Ward Baker, a Hammer veteran, who could be excellent when working within his element, was way out of his comfort zone with this offbeat sci-fi flick. What should be a fast-paced, tongue in cheek Lunar frontier romp is, instead, an unfortunate, plodding misfire.
The movie does have a lot going for it, though, especially for Space: 1970 aficionados. The female lead is Catherine Schell (Space: 1999), looking gorgeous in a variety of futuristic (circa 1969) space fashions, and the overall production design is delightfully "mod" - very much in line with Gerry Anderson's UFO and Journey To The Far Side Of The Sun. Someday soon, I'll try to write up an full review of the film. In the meantime, I hope you enjoy these colorful one-sheets and quad posters from the movie's original international release.
It's interesting to me that the U.S. poster (top) portrays the film more along the lines of something like 2001 or Marooned (i.e.a more "reality-based" space adventure), while the British and other international posters play up the more comic strip (literally in the case of poster #3), sixguns 'n spacesuits intent of the filmmakers.
The American 1-sheet is so sedate it's practically in a coma.
ReplyDeleteWow, something that I've never heard of. I'll have to look into this one.
ReplyDeleteWow I have never seen this. I bow to your knowledge, Mister Mills.
ReplyDeleteSaw this movie back in the day on SD B&W broadcast TV. Saw it again maybe two years ago online, in color and higher-res. I've never seen these posters before, so nice work there! Interesting how the scalloped wigs on the MZ2 moonbase presaged the purple wigs worn by the Moonbase ladies in Anderson's UFO series.
ReplyDeleteAwesome art! Thanks for posting these.
ReplyDeleteI only recall James Olson from The Andromeda Strain, although I'm sure I saw him on something else through the years. I think he and Ms. Schell would have had a good chemistry together.
ReplyDeleteI've wanted to see this film forever; I recall it mentioned in one of the very first issues of Starlog.
I don't know why, but I've always associated the first poster and similar shots from the film, as being a silent film. Weird, huh? Maybe something to do with the color washout. I appreciate the attempt to have realistic space program-type hardware (one of my favorite subthemes of sf is early space program exploration).
Poster #2 seems like something out of Barbarella (gee, I wonder why?). The helmet shot of James Olson in that one makes him resemble a cross between Christopher Walken and Lee Majors as the Six Million Dollar Man...LOL.
I like the 60s comic-book style of the third poster; that would make an awesome comic in and of its own.
I also like the comic-book cover style of art used on the fourth painting.
A shame Hammer didn't have the money to hire Kubrick to make this film. It would have been awesome. There are probably several good Western film directors who I think could have pulled it off: John Ford, Sam Peckinpah, and Clint Eastwood come to mind, all with widely varying results.
Thanks for posting these! More things I want for my sf memorabilia collection...
Gordon Long
Is this the one that ends with a shock shot of a guy in a spacesuit, and it turns out that it's a skeleton when they pan around to the face of the helmet?
ReplyDeleteComment about the out of print DVD release:
ReplyDeleteThis movie was released as 2-movies-in-one-disc DVD along with When Dinosaurs ruled the Earth, another Hammer film. But said DVD said "Rated G" on the box, doubtlessy since anything with stop-motion dinosaurs has to be a kid's movie. Sadly modern day idiotic politically correctness took the film off the shelves. Why? Because there's a (very brief) scene of Victoria Vetri's breasts in WDRTE and that goes contrary to the G rating. Instead of changing the rating they simply pulled the film from stores and is now impossible to find or to be found at a ridiculously high price on Amazon or Ebay. Since Moon Zero Two is on the SAME DISC this film suffered the same fate. One can only hope that Moon Zero Two is released on it's own or that the rating for WDRTE be changed so we can finally enjoy BOTH of these films on DVD.