It says so much about the production that an early scene in which a character ascends a ladder is capped off by the actor hitting his head on the ceiling of a chamber in the spaceship - at which point the ceiling very obviously moves. The film is easily dated: black and white photography, meager practical or special effects and props, characters and dialogue written from a male-centric perspective on gender, and so on. 'Cat-women of the moon' is direly ham-handed, as one would surely expect of a genre picture from the 1950s. Still, if you can overlook the indelicacies of the timeframe, this isn't half bad.
The set design is actually quite fine, and I appreciate the consideration for details like hair, makeup, and costume design. Though coerced into a certain overtness by the writing and direction, I think the assembled actors give performances that are quite suitable. It's noteworthy that celebrated film composer Elmer Bernstein wrote the score for this slice of cinematic tomfoolery, one of his earliest credits in a long and fruitful career. The music undeniably echoes similar sci-fi fare of the era, but - though I admit bias - I think there's a subtlety and cleverness that shows the beginnings of what Bernstein would go on to achieve.
The scene writing and overall narrative are terribly gauche, but not outright terrible; I've borne witness to far worse screenplays. You'll never see me call this "great," however. Because for whatever strength there is in the concept, 'Cat-women of the moon' also creates a distinct dichotomy in which men are heroes, and strong, independent women are villains. But oh, wait, of course the power of love can overcome the influence of evil. Moreover, the climax is written and executed with extreme, curt, unconvincing inauthenticity, and at that, there are no surprises here - the plot is very predictable. Were this movie made in the 70s or later, one could easily imagine more inventive, subversive directions the tale may have taken - but with rare exception, we just weren't going to get that in the 50s.
Not absolutely bad, but not really good, the movie just languishes somewhere in the unremarkable middle. Surprisingly, there's enough here to keep us mildly engaged and amused, but I think it would be a stretch to claim any greater sense of entertainment. There's no reason to seek out 'Cat-women of the moon' (and no, there are no actual felines here), but so long as you can abide dubious writing and the shortcomings of the decade's technical craft, there are worse ways to spend an hour.
