Cat-Women of the Moon

"Cat-Women Of The Moon" is an unusual entry in the "male explores find a civilization with women but no men" for a couple of reasons. One is that one of the explorers is a woman, and the other is that it was filmed in 3-D. But nothing much is done with those two bursts of originality - the woman explorer could have been a male with very little rewriting, and there is almost no effort made to exploit the 3-D filming process. (I'm not asking to be hit in the face every few seconds, but some carefully composed shots would have been nice.)

The lazy efforts on those parts can be felt in other parts of the movies. Oh, there are a few things that made me laugh - the interior of the moon rocket, wobbily scenery, people shouting when in their spacesuits, and the "stabbing" scene. But most of the movie is kind of dull. It takes about 2/3 of the movie before the explorers directly interact with the cat women, and before that point (and afterwards), there is talk talk talk, little of which is amusing. I was kind of glad that the movie lasted just barely over an hour, but the ending is so sudden, so "That's it?!?" that part of me wished they went on a little longer to end things properly.

If you want to see a funny example of this genre, I suggest you watch "Queen Of Outer Space".

In the early part of his career, Victor Jory appeared in some great films, starring alongside the likes of James Cagney and Errol Flynn. He even had a prominent role in Gone With the Wind. His co-starring role in Cat-Women of the Moon represents a descent to the depths in a film that resembles an amateur high school production. He must have been desperate. This is about as bad as it gets with a horrendously unimaginative miniature rocket and a plot that makes you wonder why they bothered. The absolute highlight occurs midway through the film when the head Cat Women slaps one of the underlings. The slap misses by some margin despite the sound effect of hand making contact with flesh. This scene is so bad that it has been mimicked by comedy writers ever since. The original print has been remastered for some unknown reason. Whoever made the decision to do that wasted their time.

Cat-Women of the Moon (1953)

** (out of 4)

Five astronauts (four men and a woman) land on the moon only to discover that there's oxygen on the thing but not only that but there's some "cat women" who want to steal their ship and go to Earth. For every masterpiece like The Day the Earth Stood Still you had fifty movies like this one and if you have a sense of humor towards bad films then you should enjoy this one. The film runs a very short 63-minutes and it's the type of film where you keep waiting for something to happen and it never does. I'm really not sure what the idea behind this film was other than to cash in on the sci-fi genre as the screenplay offers up nothing. I guess the so-called story deals with the cat women wanting to get back home but none of this really takes place until ten minutes to go and everything leading up to that point is just the astronauts walking around being amazed at what they see. There are some really campy moments including one sequence where the group walks into a cave only to be attacked by giant spiders on strings. Other campy moments include the cat women trying to seduce the men as well as a laughable scene where the astronauts learn that there is oxygen on the moon. Another funny thing is that there are several instances where the astronauts come off so stupid you really have to wonder if they were just homeless men on the street who were picked up and sent on a space mission. Another error happens in the gold cave when the actress accidentally calls the character she's talking to under the actors name. Heck, even future Oscar winner Elmer Bernstein did the score here. If you hate low budget, bad films then you'll hate this one as well but if you like bad movies then there's enough here to make this one "so bad it's good".

What we have here is a good old 50's sci-fi B movie that's a great example of the expression "It's so bad it's good". The conflict here is that when this movie was made, it was meant to be serious stuff. Man breaking the confines of the earth, exploring the moon and encountering hostile alien life forms. It's not exactly how the movie seems today. You have a hard time taking a space ship equipped with lockers, a desk, and old office chairs too seriously. There are all sorts of scientific bloopers in this film. Three men and a woman embark to land and explore the moon. What last minute preparations do you make? Well, naturally the woman has to fix her hair and another astute astronaut is thinking of selling souvenirs when he gets back home. It gets even funnier; they bring along cigarettes and for protection against who knows what, a revolver. The conversations are equally amusing. They sound as if the space explorers were picked up off the streets and asked, hey! you want to go on a trip to the moon? The landscapes and backgrounds are mostly painted but actually they did a pretty good job at that. They're not bad at all. Times have changed though and this film doesn't quite hit the mark that it was once intended to attain. If you try watching this as a serious sci- fi drama, You will be extremely disappointed. You can find faults and pick this movie apart until it is shredded to bits and you would be rightfully so in doing it. I suggest watching it with the understanding that it's a part of sci-fi movie history. View it with an easygoing fun attitude. Look for the blunders. Laugh at the cheapness and corny dialogue. How can you not love a line like, "You're too smart for me, baby, I like em stupid". I mean, come on, it was made in 1953 and the title is "Cat-Women of the Moon" what do you really expect? It's a fun movie. Relax and enjoy it for what it is.

Thanks to Jeff Joseph of Sabucat Productions, I recently had the pleasure of seeing this film in all of its original polarized 3D glory at the Egyptian theater in Hollywood with 600 of my "closest friends"! ;-) (www.3dfilmfest.com) Sadly, though, while the presentation this time around was flawless, the print was in very poor condition, and it may not get too many more public performances - if ever again - which is a real shame. You see, this is one of those movies that has to be enjoyed in a theater, with a LOT of people, for maximum funness. It might be fun to sit around the living room and laugh at the campy dialogue and bad acting and VERY bad special effects with your friends, but to see it in a theater... well, there is no comparison. Especially when seen in polarized 3D... the fun factor goes up by a factor of at least ten!

If you're in the mood for a bad sci-fi film from the 50's, give this one a try. The more people you have watching it with you, the better. You'll get a real kick out of it, as this movie has some of the funniest lines ever, including my personal favorite, "You're too smart for me, baby... I like 'em stupid." Definitely recommended for a good laugh, and a great time. And if by some off chance you ever have an opportunity to see it in 3D, do not miss it!