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Kurt NeumannRocketship X-M (1950)

Astronauts (Lloyd Bridges, Osa Massen, John Emery, Noah Beery, Jr., and Hugh O'Brien) blast off to explore the moon, but because of a malfunction, they end up on Mars instead.
When on Mars, they explore and discover a ruined city of a past civilization


This movie is part of the collection: Feature Films

Director: Kurt Neumann
Producer: Kurt Neumann, Murray Lerner
Production Company: Lippert Pictures
Audio/Visual: sound, black & white
Keywords: Sci-Fi; Lloyd Bridges
Contact Information: www.k-otic.com

Creative Commons license: Public Domain

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Reviewer: skybandit - - September 9, 2009
Subject: Morris Ankrum!
A film of many firsts: First depiction of nuclear devastation and ragtag mutants, first American movie depicting manned rocket flight, (produced on a shoestring and in a hurry in order to beat "Destination Moon" into the theaters) first American film to have a female astronaut, first space movie with an Odious Comic Relief character in the form of Noah Beery Jr., and the first Science Fiction film of Morris Ankrum!
Probably best known by B-movie fans for playing Generals in “Earth vs. the Flying Saucers," “Beginning of the End,” and “The Giant Claw,” he was also involved in no less than four films about Martians: “Rocketship X-M,” “Flight to Mars,” “Red Planet Mars,” and “Invaders from Mars.” He played scientists in “Half Human: The Story of the Abominable Snowman,” “Giant from the Unknown,” and “Kronos,” among over 200 film roles in his career. He started as a bit player in 1933 and ended up playing a Judge on 23 episodes of “Perry Mason.”

Reviewer: IrvLipscomb - - April 6, 2009
Subject: Ferde Grofe's Music Score
The next time you view this film, listen to the music. It was composed by Ferde Grofe, who was one of America's most popular symphonic music composers. He is best known for the GRAND CANYON SUITE, MISSISSIPPI SUITE, DEATH VALLEY SUITE, HOLLYWOOD SUITE and several others. He also wrote many pop tunes and arranged for Paul Whiteman's band. His RXM score is dramatic, and used the theremin in the Mars sequences for the first time in a sci-fi film. This original soundtrack was presented on a LP record by Starlog Records, and is often available on EBay. The ROCKETSHIP X-M score is one of Ferde's best compostions, even though it was written in two weeks. Lippert Pictures was almost the only company that would hire Ferde to write music. He also wrote the score for Lippert's THE RETURN OF JESSE JAMES later in 1950.

Reviewer: bearpuf - - April 5, 2009
Subject: A Real Thigh Slapper
This is worth seeing just for the lousy science it exudes to the viewer. Listening to the explanations to how to drive a space ship and how their craft (from a religious perspective) got perfectly reconnoitered to a few thousand miles to Mars from the moon in just days from the time they took off is quixotically hysterical.
Lloyd Bridges wonderful sexist attitudes about why women shouldn't be in space and where they really ought to be hit the time period of the '50's perfectly and all goes together to make this a fun to watch movie.
And wait 'til you see what they find on Mars and the explanation to why it happened. Did they find life? Did they find ruins? Did the movie have a happy ending? Did Lloyd Bridges end up on Sea Hunt and Jerry Seinfeld?
Four stars as wonderful classic science fiction.

Reviewer: quigs - - February 27, 2009
Subject: Thorougly innacculate: Thoroughly enjoyable
Despite the two previous reviewers, this Sci-fi
film developed the idea of a "mutant race" that was beaten to death in the 1950's scfi film that came after it. In 1950, G.Pal's film "Destination Moon had come out two months before this little gem emerged on the screen. Mr. Pal's film was
amazely accurate but incredibly dull eventhough today it is considered a "marvel in science films"(Brosley Crothers N.Y. Times film critic).
The miniscule budget of "Rocketship X-M was aimed at a different age group-adolesences. A date movie. In the orginal print of the above film, the Martian Landscrape was to be a red color by using a red tint over the camera lense. In 1958, "The Angry Red Planet" of another trip to Mars, the landscrape was shot using the negetive part of the film. Rocketship XM deserves at least 5 stars for ingenuity,4 for Music, and sadly 3 for storyline.

Reviewer: bestpbx - - February 27, 2009
Subject: bearpuf is right!
This is a great movie for a cold rainy day... just a nonsense sci-fi that screams of the social mores of the 1950's.