Ракета на Луну (Raketa na Lunoo)

1958 film by Richard E. Cunha

Missile to the Moon is a 1958 independently made American black and white science fiction film drama, produced by Marc Frederic, directed by Richard E. Cunha, that stars Richard Travis, Cathy Downs, and K. T. Stevens. The film was distributed by Astor Pictures and is a remake of an earlier Astor Pictures distributed film, Cat Women of the Moon (1953). Missile to the Moon was released in late 1958 as a double feature with Cunha's Frankenstein's Daughter. A spaceship blasts off from Earth with five aboard, but one of them is secretly a Moon man returning home. He dies by accident during the trip to Luna. What the remaining four find waiting for them when they arrive on the Moon is well beyond their expectations: huge rock creatures, giant lunar spiders, and a cave dwelling civilization made up of beautiful women.

Two escaped convicts, Gary (Tommy Cook) and Lon (Gary Clarke), are discovered hiding aboard a rocket by scientist Dirk Green (Michael Whalen), who then forces them to pilot the spaceship to the Moon. Dirk, who is secretly a Moon man, wants to return home. Dirk's partner Steve Dayton (Richard Travis) and Steve's fiancée June (Cathy Downs) are accidentally trapped aboard just before the rocketship blasts off from Earth. Moon man Dirk is later accidentally killed in a meteor storm during the lunar trip. Once they land on the Moon, the spaceship's reluctant crew encounter deception and intrigue when they discover an underground kingdom made up of beautiful women and their sinister female ruler, the Lido (K. T. Stevens). While on the Moon, the Earthers encounter surface dwelling, slow moving, bipedal large rock creatures that try to crush them. They must also contend with a cave dwelling, not so giant spider that attacks them.

Missile to the Moon was an even lower budget remake of the low budget science fiction film drama Cat Women of the Moon (1953) and closely follows the plot details of that earlier feature. The giant spider prop was wire controlled from above; it is exactly the same "Moon spider" used five years earlier in Cat Women of the Moon. Nina Bara, in the role of the evil, scheming, back stabbing Alpha, was familiar to genre audiences from her role as Tonga on the television series Space Patrol (1950 1955). Popular 1960s/1970s television and film star Leslie Parrish also co stars, billed under her real name Marjorie Hellen.