mark.waltz I got to see this in a double bill with "Destination Moon" which at least had the benefit of gorgeous color and a Woody Woodpecker cartoon to make it rise above its dullness. All this has is a bunch of people running around in silly caps trying to get to the moon and suspecting somebody of being a saboteur. It is a silly compilation of a TV series that never made it on the air that looks as cheap on my TV screen as many of the early TV series that had amateurish photography, plain sets and uninteresting characters. In fact, it made "Plan 9 From Outer Space" look like an epic in comparison. Of the cast, the only name I recognized was Hayden Rourke ("I Dream of Jeanie" which was ironically about astronauts), and the rest of the cast is basically forgettable. There's not much action considering the supposed shell of a plotline, and at just over an hour, it ends up being a huge waste of time.

oscar-35 *Spoiler/plot- Project Moon Base, 1953. Among a manned mission to the moon in 1972, a saboteur attempts to destroy the first mission and moon base.*Special Stars- Donna Martell, Hayden Rorke, Ross Ford.*Theme- Man and woman must explore the planets. *Trivia/location/goofs- B & W, pilot for TV series, titled 'Ring around the Moon'. shot in only 10 days. Watch for the space uniforms of sporty shorts, tight t-shirts and swim caps for both sexes. Listen for the exotic therimen 50's 'spacey' scene music. Sets and costume were also re-cycled for 'Cat Women on the moon' that was to be filmed only weeks later for it's production. Watch for the very trite 50's man/woman morals, cold war fears, and paternalistic manners of the commanding officers towards moon crew. Rocketship style is airplane-like with wings.*Emotion- Very fun and outdated. Best watched with liquor and no serious film cynical eyes or thoughts. Sorta charming of a bygone era.*Based On- Robert A. Heinlein story.

Lee Eisenberg At face value there's no reason why you should notice "Project Moon Base". It's as old-school as any 1950s sci-fi flick can be, with a really corny plot. But it does catch my eye. The general is played by none other than Hayden Rorke, best known as Dr. Bellows on "I Dream of Jeannie". Yes, the man who spent eternity trying to figure out the unusual behavior of the small screen's most famous astronaut plays another character involved in sending people on space missions. And this time there's an impostor out to sabotage the mission. What's really confusing is how the movie contains a mixture of dated scenes (the last scene) and progressive ideas (a female president). What gives? It's mostly a hokey movie. Nonetheless, that scene where the spaceship docks with the space station must've caused a lot of snickering when the movie first got released. As for Hayden Rorke, Barbara Eden noted that he was open about his homosexuality with the "I Dream of Jeannie" cast, and that they all got to meet his partner.I understand that "Project Moon Base" got riffed on "Mystery Science Theater 3000", but I've never seen that episode.

bkoganbing This low budget science fiction film with story by Robert Heinlein of all people was given to the American movie-going public by Lippert Pictures. Certainly a writer of Heinlein's reputation in the science fiction genre deserved better than a film by Lippert.We're into the future, 1970 to be precise and the Cold War is still going on and it's race to the moon to see who can establish a base there and point missiles at Earth. There's a US constructed and operated space station out there already and the Communists want to see it destroyed and our progress in space halted and maybe even reversed.What to do but plant a spy on board a mission to the moon who will take over the ship and destroy the space station. The spy is Larry Johns who is discovered by that tried and true device so popular during World War II, knowledge of baseball. I mean anybody who's never heard of the Brooklyn Dodgers has to be an enemy agent. And here the Dodgers never went west.As if problems with Russian spies isn't enough, pilot Donna Martell and co-pilot Ross Ford are feuding. She was jumped over him in rank and given the first orbital space flight due to her sex and Ford doesn't like it. He kind of likes her though and they do get kind of close.Even seen from a Cold War perspective I have to believe that Heinlein's story was a great deal more complex. The sets are Lippert style cheap and the story is to ridiculous to describe further. Even the Man in the Moon winced.