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‘Here we go then.’
#60s Moon Music#
1969’s Moon Zero Two, which at the time of recording you can watch on YouTube,
was made by Hammer but, if it wasn’t for the presence of Michael Ripper you’d never know it.
‘3 more rocket fuels please.’
Set in 2021 - we should pay attention to when we do these reviews -
it was advertised as the first moon western.
The title High Moon was apparently mooted and the plot does have similarities to Sergio Leone’s Once Upon a Time in the West,
as Catherine Schell’s Clem Taplin arrives on the moon looking for her brother who has been mining his claim on the Dark side,
only to get mixed up with big businessman J. J. Hubbard,
played by Warren Mitchell who wants the land for his own purposes,
‘Sapphire Mr Kemp’
and by a quirk of moon fate, both end up hiring James Olson’s Bill Kemp,
‘I’m a space pilot, not a mechanically minded wet nurse’
a down on his luck pilot with a holster on his space suit.
Sounds like fun – sounds like nonsense but sounds like fun
and Hammer pushed the boat out.
This was their biggest budget to date and a lot of the effects hold up reasonably well.
Other stuff not so much.
This is a problem for Moon Zero Two, from its bizarre opening titles,
this is a film that doesn’t know what it wants to be,
it is overwhelmingly serious in tone,
‘Otto got killed?’
‘Couple of days ago’
alongside moonopoly and comedy star Bernard Bresslaw.
And despite the sexy costumes of the future
that tone means it never sustains the campness that might make it more of a cult favourite today.
The big problem however is the promised western,
which in some ways it goes all out for as Kemp’s ship lands next to a half-timbered moon base.
But despite the premise this never achieves the jaunty tone it’s aiming for
the zero gravity barroom brawl is a great idea that just ends up highlighting that, though this was big budget for Hammer,
it wasn’t big enough.
While the only gun fight is hampered by the fact that moon buggies are a lot slower than horses.
Unable to pull off in space the sort of set pieces that make their horror films,
Hammer fell back on a lot of dialogue delivered by sadly uninspiring characters.
‘Perhaps we should never have come’
Hammer’s young heroes are an anaemic lot,
and their best films are based around characters like Van Helsing, Frankenstein, Quatermass or the Duc de Richlieu,
but there’s no one here to fill that role.
‘Well it’s not new but I think it works’
The film was carefully timed; released 3 months after the moon landings,
even adding a line to pay tribute,
‘The monument there is where Neil Armstrong landed back in 1969.’
but audiences who had now seen the real thing, were unconvinced by Hammer’s version
and the film was a flop,
torpedoing the plans of producer and screenwriter Michael Carreras who had excitedly anticipated a spin-off TV series
and a sequel, presciently titled Disaster in Space.
‘Just a stupid mistake’
But, for all its faults, you can see why Carreras was excited.
They were really pushing for something new, there are good ideas which the script sadly fails to enliven.
Moon Zero Two’s big issue is not that tight budget,
the high camp, the slow pace or even the inconsistent tone,
it’s that the premise promised fun, and the film seldom delivers.
Still worth a watch though, there’s little else like it.
Thanks for watching. What’s your opinion of Moon Zero Two
and what are the unquestionable camp classics? Let us know in the comments below.