NUDE ON THE MOON (1961)

 

PHENOMENALITY: *marvelous*
MYTHICITY: *poor*
FRYEAN MYTHOS: *comedy*
CAMPBELLIAN FUNCTION: *sociological*

I've yet to see a "nudie film" from the genre's heyday that's impressed me, but I suppose NUDE ON THE MOON at least stands out from the pack in being a memorably dumb idea.

I suspect NUDE was one of the last movies to depict two private citizens organizing and funding a moon-voyage out of their personal resources, as do older scientist Dr Nichols and his protege Jeff. There's a risible moment in which Jeff explains that he can fund the trip because his uncle left him three million dollars, though admittedly this would have meant a lot more in 1961 dollars. As a point of comparison, even the first issue of THE FANTASTIC FOUR, published in the same year as NUDE, had scientist Reed Richards construct a moon-vessel for the American military, which he and his friends promptly swiped to make sure Americans got to the lunar orb first.

But there are no political motives for the scientists to go moon-hopping; it's all about the research. Jeff is so into the project that he ignores the attentions of his brunette secretary Cathy.

The voyage is accomplished in jig time, and Jeff and Nichols find themselves on a moon full of verdant fields and, well, a colony of nudist males and females with antennae growing from their skulls. I think the antennae gave them all telepathic powers, though the brunette queen (played by one Marietta, the same actress playing Cathy) does all the communicating. Jeff and Nichols galumph around a while, studying the natives, but co-writer/co-director Doris Wishman supplies no conflict until it's time for the nutty astronauts to go home. Jeff's fallen in love with the Queen, so that Nichols has to drag him (non-violently of course) back to the ship. They go home without incident, with Jeff still bedazzled with the Queen. However, though Jeff wants to go back again, he becomes entranced with Cathy because she suggests a tie between earthly concerns and lunar fascination.

The one interesting note in the script is that a couple of times Nichols theorizes that they may have accidentally flown to some other planet, rather than the reportedly barren satellite of Earth. There's no pseudoscience offered to explain how this might have happened, probably because science had yet to theorize "black holes" into existence. But the one or two sociological touches in NUDE don't compensate for its being "bare" in terms of entertainment.