1950s movies marathon – part 9

Destination Moon (1950, USA, Pichel)

I expected a bad SF movie, but this has more in common with Victory Through Air Power, Walt Disney’s mad/visionary airplane movie.  Except here it’s Robert Heinlein, trying to inspire viewers to aim for the moon.  His vision gets a low-budget treatment, and that’s probably a good thing, because it leaves the nerdy core and the Heinleinian touches intact: The heroes are maverick industrialists, and most of the drama comes from realistic engineering and physics problems.  Watched it all.  This is the earliest space-oriented SF movie I’ve seen that actually feels like one.  There’s a direct line from here to Star Trek, 2001: A Space Odyssey – and the actual moonlanding.

This Can’t Happen Here / Sånt händer inte här (1950, Sweden, Bergman)

Yes, but when you make a movie about evil agents from the Soviet Union, why say they’re from the generic dictatorship of “Liquidatzia”, and why pretend they’ve come to a generic small country where everyone just happens to speak Swedish?  Cowards.  Watched: 15 minutes.

Madeleine (1950, UK, Lean)

I love David Lean’s style here, but it takes something beyond exceptional to make me watch a drama about some rich Victorians and their stupid little love affairs.  Watched: 14 minutes.