Mankinds' first expedition to the Moon courts disaster by including a woman in the crew.
Well there's more to it than that, but not much. Part of the
Lady Land subgenre of sci-fi cheapies (see also
Queen Of Outer Space and
Fire Maidens from Outer Space) in which an
Interplanetary Voyage leads to the discovery of an all-female society on another world. Rather than using this premise to explore gender politics of
the time, we instead get
fanservice and the restoration of a reassuring sense of male patriachy by the end.
What were you expecting — rocket science?
Remade in 1959 as
Missile To The Moon.
Cat-Women of the Moon provides examples of:
- 3-D Movie
- Anti Climax Cut: At least Missile to the Moon has an explosive climax. This movie ends with Rip running offscreen firing his gun after Alpha and Beta. We then hear him shouting back, "The cat-women are dead! Helen's all right!"
- Artificial Gravity: Used in the cave to hold an atmosphere. Presumably on the rocketship too, as we're spared the obligatory zero-g sequence. Also Laird says their space boots won't weigh as much once they're out on the moon's surface.
- Brainy Brunette: Supposedly Helen, but it turns out her skill in navigation was provided by the evil cat-women! No wonder she doesn't have to ask for directions in space.
- Death by Materialism: Walt Walters is constantly pulling cheap stunts to get money (postcards from the moon, advertisement plugs on the radio). He gets stabbed In the Back in a cave of gold.
- Dying Race: Why the cat-women are desperate to Take Over the World. The Moon is running out of oxygen.
- Elmer Bernstein did the score.
- Exact Time to Failure: The Captain points out that Kip's Hazmat Suit will barely last a minute in the overloading engine room. Kip quips that he'll have to be 59 seconds then.
- Fanservice Extras: The Hollywood Cover Girls (whoever they are) play the (non-speaking) cat-women.
- Fauxlosophic Narration: The Opening Monologue.
- Five-Man Band
- Future Spandex: The cat-women at least wear catsuits.
- Giant Spider: Our heroes are attacked by giant puppet spiders, reducing Helen to a Screaming Woman.
- Gratuitous Greek: Alpha and her Co-Dragons, Beta and Lambda.
- Gold Fever: As usual, the moon has plenty of gold. Helium 3, what's that?
- Hazmat Suit: Kip dons a hooded suit to fix a coolant leak, after the obligatory meteor shower damages their nuclear-powered Retro Rocket.
- Interspecies Romance: Lambda and Doug. It doesn't take them long to discuss what boys and girls get up to on Earth and fall in love.
- Let's Split Up, Gang: Averted when Helen is abducted by the cat-women. Kip points out that it makes more sense to wait to see whether she's returned. She is.
- Love Triangle: Helen loves Kip, but the evil cat-women have made Helen turn her attentions to Laird because it's more suitable for their purpose.
- Mind Control: Weak Willed Helen
- Non-Indicative Name: Warning — this movie does not contain Catgirls.
- Notable Original Music: This is one of the films Elmer Bernstein scored while waiting for McCarthy to leave power.
- The Power of Love: Kip breaks Alpha's Mind Control just by holding Helen's hand.
- The Power of the Sun: If you put a cigarette over the dividing line between the light and dark sides of the moon, it will burst into flame!
- Prop Recycling: The space helmets are leftovers from Abbott and Costello Go to Mars, produced the same year, as well as sets and costumes from Project Moonbase, which was being made at the same time.
- Sinister Silhouettes: Difficult to achieve when the subject is a hair-bunned woman. Except for the Hand of Death when Walt gets killed.
- Space Is Cold
Laird: I want everyone to check each other's heaters. It must be set on Number Two, because of the absolute cold of the dark side.
- Space Madness: Laird puts down Helen's call to Alpha (which she doesn't remember) as "a touch of space madness".
- Stock Footage: The usual 1949 film taken from an A4 rocket launched into the upper atmosphere is reused in a constant loop.
- Take Over the World: Alpha's evil plan.
- Telepathic Spacewomen
Alpha: We need no language. We can project our thoughts long distances.
- Villain Teleportation: Lambda teleports herself via a bad jump cut. Leads to a Fridge Logic moment — if the cat-women can do this, why do they need the spacesuits to get to the rocketship?
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