UK, USA, 1969
100m
35mm, Technicolor
mono (RCA Sound System), English
A British/American science fiction film directed by Roy Ward Baker.
Plot Summary
A gang of crooks is planning to capture a small asteroid made of sapphire and crashing it into the moon so that they can salvage it. But the only place they can bring it down undetected is on a mining claim on the dark side of the moon and they murder the miner who owns it. But the salvage team the crooks have hired to help them retrieve the asteroid is also working for the miner’s sister, who is paying them to search for her missing brother…
Credits
* = uncredited
Crew
Directed by: Roy Ward Baker
© MCMLXIX [1969] Hammer Film Productions Ltd
Warner Bros-Seven Arts presents a Hammer Film production
Produced by: Michael Carreras
Production Manager: Hugh Harlow
Screenplay by: Michael Carreras
From an original story by Gavin Lyall, Frank Hardman and Martin Davison
Assistant Director: Jack Martin
Continuity: Josie Fulford
Director of Photography: Paul Beeson
Camera Operator: John Winbolt
Editor: Spencer Reeve
Music by: Don Ellis
Musical Supervisor: Philip Martell
Song performed by Julie Driscoll
Sound Mixer: Claude Hitchcock
Sound Editor: Roy Hyde
Recording Supervisor: A.W. Lumkin
Dubbing Mixer: Len Abbott
Costume Designer: Carl Toms
Wardrobe: Larry Stewart
Make-up: Ernest Taylor
Hairdresser: Ivy Emmerton
Wigs by: Leonard
Special Effects by: Les Bowie
Special Effects Photography: Kit West, Mick Alder
[Special Effects] Assistants: Peter Lawson, Colin Chilvers
Special Effects Assistant: Brian Johnson *
Titles by: Stokes Cartoons Ltd
Art Director: Scott MacGregor
Assistant Art Director: John Lague
Construction Manager: Arthur Banks
[The Gogos] Choreographed by: Jo Cook
Produced at Elstree Studios, Herts, England
With the permission of John Waddington Limited, the game Moonopoly is based upon the property trading game marketed by them under their registered trade name, Monopoly.
Stunt Advisor: Bill Weston
Casting: Susan Whathough
Cast
James Olson ([Bill] Kemp)
Catherina Von Schell (Clem[entine Taplin])
Warren Mitchell ([J.J.] Hubbard)
Adrienne Corri (Liz [Murphy])
Ori Levy (Karminski)
Dudley Foster (Whitsun)
Bernard Bresslaw (Harry)
Neil McCallum (space captain)
Joby Blanshard (Smith)
Michael Ripper (1st card player)
Robert Tayman (2nd card player)
Sam Kydd (barman [Len])
The Gogos (Michelle Barry, Sue Baumann, Jane Cunningham, Irene Gorst, Sally Graham, Brenda Krippen) (bar dancers)
Keith Bonnard (junior customs officer)
Leo Britt (senior customs officer)
Carol Cleveland (hostess)
Roy Evans (workman)
Tom Kempinski (2nd officer)
Lew Luton (immigration officer)
Claire Shenstone (female hotel clerk)
Chrissie Shrimpton (boutique attendant)
Amber Dean Smith, Simone Silvera (Hubbard’s girlfriends)
Athol Coats [Mercer] *
Tim Condren [yellow man] *
Freddie Earlle [little man] *
Martin Grace [red man] *
Robert Lee [hotel employee] *
Bill Weston [green man] *
Alternative Titles
Banditen auf dem Mond – Germany
Luna-02 Crimen en el espacio – Argentina
Luna cero dos – Spain
Luna zero due – Italy
Press
1969
Monthly Film Bulletin vol.36 no.430 (November 1969) p.241
The scenery in this new sub-genre may be less inspiring than usual, but the dialogue, plot and everything else are on a sufficiently familiar level to appeal to less demanding juvenile audiences. The special effects are inevitably light years after anything in 2001; for the rest, Catherina von Schell looks winsome enough, Warren Mitchell leers prettily, and Bernard Bresslaw is conventionally moronic as the Moon magnate’s gunslinger-in-chief. It’s all just about bad enough to fill older audiences with nostalgia for the inspired innocence of Flash Gordon, or even the good old days of Abbott and Costello in outer space. – reviewer not credited
References
Periodicals
- Castle of Frankenstein no.19 p.44
- Film Bulletin vol.39 no.1 (12 January 1970) p.18 – review
- Films and Filming vol.16 no.3 (December 1969 pp.54-55 – credits, review
- The Hollywood Reporter vol.206 no.14 (29 May 1969) p.16 – credits
- The Hollywood Reporter vol.209 no.11 (29 December 1969) p.19 – review
- The House That Hammer Built no.7 (February 1998) pp.361-363 – illustrated credits, synopsis, review
- L’Incroyable Cinema no.2 (Summer 1969) pp.6-10 – illustrated article (Moon Zero Two)
- Kine Weekly 11 September 1969 – review
- Monthly Film Bulletin vol.36 no.430 (November 1969) p.241 – credits, synopsis, review [reviewer not credited]
- Today’s Cinema no.9654 (28 March 1969) p.5 – credits
- Today’s Cinema no.9737 (17 October 1969) p.10 – review
- Variety 29 October 1969 p.28 – credits, review
Books
- Aurum Film Encyclopedia: Science Fiction by Phil Hardy (ed) p.284; 285 – illustrated credits, review
- English Gothic: A Century of Horror Cinema by Jonathan Rigby p.144
- Escape Velocity by Bradley Schauer p.150
- Feature Films, 1960-1969: A Filmography of English-language and Major Foreign-language United States Releases by Harris M. Lentz III p.300 – credits
- Film Review 1970-71 by F. Maurice Speed (ed) pp.227-228
- Hammer Complete: The films, the Personnel, the Company by Howard Maxford pp.565-567 – illustrated credits, synopsis, review
- Hammer Films: The Elstree Studio Years by Wayne Kinsey pp.115-129 – illustrated note
- The Hammer Story: The Authorised History of Hammer Films by Marcus Hearn & Alan Barnes 128-129; 183 – illustrated article
- The Hammer Vault by Marcus Hearn pp.114-115 – illustrated article
- Horror Film Directors 1931-1990 Volume 1 by Dennis Fischer pp.47-48
- Island of Terror: A Book of 60 Great* British SF and Fantasy Movies from 1936-1984 *And not so Great by Keith Topping pp.413-420
- Kine & TV Year Book 1971 p.112 – credits
- Psychedelic Celluloid: British Pop Music in Film and TV 1965-1974 by Simon Matthews pp.95, 153-154 – illustrated review
- Reference Guide to Fantastic Films by Walt Lee p.314 – credits
- Uneasy Dreams: The Golden Age of British Horror Films, 1956-1976 by Gary A. Smith pp.153-154
- Variety Science-Fiction Movies by Julian Brown (ed.) p.73 – credits, review
