It's good to have the location scenes (filmed in Death Valley and Red Rock Canyon) restored to their original theatrical red tints in the current DVD release. That's certainly a considerable improvement over the washed-out prints circulating on TV in the late 1960s. The black-and-white scenes look great too.
One thing, alas, that has not improved is Lloyd Bridges' overweeningly smug, self-satisfied, aren't-I-just-too-heroic performance. Mr Bridges here packs all the charm of a cheap carnival barker. Normally he's a very reliable player and I don't know what possessed him to show off. Director Neumann should have imposed some restraints. Although equally hampered by Mr Hampton's tired, if tried and true, additional dialogue, the other players, even Noah Beery, Jr., seem engagingly realistic, even when the story wanders from the highly unlikely into the utterly impossible.
Still, although the movie pretends to offer scientific and astronomical facts, its sole purpose is to entertain and this it does reasonably well. In fact, production values look so impressive overall, it's a wonder to me that the picture came in at a negative cost of only $94,000! Lots of "crowd artists" pack the benches in the briefing scene, but many of these "reporters" are actually behind-the-camera personnel who have been suddenly (if briefly) thrust into the limelight. There was no sign of photographer Karl Struss in the crowd, but I think I recognized producers Lerner, Lippert and Neumann.
One thing, alas, that has not improved is Lloyd Bridges' overweeningly smug, self-satisfied, aren't-I-just-too-heroic performance. Mr Bridges here packs all the charm of a cheap carnival barker. Normally he's a very reliable player and I don't know what possessed him to show off. Director Neumann should have imposed some restraints. Although equally hampered by Mr Hampton's tired, if tried and true, additional dialogue, the other players, even Noah Beery, Jr., seem engagingly realistic, even when the story wanders from the highly unlikely into the utterly impossible.
Still, although the movie pretends to offer scientific and astronomical facts, its sole purpose is to entertain and this it does reasonably well. In fact, production values look so impressive overall, it's a wonder to me that the picture came in at a negative cost of only $94,000! Lots of "crowd artists" pack the benches in the briefing scene, but many of these "reporters" are actually behind-the-camera personnel who have been suddenly (if briefly) thrust into the limelight. There was no sign of photographer Karl Struss in the crowd, but I think I recognized producers Lerner, Lippert and Neumann.