User Reviews

Take your best shot at "Crash of Moons", but I found the film to be fairly entertaining, with some unique story elements and special effects that come off as pretty original for the mid 1950's. I've been overdosing on sci-fi films of the era recently, and must say that it's a lot better than some of the space turkeys that came out a decade later, like "Voyage To The Prehistoric Planet" and "Zontar The Thing From Venus". Part of it's appeal for me included the well done orbiting space station OW-9, and the use of creative space jargon to describe futuristic technology like the 'viseograph', the 'astrophone' and 'tortanic' missiles.

The hero of the piece is Space Ranger Rocky Jones (Richard Crane), the movie spliced together from episodes of the mid '50's television program. It's not hard to see where some of the imagination for Star Trek's Captain Kirk came from. Confident and take charge, Rocky seemed to be wherever the ladies were present, though without Kirk's overworked libido. His team includes the leggy Vena Ray, adequately portrayed by Sally Mansfield.

The story line is also fairly imaginative, with two gypsy moons linked together by an atmosphere chain that initially threatens the space station, and then takes up an orbit that may destroy another planet. Ophecious is ruled by a hawkish space queen named Cleolanta (Patsy Parsons), who views the threat of rogue moon Placida as a United Worlds plot to destroy her planet and her rule.

If you're a fan of 'B' Westerns, you'll have no trouble recognizing a couple of faces that made dozens of cowboy flicks each. Harry Lauter is Cleolanta's right hand man Atlasan, while her lieutenant is veteran Lane Bradford. Nan Leslie, who also made her mark in a fair number of Western films, is Atlasan's wife Trinka, the voice of reason on Ophecious who is anxious to accept Rocky Jones' help to save her planet's people. Meeting her prompts Rocky's sidekick Winky (Scotty Beckett) to remark - "Hey Rocky, who is that luscious trail of star dust anyway?" Perhaps the surprise member of the cast for trivia fans is the character Bavarro, who a dozen years later would become the perfect foil for Colonel Hogan on the popular series "Hogan's Heroes". I didn't make the connection at first, but will have to go back to review John Banner's scenes to measure the resemblance.

OK, it's dated, black and white, and has moments when the non action simply plods along, but overall I found "Crash of Moons" to be likable enough. It helps that the players themselves didn't seem to take the whole thing too seriously, as they looked to be in the spirit of things, all with a straight face. I wonder how much practice that took, as some of those space uniforms looked downright out of this world in a genuinely 'out there' sort of way.

It's not the film, it's the memories... "Crash of Moons" is a TV film created by cobbling together a few episodes of the TV show "Rocky Jones, Space Ranger" to tell the story of massive destruction in space and the benevolent role that the United Worlds can and does play in saving lives, if not moons. It's a very silly, highly improbable tale with geniuses that forget the basics of science, purely evil leaders that never kill anyone or even have anyone killed, and the most rudimentary of effects that I really can't call "special". So what's to like about it? Perhaps it's the chance to look back at the distant past of science fiction and catch it at the moment in history when space was still "sentient beings vs. an uncaring cosmos", before the Cold War gave us invading communis..., er, aliens to fear; even when there are extraterrestrials, they're really just plain folks like you and me. On the other hand, it might just be the easy way that this era's TV tales set in space mirrored all the other TV shows of the time, making sci-fi a seamless part of the greater 1950s experience and not the outlier, geeky passion that it would become a few decades later. Plus, there are the tantalizingly minor but still present seedlings of ideas that will blossom in the Star Trek universe - a federation of worlds, a ship intent on helping out those it encounters in space, missions of peace and a message of hope... I never saw the television show, but since this film is the show, I guess I have seen it now. It's not very good, but it's a relatively faithful continuation of the Flash Gordon-type space narratives of the 1930s, '40s and early '50s. There are brave stalwart heroes and heroines, wobbly sets, and a slightly annoying youngster. It isn't thoughtful or impressive, like "Things to Come", a film made more than 20 years earlier, but then again, this isn't really a film. It's a bit of television, and a bit of fun, as long as you're a fan of Flash and his ilk, and I am.

Crash of Moons isn't really a movie - it's several episodes of the Rocky Jones: Space Ranger series cobbled together into 78 minutes. As the title implies, there are two moons set to crash into each other. The crash will destroy both worlds and their citizens. One planet is friendly and open to evacuation. The other is hostile and doesn't believe Rocky and Co. Can they get everyone off in time?

Crash of Moons is harmless enough, but it's not very good. I'm sure that had I been 7 in 1954, I would have eaten this up. I can just imagine the exploits of Rocky Jones thrilling kids of the 50s. Today, it's all so quaint. The special effects are as naive as you'd expect. The acting is hammy. The comedy relief is corny. And the male chauvinism is thick. Still, the idea of two worlds colliding is an interesting one and held my interest throughout most of the runtime. Like I said, it's all harmless enough, just not anything special.

One thing I really enjoyed was seeing a younger John Banner. I'm an unashamed fan of Hogan Heroes. I think it's one of the best 30 minute comedies to ever air. I always enjoy seeing Hogan alumni in other settings, whether it's Werner Klemperer, Bob Crane, or Leon Askin (who is in a bunch of stuff). But Banner holds a special place in all Hogan fans' hearts.

You really can see the strings in this compilation of several episodes of the short-lived "Rocky Jones" TV series, a laughably ridiculous but fun variation of the old "Flash Gordon" and "Buck Rogers" serial. For teenage boys who originally missed it when it aired in syndication, they could enjoy it as a full length film, combining episodes tied together, with several of them compiled, available easily through public domain prints and cheap DVD releases. Here, Rocky (Richard Crane), Winky (Scotty Beckett), the professor (Maurice Cass) and the sexy and smart Vena (Sally Mansfield) deal with the evil queen of Ophesius, Cleolanta, played with campy badness by Patsy Parsons.

In observing the quality of these TV episodes through several other compilations, it's obvious that they could never be shown on big movie screens, with the special effects so obviously cheap and limited that it would be laughable even on the smallest of neighborhood theater screens. The actors take their jobs seriously, but it's obvious that they are quite aware of the limitations in both how this would hold up and how outlandish it all is. Beckett seems the most aware, and at times, his silly performance makes it seem like he's secretly laughing allowed and not forced to reign it in. While there are many laughably ridiculous elements, it's a bit boring at times, and in spite of that, my rating is altered to reflect on it as a TV show of the early days of that medium rather than as a motion picture.