Cat Women of the Moon (1953)

Cat Women of the Moon (1953)

“Four of us will be enough. We will get their women under our power, and soon we will rule the whole world!”

Synopsis:
Five astronauts (Sonny Tufts, Victor Jory, Marie Windsor, William Phipps, and Douglas Fowley) on a trip to the moon discover a colony of man-hating “cat women” with psychic powers.

Genres, Themes, Actors, and Directors:

  • Aliens
  • Marie Windsor Films
  • Mind Control and Hypnosis
  • Science Fiction
  • Space Exploration

Review:
Cat Women of the Moon is often cited as one of the definitive “bad movies” of the 1950s — and for good reason. First, its classification as “sci-fi” is highly suspect, since, as noted in the AlanSmithee.com review [nb as of 12/08: now sadly defunct], “Science has about as much to do with [the film] as leopards have to do with double-entry accounting.” The dialogue is either laughable (“We have no use for men!”) or offensive (“You’re too smart for me, baby — I like ’em stupid!”), and the acting — even by B-favorite Marie Windsor — is over-the-top.

Plus, in true “bad movie” fashion, the title is misleading: the only association these female aliens have with cats is their skin-tight black suits.

“May we serve you, Earth men?”

As in the later camp classic Queen of Outer Space (1958), Cat Women is ripe for feminist analysis, with male-hating female aliens eventually either shown the folly of their ways (one falls in love) or destroyed.

Redeeming Qualities and Moments:

  • Hopelessly campy performances by everyone involved

Must See?
Yes, for its status as a campy cult classic.

Categories

  • Cult Movie

Links:

One thought on “Cat Women of the Moon (1953)

  1. A must – just too much fun to miss!

    A little over an hour long and, if you’re a connoisseur of wonderfully bad film (as I am), you may have to be a bit patient during the first half. The exposition is goofy enough, certainly, so it’s not like you’ll be sitting anxious in anticipation; there’s some fun early on. But it’s the latter part of this goofy ‘starship enterprise’ that satisfies most.

    Camp classics of the distant past most often come to us with a cast of unknowns. I wonder what this film would have been like had the producers not had good fortune when they roped in decent names for the leads (Windsor, Jory, Tufts – each providing total conviction). That said, everybody’s on the same off-the-wall page here (including composer Elmer Bernstein – !!! – whose score lends an extra element of class).

    Delightfully dumb!

    (Available at the public domain site: http://www.archive.org.)

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