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