Customer Reviews

Cat Women of the Moon (3D) [VHS]

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(8)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

While it may never win any awards, CAT WOMEN OF THE MOON does often win fans. At once overly written, then totally barren at other points, shoddy effects, bad science and coupled with second rate acting and very linear direction (everyone seems to move from right to left in this film), this is a film most would find hard to love. But it's not without its charms... despite its television running time of 64 mins, and the fact that it was originally released in 3D (presented in 2D on this DVD), CAT WOMEN OF THE MOON has a lot of connections with other B films of the era. The rockets used here will appear again in PROJECT MOONBASE, even the cockpit of the space craft will be redressed and reused for P.B. The SPIDER that appears in this film was one of the most often used B picture props from the 50's - it would also appear in MESA OF LOST WOMEN and MISSLE TO THE MOON - which was a remake (yes, beleive it or not - a remake!) of CAT WOMEN OF THE MOON. The space suits and helmets would make their way into ABBOTT & COSTELLO GO TO VENUS - in the end C.W.O.T.M. is rare film and very fun in its own way. The casual viewer may be put off by it, but for collectors of this kind film this is must for any library.

This is a fun movie, I agree. However, I was disappointed with my VHS video, as only certain scenes are shown in 3D, NOT the entire film. (Robot Monster was entirely in 3Din this series.) My coverbox is exactly the same as the one pictured, but I'm wondering if Rhino put out more than one version. The analglyph 3D is unbearable, due in part to the fact that the up/down convergence is way off. I've seen segments of this film in Field-Sequential format on the Encounter in the Third Dimension DVD and it looks beautiful. If only someone would give it the treatment it deserves and put it out on DVD in both 2D and 3D field-sequential formats. If you don't know what field-sequential shutterglasses are, you haven't seen 3D video!!! See: The Ultimate 3D Collection. Now! Go look!

Length:: 1:41 Mins

Original 1953 Black & White trailer shows why this movie was deemed "The most startling picture of the century!" 3-D glasses are not required. Enjoy!

Marie Windsor (Swamp Women) is part of a lunar exploration team that discovers giant spiders and cat-women on the dark side of the moon. Said cat-women (played by the Hollywood Cover Girls) are the final remnants of a once flourishing society. Now they seek to steal the team's rocket and conquer the earth! CWOTM isn't a total loss, but it can be rough on normal-brained viewers! You must keep in mind that it was made in the 50s, at a cost of about 42¢. This will help get you through the majority of the dullness and jaw-shattering dialogue. The middle-aged earth males are about as heroic and verile as Homer Simpson, yet neither Ms. Windsor nor the Cat-women can resist them! It must be the moon's thin atmosphere. The black leotard-wearing cat-babes look more like beat club waitresses than alien marauders! Still, this movie has it's own imbecilic charm. Watch it w/ MESA OF LOST WOMEN, PREHISTORIC WOMEN, and WILD WOMEN OF WONGO for a complete estrogen explosion...

"Cat-Women of the Moon" is a black and white remnant of the golden age of science fiction. Made in 1953, the film stars Sonny Tufts, Victor Jory, and Marie Windsor. The plot is simple yet ridiculous: a spacecraft carries astronauts to the moon, where the lone woman onboard is telepathically commanded to lead the crew to an ancient city of cat-women, who have no men. They need to go to earth to breed, and are clearly evil given their wily ways and "Teenagers From Outer Space" style skintight leotards.

Along the way the intrepid explorers have to battle enormous space tarantulas (complete with enormous string), invade ancient cities composed of matte paintings, and watch the completely ludicrous dance of the cat-women. The problem is that the atmosphere of the moon is being gradually destroyed (insert your own Al Gore joke here), which has (somehow) killed off all the moon men. Into this mess is thrust Kip, the leader of the expedition (Jory), although somehow copilot Sonny Tufts gets top billing. There is a vast quantity of otherworldly dialogue sprinkled throughout (e.g. "I love you Doug, yet I must kill you." and "I'll make a bargain with you. You take me to your rocket ship; I'll show you the cave of gold.") The film is only 64 minutes long, and at about the 63 minute mark I was wondering how it was going to end. the answer is "abruptly." Not only was the ending anticlimactic, it was just plain lame.

The film was originally released in 3-D, although this version is 2-D. You can still find the 3-D version on VHS, if you really want to. On the positive side of the ledger, the film was scored by Oscar winning Hollywood legend Elmer Bernstein, who did movies such as "The Ten Commandments," "The Great Escape," "The Magnificent Seven," "To Kill a Mockingbird," and "The Great Santini." I guess everybody has to start somewhere.

For pure camp value I give this three stars. It's short and sometimes plodding, but has a great, cheesy plot, ridiculous props, and cut-rate performances from the golden age of science fiction.

I first saw this movie when it was new. It was terrible then but now it is a classic. It lacks the class of The Rocky Horror Picture Show in that TRHPS was meant to be a spoof. These people appear to be serious. Watch it and fall out of your chair laughing. A monument to the really bad sifi of the era. Every time you think it can't get worse, it does.
Well worth the price for a classic.

This one is right up there with the worst of Doctor Who!

There's some insipid sci-fi science (even for the '50s), like handguns on the lunar surface and a cigarette vaporizing when it crosses from the dark side of the moon into the light side (complete with hard-edged line between the two). And there's a rubber spider that's pretty Doctor Who-ish (William Hartnell ran into a giant foam bee along the same lines). The 3D effects do not work, either.

But the movie is a must-see just for laughability! It's literaly so bad it's good! And the Catwomen are actually pretty sexy. Well, kinda.

Anyway, the price is right, so buy the darn thing!

OK; let's try. Take cheesy special effects, a totally illogical plot, bad scenery, Victor Jory and Sonny Tufts, for God's sake, then toss in Marie Windsor in all her bad girl/B movie glory, and finally all these women in leotards and black stockings that do strange dances. How could you not want to own it??

Yikes! I admit I'm not the target audience for this film, which was apparently retarded children of the 1950's but still there should be something in this that I could find enjoyable. I did learn a lot about cat women who live on the moon. I discovered that they like to wear black unitards and break into spontaneous interpretive dance. They also enjoy serving honey dew melon in small compotes and they stack sponge cake on silver platters. Cat women (of the moon) are also fond of false eyelashes and they are quite good at putting out small fires. They find gold very ho-hum and they have no men. They are known to spout words of wisdom like "Our generation is many thousands of years older than yours." Fine. All of this sounds far more fascinating than it actually is when presented in this film, which is shot with all the artistic interest of a security camera. The central flaw of this film is that it is relentlessly dull. Nothing happens. The actors move as little as possible and display a minimum of facial expressions. While the cat women are not unattractive, the men in this film who make up the crew of the rocket ship are butt ugly. Distractingly ugly. Jesus wept. Nothing really works in this film (except the title). I love quirky scifi from the 50's and 60's but this one has very little to offer in terms of humor, action or entertainment in general. Anyone who says Coleman Francis, Edward D. Wood Jr. or Roger Corman produced bad films has never had the pleasure of enjoying CAT WOMEN OF THE MOON.

The DVD has a very good transfer that is bright and sharp and displays few scratches and no serious dirt. It's a Wade Williams Collection print so you know it's gonna look good. The mono soundtrack is clear and free of hiss and pops. A theatrical trailer is included. Cover artwork is excellent. Only a standard version is included (no 3D here). It's a very nice presentation of an outrageously uninteresting film. Best to throw this one out with the used cat litter.

Now and then a bad movie is so ludicrously bad that it is entertaining, but most of the time a bad movie is simply that: bad. With a run time of 64 minutes, CAT WOMEN OF THE MOON doesn't hang around long enough to qualify as unbearably bad, but neither is it really silly enough to be consistently entertaining.

For a low-rent sci-fi horror flick, CAT WOMEN has several unexpected bona fides. The score is an early effort by the celebrated Elmer Berstein, best known for TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD; the panoramic art work is by Chesley Bonestell, who also worked on such films as CITIZEN KANE and WAR OF THE WORLDS and who is perhaps best known for his astronomical illustrations. The film also includes the always-entertaining Marie Windsor (1919-2000), who survived a host of bad "B" and "C" movies before becoming a gritty noir moll in such notable films as THE KILLING. Even so, Berstein, Bonestell, and Windsor can only add so much to this flick, which might be best described as not so much a bad "B" movie as a commonplace "C" flick.

The story, such as it is, concerns a trip to the moon by four men and a woman (Windsor), who make the trip in what appears to be a corrigaged tin pot complete with reclining lawn furniture and office chairs. It soon transpires, however, that the woman is under the psychic domination of the moon's unsuspected inhabitants: The Cat Women! As such, she leads the men into their deadly trap, which consists of not-so-big spiders with visible strings, really bad hairdos, and one of the least inspired bits of choreography you can imagine. There are amusing moments--who knew that any one would bring cigarettes to the moon?--but on the whole it's nothing to write home about, and I doubt even the original 3D format would have helped.

The DVD isn't bad. The picture and sound elements are in reasonably good condition and the original trailer is offered as a bonus. Recommended to fans of bad 1950s and 1960s horror, but frankly it's a good thing that the run time is only 64 minutes. Had it gone to 65 it would have gotten one less star from me.

GFT, Amazon Reviewer