Product Details

• Actors: Joseph Cotten, George Sanders, Debra Paget, Don Dubbins, Carl Esmond
• Directors: Byron Haskin
• Format: NTSC, Color
• Language: English
• Rated: NR (Not Rated)
• Number of tapes: 1
• Studio: Interglobal Video Promotions Ltd.
• Run Time: 100 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B0001M64R0
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #101,386 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars I Liked It!, December 21, 2005

A Kid's Review

This review is from: Jules Verne's "From the Earth to the Moon" (VHS Tape)

I first saw Jules Verne's From The Earth to the Moon on the Turner Classic Movie channel and sorry but I liked it and found it good and entertaining. No, it's not the best sci-fi movie ever made but it is good and I recommend it!

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A great B sci fi flick, November 21, 2007

By 

Greg Horn "guildx700" (waterford, wisconsin USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Jules Verne's "From the Earth to the Moon" (VHS Tape)

A few folks here are being overly hard on this movie. I find it to be a wonderful B sci fi flick. Don't worry about the original book, enjoy this movie for what it is, good acting, good plot, nice sets, overall a very strong B flick that I really hope makes it to DVD soon.

5 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Jules Verne would not approve of this adaptation, December 11, 2004

By 

Daniel Jolley "darkgenius" (Shelby, North Carolina USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Jules Verne's "From the Earth to the Moon" (VHS Tape)

I can't help thinking that Jules Verne would not be pleased, as 1958's From the Earth to the Moon is as far from his original story as, well, the earth is from the moon. A sudden cameo by "Jules Verne" to praise the power of imagination at the very end does little to return this story to its original, visionary framework. Verne's story is hijacked from the very start, a significant part of the novel is glossed over in mere seconds, a female stowaway is added to the crew of space travelers, and the flight to the moon has almost nothing to do with Verne's original vision. The film also has more forgivable problems. From the Earth to the Moon was one of the last RKO Pictures; as production commenced, the budget dried up; as a result, some scenes (including one on the moon) had to be scrapped, and the film suffered noticeably in the special effects department. In fact, the film had to be distributed by Warner because RKO was defunct by the time From the Earth to the Moon was released.

Rather than present Verne's tale as it was written, the moviemakers decided that they had to turn it into some modern-day morality play. Thus, Victor Barbicane is turned into a greedy warmonger heralding the dangers of a powerful new weapon; his original purpose in the film is to launch an armed projectile at the moon in order to show the world how deadly powerful his new explosive is, and his defensive-minded nemesis Stuyvesant Nicholl becomes the voice of reason in a mad world - although the film later decides that Barbicane is definitely the better man with the grander vision for the future. The story takes place in the aftermath of the American War Between the States, but here we see Barbicane's explosive takes upon itself the potential dangers of nuclear war in Cold War America. Eventually, Barbicane is forced to change his plan, and only then, finally, do we prepare for a voyage to the moon in a projectile launched by a humongous cannon.

Forget all of Verne's well-thought-out science, his tedious designs for the cannon and projectile, even his innovative means for providing the space travelers with air to breathe. In the film, our explorers basically inhabit a gigantic mansion complete with carpeting, fancy furniture, and all the luxuries of life. In the film, oxygen is not even a concern, and that is an affront I know Jules Verne would never have stomached. The whole voyage could not possibly have been more different (or less plausible) than Verne's conception. The addition of a stowaway, an act of sabotage, and a ponderous debate over the modern arms movement each vie for the right of being called "the final straw" that would have broken Verne's back.

Judged on its own terms, though, the movie manages to be rather interesting, Joseph Cotten makes for a most engaging Barbicane, and man's first attempt to travel to the moon was and is inherently fascinating. On the whole, though, there are just too many problems weighing this film down (which is ironic, given the extent to which gravity is ignored during the flight to the moon) - in addition to all of the unwelcome changes it makes to Verne's original vision. You would think the sabotage of a projectile in outer space would make for riveting action - not here, though. Even though the crew expects to die at any minute, the final scenes drag on interminably, filled with too much romantic melodrama and moralizing. The big payoff you might expect at the end never happens because of the budgetary constraints placed upon production. As a result, what should be an exciting, visionary film leaves one rather nonplussed (and, in the case of this Jules Verne enthusiast, a tad bit disgusted).