Un tipo lunatico

This is the first movie I ever went to see alone at the tender age of 8. It played the Paramount Theater in my hometown of Syracuse, NY. I went over the Easter holiday with money I had received from an uncle. I was so mesmerized by it I sat through it at least six times until my mother came down the aisle @ 9 at night calling for me. My lifelong love of the movies began here and so the picture holds a special place for me. That said, I watched this again recently, and despite its out of date science and themes, it still holds up because of the many solid performances and the sincerity behind its production. I was also amazed to see a very young Sally Field as one of the beatniks in the line up. Still great fun.

I'd missed out on this one as both as a VHS rental and on local TV in the past but which, bafflingly, hasn't been available anywhere else (not even on DVD) until now…or, perhaps, not so strange – since it's considered pretty much an outdated early movie about the space program!

That said, the film has always enjoyed a reputation as one of the better Walt Disney live-action efforts – an opinion I was happy to share after watching it for myself (especially given my recent disappointment with such other popular albeit ultra-juvenile fare as THE GNOME-MOBILE [1967] and the two "Witch Mountain" outings). In fact, this has very few concessions to the typical Disney 'cuteness' (basically extending to the inevitable romance and an over-eager member at the space center breaking into a would-be hip "Go, man, go!" routine with every shuttle launch) and is clearly elevated by the presence of strong actors – Tom Tryon is ideally cast in the lead, though it's Brian Keith as his constantly exasperated superior and Edmond O'Brien as the dogged yet bewildered Federal Security man who dominate much of the proceedings (especially when the two engage in shouting matches between themselves).

Anyway, as can be gleaned from the title, the plot involves attempts by the U.S. to orbit the moon: the first guinea-pig is a chimp which, however, goes berserk on returning home; undeterred, a human volunteer is requested – Tryon, of course (though he's actually air-sick!). Soon after, he begins to be followed by a petite girl of obvious foreign origins (Dany Saval, whose gaucheness starts off by being corny but eventually proves disarming) – who not only knows all about his supposedly top-secret mission but actively wants to impart to him vital information about his safety 'up there'; however, he believes her to be a spy and tries his best to avoid her! Still, she manages to turn up at the most unexpected places (even after O'Brien has him 'kidnapped' to a hotel) and eventually confesses to being an alien – clearly possessing advanced knowledge and who, atypically for the sci-fi genre, intends to extend help to Earth people rather than conquer them!

MOON PILOT, then, resorts agreeably to such well-worn albeit effective suspense/spy movie trappings as the "McGuffin" (in the form of the missing element which would allow humans to adapt to the atmosphere in outer space), chases, impersonation and, it goes without saying, the growing affection between hero and heroine thrown into this unusual situation. Apart from the obvious space gadgetry, the sci-fi aspect of the film is evident in the scene in which, to demonstrate her powers, Saval gives Tryon a foretaste of his/their future. As always with Disney films, however, comedy is as much an intrinsic ingredient of the formula: best of all are the running 'unreliable elevator' gag with Tryon and O'Brien, and the potentially campy suspects' line-up of beatniks (under whose guise Saval has descended to Earth – clearly a sign of the times). Keith's queasy look during the latter sequence is priceless…as is his final flustered off-screen outburst when Tryon and Saval sign off in space courtesy of a Sherman Brothers love song!

This film is cute little trick of a film. In the early days of space flights, it was time for a send-up. And the great character actor edmond O'Brien, was terrific as the "hard as nails" security agent. A treat for us Disney fans.

The comic highlight of the film is the "parade of usual suspects", when San francisco beatnik chicks are brought in for review. A real HOOT!

The alien chick is disarmingly funny, and I wish she could have had more films after this one. She was so fine, I wanted to sign up for astronaut training.

The pacing is slow, and the humor is formulaic, but I still get a chuckle out of this minor classic.

I never did get around to seeing Moon Pilot back when it was in theaters when I was a lad. Looking at it now, I'm sure glad I didn't waste the money.

By 1962 the NASA Program for sending someone to the moon was launched and the public generally familiar with it. I can't believe that even the Disney Studios could have worked within the parameters that were known to the public, even for this innocuous comedy.

Tom Tryon before Otto Preminger tried to make him a major star in The Cardinal was a Disney contract player and best known for the Texas John Slaughter films on television. Instead of going through the exacting selection process to be an astronaut, Tryon gets to be the first man to go to the Moon because the chimpanzee who had made the trip previously had stuck a fork in him, causing him to jump and make General Brian Keith think he volunteered.

But that isn't all for our intrepid astronaut, this mysterious woman with a French accent played by Dany Saval keeps trying to contact him to make sure a special coat of paint is used on the space ship. Otherwise Tryon will exhibit the same behavior as the chimpanzee. And that wouldn't be good because Saval's getting a thing for him.

Saval's not an American, but she isn't French either. She's from a faraway planet called Beta Lyrae and Tryon's attempts to at first shake her involve the Air Force as personified by Keith and the Federal Security Agency as typified by Edmond O'Brien. Due to reasons of national security these two keep working at cross purposes and of course neither are solving anything.

I have to hand it to Keith and O'Brien. Both these veterans realized this film was a turkey and then they proceeded to enjoy it the best they could with one of the great blustering contests of all time. You have to be your own judge to determine which one you think is overacting more. Please note that the euphemism Federal Security Agency was used for the FBI. No one, least of all at Disney Studio was going to make fun of them in 1962.

Moon Pilot was one of the least successful of Disney films, it certainly hasn't aged well. All of the cast did better things, even at the Magic Kingdom.

As the director of many films for the Disney Studios, both comedic and dramatic, James Neilson never livened up; his name in the credits usually means a picture with a steady, sometimes leaden pace. "Moon Pilot" is no exception, and one can only imagine family audiences from 1962 dozing through the movie's more sluggish sections. Tom Tryon was a good casting choice for the part of an Air Force captain chosen to orbit around the moon, yet his hot-tempered superiors on the ground (Edmond O'Brien and the usually-reliable Brian Keith) do nothing but bark at him and at each other. Dany Saval twinkles like a manic pixie playing a flirtatious young woman who may be a spy--maybe not. For the Disney faithful, there's also a monkey clowning around. Production values solid, theme song "Seven Moons" very sweet, though this is still an awfully slow rocket-ride into space. *1/2 from ****